Free Republic

A growing number of educated young people are learning practical skills at vocational training centers, because they are often more useful than college diplomas for landing a job in an increasingly competitive environment. Others learn new skills even after they have found work because they believe that will ensure more stable employment. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday said 3,100 people completed various vocational training programs last year, and a record 52 percent of them were college graduates or college dropouts. The KCCI runs vocational training centers in Busan, Incheon, Gwangju, and Gyeonggi, Gangwon, North and South...

The South Jeolla Provincial Police Agency recently formed a team to investigate local crime syndicates working on - believe it or not - university campuses. The team was formed in response to tips to police that many student bodies of local colleges are now headed by crime syndicate members enrolled as students. Earlier this year, 18 members of student councils at two different two-year colleges in the coastal city of Suncheon were charged with embezzling about 400 million won ($358,000) of school money. The 18 suspects, who were elected by their fellow students, were in fact dispatched by local crime...

Mr. Lee, at 31, has hit the typical marriage age for a Korean man, especially for a conglomerate employee like himself. But Lee doesn’t have any intention of tying the knot. He’s happy as he is living with his pet dog named Camus. “My life is preoccupied with work,” Lee says, “and I just feel more comfortable when I’m with my dog. For the time being, I’m satisfied and don’t want to get married.” Lee is one of an emerging type known as “herbivore men,” which was first coined in Japan, referring to guys who are kind of interested in...

Family and friends of an Oklahoma City man, who is battling a rare disease in South Korea, are trying to raise money to cover his medical bills and bring him back home. In June, 2012, Sean Jones moved to Hwajung, South Korea, to teach English. Jones' brother Brandon told News 9 that Jones loves meeting new people and learning about other cultures. That's why he decided to become a full-time English teacher in South Korea. "He made a lot of friends. He just loves being around people," said Brandon Jones. "Sean is just one of those people that can actually...

It wasn’t long ago when Crayon Pop, the goofy five-member girl band, seemed like the hottest new act in K-pop. Now they seem all but toast after its members got too cute with Internet hate speech. The controversy began to build up in June, when Way, one of the Crayon Pop singers, tweeted ''You know you guys were 'nomu nomu’ (very very) awesome today, right? We’re jealous of all your fashion sense. To our nomu cute fans, thank you and thank you.’’ And in an earlier television appearance, Choa was called by another member ''jjeolttuki’’ after coming to the stage...

Korea’s financial authorities are considering drawing up contingency plans to cope with the negative impact of a possible financial crisis in emerging Asian countries, industry sources said on Wednesday. The move by the financial policymakers comes after news that India, Indonesia and Thailand have recently undergone a drop in their currency value and equity prices, which were reportedly affected by the U.S. exit strategy to retrieve its investment in emerging countries. The policymakers also appeared to be concerned over the possibility that foreign investors may dump Korean stocks in the coming weeks or months due to the possible crisis and...

South Korea is infamous as the world capital of cosmetic surgery. Studies have shown that approximately one in five women there have had some form of surgery, and many of the operations are unfamiliar to Western eyes.. Thanks to Reddit, we’ve just learned of a “new” surgery that seems to be gaining traction there, known as “Smile Lipt” or “Mouth Corner Surgery.” Performed at the South Korean AOne Plastic Surgery Clinic, this surgery involves cutting the corners of the mouth and re-stitching them to provide a upturned perma-smile. Yes, kinda like the Joker. Is this really new, though? Cosmetic surgeon...

WASHINGTON: Japan and South Korea's unprecedented joint participation in air force exercises over the state of Alaska shows that America's two staunchest Asian allies are willing to cooperate on security despite their political differences. Their aircraft have been flying the annual Red Flag Alaska training drills that end Friday, along with US and Australian forces. The exercise has included simulated combat maneuvers in which Korean fighter jets helped secure air space for military transport planes from Japan and other nations. In recent years, Seoul and Tokyo have taken tentative steps to improve security cooperation. They have exchanged observers during military...

SEOUL: There has been no sign of any Asian central bank selling out of South Korea's domestic bond markets, a South Korean finance ministry official told Reuters on Thursday, despite concerns the recent markets turmoil could lead to heavy selling. The official noted that the Malaysian and Thai central banks have bought modest amounts of South Korean treasury bonds recently, while declining to be named. He did not provide more details.

His Exc. Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Seoul, has called upon the Virgin Mary for help and addressed the "urgency of reconciliation" between North and South Korea, as the two nations prepare to restart family reunions. The Archbishop said that Mary is the "Mother of reconciliation" and that Catholics entrust her with the promotion of peace on the Korean peninsula, according to Fides News Agency. North Korea recently agreed to restart reunions of families that were separated during the 1950-1953 war, which will take place at a tourist resort in the North in September. South Korean president...

