What do you do if you need to leave the country before your money does?It’s a common conundrum, even if it shouldn’t be: The last paycheck comes in after someone leaves the country for good. But one US citizen found the solution in a local concierge service.“He asked us to help recover the money in the account and transfer it to him in USA,” said Angie Kang of We Can Help in Korea. (We Can Help in Korea)“It was not an easy task and required a great deal of work, including creating power of attor

Comedian and show host Yoo Jae-suk won't attend the meet-and-greet with Taiwanese fans for the popular South Korean TV reality show "Running Man" this week and could take legal action against false rumors involving him and the event, his management agency said Tuesday. (Herald DB)"Yoo Jae-suk confirmed that he had no choice but to skip the event due to his schedule," wrote FNC Entertainment Tuesday on its official Facebook page. "We have noticed that there was false, confusing information spread

An appeals court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior official of South Korea's cyberwarfare command to 18 months in jail for posting illegal political comments during the 2012 presidential election.The 63-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lee, was indicted in 2013 on charges of colluding with fellow agents of the defense unit to create more than 12,000 online postings against liberal politicians in breach of their duty to maintain political neutrality.President Park Geun-hye won the

S.M. Entertainment, one of the country's three largest K-pop agencies, said Tuesday it will continue "Station," its weekly digital music release program, into season two while expanding it and making it much more comprehensive. (SM Entertainment)Home to big Korean pop acts including Girls' Generation and EXO, S.M. Entertainment launched "Station" in February 2016 as the agency then marked its 20th anniversary.Under "Station," the company released a song each week in which its artists, often toge

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a South Korean man to four years in prison for detonating a time bomb in a public restroom at a controversial Tokyo war shrine in 2015.The 28-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname Chon, was found guilty in July last year by the Tokyo District Court of breaking into the premises of the Yasukuni Shrine on Nov. 23, 2015, and setting up the bomb in a public restroom. The incident, which resulted in no loss of life

Officials from South and North Korean civic groups met in China on Tuesday to discuss ways to promote exchanges between the two Koreas despite Seoul's opposition to their unauthorized contact.The two Koreas' committees for the joint implementation of the June 15 summit declaration kicked off a two-day conference that runs through Wednesday in Shenyang, according to an official from South Korea.Topics for the meeting are known to include football matches for teams from the labor unions of the two

A Seoul court ordered the government Tuesday to cancel its decision to extend the operation of a nuclear reactor that was supposed to go offline in 2012.The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of an injunction sought by a group of local residents to annul the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission's approval of a 10-year extension of the lifespan of the Wolseong-1 reactor in Gyeongju, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul.The court cited the failure of the state-run nuclear watchdog to f

South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party is seen upping pressure on President Park Geun-hye to leave the party as part of its efforts to renew the embattled group ahead of the next presidential election. The conservative party‘s interim leader In Myung-jin confirmed Tuesday that the party leadership recently met with presidential chief of staff Han Gwang-ok to reinforce their stance on Park’s position. “We did deliver our party’s principle that ... we will not expel the president ourselves,” the party

South Korea is currently reviewing if China's recent trade actions, taken after Seoul's plans to deploy US missile defense systems on its soil, can be referred to the World Trade Organization, a high-ranking official said Tuesday."As we may happen to need to take legal action in the future, a working-level examination is under way on (the illegality of) all measures taken by the Chinese central and regional governments as well as the private sector following the Seoul deployment decision," the o

Sohn Hak-kyu, former liberal opposition leader and longtime presidential aspirant, on Tuesday announced that his camp would merge with the runner-up opposition People’s Party for the next presidential election. “I shall create a new political blueprint and eventually establish the Seventh Republic (of Korea,)” he said in a press conference, announcing his imminent entry into the People’s Party. By the seventh republic, he meant his presidential pledge to rewrite the Constitution and thereby open

South Korea reported this year’s second foot and mouth disease infection at a cattle farm in North Jeolla Province, a day after the first outbreak was reported.The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Tuesday that about 50 cows at the farm in North Jeolla Province were confirmed to have contracted the virus. All infected livestock were culled. According to the investigation, the affected cows had been infected by the O-type strain of foot and mouth, the most common type of the di

Jung Hyun-sik, former chief director of the K-Sports Foundation, said that President Park Geun-hye was behind the foundation raising large sums of donations from major conglomerates and Choi Soon-sil ran the foundation, during the impeachment trial Tuesday. “Choi Soon-sil and ex-presidential secretary An Chong-bum directly gave me orders (on running the foundation,)” he said. “After Choi gave me instructions, An ordered me to do the same thing one or two days later. So I came to believe (that Ch

The top diplomats of South Korea and the US reaffirmed their commitment to shoring up the alliance Tuesday, calling for a joint approach to tackle North Korea’s “imminent threats,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se had his first phone conversation with new US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was sworn in last week, days after US Defense Secretary James Mattis’ visit to Seoul. During the 25-minute talks, the ministers agreed to continue “coercive diplomacy” to thwa

A former culture minister and an ex-presidential chief of staff were indicted Tuesday over allegations they created a blacklist of cultural figures deemed critical of the Park Geun-hye administration, investigators said.The probe team, led by Independent Counsel Park Young-soo, said ex-Minister Cho Yoon-sun and former top presidential secretary Kim Ki-choon have been charged with abuse of authority and coercion for allegedly interfering in ministry officials' duties by creating and managing the

The net asset value of funds in South Korea hit a record high last year, growing nearly 12 percent from 2015 on significant capital inflows into bond and short-term funds, government data showed Tuesday.The volume came to 462.4 trillion won ($404 billion), up 11.8 percent from 2015, according to the Financial Services Commission . An image of equity funds (Yonhap)"Due to a trend of favoring safer assets and an increase in parked money attributable to internal and external uncertainties, equity f

Thirty-three local chemical manufacturers were caught illegally producing and selling toxic chemicals that were tied to the country’s worst chemical scandal over humidifier disinfectants, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday. In breach of the Chemicals Control Act, the companies did not win prior government approval to manufacture and distribute polyhexamethylene guanidine, or PHMG, a toxicoid listed by the ministry as a toxic chemical substance as forbidden or restricted for use in some househ

China continued to block massive amounts of South Korean cosmetics and other imports in December in what was earlier believed to be a move to retaliate against South Korea's planned installation of a US missile defense system, market sources in Beijing said.According to the sources, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine blocked shipments of 19 cosmetics products from South Korea in December. (Yonhap)The number accounted for about 28 percent of the total

Sales of premium home appliances showed strong growth in South Korea last year, although the overall market for white goods become saturated, according to company officials on Tuesday. Smeg, a high-end Italian domestic appliance brand, saw its sales of refrigerators and microwave ovens jump 40 percent on-year in 2016.  (Yonhap)Smeg's product lineup features trendy appliances, but their prices are relatively expensive. The prices of Smeg's 276-liter, one-door refrigerators range from 2.4 million

Migrant workers marked the 10th anniversary of a detention center fire that killed 10 migrant workers held there for working in Korea illegally.At a press conference commemorating the incident in front of the immigration office in central Seoul, migrant workers groups called for better regulation of the deportation process and measures to allow migrants living in Korea illegally to attain legal status. The groups blamed the disaster, which also left 17 foreign workers severely injured, on aggres

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday tabled a bill to ban the provision of monetary compensation to rally participants.“Holding rallies by paying the crowd is an illegal act of buying the public with money and should be strictly punished,” Rep. Yoon Ho-joong, the liberal party’s chief policymaker said. The bill intends to penalize those who take part in rallies for money with fines of up to 20 times the amount they are paid. Those who give the money would be punishable by up