For expat rock climbers, the unique beauty of Korean mountain ranges has a way of stealing their hearts.“The places I often go to have become very special to me. These are beautiful places packed with awesome memories,” said Les Timmerman, an expat who has been climbing here for over 4 years.However, as everlasting as the rock may seem, a lack of care or sense of responsibility can quickly ruin t

Internet police in South Korea, one of the world’s most wired countries, will share experience and knowhow with the International Criminal Court, officials said Monday.The Cyber Terror Response Center, the National Police Agency’s Internet crime unit, plans to teach its investigative techniques to ICC investigators, as the Hague-based organization requested Seoul’s help. “The ICC expressed the nee

Ewha Womans University Law School could be forced to accept male students, breaking the university’s 125-year tradition and raising question about its identity.The Constitutional Court held a public hearing last Thursday, over whether or not the law school’s women-only admissions policy is in violation of constitutional rights, after three male law students filed a petition against the private uni

Less than half of single parents entitled to child support regularly receive payments from their former spouse, revealing the need for state intervention, according to government data Thursday.The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family surveyed 483 single parents legally entitled to receive child support over the course of three years. Women made up nearly 98 percent of the single parents in the s

Police discovered 1 billion won ($904,000) in suspicious cases originally thought to contain bombs at a department store in Seoul on Wednesday. At 9:02 a.m. the police received a 112 call reporting two suspicious looking cases that might contain explosive material from a storage facility employee. The Yeongdeungpo Police Station responded to the call on the tenth floor of a department store with s

More than a third of imprisoned North Korean defectors here were sentenced for drug trafficking, highlighting a lack of screening and reintegration policies for defectors, according to the Korean Institute of Criminology on Monday.Professor Jang Joon-oh, director of the International Center for Criminal Justice, said 17 of the 48 defectors incarcerated in the South were charged with trafficking op

Human rights education will be mandatory for officials and employees of public institutions in an effort to prevent the prevalence of civil rights violations, state human rights watchdog said Monday.The National Human Rights Commission of Korea plans to propose a bill regarding the education of civil liberties after they review the draft. “If the human rights education act is put into effect, it w

Three brothers obtain Oriental medical doctor’s license in SouthSEONGNAM, Gyeonggi Province ― In a cozy and welcoming oriental clinic, a smile never leaves the doctor’s face as he runs about greeting the steady flow of patients, answering the ceaseless phone calls and treating those who trust his hands and herbal medicine.The 45-year-old doctor of Myohyangsan Oriental Medical Clinic gives a good i

Koreans all over the country are participating in the largest exodus of the year to spend the Lunar New Year holiday this week with loved ones, taking advantage of the mild temperatures.“I’m beyond the age of being excited about Seollal but it will be nice to see my relatives and we always have fun during the trip,” said Kwon Ji-won, a 26-year-old piano teacher in Seoul, headed for Gangneung, Gang

The Yongsan-gu office will be connecting students from its sister city in Vietnam with top universities within its district to help promote Korea’s image, officials said Monday.Starting this year, the central Seoul district will nominate an exemplary student each year from Qui Nhon City for a full scholarship at Sookmyung Women’s University and Dankook University.The city on Vietnam’s central sout

A 20-year veteran detective charged with killing his mother has confessed that the allegedly botched insurance fraud attempt was initially his suggestion, police said Sunday, in a case that is shaking the country’s faith in police,The suspect, surnamed Lee, initially said Saturday that the spinal insurance fraud was first conspired by his mother to cover the 20 million won ($17,930) personal debt

Airlines are enjoying a sales boom in international flights as travelers take advantage of the five-day Lunar New Year holiday to escape the unrelenting cold spell in Korea, airport officials said Thursday.Incheon International Airport is expecting a five-year record of 588,900 passengers from Feb. 1-6 for the Seollal holiday, an increase of nearly 14 percent from last year’s 517,242.This year’s S

Yonsei University is drawing fire from within over a plan to open a campus bar, which would be the school’s first place to sell alcohol in its 120-year history.Officials at the International Campus of Yonsei University in Incheon, expected to open in spring, were concerned with the lack of entertainment facilities nearby where students can socialize and relieve stress, and proposed that a bar be o

Scholars, volunteers and officials gathered at a forum in Seoul Tuesday to discuss the past, present and future of overseas volunteering, hoping to increase the efficiency of Korea’s aid.Participants at the World Friends Korea Forum reviewed the current situation for volunteers and organizations to seek the direction in which Korea is going as a provider of official development aid.World Friends K

The parents of a migrant Filipino wife are requesting a reinvestigation into her alleged suicide, believing that her mistreatment may have led to her death here, reports said.According to a Philippine daily, the father of 24-year-old Cathy Deocades requested earlier this month that an autopsy be performed on her body after it was returned to the Philippines. He hopes to reopen a thorough investiga

Seoul National University is to award a student who died while volunteering in Tanzania with an honorary diploma.Architecture major Lee Young-jun passed away last July, after finishing design plans for a school in Boma Ng’ombe, Tanzania.The veteran volunteer died of a heart attack while swimming, just before he was due to return to Korea.Lee, who was 24 years old at the time of his death, had spen

First co-ed ROTC cadets go through military training side by side with men, look to change attitudesSEONGNAM, Gyeonggi Province ― At a military training camp in the mountainous outskirts of Seoul, Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets in camouflage, equipped with K-2 assault rifles, strike at their imagined enemy with the butt of their weapons.Closer examination of the future warriors reveals some

A large number of foreign wives sought legal advice on divorce last year, a government counseling center said Thursday, causing concern that an already high divorce rate for international marriages could rise. In a 2010 report released by the Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women, legal counseling sessions numbered 10,604, up 23 percent from the previous year.Although legal advice does not ne

Southeast Asian universities will introduce online real-time lectures on Korea’s popular culture, automobile industry and other hallyu content, addressing the lack of professors despite growing global interest, according to the Korea Foundation on Wednesday.In celebration of its 20th year anniversary, the foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Indonesia, University

The daughters of a Japanese woman who went missing a year ago are desperately holding onto hope that she may still be alive.Hinato and Madoka Tanahashi came here for a four-day manhunt and left for Japan last Friday, after appealing for help in their search from Gangwon Province Gov. Lee Kwang-jae, a women’s group in the town where she was last seen, and Hallyu star Ryu Si-won, of whom she was a d