A public servant paid an average of 88.53 million won ($78,868) a year, an amount equal to the top 7 percentile of the nation's average income, according to the Korea Taxpayers' Association.Based on basic salary information disclosed by the government and expenditure analysis of a ward office in Seoul picked as a representative sample, it costs about 179.9 million won a year to keep a public servant employed, the association said. Salary levels of government workers have become news after p

South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo assured the leader of American troops here Wednesday that he will place top priority on bolstering the time-honored alliance against North Korea's saber-rattling.Song, who took office last week, delivered the message to Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, who commands the US Forces Korea, in their introductory meeting at Song's office in Seoul, according to his ministry.The minister told Brooks that he has proposed "robust and complementary development of the ROK

A total of 118 newborns have been infected with inactive tuberculosis at an obstetrics clinic in Seoul, health authorities said Wednesday.The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infants from the clinic in northern Seoul were confirmed to have been infected with the bacteria-related disease.Inactive TB means that bacteria are present in the body but are dormant. The body's immune system can suppress TB for years. (Yonhap)Between 60 and 90 percent of inactive TB patients can

A tough market is making it harder for young people to find work with new jobseekers taking up to a year to land a position, government data showed Wednesday. According to Statistics Korea, the number of college graduates, dropouts and high-school graduates stood at some 4.82 million in May. Of them, about 4.18 million, or 86.8 percent, were employed or held a job at least once. The ratio of young people who had work experience fell 0.2 percentage point from a year ago.  As for 4.09 million

Samsung Heavy Industries Co., a major shipyard here, said Wednesday that it has clinched a 271 billion won ($242 million) deal to build two ships.The deal, however, is subject to final approval from the buyer, it said in a regulatory filing.Samsung Heavy did not reveal the name of the customer adding that it will make another regulatory filing if the contract is signed. (Yonhap)The shipyard said earlier it has won $4.8 billion worth of orders to build 13 ships, including two offshore plants, in

South Korea aims to generate 20 percent of its electricity with clean, renewable energy by 2030, while reducing its reliance on fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, the new Moon Jae-in administration said Wednesday. In a policy report to President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May, the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee said it will encourage big companies and small merchants to use renewable energy by offering financial incentives and other promotional packages. By 2023, the governmen

South Korea plans to establish a national memorial day to remember the country's "comfort women,"victims of sex crimes committed by Japan during the second World War, according to a state policy blueprint announced Wednesday.The government said it has approved a plan by the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee to designate an official remembrance day for the country's hundreds of thousands of women forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during the war. It is expected to

South Korea needs to map out its "comprehensive" negotiation strategy aimed at inducing an agreement to completely dismantle North Korea's nuclear program by 2020, a presidential advisory body said Wednesday. The State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee also advised the Moon Jae-in government to use all possible means to address the North's nuclear threat, including possibly resuming the long-suspended six-party denuclearization talks.They are part of the policy recommendations made by the comm

A Seoul appellate court on Wednesday lowered the jail term for the daughter of the Lotte Group founder charged with embezzlement and breach of trust. The Seoul High Court handed down a two-year sentence on Shin Young-ja, head of the Lotte Foundation, saying that it allowed for the fact that she has paid back most of the misappropriated funds. Shin, 75, was sentenced to three years in prison in January for receiving bribes from various companies in return for business favors related to Lotte's du

Trade, Industry and Energy Minister nominee Paik Un-gyu said Wednesday that if appointed, he will pursue the new government's nuclear power phase-out policy based on "social consensus."He made the remarks during a parliamentary confirmation hearing amid fears that President Moon Jae-in's energy policy shift could result in a hefty rise in electricity prices and energy shortage in a country heavily dependent on energy imports.Last month, Moon vowed to scrap all plans for new nuclear power plants

Global sales of dynamic random-access memory chips and NAND flash memories are expected to set a new record in 2017, data showed Wednesday, with South Korean chipmakers anticipated to become the main beneficiaries of the industrywide boom."The strong annual upturn in sales is being driven almost entirely by fast-rising average selling prices," industry tracker IC Insights said. "Prices for DRAM and NAND first began increasing in the second half of 2016 and continued with quarterly increases thro

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday that it has put more than 290 million dormant coins back into general circulation.People brought out some 296 million coins worth 40.8 billion won ($36.3 million) to have them changed into banknotes during the nationwide collection campaign in June, according to the Bank of Korea.This marked a 10.6-percent increase in the number of reclaimed coins vis-a-vis last year. Combined value of coins collected rose 10.9 percent. The annual campaign is designed to

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker by sales, will start operation of its fifth assembly plant in China next month to better meet growing local demand for small vehicles, the company said Wednesday. Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a 50:50 joint venture set up by Hyundai Motor and Beijing Automotive Group Co., has invested a combined $1 billion to build the 300,000-unit-a-year plant in Chongqing, Southwest China, the carmaker said in a statement. This year, Hyundai plans to produce 30,00

The Korea National Arboretum said Wednesday that it will create a Korean garden in the Eden Project, the world's biggest botanical garden built on the site of an abandoned clay pit used for more than 160 years in the British town of St Austell, Cornwell. Completed in 2001, the Eden Project houses huge biomes that boast an enormous collection of endangered plants from around the world."(The KNA) and the Eden Project signed a business accord in St Austell Tuesday on the creation of the Korean gard

Hyundai Asan Corp. on Tuesday asked the government to give permission to visit North Korea next month to mark the anniversary of the death of its former chairman, the company said.The memorial service for Chung Mong-hun, who spearheaded the now-suspended inter-Korean tour program in the North, had been held at Mount Kungang every year since his death in August 2003. This file photo, taken on Oct. 16, 2015, shows Mount Kumgang located on North Korea`s east coast. (Yonhap)Hyundai, however, did not

A group of South Korean scientists have developed a method to differentiate the gambling tendencies of different rats, the science ministry said Tuesday, a finding that may contribute to studies of gambling addiction in humans.The team led by Kim Jung-hoon of Yonsei Medical University said that by observing rats they found a method to find traits and environmental factors that affect decision-making, core problems in psychiatric disorders such as pathological gambling and substance abuse, the Mi

Minutes from last week's nuclear board meeting that decided on the temporary suspension of reactors under construction showed that the board members had also debated what to do after the suspension period ends and compensation measures, lawmakers who obtained the minutes said Tuesday.When Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power held a meeting of its board of directors on Friday, the 13 members discussed what they should do if a final decision on the new reactors cannot be reached within the given three-mo

The head of retail giant Lotte Group said Tuesday the conglomerate needs to expand investment targeting its lucrative businesses to further expand presence in the market, as it is suffering from a series of troubles at home and abroad. During a meeting with the group's senior executives, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin also stressed that his group needs to quickly adapt to the fast-changing market environment under the fourth industrial revolution. Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin arrives a

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and its affiliate, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., said Tuesday that their new orders surged in June.In a regulatory filing, Hyundai Heavy said it bagged orders valued at $2.25 billion last month, up 16 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)Hyundai Mipo also said it clinched $1.51 billion worth of orders in the one-month period, marking a sharp rise from $156 million tallied in June 2016.Hyundai Heavy said earlier that it and its two affiliates, including Hyundai Samho Hea

A Sri Lankan national charged with raping a young South Korean woman nearly two decades ago was acquitted by the top court on Tuesday, in the final twist of a long-drawn-out investigation into the cold case.The Supreme Court upheld the not-guilty rulings by the lower courts on the 51-year-old foreigner, whose identity has been withheld, citing a lack of evidence. "It is difficult to believe the veracity of their testimonies in light of objectivity and details of the statements," the top court sa