The Korea Times

Hotels offer one more night promotion

This is the second in a series of articles featuring hotels that offer a ``one more night promotion,’’ under which guests who stay for three or four nights are given a one-night complementary stay. The biweekly series will introduce three hotels at a time. A total of 36 hotels across the country will be presented over the next six months. This is part of a nationwide campaign to promote the ``2010-2012 Visit Korea Year.’’ ㅡ ED. The Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas The Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas is offering a special promotion exclusively for foreigners visiting Korea through Aug. 31, 2011, as part of its efforts to promote the ``2010-2012 Visit Korea Year.’’ Conditions applied to this promotion are as follows; foreign guests who check in on any Sunday during the promotional period and stay for three consecutive nights will be entitled to a complimentary one-night stay. This is applicable one time only for the total duration of the stay and cannot be used with other promotions. The package comes with complimentary access to the hotel’s state-of-the-art

Apr 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Wait at US airports likely to be shorter for Koreans

By Lee Hyo-sik South Koreans, particularly frequent travelers, will enjoy a more convenient immigration inspection at U.S. airports using unmanned immigration auto-gates, beginning later this year. If implemented, Korea will be the first Asian nation to benefit from such a streamlined U.S. immigration process and the third in the world, after Germany and the Netherlands. The Ministry of Justice said Thursday that Korea Immigration Service Commissioner Seok Dong-hyeon reached an agreement with his U.S. counterpart Alan Bersin in Washington to allow Koreans to enter the U.S. through unmanned immigration gates installed at 20 airports across the country. Under the reciprocal agreement, Americans will also be permitted to enter Korea using auto immigration gates set up at Incheon and Gimpo international airports. Currently, Korean and other foreign visitors to the U.S. wait in long lines to go through the immigration process at airports. They are required to have their fingerprints and photographs taken, and answer questions from immigration inspectors about the purpose of

Apr 21, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Society

Student Corner Is it safe to use nuclear energy?

By Lee Won-ju Concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants are rising in Korea and other countries following the earthquake and tsunami that crippled a Japanese nuclear power plant. Although there were continuous arguments about building nuclear power plants, the disaster in Japan has rekindled its danger. In Korea nuclear energy has been used since the 1970s after experimental research reactors in the 1960s. After the first nuclear power plant in Gori, 20 power plants are currently generating electricity in Weolseong, Yeonggwang and Uljin. The government is planning to construct more plants to support high levels of energy consumption. Nuclear power generation comprises a large part of generating electricity in Korea, 35 percent of gross electricity generation. This shows the high level of dependence on nuclear power. And this means that we cannot stop using nuclear energy unless we find other energy sources. Nuclear energy has its own advantage — efficiency. It is efficient because nuclear energy is derived from splitting atoms or fission which produces an

Apr 20, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Society

Perfect practice makes perfect

MetaMetrics introduces Lexile Measure for English improvement By Han Sang-hee Learning English calls for many things: time, effort and the right material. But how do people know if the material is actually helping them improve? Educational measurement and research organization MetaMetrics stumbled on this question 28 years ago, and eventually developed scientific measures to help students, teachers and parents improve reading and writing abilities and figure out what they really need to get better. Now the organization seeks to knock on the door of Korea, one of the most intensive countries when it comes to English education. “Our mission has always been being supportive of literacy worldwide,” Malbert Smith III, president of MetaMetrics, said during an interview, Monday. Smith co-founded the company, which was initially funded through a series of grants by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institute of Health, with CEO A. Jackson Stenner in 1984. Smith was in Korea with vice president Trilby Berger to discuss

Apr 20, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Age discrimination still prevalent in job ads

By Lee Hyo-sik Employers in public and private sectors are obliged not to discriminate against older job seekers from younger ones. But still some businesses openly post job advertisements that specify an age limit for their prospective employees. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday that about 2.2 percent of 4,381 online employment openings posted on 677 job portals between March 23 and April 6, specified an age limit for job applicants. The majority of them were recruiting those under 30 or 40. The ministry said it issued an administrative warning to 24 employers and ordered the remaining 74 to alter the posting in accordance with the laws banning discrimination based on age and promoting employment of the elderly. The figure, the ministry added, was down sharply from 218 during the same period last year. “The number of job openings imposing an age limit for job seekers has decreased since March 2009 when the law banning age discrimination in hiring went into effect. But still, some businesses openly state they do not want to hire older w

Apr 20, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Id rather go to jail than serve in military

