Acquiring a Korean driver’s license has become a new phenomenon among an increasing number of Chinese tourists here in recent years, a lawmaker‘s report showed Monday.According to Rep. Han Sun-kyo of the Saenuri Party, the number of Chinese nationals obtaining Korean driver’s licenses surged to about 4,700 last year, jumping by 30-fold in two years. The rate of car accidents involving foreigners also rose by 2.6 times to nearly 2,000, the report said.  A driver’s license test agency is crowded w

Prosecutors on Thursday indicted an Egyptian broker who illegally helped other Egyptians enter South Korea as false refugees. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the 29-year-old suspect, whose identification was withheld, on charges of allegedly providing fake immigration documents to 12 job-seeking Egyptians and supporting them to enter fraudulently as refugees. He and his Korean accomplice were found to have received up to $10,000 per person in return, they added. Of the 12

Controversy is escalating over environmental impacts and the economic feasibility of a cable car that the local government is pushing to construct at one of the country’s most scenic and best-preserved national parks.In April, Yangyang County Office in Gangwon Province applied to the Environment Ministry for a permit to construct a cable car at Mount Seoraksan, the province’s most popular tourist attraction.Under the scheme, the city will build a 3.5-kilometer-long cable car to Geutcheong peak.

The government’s push for the reunion of separated families is expected to speed up as the two Koreas agreed Tuesday to resume the event that has been suspended since early last year. Seoul and Pyongyang made an agreement to organize a fresh round of separated family reunions around Chuseok in September and to regularize it in the future. This was part of the six-point agreement reached at the 43-hour marathon negotiation at the border village of Panmunjeom. For this, a working-level meeting wil

Inter-Korean talks continued for three consecutive days starting Saturday amid a military standoff between the two sides, but little was made known to the public about the negotiations throughout the process.Press were banned from accompanying the South Korean delegation to the House of Peace on the South Korean side of the border, a rare prohibition that was placed most recently in February last year when another set of high-level talks was held between the two Koreas, that time on cross-border

The government and Seoul City on Monday announced a set of measures to turn the Hangang River into a major tourism hub by connecting the riverside and waterway to popular tourism sites in the city and by restoring the river’s ecosystem to maximize its attractions.The focal point of the plan will be Yeouido in western Seoul, where amphibious vehicles and river ferries will carry tourists to and from the location to enjoy diverse cultural, sports and leisure experiences offered along the river by

South Korean police vowed Sunday to sternly take action against the spread of groundless draft rumors amid escalating tensions between the two Koreas. The move came after a series of false conscription text messages and rumors were massively circulated after the North fired artillery across the border last Thursday. A 23-year-old college student surnamed Kim was arrested Thursday for spreading massive draft texts. The message said “discharged men aged between 21 and 33 will be drafted once the w

A woman charged with attempted rape for the first time in Korea has been acquitted, court officials said Sunday. Seoul Central District Court ruled the 45-year-old was innocent based on a unanimous jury decision. Under the law, the jury’s decision is not legally binding but the court is required to respect it. Jeon was suspected of attempting to rape her lover after he ended the relationship by drugging him and tying up his legs and arms last year. She was the first woman to be charged with atte

A U.S. soldier was found dead in front of his apartment in an alleged suicide, Seoul police said Thursday. A 38-year-old U.S. soldier, whose information was withheld, was found dead in the parking lot of his apartment in Yongsan-gu, Seoul in the early morning. He was immediately moved to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the authorities said. The police suspected he committed suicide as a scar was found on his body that seemed to have come from a windowsill. No suicide note or signs of in

Green tide returned to major water sources of the Seoul metropolitan area this week amid ongoing controversy over the ecological impact of a small dam in the Hangang River.The Environment Ministry issued a green tide advisory Wednesday for Paldang Lake in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, as the water’s chlorophyll-A concentration reached 55.8 milligrams per cubic meter along with over 4,000 blue-green algal cells per milliliter. The green tide advisory is raised when the chlorophyll-A concentration e

Nearly 60,000 drunk drivers have been caught during morning hours over the last four years, a lawmaker’s report showed Wednesday.According to Rep. Kang Gi-yun of the Saenuri Party, about 59,400 drunk drivers were caught between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. from 2011 to 2014. Of these, some 33,000 went over the 0.1 percent blood alcohol level to have their driver’s license revoked.The rest had their driver’s license suspended as the blood-alcohol level recorded between 0.05 and 0.09 percent. Driving the mo

The South Korean government Tuesday denied local rumors that toxic chemicals from the Tianjin blast in China may affect the peninsula.Unidentified online rumors have spread in the country that the toxic substance allegedly leaked from the Chinese blast site last week would likely affect the peninsula. The postings included those who claimed the U.S. Embassy in China had warned people to avoid exposure to the rain as sodium cyanide has leaked into the air. On Sunday, Beijing news outlets reported

President Park Geun-hye urged Japan on Saturday to take sincere actions to back up its pledge to uphold the position on the recognition of history by its previous Cabinets.South Korea and Japan are close economic partners and key allies of the United States, though they have long been in conflict over territory and other historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.Japan should "demonstrate with consistent and sincere actions its pledge to inherit the r

South Korea urged Japan on Saturday to take concrete steps showing its commitment to previous governments' apologies for Tokyo's imperialist past, saying it hopes to open a new future with the neighboring nation.Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday the position "articulated by the previous Cabinets will remain unshakable into the future." He did not offer a fresh apology of his own, saying "Japan has repeatedly expressed the feel

North Korea set itself a new time zone Saturday in a move expected to complicate relations with South Korea.North Korea's time zone is now 30 minutes behind that of the South."The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK decided to set the standard time of the Republic with 127 degrees 30 minutes east longitude as a standard and to apply it from August 15," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch, referring to the country's rubberstamp parliament.DPRK is

President Park Geun-hye warned Saturday of retaliation against North Korea for its possible provocations amid heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula.South Korea "will sternly deal with any North Korean provocations," Park said in a televised speech marking the 70th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule.Liberation Day, which falls on Saturday, is one of the major holidays in both Koreas.She said provocations and threats will only result in isolation and destruction.P

A Japanese cabinet minister Saturday visited Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in a move likely to anger China and South Korea which see it as a symbol of the country's militarist past.An AFP reporter saw Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of women's empowerment, enter the gates of the leafy shrine dedicated to millions who died in conflicts -- but also including more than a dozen war criminals.Other politicians walked down the shrine's stone path Sat

North Korea denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's war anniversary statement Saturday, saying he failed to acknowledge and apologize for his country's wartime deeds.An unnamed spokesman for the North's foreign ministry issued a statement hours after the Japanese premier read out his speech in Tokyo to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II."Japan is talking about future and responsibility and contribution in the international community, without making an apology and reflect

North Korea threatened Saturday to carry out "indiscriminate strikes" on South Korea unless Seoul halts anti-Pyongyang broadcasts along their border.In an "open warning" issued by the North Korean military's front-line command, the country demanded South Korea remove all means of psychological warfare or face "all-out military action.""If they turn down the demand of the DPRK, it would start an all-out military action of justice to blow up all means for 'anti-north psychological warfare in all a

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hopes that Japan and its neighbors will work together for peace and prosperity based on "reflection and understanding of history," his spokesman said Friday.The remark came in response to a statement that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued earlier Friday to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, in which the nationalist leader failed to offer a clear apology of his own for the country's wartime wrongdoings."The secretary-general has taken