Voters in Seoul’s three affluent districts ― Seocho, Gangnam and Songpa ― turned out at polling stations in large numbers, but not enough to salvage beleaguered mayor Oh Se-hoon.At Wednesday’s referendum on free school meals, the three districts reported the largest voter turnouts, with Seocho marki

By Lee Sun-youngKorean workers saw their salaries rise by an average of 5.2 percent this year, slightly higher than a year earlier, government data showed Wednesday. According to the Labor Ministry, this year’s average is 0.6 percentage point higher than in 2010, when the figure stood at 4.6 percent

Voting begins across Seoul on Wednesday for the city’s first-ever plebiscite, which will determine how schoolchildren will be getting their lunches and the fate of Mayor Oh Se-hoon. A total of 2,206 polling stations across the capital will be open between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Some 8.3 million Seoulites

 Turnout likely to decide winner in city’s first-ever plebiscite, mayor’s fateSeoul’s first-ever plebiscite will take place Wednesday, asking its citizens to decide whether all schoolchildren should be provided with free lunches regardless of their parents’ income. The vote, however, has turned

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is likely to embark on a Russian visit as early as Saturday, South Korea’s intelligence officials said Friday. “Kim Jong-il’s visit to Russia appears imminent,” an official at the National Intelligence Agency told a parliamentary intelligence committee, according to m

Election commission bans mayor from picketing, probes education board for ‘encouraging’ vote boycottThe nation’s conservative and liberal forces, siding with Seoul government and education authority respectively, exchanged barbs Friday, arguing about whether citizens should participate in the upcomi

Cho Nam-ho, chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., apologized multiple times during a parliamentary hearing Thursday over a prolonged labor dispute at the company’s shipyard in Busan. Cho Nam-ho (left), chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., reads prepared docu

Cho Nam-ho, chairman of Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Co., was in Korea for two weeks in July when calls were mounting for him to settle months-long labor strife at his firm, contrary to previous claims by his company. According to Cho’s immigration data submitted to the National Assembly a

Labor Ministry calls on firm to give better protection to workers from hazardsSamsung Electronics Co. has been asked by local authorities to take costly measures to better protect its workers, after a series of leukemia-related deaths in its semiconductor manufacturing lines. The Labor Ministry said

South Korea should increase its budget and assign more diplomats to bolster its campaign to change the international community’s name for the waters separating the Korean Peninsula and Japan to the “East Sea,” a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday.Amid renewed passions over the East Sea name, Rep. Ch

SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won is under probe for allegedly taking out loans from a local savings bank, using borrowed names, a local daily reported Tuesday. According to the JoongAng Ilbo, investigators at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office have detected some suspected transactions in b

S. Korea, U.S. mobilize 86,000 troops for Ulchi Freedom GuardianSouth Korea and U.S. forces on Tuesday launched their annual joint exercise in their latest attempt to improve their defense posture against North Korea, military officials said.The Ulchi Freedom Guardian, launched in 1975 to enhance in

School violence resumed its upward trend in 2010 after a brief drop the previous year, indicating growing aggression among the nation’s young students, a government report showed Tuesday.According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, a total of 7,823 cases of vi

Victims of phone fraud, commonly known as voice phishing, will be able to get their stolen money back within three months from the day they were victimized without undergoing litigation, the government decided Tuesday.The government, during a Cabinet meeting, approved an enforcement ordinance of a s

President Lee Myung-bak expressed concern Tuesday that home rental prices are feared to spike in the fall again and instructed the Cabinet to study ways to curb them, his spokesman said.Earlier this year, home rental prices rose sharply, pulling up overall consumer prices. In April alone, rental pri

Faced with a rapidly growing population of seniors, many countries in the West have opted for a significant delay in, or an outright abolishment of, compulsory retirement based on age.Calls are growing here that Korea should follow suit to ensure a soft landing from the retirement of 7.12 million ba

Five government ministries and agencies will jointly organize a global forum on aging next month, which officials hope will provide a platform for information exchange and discussion on policy options for the baby boomer generation.The Global Symposium on Smart Aging will open on Sept. 1 at KINTEX,

Experts advise retirement reform, efforts to create jobs for seniorsTo mark the 58th anniversary of its establishment on Aug. 15, The Korea Herald has published a series of articles on the looming retirement of Korean baby boomers and its socioeconomic impact on the nation. The following is the last

After decades of confusion, Korea has ditched its traditional address system and adopted one based on named streets and consecutively-numbered buildings.But many residents are less than happy, saying a cultural legacy has been abandoned in the name of logic.From July 29 all the country’s 5.68 millio

Last week, South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan left to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program. Coming off recent meetings between the North and South, as well as the North and the U.S., Lavrov expressed his nation’s hopes that six-party negotiatio