Seoul Metropolitan Government is sending more officials overseas under the mayor’s pledge to expand overseas training of civil servantsOfficials said Monday that the city government plans to send about 780 officials abroad for the maximum two weeks of training from May to December, this year. Last year, 350 officials were dispatched to overseas training courses.The budget for overseas trainings of up to two weeks increased 52 percent from last year’s 1.3 billion won to 2.7 billion won to 2.7 bil

Foreign migrant workers ill-informed of job description before coming to KoreaA human rights watchdog recently ruled that assigning an Indonesian Muslim to a job at a pork processing factory is an infringement of human rights. A similar case was reported to the Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of foreign migrant workers, this time involving another Indonesian Muslim worker who was assigned to a dog-breeding farm. “He didn’

Prosecutors are stepping up their investigations into election law violations after the general election Wednesday.Gwangju prosecutors said they would summon independent lawmaker-elect Park Joo-sun of a Gwangju constituency as one of his campaign aides allegedly paid a broker for gathering electoral voters. “We have enough evidence to prove the allegation. We will notify Park of summons as early as next week,” a prosecutor told a local daily Thursday. Prosecutors also raided campaign offices of

Herald Media signed a memorandum of understanding with Seoul National University of Education on Thursday to cooperate in future joint projects to nurture globally minded individuals. Lee Young-man, Herald Media CEO and publisher, and Shin Hang-gyun, president of SNUE, signed the MOU at Herald Media in Seoul on Thursday. Under the memorandum, Herald Media and the university are to strengthen cooperation in student internships at Herald Media and its reporters’ lectures to university students, as

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will provide field trips to foreign visitors to the capital to increase their understanding of Korean culture and promote the city, officials said Thursday. The city government plans to offer 1,000 foreign visitors this year a chance to experience Korean culture during their stay in the capital. The program was launched in 2008 to promote the city to foreign visitors. City officials say that this year the program is designed to publicize the 2012 Yeosu Expo from

Mongolian teachers will teach South Korean students and help provincial communities improve their understanding of multicultural families under a teacher-exchange program.The Korean Education Ministry said Thursday that 20 teachers would be assigned to nine local elementary or middle schools with a concentration of multiethnic students including Mongolian children.They will spend two months from April 23 mostly at schools in Mongolian communities in Gangwon Province. They are to teach English or

The recent murder in Suwon has brought the 112 emergency service under fire, as police failed to find a 28-year-old woman for 13 hours after she called for a help. She was brutally murdered on April 1 despite calling with a specific location hours earlier. The case has prompted an outpouring of criticism of the 112 emergency hotline’s tracking ability and lack of a detailed search manual. Under the current location information protection law, the 112 hotline is not allowed to track a caller’s lo

Some 86 percent of 3-year-olds across the country have been inoculated with all the state-recommended vaccinations, the nation’s disease control agency said on Monday.That proportion is short of the national target of 95 percent, it added.According to a report on the vaccination rate, compiled by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the first time, 86.3 percent of 3 year olds were found to have received all seven vaccines recommended to be given before they are 2 years old. T

Eating too much salt can increase the risk of obesity, especially for teenagers, a government study found on Tuesday. According to a joint study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, teenagers in the top 20 percent in terms of salt intake are 1.77 times more likely to be overweight than those in the bottom 20 percent. For adults, the top 20 percent are 1.2 times more at risk of becoming overweight than the bottom 20 percent. “The relationship between salt i

Teachers’ group attributes violations to ordinance for greater student rightsMore teachers are being insulted or beaten by students or parents while on their student conduct duties, a report found Sunday. According to the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, a conservative teachers’ group, cases that involve infringement upon teachers’ responsibilities and rights have increased 12-fold from 22 cases in 1991 to 287 in 2011. The report was based on reports to the teacher’s group over the la

The late former doctor and missionary Helen Pearl Mackenzie received a posthumous honor from the Korean government for her contribution to helping Korean women and children during the Korean War and training obstetricians and gynecologists.The Ministry of Health and Welfare gave the honorary award to Mackenzie and 211 others in celebration of Health Day on Friday at COEX in Seoul. “There are many good-hearted people like Ms. Mae Hye-ran who had worked so hard to help people in need. We will find

German and French used to be second language choices at schools in Korea, but have since been replaced by Chinese and Japanese. This made it easier for Korean students to get high scores on second language exams, plus the Chinese and Japanese economic and cultural influence on Korea was growing.Still, German is still an essential tool for those seeking to do business with Europe, said a distinguished professor who recently came to Seoul from Germany.“European countries are Korea’s major export m

The Education Ministry is considering renaming its English test for students and adults.An official told The Korea Herald that the ministry is searching separate names for the two versions of the National English Ability Test currently being trialed. “The word ‘National’ doesn’t fit in our long-term plan to export the testing tool to other countries where English is not spoken as the mother tongue,” he said, adding that the ministry plans to export the adult version of NEAT. NEAT is being develo

Pohang University of Science and Technology said Thursday that they have created a presidential fellowship with the Japanese company Hitachi to assist students’ science research. The $1.3 million scholarship will be available to students who will conduct research on medical equipment, the major field of study for school president Kim Yong-min. The school noted that the scholarship was created from money left over from the president’s research fund from Hitachi and a donation from the company.The

The Korean government is stepping up school education on Dokdo, about a week after the Japanese government approved high school textbooks that claim the easternmost islets as Japanese territory.Seoul’s education ministry said it distributed supplementary textbooks on Dokdo to all elementary, middle and high schools to be used during the designated classes on the islets in the new semester which began in March. “The education on Dokdo is to raise students’ awareness of the necessity for guarding

Seoul Metropolitan Government has opened a farm school for the homeless to help them stand on their own as farmers or farm hands. The Seoul Farm School, opened on Monday, is expected to offer agricultural education so that the homeless can support themselves and break free from life on the streets. “I want to start a new life at the farming school. I’ve been living on the streets and eat at homeless shelters, but I want to earn money that can support me in the future,” said Ki Un-chan, 52, one o

There were about 19 times more cases of bulimia in women as in men over the past five years, a survey has found.Bulimia is a type of eating disorder that involves eating large amounts of food and getting rid of the calories in an unhealthy way, such as vomiting or excessive exercise. According to a survey by the National Health Insurance Corp., released on Sunday, women bulimia patients outnumbered men 2,002 to 100 in 2007, 1,711 to 91 in 2008, 1,939 to 93 in 2009, 2,150 to 112 in 2010, and 2,12

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung received an honorary doctoral degree from Korea University on Wednesday, the school said.He was in Korea for the Nuclear Security Summit, which ended its two-day run in Seoul on Tuesday.Korea University conferred the honorary doctoral degree in economics to Dung in recognition of his achievements in the economic development of Vietnam. “Prime Minister Dung is a leader who has devoted his life to developing the country and raising its international status

Women in 50s most likely to experience age discrimination in employmentWhen one 50-year-old housewife asked staff at one of the country’s biggest supermarket chains what qualifications were needed for her to be a cashier, she got a nasty surprise. The first thing cashiers told her was that she needed to be under 50. She was told thatunless she has a special qualification or is highly recommended by someone, age matters the most. Women in their 50s often seek employment out of a need to become th

A scaffolding collapse at the nation’s biggest thermal power plant caused one death on Tuesday morning. Thirteen workers fell from a height of about 10 meters when a scaffold set up to assist their maintenance work inside a Boryeong thermal power plant broke down.Ten workers escaped or were rescued by 119 rescue workers right after the accident, and several hours later, three more were rescued, according to a local news report. One worker was reported to have died during treatment at a hospital.