Top entertainers to promote districtGangnam District Office is capitalizing on the popularity of big-name celebrities to promote the southern part of Seoul that recently gained international recognition for hosting the Group of 20 summit last November.As part of its aggressive marketing efforts to attract more domestic and foreign tourists to the district, the office on Wednesday appointed singer

Four artillery landed in and around a base in Afghanistan, where South Korean aid workers and troops are stationed, early on Thursday, but there were no injuries, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.“Four unidentified artillery rounds landed in and around the base at around 9:30 p.m., local time, but there were no injuries and no damage on our equipment and facilities,” said a JCS official, declining t

Reform measures aim to enhance efficiency and interoperabilityThe South Korean military is stepping up efforts to overhaul its top command structure in a bid to enhance efficiency of its peacetime and wartime operations, and interoperability among the three armed services.On Wednesday, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin reported to President Lee Myung-bak recent developments of the military’s reform en

The Foreign Ministry has begun studying whether the April 12 cyber attack by North Korea violated the international law as part of efforts to ward off additional attacks, an official said Wednesday.“The exercise of their right in a way that inflicts damage on other countries is illegal under the international law,” the official said on condition of anonymity.Prosecutors on Tuesday concluded that t

Kim Min-joo, an 18-year-old student, feels extremely exhausted at the end of each day, swamped with a slew of things to study. She finds little time or energy to share even small talk with her family and friends.She is one of many final-year high school students undergoing one of the most grueling periods in their lives to survive the fierce competition for entry into universities. In Korea, admis

Despite prosecutors’ announcement pinpointing North Korea as the culprit for the April 12 cyber attack, security experts say that it is difficult to identify its instigator given the complicated nature of the hacking process.On Tuesday, investigators at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North’s premier intelligence body, orchestrated the “un

The happiness index for Korean teenagers was the lowest among the 23 OECD member states for the third consecutive year, according to a survey released on Wednesday by two civilian institutes.The “subjective well-being index” for Korean students between the ages of 10 and 18 was 65.98, far lower than the OECD average of 100, the survey showed. The index for Spanish teenagers was the highest with 11

Police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of Google Korea in southern Seoul over allegations that the multinational Internet giant’s subsidiary collected location data of smartphone users without consent.Investigators from the cyber crime unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency searched the office of Google Korea in Yeoksam-dong in the morning and confiscated hard discs and other computer fil

Prosecutors say North’s intelligence body involved in system breakdown North Korea masterminded the April 12 cyber attack that paralyzed the banking system of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, for several weeks, prosecutors said Tuesday.The nation’s worst-ever banking network crash prompted calls for stronger measures to safeguard key financial institutions in the Sout

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for Rhee Jang-han, chairman of Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., on charges that he raked in exorbitant profits by rigging stock prices in the process of selling one of the firm’s affiliates in 2007, officials said Tuesday.Investigators at the prosecutors’ office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province have found a “circumstantial clue” indicating that he gained billion

Police raid Google Korea over personal location dataPolice on Tuesday raided the office of Google Korea in southern Seoul over allegations that its subsidiary collected personal location data without consent.Investigators from the cyber crime unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency searched the headquarters of Google Korea in Yeoksam-dong early in the morning and confiscated hard disks and ot

Foreigners living in Seoul were most satisfied with transport when rating a range of services last year, according to a survey released Monday by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.But satisfaction with their residential environment was rated lowest in the survey of 900 expatriates in Seoul.The city began conducting the research in 2008 as part of its globalization efforts. It commissioned the loca

Investigators do not rule out possibility of information sent to N. KoreaProsecutors are investigating a 43-year-old man who allegedly stole sensitive government data from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other agencies while working for a private computer data management firm for them, officials said Monday.The case immediately sparked criticism for the “lax screening process” for personnel who hand

The National Assembly on Friday passed a revision bill that will ban those under the age of 16 from playing online games from midnight through 6 a.m.During the parliamentary plenary session, 117 of the 210 lawmakers who participated in the vote endorsed the bill to revise the Youth Protection Act while 63 voted against it with 30 abstaining. Lawmakers attend a parliamentary session on Thursday. Yo

Immigrants married to Koreans will be granted a new type of visa as early as September to better support their settlement here, officials at the Justice Ministry said Friday.The ministry is also seeking to ease rules on visa issuance for foreign businesspeople to attract more investment and create jobs.The ministry put on public notice a series of revision plans pertaining to the immigration law o

South Korea on Friday launched a new 2,300-ton frigate that will play a central role in naval operations to deal with security threats including those from North Korea. Under the Frigate Experimental program aimed at replacing aging frigates and corvettes with more advanced warships, the Navy is seeking to secure some 20 2,300-ton or 2,500-ton frigates by around 2020.The frigate Incheon was unveil

The Korea Baseball Organization signed an agreement with a Korean sponsor group of the International Vaccine Institute to join its efforts to improve the health of children around the world, the institute said Thursday.Under the agreement, the KBO will support promotional events to raise funds for the IVI program for children.The KBO will put an IVI logo on tickets to its official games including

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to sentence a man, convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl in Busan last year, to life imprisonment and make public his personal information for 10 years.The heinous crime perpetrated by Kim Gil-tae, 33, sent a shockwave across the nation, prompting anxious parents into calling for tougher government measures to deal with child s

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Han Min-koo visited Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates to encourage three South Korean contingents operating there and off the Somali coast last Saturday through Wednesday, officials said Thursday.On Sunday, the top military commander met with more than 300 soldiers belonging to the “Ashena” unit in Afghanistan and inspected its security conditions. Ashena

High voter turnout in the by-elections was a result of all-out campaigns by the parties, which had forecast the elections would be a prelude to the general and presidential elections in 2012, experts said Wednesday. They also said the presence of political heavyweights in the races and big-name politicians extending their support for candidates got the attention of apathetic voters.According to th