A corruption scandal surrounding a prosecutor is putting a fresh spotlight on the problems facing South Korea’s prosecution. An arrest warrant was issued for a prosecutor identified by his last name Jeon on Wednesday for allegedly making unlawful deals with a defendant in a drug abuse case in 2011. The latest scandal marks another major setback for the powerful organization after its chief’s resignation over accusations he had a love child and a string of bribery cases damaged its public image.O

A state-administered English exam for high school students will not be held this year, Ministry of Education officials said Wednesday.The ministry has canceled the level 2 and 3 administration of the National English Ability Test, or NEAT, citing high operational costs and low demand from colleges to use it for their admission procedures. While the level 2 and 3 exams, targeted at high school students, have been canceled, the level 1 exam for adults will be held as planned. “Demand for NEAT has

South Korean researchers have identified one of the causes of squamous-cell carcinoma, which makes up 30 percent of all lung cancers. The research team led by Park Keun-chil, professor at the Samsung Medical Center, analyzed the genomes of 104 patients suffering from the disease, of whom 99 had smoked for more than 20 years.The result demonstrated that FGFR3-TACC3 gene fusion is expressed when smoking takes place for a long period of time, the researchers said. The fusion of the two genes is kno

Working mothers are healthier and less depressed than those who stay at home with children, a poll showed on Friday.Stay-at-home moms showed a higher level of stress and higher negative sentiment index, according to the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education’s study of 1,863 moms with babies under 18 months old.Stay-at-home moms averaged 3.66 points in self-efficacy and 3.46 points in self-esteem on a scale of five. Those who worked full-time averaged 3.78 points and 3.58 points, respective

Ewha Womans University, one of the country’s top women’s universities, is planning to revise its rules to allow male candidates to run for the position of school president, officials said on Friday.The boards of directors at Ewha Womans University unanimously decided to discard its women-only president system starting this year. It plans to hold an election this year as the current president Kim Sun-uk ends her term in July. Ewha is the last remaining school in the country to do away with the wo

A cold spell swept through the center of the country on Thursday, with the mercury dipping to the lowest levels reported this winter, according to the state weather agency. The first cold wave watches of the season were issued in central regions including Seoul and Incheon and Gyeonggi, Gangwon and North Chungcheong provinces, as the morning low reached minus 10.4 degrees Celsius in the morning, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.The cold snap will be the worst on Friday, when temperat

District courts on Wednesday turned down prosecutors’ request for arrest warrants for eight railway union leaders pending trial over the three-week strike heldlast month.Some 8,700 laborers of Korea Railroad Corp. went on strike on Dec. 9 in protest of the government’s plan to set up an affiliate under the company, a move that the union believes is aimed at rail privatization. The walkout is the longest on record.While the government and KORAIL remained steadfast in their pursuit of key figures

The Korean Peninsula was hit by 93 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2.0 or stronger last year, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.A report by the KMA said the latest figure is the highest since the center began to compile data in 1978, and almost double the average of 44.5 quakes a year monitored between 1999 and 2012.No deadly quakes were observed, but a string of minor tremors suggest that the country, known as being relatively safe from earthquakes, needs a comprehensive study on the

The number of infectious diseases in South Korea surged last year, reflecting the steady rise in the average temperatures on the Korean Peninsula, and raising concerns about a change in broader disease patterns. A total of 77,215 Koreans came down with infectious diseases in 2013, up about 50 percent from the previous year, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Tick-borne infections took a bigger share, as their habitats moved north as the average temperatures went up. “The

The state-run train operator is expected to bring KTX and freight train operations back to normal by Jan. 14, as political parties agreed to form a parliamentary subcommittee to assure there would be no privatization of the firm. The labor union of Korea Railroad Corp. returned to work on Tuesday after ending its 22-day strike in protest of the government’s plan to set up an affiliate to run a new bullet train service. The union claims the plan is a step toward privatization of the firm that cou

