Crossroads near Exit No. 6 busiest part of Seoul For Oh Byung-kook, a 30-year-old office worker, the area around Gangnam subway station in southern Seoul is always the first consideration for a night out with his friends. “The area is a traffic point with easy access from anywhere in Seoul. It has everything from movie theaters and shops to restaurants and karaoke,” Oh said. “Among other thing...

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has been engaged in another wrangle with the opposition-dominated council over a project to build a waterway linking downtown Seoul to the western port city of Incheon. Oh initiated what he termed the “Seohae (West Sea) Waterway Project” as part of his campaign pledges for the 2006 mayoral election, saying it would bring in a larger number of tourists from Japan and China ...

Vote on school meals to be watershed for Oh’s political future, welfare competition Against the backdrop of a pile of boxes containing what he had awaited for months, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon stood before a crowd of reporters at City Hall on June 16. “The upcoming referendum will be a watershed to decide whether to expand or put an end to welfare populism,” said Oh. He hoped the judgment to be ma...

A top Russian astronomer predicted Monday humanity will be able to encounter alien civilizations within the next two decades. Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute, said 10 percent of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth according to reports by the Interfax news agency and Reuters. If water can be found there, then s...

President, opposition leader disagree on timing, extent of college tuition cuts President Lee Myung-bak on Monday declined main opposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu’s request for a revised supplementary budget bill, citing the proposal’s failure to meet legal conditions. The Democratic Party leader called for more government spending to help cut college tuition, create jobs, recoup damages from typho...

Support of Park Geun-hye faction expected to hold critical sway in election With the ruling Grand National Party’s internal elections to select its new chair less than a week away, the seven candidates are making their cases as to why they should lead the party through next year’s big races. Following the national campaign tour last week, the candidates are to participate in television debates ...