Highly-infectious tuberculosis (TB) patients who are hospitalized in state facilities were found to have been allowed to move freely outside and even stay out overnight due to slack patient management, a government inspection showed Monday. From April 2011 to April this year, 164 TB inpatients out of a total of 200 at the Masan National Hospital have left the facility freely, according to a report on the hospital by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The hospital is one of two state-run TB-specialized hospitals in the nation. Most of the patients were suffering multidrug-resistant TB, which spreads through the air...

A strict enforcement of air-conditioning regulations is making hotels an uncomfortable place to sleep for foreign tourists. Many hotels are flooded with complaints from guests due to the regulations requiring commercial buildings to maintain temperatures at 26 degrees Celsius or higher. A traveler from Canada, Julie Ahn, stayed at a business hotel in Jung-gu, central Seoul, during her seven-day visit to Seoul to see her mother. She said she liked almost everything about the hotel except the hot temperature and humidity of her room. “It was too hot to go to sleep. Since there wasn’t a control switch for the...

South Korea targets growing Asian defense market with fighter jets By Ju-min Park SACHEON, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea, renowned for making hi-tech consumer devices, cars and ships, now has its sights on exporting fighter jets amid a projected sharp increase in demand for military weapons in Asia over the next decade. South Korea's first home-built light fighter, the FA-50, will roll out on Tuesday from the Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) assembly plant in the southern city of Sacheon. KAI officials say that they aim to sell about 1,000 FA-50s and T-50s overseas over the next three decades,...

(2nd LD) Boeing's F-15SE reportedly chosen as final candidate for S. Korea's next fighter plane SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) - The Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) has reportedly been eliminated from South Korea's multibillion-dollar fighter jet project, leaving Boeing's F-15 Silent Eagle as the sole final candidate, government sources said Sunday. The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said that one of the two finalists -- Boeing and EADS -- in the nation's 8.3 trillion won (US$7.2 billion) fighter project has dropped out of the bidding due to problems with their documents. EADS...

SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's income disparity narrowed in 2012 from a year earlier, data showed Tuesday, apparently as the prolonged economic slump dented the growth in earnings of those in the top income bracket. South Korea's income distribution ratio, a key barometer of the country's earnings equality, reached 5.76 points last year, falling slightly from 5.88 points tallied in 2011, according to the data by Statistics Korea.

South Korean tutor Kim Ki-Hoon earns $4 million a year, according to Amanda Ripley, writing in the Wall Street Journal. He earns the near equivalent of an average NBA player’s salary by teaching English – primarily via paid Internet video – in the nation’s omnipresent hagwons, or private, after-school tutoring academies. This $17 billion after-school learning market has helped turn South Korea — a majority of whose citizens were illiterate sixty years ago — into the second top-performing country in the PISA global test of academic excellence (far outstripping the U.S.). Moreover, notes Ripley, South Korea’s 93% high-school graduation rate...

President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has more stones than Barack Obama. She isn't content to lead from behind when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Instead of groveling apologies, she called a bluff. Jack Kim of Reuters reports: Impoverished North Korea said on Wednesday it was reopening the troubled Kaesong industrial zone jointly run with the wealthy South just minutes after Seoul signalled its willingness to let it close for good. The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles Pyongyang's ties with Seoul, proposed talks aimed at normalising the project and said the safety of...

Christine first came to South Korea in 2004 as the spouse of a US Army soldier. She quickly fell in love with the people and culture, and happily became involved with many activities and groups. It was through the American Wives Club that Christine first began volunteering at Eastern Seoul Welfare Society (ESWS), and learning about orphanages and adoption in Korea. Initially she would volunteer a few times a month. In 2008, after the tragic loss of her sister, Christine discovered her passion in helping others as a way to cope with this traumatic life event. "Volunteering at the orphanage...

South Korea's health authority said Sunday it has confirmed 63 patients have been infected with a super bacterial infection that cannot be easily treated by antibiotics, raising concerns over a possible contagion. The number of patients infected with OXA-232-type carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae, also known as a super bacteria, came to 63 at 13 local hospitals as of Thursday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It marked the first time for this type of CPE to be detected in South Korea, the health agency said. Such super bacteria are known to be resistant to most antibiotics, which gives...

Kim Ki-hoon earns $4 million a year in South Korea, where he is known as a rock-star teacher—a combination of words not typically heard in the rest of the world. Mr. Kim has been teaching for over 20 years, all of them in the country's private, after-school tutoring academies, known as hagwons. Unlike most teachers across the globe, he is paid according to the demand for his skills—and he is in high demand. Mr. Kim works about 60 hours a week teaching English, although he spends only three of those hours giving lectures. His classes are recorded on video, and...