By Lee Hyo-sik “I would rather go to prison and do my time behind bars than serve in the military.” This is what Kang We-suck, a 26-year-old-man indicted for refusing to fulfill his military duty, said when asked about whether he would appeal to a higher court if a lower court rules in favor of the prosecution. Kang told The Korea Times Wednesday that he decided to go to jail, rather than serve in the military, stressing that regardless of a lower court’s ruling, he has no intention to appeal. Last year, he received a notice to appear for military duty from the Military Manpower Administration but refused to join the armed forces. Shortly after, he was indicted by the prosecution for rejecting to perform the mandatory military duty. All able-bodied South Korean men aged over 19 are required to serve in the military for 21-24 months. Korean courts have sentenced conscription rejecters with prison terms over the years. “Whatever ruling the court comes out with, I have no plan to appeal the decision to a higher court. If it rules against me, I will go to prison and do my

Apr 20, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

13 adopotees given dual citizenship

By Lee Hyo-sik Thirteen ethnic Koreans adopted overseas acquired Korean citizenship without having to renounce their original nationality, becoming the first beneficiaries of the nation’s revised Nationality Act, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday. Kim Dae-won, 43, who went to Switzerland when he was five, and 12 other overseas adoptees obtained dual citizenship after the revised act went into effect early this year. All thirteen individuals returned to Korea years ago and have been working here in various occupations such as English teacher or a member of a civic organization. The ministry organized an event Tuesday at the Gwacheon Government Complex, south of Seoul, to celebrate their regaining Korean citizenship. A senior ministry official said ethnic Koreans adopted by foreigners deserve the right to recover Korean nationality because they had no say in the matter when they were sent abroad. “The reinstatement will encourage more Korean adoptees overseas to settle down here and help redefine their Korean identity,” he said. Under the revised Nationality A

Apr 19, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Harsher punishment on patricide faces abolishment

By Lee Hyo-sik Those who murder their spouses, parents, parent-in-laws and other family members are currently subject to harsher criminal punishment. This will likely change as early as next year, with an ad-hoc criminal law reform committee, consisting of 24 legal scholars in the private sector, moving to establish a universal sentencing guideline for all murderers. The Ministry of Justice said Tuesday that the committee held a general meeting a day earlier and decided to scrap a clause, which mandates harsher punishments against individuals killing family members, from the nation’s Criminal Law. The ministry plans to revise the law, based on recommendations by the committee, and submit it to the National Assembly for approval in the latter half of this year. The committee, set up in 2007 as part of the ministry efforts to revise the Criminal Law in accordance with changing social trends, said Koreans must not be discriminated against because of their social status in all aspects of life, citing Article 11 of the Constitution. It said the current law allowing heavier

Apr 19, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Twitter users stop man from committing suicide

By Lee Hyo-sik A group of twitter users convinced a man to change his mind after he posted a suicide note on his twitter account. A male tweeter (@KoW*****) tweeted his intent to kill himself on Saturday afternoon, saying that he decided to leave a message on one of the most popular social networking sites for his brother serving in the military, parents and friends because he did not have a piece of paper. Twitter users who read the man’s messages began spreading the word in cyberspace to stop him from taking his own life, with some even reporting it to police. One twitter user (@peacepeace****) said he notified the police of the suicide note and tried to contact the army base in which the man’s brother is serving his mandatory military service. Another twitter user (@AndroidG***) and others also said they made attempts to reach the man’s brother. Around midnight, several twitter messages were posted that the man was located and that he was confirmed to be still alive. One twitter user (@Baruns****) said he received a call from the Third Army Division that the

Apr 18, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Korean-language training course due in LA

By Lee Hyo-sik The first Korean-language teacher training program outside Korea will be established in Los Angeles in 2015, as part of government efforts to boost the language education among descendents of Korean immigrants in the United States and other nationals there, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday. It said the Korean Education Center in Los Angeles recently signed a memorandum of understanding with California State University, Los Angeles, to set up the Korean-language teacher training course as part of the latter’s regular curriculum from 2015. “We will shoulder part of an 880 million won ($870,000) budget for the establishment of the teacher training program. It is designed to nurture Korean language instructors for middle and high school students in the U.S.,” a ministry official said. He also said an online training course will be available through the website of the Korean Education Center in Los Angeles (www.kecla.org). “There are 71 schools offering a Korean language course across the United States. But no U.S. universities of

Apr 15, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Lee Hyo-sik

Read more

Hotels offer one more night promotion

Wait at US airports likely to be shorter for Koreans

Student Corner Is it safe to use nuclear energy?

Perfect practice makes perfect

Age discrimination still prevalent in job ads

Id rather go to jail than serve in military

13 adopotees given dual citizenship

Harsher punishment on patricide faces abolishment

Twitter users stop man from committing suicide

Korean-language training course due in LA

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