The Korea Times

No. of intl travelers fall in December

The number of international travelers via Incheon International Airport dropped 1.6 percent to 2.65 million in December from 2.69 million a month earlier, due partly to North Korea’s attack on Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, according to the operator of Korea’s main gateway to the outside world, Friday. December is one of the busiest months at airports, along with July and August, as a large number of Koreans and other nationals take trips during the vacation period. Normally, the number of air passengers increases sharply in December from November. However, the North’s attack on Yeonpyeong heightened geopolitical tension on the Korean Peninsula, making foreigners reluctant to come here. According to the Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC), the number of outbound travelers rose 0.3 percent in December from the previous month. But that of inbound travelers fell 3.5 percent to 1.3 million over the same period, while transit passengers at the airport dropped 4.7 percent to 390,000. “A total of 33 million people went through our airport last year, the largest number eve

Jan 7, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

2nd bird flu confirmed

Another outbreak of bird flu was confirmed at a duck farm in South Jeolla Province, Friday. The government said ducks at the farm in Yeongam tested positive for the virulent strain of the H5N1 avian influenza. This comes just one week after outbreaks of the highly contagious bird disease in Iksan, North Jeolla Province, and Cheonan, North Chungcheong Province on Dec. 31, raising concerns that the disease may be spreading across the country. The country has already been grappling for more than two months with the fast-spreading foot-and-mouth disease. Quarantine officials said initial on-site tests confirmed that the ducks in the latest case were infected with the H5N1 strain. All 14,500 birds on the farm and 84,400 birds on four other farms within a 500-meter radius from the outbreak have been ordered to be culled as a precautionary measure. South Korea had been hit by avian influenza three times before.

Jan 7, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Google illegally collected private info

By Lee Hyo-sik Police confirmed Thursday that Google, the world’s largest online search engine operator, illegally collected and stored personal data sent over unsecured Wi-Fi wireless networks here while creating the localized version of its online mapping service. Korea and 15 other countries, including the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, Britain, and Australia, have been investigating whether Google broke their privacy laws in the process of making its “Street View” service. Korea has become the first to announce publicly that the California-based company gathered communication records, such as e-mail and instant messages, passwords and search histories. The Cyber Terror Response Center, affiliated with the National Police Agency, said it broke codes of computer hard drives confiscated from Google’s Seoul office last August and found hundreds of thousands of e-mails, instant messages and other personal data. “We unlocked 79 computer hard disks seized from Google Korea last summer and discovered e-mails, instant messages and other private data sent over Wi-Fi net

Jan 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Asiana Airlines to operate A380 in 2014

By Lee Hyo-sik Asiana Airlines said Thursday that it will add a total of six A380 airplanes, dubbed “flying hotels in the sky,” to its fleet between 2014 and 2017 at a 2.04 trillion won investment. One of the two flagship carriers in Korea plans to operate the jumbo airliners on its long-distance routes linking Incheon and cities in North America and Europe. The A380 is a double-decker, four-engine airplane that can accommodate up to 853 passengers. Asiana Airlines CEO Yoon Young-doo said the company decided to add the A380 to its fleet in order to meet soaring air cargo and passenger demand for long-distance routes between Korea and the U.S. and Europe. “We achieved remarkable growth in 2010. To perform at an even fast pace this year and beyond, we need to nurture a new growth engine. We think the introduction of the A380 will modernize our fleet and significantly bolster our international profile,” Yoon said. Asiana currently operates a fleet of 74 aircraft — 35 Airbus and 39 Boeing planes. Its larger rival, Korean Air, is slated to put its first A380 aircraf

Jan 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Travel & Food

Airlines gear up for aggressive marketing

By Lee Hyo-sik Both domestic and foreign airlines operating flights linking Korea and cities across the globe are aggressively marketing now that the Year of the Rabbit has dawned, in a bid to capitalize on a record number of Koreans expected to travel overseas. Non-Korean airline companies are taking the lead by organizing a range of promotional events to entice outbound Korean travelers to fly with them, instead of onboard Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, the nation’s two flagship carriers. Among others, Cathay Pacific has introduced three winter airtel (airplane + hotel) packages ㅡ ``Visit Hong Kong,’’ ``Hong Kong Super City’’ and ``Hong Kong Premium Super City’’ ㅡ for Koreans traveling to Hong Kong during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday between Feb. 2 and 6. These packages provide round trip tickets, a hotel stay as well as fringe benefits, and are specially prepared for those who want to enjoy a romantic winter holiday through various events and festivals in the port city. Visit Hong Kong and Hong Kong Super City have been the most popular products from

Jan 6, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Never-ending battle: former PM vs. prosecution

By Lee Hyo-sik After suffering a series of setbacks in its quest to put former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook behind bars in 2010, the prosecution has begun a new offensive against the key aide to the late the former President Roh Moo-hyun to turn the ongoing legal battle to its favor. Prosecutors are now trying to prove that the former premier accepted 970 million won in illegal political funds in March 2007 from Han Man-ho, the president of the now-bankrupt Hansin Construction in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, who was jailed for embezzlement and other irregularities after his company went under. It is their second attempt to indict the ex-premier. In April last year, the Seoul Central District Court cleared Han of charges that she had received $50,000 from Kwak Young-wook, the former CEO of Korea Express, in December 2006 at a luncheon at her office in exchange for helping him gain a top post at a state-run company. Following the verdict, investigators brought new charges against Han Myeong-sook, despite strong criticism from opposition parties and civic groups. In Jul

Jan 5, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Can Korea shed image of orphan exporter?

