The Korea Times

Hospital for foreign patients to open in Yeongjong Island

By Kim Rahn A medical center for foreign patients will open on Yeongjong Island near Incheon International Airport in May. Officials of Inha University Hospital said Tuesday that its hospital foundation will operate the clinic which will mainly deal with foreign patients. “It is the first time for a hospital here to establish a separate clinic to provide medical service to foreigners, while most general hospitals operate small-scale internal international centers inside,” an official said. The as-yet-unnamed medical center will open near the Hyatt Regency Incheon, about five minutes drive from the airport. It will be a non-profit hospital like others here, and Koreans can use it as well. Departments to be included are those for which Korea has developed skills such as plastic surgery, skin care, dentistry and Oriental medicine. Many Asian patients are expected to visit, especially those from China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, where Korean medical services are receiving attention along with “hallyu” or the Korean wave, the official said. Taking advantage of th

Sep 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Travel ban slapped on savings bank CEOs

By Lee Hyo-sik More than 30 CEOs and executives of seven suspended savings banks have been banned from leaving the country as investigators dig deeper into their alleged involvement in illicit lending and other irregularities. Jeil, Jeil 2, Tomato, Prime, Daeyeong, ACE and Parangsae were suspended from operating for six months due to their poor capital adequacy ratio. A joint team investigating the savings banks whose operations have been suspended by financial regulators since Sept. 18 said that it had asked the government to bar bank CEOs, executives and majority stakeholders from travelling overseas. The team, set up last Thursday, comprises of 80 members from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the National Police Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service, the National Tax Service and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. “We think dozens of current and former CEOs at the troubled banks, as well as their executives were deeply involved in a wide range of wrongdoing. In order to question them in due time, we decided to prevent them from leaving the country,”

Sep 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Appellate court convicts husband of ‘raping’ wife

By Lee Hyo-sik An appeals court upheld Sunday a lower court’s ruling that a husband who intimidated and assaulted his wife for sex must be punished for rape. The Seoul High Court acknowledged that rape can occur between a husband and wife. It’s the first time that an appellate court has ruled on marital rape. The court ruled the 40-year-old man had stabbed his wife and threatened her so she would have sex with him, but reduced his sentence to two-and-a-half years in prison suspended for three years. It said a husband has no right to intimidate and assault his wife for sex. In April, the husband came home drunk and had a quarrel with his wife during which he stabbed her with a knife. He then threatened to beat her unless she had sex with him. The man was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to five years in prison by a lower court. “Marriage is based on the premise that a husband and wife continue to maintain sexual relations. So, married couples’ sexual matters should be treated differently from those between the unmarried. Whether rape can occur between m

Sep 25, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Sexual assaults by elderly up

By Lee Hyo-sik A growing number of male senior citizens here are found to have committed sexual assaults, particularly against minors. According to the data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Kim Tae-won of the Grand National Party (GNP), Thursday, the number of sexual assaults perpetrated by those aged over 65 jumped 32.5 percent to 925 in 2010 from 698 a year earlier. ``We used to think that crime rates among the elderly would be lower than other age brackets. But such stereotypes can’t even be called a stereotype. More and more senior citizens have become a perpetrator of rape and other sex crimes in recent years reflecting Korea’s rapidly aging population,’’ Rep. Kim said. On Sept. 14, an 81-year-old man was sentenced to imprisonment for three years and six month for sexually molesting a six-year-old girl in Busan in April. He was also ordered to wear an electronic anklet for six years after he is released from prison. In June, a 71-year-old man was also put behind bars for 11 years for raping a mentally-disabled 12-year-old girl in the southeastern

Sep 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

1.5 million animals used for tests to make cosmetics

Cosmetics and drug companies here tested their products on more than 1.5 million animals last year on whether they were suitable for human use or not. According to the data submitted by the Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) to Rep. Joo Seung-yong of the Democratic Party, Thursday, monkeys, dogs, rats and other animals totaling 1.51 million were used in 2010 on various laboratory testing, mostly by cosmetics and pharmaceutical firms. ``Businesses should refrain from testing new products on animals. In many cases, they don’t have to do so, thanks to advanced experimental techniques. They should pay more attention to improving animal welfare,’’ Rep. Joo said. The lawmaker called for the KFDA to come up with alternative ways to verify the safety of various consumer products. ``It set up a research center to find an alternative testing method that would replace animal experiments. But it has failed to achieve such a goal. With more advanced countries banning animal testing, Korea needs to make more efforts to follow suit,’’ Joo said.

