Cleaners at three major private universities in Seoul went on strike Tuesday, calling for wage raise.About 860 cleaners and janitors of Korea University, Ewha Womans University and Yonsei University started the sit-in at 6 a.m.More than 86 percent of the unionized workers at the schools agreed to strike in a recent vote. A labor group representing the cleaners, under the hardline umbrella union th

Strabismus is a visual defect in which the eyes are misaligned and point in different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eye turns inward, outward, upward or downward. You may always notice the misalignment, or it may come and go. The turned eye may straighten at times and the straight eye may turn.Strabismus is one of the most common pediatric eye problems ― approximatel

Korea has more hospitals than the OECD average, but they are staffed below the normal rate, raising concerns over the quality of the country’s medical services. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, there are 81,681 medical facilities nationwide, including hospitals, clinics, public healthcare centers, maternity nursing care centers, dentists, pharmacies and Oriental med

A group of lawyers gathered in front of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul on Monday, denouncing a plan to recruit prosecutors from law school graduates based on school headmasters’ recommendations and interviews only. “Selecting prosecutors, one of the most prestigious occupations in the nation, without objective criteria is unacceptable. People with personal connections such as good family

Officers of the Korea Coast Guard on Thursday fired at a Chinese vessel suspected of illegal fishing in South Korean waters, leaving one fisherman injured, the police said Friday. It was the first time for the Korean authorities to open fire against Chinese fishermen despite growing tensions between the two countries over Chinese boats’ frequent trespassing into Korea’s exclusive economic zone. Ac

Ambassador Group, Google blame each other for leak of personal dataAmbassador Group, operator of the Grand Ambassador Hotel in Seoul and several others nationwide, is under fire for leaking its guests’ personal information on Google. While Google claims the hotels’ slack management of online firewalls is to blame, the hotel franchise is blaming Google’s reckless indexing of online data, including

The government is planning to support 41 health and cosmetics companies’ advancement into the U.S. market. The “Columbus Project,” to be funded by the ministry and other related agencies, aims to help Korean firms increase their share of the U.S. market from the current 1.1 percent to 3.4 percent by 2015, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday.The 41 companies include some household name

Move follows dismissal of professor for abusing studentsSeoul National University is considering establishing an in-house human rights watchdog to monitor abuses within the community including violence, corruption and embezzlement.Students will be encouraged to inform the school of their professors’ irregularities under a tight witness protection system and violence among students will be thorough

Last Saturday, 34-year-old office worker Lee Ik-je woke up around noon and spent the day lazing around. He’d had a dinner-turned-drinking party the previous day with colleagues and didn’t feel well. “I gave myself some time to recharge, lolling around the home and preparing for a hectic schedule next week,” he said. On the other hand, 30-year-old office worker Shin Jee-won met her friends downtown

The government is reportedly considering raising the average retirement age to 60 from the current average of 57 to lessen the impact of the retirement of 7.1 million baby boomers born between 1955 and 1963. However, the plan is expected to face fierce opposition from both employers and employees.The “Baby Boomer Committee,” an affiliate of the Economic and Social Development Commission, a group r

The sister of an alleged former business partner of Lee Myung-bak has been questioned by the prosecution over a long-dormant scandal which engulfed the 2007 presidential election.Erica Kim, sister of Kim Kyung-joon, returned to Seoul over the weekend to help the prosecution wrap up an investigation into the scandal involving stock manipulation. With her brother Kyung-joon now serving an eight-year

The five Somali pirates who hijacked Samho Jewelry in the Arabian Sea last month and wounded its captain leaving him in a critical condition have participated in the abduction of another Korean vessel, Samho Dream, last April, prosecutors said Friday.“Based on the telephone transaction records and others, we have concluded that they were also involved in the Samho Dream case. Some crew members of

A Seoul court has acknowledged that former President Kim Young-sam fathered a son born out of wedlock 52 years ago. The Seoul Family Court on Thursday ruled for 52-year-old Kim, who claimed to be a biological child of the 83-year-old former President.According to Judge Ma Eun-hyeok, the senior Kim refused to offer his DNA for a paternity test; did not appoint an attorney to deliver his opinion and

Korea is apparently already under the influence of global warming as flowers are blooming earlier than ever, a state-run institute said Thursday. At the same time Fall leaves are coming later, indicating that the climate here is getting warmer and milder, said Lee Kyeong-mi, staff worker at the National Institute of Meteorological Research. Cherry blossoms in full bloom in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang

One maritime police officer was killed and four others were missing off Jeju Island after a maritime police helicopter crashed into the sea Wednesday night.The police have mobilized a search plane, eight patrol vessels and two Navy vessels to collect the remains of the chopper and the bodies of the missing passengers.According to the Jeju Coast Guard, the helicopter, AW-139, lost contact with head

By Kee Chang-won, MD, Ph.D.Glaucoma is an eye disorder in which the optic nerve suffers damage, permanently impacting vision and progressing to complete blindness if untreated. Glaucoma has been nicknamed the “silent thief of sight” because the loss of vision normally occurs gradually over a long period of time. Once lost, this damaged visual field cannot be recovered. Worldwide, it is the second

Seven out of every 10 salaried workers here want to move to another country to live in, mainly because of the “poor” welfare policies in Korea, a survey showed Wednesday. JobKorea, an online recruiting agency, recently surveyed 932 salaried workers online and found 76.1 percent would leave Korea for another country if circumstances allowed. The main reason for wanting to migrate was an unsatisfact

One out of every 10 office workers has been assaulted at work, according to a recent survey. SaramIn, an online recruiting agency, asked 1,951 members who are office workers and found 12.2 percent had been assaulted in their office. Immediate bosses were the largest portion of assailants at 66 percent, followed by CEOs and other executives (20.2 percent), seniors (16.8 percent) and those of equal

Kim accused of physical, verbal abuse, demanding favors, misuse of college facilitiesSeoul National University’s musical professor and acclaimed soprano Kim In-hei has been accused of abusing her students. The university is considering terminating her position while a slew of allegations about her having “taken advantage” of her students’ talents for private occasions have enraged the public.SNU s

More foreigners are coming to Korea to study, but their universities seem incapable of managing them properly, the government said Sunday. Many schools did not monitor student attendance and even awarded diplomas to students who had not qualified for them.The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology investigated 29 universities nationwide from December through January and found that all of th