Members of the Korea E-Cig Industry Association protest the government's recent strong warning against the use of liquid e-cigarettes over health concerns, during a rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. They demanded the government present scientific evidence to show e-cigarettes are more harmful than combustible ones. / Yonhap
The logo of CJ ENM is seen in front of the company building in western Seoul, Tuesday. Two producers of Mnet, a music channel owned by the company, were arrested on the day for a vote-fixing scandal involving K-pop audition series “Produce X 101.” / YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunTwo producers of popular K-pop group audition show series “Produce X 101” have been arrested for manipulating votes from the public. Their arrest implies it is highly likely that the text message-based voting system for the idol competitions had been rigged, raising questions over the fairness of other similar audition programs.The Seoul Central District Court issued arrest warrants for the producers Ahn Joon-young and Kim Yong-bum of cable channel Mnet, late Tuesday. “Considering the suspects' roles in the crime, their positions in the company and the investigation results so far, we acknowledge the need to arrest them,” the court said.However, it rejected warrant requests for two other suspects ― a member of the production crew and an entertainment agency official ― who were alleg
By Kim Jae-heunRescue authorities have retrieved the remains of one more of the five people who had gone missing after a helicopter crash in the East Sea near Dokdo last Thursday. According to the Korea Coast Guard East Regional Headquarters, Tuesday, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) of the Navy's Cheonghaejin vessel discovered the body at around 12:30 a.m. in the same spot the crashed chopper's fuselage was found before being salvaged.The rescue team attempted to deploy divers to retrieve the body at 2:40 a.m. but the Cheonghaejin showed unstable electronic signals, so they suspended recovery operations until later in the day.Rescue authorities suspect the body had been seen in the recovered chopper but had gone missing during Sunday's salvage work. They said at the time that they installed a double-layered net to hold onto the body during the salvage operations but the nets were destroyed due to the heavy equipment inside the helicopter and the body went missing.Earlier on Saturday, they recovered the bodies of men who were later identified as the chopper's co-pilot and chief mech
The government is seeking to ban local distilleries from promoting their alcoholic beverages through the use of photographs of celebrities on their bottles and cans. / Korea times fileBy Kim Jae-heunThe government is seeking to ban local distilleries from promoting their alcoholic beverages through the use of photographs of celebrities on their bottles and cans. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday it would revise the National Health Promotion Act to ban all images of celebrities from alcohol containers in an effort to prevent glamorizing its consumption.The current law allows the inclusion of such images on soju or beer bottles and other types of packaging and it has long been a much-sought-after gig for many celebrities, especially women. Currently Irene of girl group Red Velvet and singer and actress Suzy are the respective models for the nation's top two soju makers.Such a move follows criticism of the government's lenient attitude toward drinking compared to smoking.Both cigarettes and alcohol are classified as class one carcinogens, and both could cause various diseas
By Kim Jae-heunCorporations around the world use two-thirds of the electricity produced globally. Meanwhile, here in Korea, companies consume over 50 percent of the electric power generated from coal-fired power plants that contribute 30 percent to 40 percent of greenhouse gases emitted in the country.There is a public consensus, supported by the government that the country needs to make more efforts to reduce its dependence on coal and to use renewable energy as a substitute. Local companies, the main consumers of electricity generated by the coal-fired plants, need to make efforts to switch to the use of renewable energy, but environmental experts say they have a noncommittal attitude toward such calls. “Two hundred and three corporations around the world have joined the global Renewable Energy 100% campaign as of the end of September, including companies such as Google, Apple and BMW,” Kim Ji-seok, a climate and energy specialist at Greenpeace Seoul, said in an interview with The Korea Times. “However, there are no Korean firms on the list, not a single one
More students are calling on universities to remove or ease dormitory curfews. / Courtesy of Seoul National UniversityBy Kim Jae-heunMore students are calling on universities to remove or ease dormitory curfews.According to Sookmyung Women's University, Sunday, its student council conducted a survey on the school's dormitory curfew system and 88.7 percent of respondents said the restriction was unnecessary.Based on the results, the student council is in talks with school management over whether to scrap the curfew. Sookmyung is not alone in dealing with the issue. Yonsei University's student council also carried out a survey on the dormitory curfew in June, with 67.6 percent of respondents in favor of abolishing it. The student body shared the results with the school and it agreed to ease the regulation during the examination period ― first at its Songdo campus in Incheon.Yonsei University Student Council President Park Yo-han said deciding when to go home was a basic right that all adults should have and the student body will strive to abolish all curfews. Hongik University's studen
By Kim Jae-heunHwang Young-cheulRep. Hwang Young-cheul of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party lost his National Assembly seat after the Supreme Court confirmed his violation of the Political Fund Law.The court upheld Thursday lower courts' decisions to sentence the 54-year-old lawmaker to two years in prison suspended for three years and fine him 5 million won.According to the Public Official Election Act, lawmakers lose their seats if they are fined 1 million won or receive a prison sentence of one year or more.Hwang took 239 million won illegally by having his aides return their salaries, and spent the money for his own purposes between 2008 and 2016.He also breached the Public Official Election Act by giving 2.9 million won to people in his constituency in cash at their relatives' weddings or funerals. A local court had initially sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in jail suspended for four years and fined him 5 million won. He was also ordered to forfeit 287 million won. At an appellate hearin, some of the charges were rejected and his jail term was reduced to two years in
Nearly 30 percent of office workers said they are still bullied at work, despite a revised law banning workplace bullying that took effect 100 days ago, a survey showed, Tuesday. / GettyimagebankBy Kim Jae-heunNearly 30 percent of office workers said they are still bullied at work, despite a revised law banning workplace bullying that took effect 100 days ago, a survey showed, Tuesday. According to the survey conducted by job recruitment website Incruit of 722 workers, 69.3 percent of the respondents said they have experienced workplace bullying, and 28.7 percent said the bullying continued after July 16 when the revised Labor Standard Act went into effect.The most common type of bullying was the victim's superior assigning excessive amounts of tasks, with 18.3 percent of the survey participants saying so. Over 16 percent said they experienced cursing and verbal abuse followed by being assigned work after office hours (15.9 percent).Other types of workplace bullying included forcing workers to join evening get-togethers or company events (12.2 percent) and making subordinates handle
An appellate court said it is discriminator to only allow women to qualify for an F-1 visa that is given to a family member of a foreign immigrant who is married to a Korean. / GettyimagebankBy Kim Jae-heunAn appellate court said it is discriminator to only allow women to qualify for an F-1 visa that is given to a family member of a foreign immigrant who is married to a Korean.The Seoul High Court said Monday it reversed a local court decision to rule in favor of a Vietnamese man against the immigration authorities.The man's sister married a Korean man in 2007, earned Korean citizenship and gave birth to a child seven years later. To help his sister raise the child, he applied for an F-1 visa, which can allow him to stay up to four years and 10 months here, instead of a C-3 visa that only allows a short-term visit.But the immigration authorities rejected the application citing an internal guideline of the Korea Immigration Service. Under the guideline, the visa is offered to a close relative of an immigrant who is pregnant or has already given birth to a baby and needs the relative's