Sep 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Man drowned while fishing golf balls out of pond

A 46-year-old man slipped and drowned in a pond at a golf course while retrieving golf balls, police said Thursday. According to Sacheon Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province, the man surnamed Yoon was collecting golf balls using a fishing net out of the 2-meter-deep pond on the fourth hole with two other men at around 10 p.m. Wednesday. They snuck into the golf course to retrieve balls lost in water hazard areas to sell them to used goods stores. Police said the three decided to break into the course to make easy money after watching a TV program in which people dredge golf balls from the bottom of golf course pools. Police officers confiscated two 40-kilogram sacks containing 1,105 golf balls at the scene. They booked the two men without physical detention on charges of theft and are looking further into exactly how Yoon drowned.

Sep 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Travel & Food

Autumn festivals in motion to welcome visitors

By Lee Hyo-sik An unexpectedly hot and wet summer winds down and now it’s time for us to venture outside and enjoy what nature has to offer in autumn. Some may want to taste a range of newly-harvested agricultural and fisheries products in every corner of the country. Others may look to engage in a range of outdoor activities with family and friends as the pleasant weather encourages everyone to go outside. Here are two autumn festivals you should check out. Gimje Horizon Festival Under the theme of ``Where the sky meets the land, come to Gimje,’’ the festival, which has been held for the past 13 years, is the perfect opportunity for those who want to see and experience what Korea’s agricultural industry was like in the past. The event will begin on Sept. 29 and continue through Oct. 3. Jeolla Province has been the breadbasket of the country over the centuries and Gimje is an essential part of it. Festival organizers said the event offers a range of programs in which visitors can take part in and experience firsthand what it was like to live as a farmer in Kore

Sep 22, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Mongolian caught after stealing,driving cars

An unemployed 36-year-old Mongolian man, who has overstayed his visa here, was caught after stealing and driving cars while intoxicated, police said Wednesday. According to Gimhae Western Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province, the illegal alien stole a Kia Avella left unattended in a parking lot with the keys inside and drove it out of the city. But after a while, he lost control of the vehicle and ended up driving it into an agricultural waterway. The man then stole a Kia Sephia parked nearby but similarly drove the car into the same waterway. He was caught wandering around the scene. At the time, his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.188 percent, far higher than the legal level to drive of 0.03 percent, a police officer said.

Sep 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

’Hybrid’ sex shops surging

By Lee Hyo-sik Men used to go to brothels in red-light districts to pay for sex. But this is not the case anymore. Massage parlors, “kiss bang,” and other “hybrid” sex shops are everywhere, providing a wide range of differentiated sex services. Business is flourishing, replacing decades-old brothels that have faced harsher government crackdowns over the past few years. According to the data submitted by the National Police Agency to Rep. Yoo Jeong-bok of the Grand National Party (GNP), Wednesday, the police exposed a total of 382 “non-traditional” prostitution businesses in the first eight months of the year, up sharply from 30 in 2010. The number of sex workers caught jumped to 637 from 103. Of the 382, “Kiss bang” where male customers pay money to kiss female workers and receive “other services” came to 296, followed by “room cafes” where mostly adolescents go to drink and have sex in a confined space at 32 sites. From January to August, police also cracked down on 30 host bars where male workers serve female customers and 24 “glass bang” where men watch women make

Sep 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Death of Thai envoy’s wife sparks dispute

Soonchunhyang University Hospital, embassy differ on cause of death By Kim Rahn The death of the wife of Thai ambassador to Seoul at a general hospital in Seoul is igniting controversy as the embassy blames the hospital for improper emergency treatment while the hospital rules out any malpractice. Thitinart Satjipanon, wife of Thai Ambassador Chaiyong Satjipanon, died Monday after being admitted to Soonchunhyang University Hospital last Thursday with acute abdominal pain, according to the hospital, Wednesday. Doctors of the hospital performed the necessary treatment for patients with such symptoms but she collapsed two days after hospitalization. She was moved to an intensive care unit but died. A spokesman of the hospital said it was a sudden death involving no malpractice. “The ambassador’s wife was admitted with abdominal pain. Doctors didn’t allow her food and had gas in the bowels eliminated. Her condition got better, so they were to have her undergo an x-ray examination. But she suddenly collapsed, and they performed emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation (C

Sep 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Lee Hyo-sik

Read more

Hospital for foreign patients to open in Yeongjong Island

Travel ban slapped on savings bank CEOs

Appellate court convicts husband of ‘raping’ wife

Sexual assaults by elderly up

1.5 million animals used for tests to make cosmetics

Man drowned while fishing golf balls out of pond

Autumn festivals in motion to welcome visitors

Mongolian caught after stealing,driving cars

’Hybrid’ sex shops surging

Death of Thai envoy’s wife sparks dispute

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