Despite a dramatic end to the strike, a difficult set of tasks is ahead before differences are resolved over the state-run railway operator’s spin-off plan and the damage from the longest-ever train workers’ walkout is repaired.The union of the Korea Railroad Corp. on Monday decided to end its protracted strike after agreeing with political parties to form a parliamentary committee to address the dispute.The union began the strike on Dec. 9 in opposition to the government’s plan to set up a subs

South Korea’s largest ecological park will open on Jan. 2 to boost public awareness of the environment and biodiversity, officials said Wednesday.The state-run National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province, will display some 46,000 specimens from 4,500 plant species and 4,200 specimens from 240 animal species in its Ecorium exhibition center. Some 326.4 billion won ($308 million) has been spent on the construction of the facility on a 1 million-square-kilometer plot of la

Labor unrest is fast escalating following the police’s bungled crackdown on railway strikers Sunday as a major labor confederation threatened a general strike while President Park Geun-hye pledged no tolerance against “illegal” actions. Political parties and civic groups jumped in the fray, heightening political confrontation over government agencies’ alleged interference in last year’s presidential election.Park expressed concerns about the strike by railway workers that has crippled the nation

Police detained more than 120 labor activists in the first raid of a powerful labor organization in central Seoul on Sunday to arrest union leaders wanted for leading an “illegal” railway strike. Violent clashes erupted at 9:35 a.m. as some 500 policemen entered the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, where the strike leaders were believed to be hiding. Police broke windows on doors and fired tear gas to break up protesters who barricaded themselves and sprayed fire extingu

Korea will allow about 53,000 migrant workers under the non-professional employment (E-9) visa next year, an increase of 3,000 from this year, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Sunday.The figure includes about 5,600 workers with a reentry visa under the government’s foreign work permit system. They will be assigned largely to the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fishing industries, which are suffering a worsening labor shortage. Some 17,000 foreign employees will return to th

Police on Thursday detained a railway strike leader and raided four union offices across the country in an investigation of the “illegal” walkout. About 15,000 train service workers escalated their protest in a massive rally in Seoul demanding the cancellation of what they call the “privatization” plot and a halt to the police clampdown on unionists. A union member identified by the last name Yoon was taken into custody on charges of hampering business with an illegal strike. The court issued wa

Thousands of truck drivers are likely to join the ongoing strike by railway workers soon, a move that could cripple the nation’s cargo transport and port operations.In a news conference Wednesday, the Korea Cargo Transport Workers’ Union pledged to refuse to deliver cargo in protest of the government’s clampdown on railway strikers.Police began manhunts for 10 strike leaders Monday with court warrants for detainment. Police said Wednesday it planned to request warrants for an additional 18 union

A passenger was killed Sunday in a subway accident apparently caused by safety failures amid an ongoing strike by railway workers. Police on Monday began cracking down on leaders of the Korea Railroad Corp. union, whose walkout halted 70 percent of freight train services in its eighth day. President Park Geun-hye urged them to stop taking the economy hostage for their own interests. The union began a general strike on Dec. 9 in protest of the state-run rail monopoly’s plan to establish a subsidi

SAN DIEGO (AP) ― The U.S. Navy plans to increase sonar testing over the next five years, even as research it funded reveals worrying signs that the loud underwater noise could disturb whales and dolphins.Reported mass strandings of certain whale species have increased worldwide since the military started using sonar half a century ago. Scientists think the sounds scare animals into shallow waters where they can become disoriented and wash ashore, but technology capable of close monitoring has em

The government on Tuesday announced measures to better cope with harmful fine dust amid mounting criticism over its inaccurate forecasts in the past week. The Ministry of Environment is to have a taskforce of 12 experts from concerned ministries to release a fine dust forecast on a daily basis starting as early as next Monday, according to officials. The new plan came as smog blanketed much of the country in recent weeks. The smog level was way off from the calculation by the National Institute