Government’s tougher regulations expected to bring drastic change to adoptions By Lee Hyo-sik South Korea has a notorious reputation of an “orphan exporter” over the years as thousands of abandoned children here have been adopted by foreigners, mostly Americans and Europeans. In a bid to polish its tarnished status abroad and prevent possible child abuse, the Korean government has been encouraging domestic adoptions by providing foster parents with financial subsidies and other incentives. Since 2007, the number of domestic adoptions has exceeded that of overseas ones — but only as the government made regulations for the latter tougher. Experts say the country still has a long way to go until all of its abandoned children find a new family and receive adequate childcare, stressing that kinship-conscious Koreans should be more open to raising the children of others. They also say the recent government move to oblige those seeking to adopt Korean kids to obtain prior approval from courts will not dampen domestic adoption, noting the measure only targets ones admini

Jan 5, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Society

Another rocky year for education field

Schools divided over ban on physical discipline, free meal program By Han Sang-hee When Ahn Bo-Jun, 56, was a schoolboy, getting in trouble was a big deal. It was not just because of the low grades his teachers gave him on his report card, but also for the fear of getting hit on the hands with a thin stick. “In the past, teachers, students and parents all thought physical discipline was a method of teaching. But now it’s different. People are more aware now of the old method and its influence on both students and teachers,” he said. “I think it’s an outdated method and corporal discipline should be phased out.” However, many school principals and teachers still think that it’s too early to introduce a complete ban on physical punishment as there is no alternativeway to control unruly students. Physical punishment is one of the many issues that triggered disputes last year among educators and education offices, and the education field is expected to be strewn with a number of conflicts between liberal and conservative forces. The conflict between Lee Ju-ho, minister

Jan 5, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Shopping bonanza for tourists kicks off next week

By Lee Hyo-sik Korea will kick off its largest shopping festival ever for foreign visitors on Jan. 10, which will last for 50 days through Feb. 28, in a bid to turn itself into Asia’s shopping hub and achieve a goal of attracting over 10 million tourists from around the world in 2011. Under the slogan titled “Korea Grand Sale 2011,” organized by the Visit Korea Committee, more than 13,000 department stores, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, duty free shops, theme parks and other hospitality-related establishments will participate in the nationwide campaign. They include the four major department stores here — Lotte, Shinsegae, Hyundai and Galleria — and the duty free shops Donghwa, Walkerhill, Shilla, Paradise and Lotte. Foreign tourists visiting Korea during the 50-day-long period can obtain a wide range of discount coupons and membership cards, which can be used at retailers, restaurants and other businesses here, at overseas branches of the Korea Tourism Organization, cultural centers, travel agencies and from airline firms. Coupons will also be av

Jan 4, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

1 in 10 elderly have unsafe sex

By Lee Hyo-sik One in 10 Korean men aged over 60 is found to have bought sex at least once but many do not use condoms nor engage in other safe sex practices, exposing themselves to a range of sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). In a survey of 1,804 senior citizens aged over 60 (816 men and 988 women), the Urology Department at St. Vincent’s Hospital, affiliated with the Catholic University of Korea, said four tested positive for syphilis and 14 were diagnosed with Chlamydia. The average age of those examined was 64.6 years-old and they resided in Seoul and other urban areas. The findings were published in the latest issue of Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy. Prof. Lee Seung-joo and Prof. Choi Hyun-seob of the hospital’s Urology Department coauthored the paper. About 26.2 percent of the respondents said they did not use condoms at all while engaging in sexual intercourse, with 28.6 percent employing the most common safe-sex practice occasionally. Around 10.6 percent of elderly men said they had sex with prostitutes at least once over the past year. The study als

Jan 4, 2011By Lee Hyo-sik

Lee Hyo-sik

Read more

No. of intl travelers fall in December

2nd bird flu confirmed

Google illegally collected private info

Asiana Airlines to operate A380 in 2014

Airlines gear up for aggressive marketing

Never-ending battle: former PM vs. prosecution

Can Korea shed image of orphan exporter?

Another rocky year for education field

Shopping bonanza for tourists kicks off next week

1 in 10 elderly have unsafe sex

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