South Korean schools will systematically reinforce their students’ education regarding the nation’s easternmost islets of Dokdo under special teaching guidelines newly distributed by the Education Ministry, officials said Thursday.The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology sent comprehensive teaching guidelines to the municipal and provincial education authorities and schools across the nat

The government’s proposed alternatives to corporal punishment at schools could also be a violation of human rights if they cause students physical pain, South Korea’s rights watchdog said Thursday.The Education Ministry in January started taking steps to revise an enforcement ordinance for a related education law, aiming to ban corporal punishment and introduce various other forms of punishment, i

Bosworth says U.S. assessing need for food in North, aid monitoring essentialWASHINGTON ― The U.S. point man on North Korea said Tuesday that regime change in North Korea is not Washington’s goal.“We do not regard regime change as the outcome of our policy, but we do regard a change in regime behavior as necessary to any fundamental improvement in the overall relationship,” Stephen Bosworth, U.S.

President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday directly proposed a meeting with the leader of the Democratic Party, according to his office Cheong Wa Dae, but the main opposition party gave a terse response.Lee delivered the message during a brief conversation with Sohn Hak-kyu, head of the DP, on the sidelines of a national ceremony in Seoul to mark the March 1 Independence Movement 92 years ago, it added.“L

South Korea will send two chartered ships to strife-torn Libya to bring home citizens and foreign workers at South Korean construction firms there, an official said Tuesday.The ships chartered from Greece can each carry up to 1,800 passengers, a Transportation Ministry official said.“We have prepared ships capable of evacuating a far larger number of people than before,” the official said without

A group of unionized teachers have asked the Constitutional Court to review the law that bans teachers from joining political activities, court officials said Monday, challenging the long debated law that causes any teacher who wages an anti-government campaign to face disciplinary action. The Seoul Administrative Court has accepted the appeal by three teachers, affiliated with the liberal Korean

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― The international community should not expect North Korea to collapse soon through popular uprisings but instead seek an incremental approach to build trust with the nuclear-armed communist state, an expert said Sunday.Andray Abrahamian, a freelance writer on Korea issues who teaches at Social Science College of the University of Ulsan, South Korea, dismissed chances of

LOS ANGELES (Yonhap News) ― The number of illegal aliens from South Korea in the U.S. dropped for the second straight year in 2010, but the number still remained over 170,000, a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released Friday showed.The number of Korean illegal aliens in the U.S. dropped to some 200,000 in 2009 from 240,000 the previous year. The number then dropped 15 percent l

WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― South Korea cannot agree to resume six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs unless the illicit nature of Pyongyang’s uranium enrichment is clearly defined first, a senior official said Friday.“We have to get the (U.N.) Security Council to define the nature of this matter and take corresponding steps,” the official told South Korean reporters in Washington. “The

The 31 North Koreans who arrived in South Korea by boat earlier this month will be sent home sometime this week, a Seoul official said Sunday.“As far as I know, the joint interrogation (by relevant authorities) is in the final phase,” the official said. “And since no one expressed a wish to defect, we will repatriate all 31 of them as early as this week through Panmunjeom (the border village).” On

Nation Multimedia Group is set to move into the local education market in a joint venture with South-East Asia University. “Nation University” is a 250 million baht joint venture. The group has already signed a 175 million baht ($5.7 million) takeover deal with Siritaj Rojanapruk, owner and license holder of Lampang’s Yonok University. Under the deal, Nation University will own and operate the uni

The alleged involvement of the South Korean spy agency in a fumbled industrial espionage job is the dominating debate in the diplomatic community here.At the center of the controversy is the bidding for a contract to supply trainer jets, tanks and missiles to Indonesia. South Korea’s T-50 supersonic planes are competing with Russia’s Y-130 trainer jets for the deal.Some high-ranking diplomats expr

Professor says bilateral discussions needed before 6-party talksSouth Korea wants to protect its security and economic growth from North Korea’s threats, while the U.S. wants to defend its ally and its regional interests. Both of them would like China’s help in dealing with the rogue state led by Kim Jong-il. But what does China want? China expert and Yonsei University professor of international s

South Korean and U.S. marines plan to hold a joint maneuver this year on islands near the West Sea border with North Korea as the allies expand combined exercises to deter provocations from the North, a military official here said Tuesday.The planned drill would be the first of its kind involving marines from the two nations on the West Sea islands, one of which was targeted by a deadly North Kore

The prosecution asked a local court Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for a 32-year-old doctor, who is suspected of killing his nine-month-pregnant wife, after an initial rejection earlier this month. The prosecution and the accused husband are now confronting one another over what people labeled the “Korean O.J. Simpson case.” The case dates back to Jan. 14, when police officers visited a studio

South Korea’s elite troops redoubling their efforts to bolster combat capabilitiesDespite the notoriously grueling training schedule, Hong Jae-woon, a veteran special warfare troop, is always alert and full of pep to maintain “perfect readiness” against possible North Korean aggression.Undaunted by the prospect of life-threatening tasks in the case of another armed conflict with North Korea, Warra

South Korean spy agency denies roleIndonesia has officially asked South Korea to verify Seoul spy agency’s alleged trespassing into a hotel room of its envoys for intelligence gathering purposes, the Foreign Ministry here said Monday. Local media reports revealed Monday that three agents belonging to Seoul’s National Intelligence Service had been caught after entering a downtown hotel room to stea

Rep. Kim Moo-sung, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party, proposed Monday that parliament organize a special committee to lead discussions on Constitutional amendment.A mainstream faction of the party has recently renewed its drive to revise the Constitution written in 1987 to change the current single-term five-year presidency and allow re-elections.The drive, however, is unlikely to ea

China’s deputy nuclear envoy is visiting North Korea, an official said Monday, a possible sign that Beijing is stepping up efforts to resume six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear programs.Amb. Yang Houlan arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday on a trip to accompany Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun, and the two countries are expected to discuss ways to reopen the stalled six-party talks, the official s

On his way home from work, Oh Jong-seok stops twice a week at a corner convenience store in southern Seoul where he usually buys a pack of cigarettes and sometimes takes care of “important” business: buying national lottery tickets.The 34-year-old office worker is one of many regular customers of the store that’s abuzz selling tickets to people hoping to get rich quick by winning first prize in a