The Korea Times

Most office workers stressed by dieting

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter Kim Ji-won, a 28-year-old office worker, has skipped going for lunch with her colleagues and has been eating salad and chicken breast brought from home for about a week as of Tuesday. After work, she goes to the gym to work out for an hour. "I have been working here for three years now and gained at least 5 kilograms during that period. I mostly just sat in the office and had afternoon snacks with fellow workers, which made me put on weight," she said. "I tried a dress I bought last year and it was really tight on me, showing how plump I am compared to when I bought it. I want it to fit well. That's the aim of my diet this time." She always said she used to watch what she ate, but didn't have any special workout or controlled diet before now. Kim is one of many office workers who have become obsessed with dieting. "Almost all my female colleagues in the office say they are on a diet. It is rather hard to find someone who is not. Sometimes they are on a serious diet like I am now, but most of the time, it is just talk," Kim said.

Jun 8, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

KBS to shed 20% of jobs by 2014

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter KBS, the nation's largest broadcaster, said it will trim about one fifth of its executives and staff by 2014 in what is seen as the biggest rationalization program in its 84-year history. It will make as many as 1,100 executives and employees redundant, reducing the number of workers to 4,400 from 5,500. Its union is strongly opposed the restructuring plan. Mindful of the opposition, KBS said the planned rationalization program is moderate, considering that some 800 people will retire naturally by 2013. The remaining 300 will be trimmed by merging similar positions or transferring other minor jobs to affiliated companies. "The cuts are at the level of natural downsizing and the role of the public broadcaster will not be harmed by the move," Ahn Hee-goo, a senior KBS representative, told reporters. "We will not carry out any artificial reduction of manpower." KBS also said it will decide later this month how much it will raise monthly fees charged to TV viewers. "We are going to report detailed plans in regard to the increase of the fees

Jun 7, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

136 probed for election fraud

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter A total of 136 successful candidates from the June 2 local elections are under investigation for violating election laws. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said Sunday that they have booked 176 of those voted in from the recent local polls, which elected 3,991 public officials nationwide. The 176 offenders include nine heads of municipal and provincial governments, 68 heads of small cities and counties, 22 city and provincial councilors, 72 local councilors, three educational superintendents and two education councilors. The prosecution indicted 24 of them, while dropping 16 cases. The remaining 136 are currently under investigation. For instance, the Seoul Central District Court apprehended an executive of the Seoul branch of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), identified only as Choi, for bribing voters. Investigators seized and searched the ward chief-elect's office where Choi helped the election campaign. Choi is suspected of illegal campaigning, handing millions of won to voters in the district. The prosecution said it woul

Jun 6, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Seouls top educator-elect promises free school meals

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter Kwak No-hyun, the first progressive top educator-elect of Seoul, said Sunday that he will enforce all-out free school meals for elementary school students next year. "I will draw up a budget including the expenditure for free elementary school meals. I will examine the budget and check if the same is possible for middle school students as well," Kwak said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. Kwak estimates some 470 billion won would be needed to provide complimentary school meals to elementary and middle school students. "A substantial amount of the budget is allocated for maintaining and building school facilities. I will slash it by about 10 percent by lowering the construction and operation expenses of these facilities," he said. The education superintendent-elect objected to the current teacher evaluation system orchestrated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. He admitted that there is a need for the evaluation system, but opposed the way of assessing teachers based on their reputation among fellow teachers a

Jun 6, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

People & Events

Ex-PM Yoo Dies at 92

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter Yoo Chang-soon a former prime minister and head of the Federation of Korea Industries (FKI) has passed away, his family said Thursday. He was 92. Yoo also served in key economic posts, such as governor of the Bank of Korea and commerce minister under the Park Chung-hee government in the 1960s, contributing to the nation's economic takeoff from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War. He quit his public post due to a row with Park over currency issues, but, after the latter was assassinated, he became the CEO of the Korea International Trade Association in 1981. The following year, he was named the country's 15th prime minister. In 1989, he became the chairman of Honam Petrochemical Corp. and headed the FKI until 1993. He also worked with the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-young to help the country win the right to host the 1988 Summer Olympics. Born in 1918 in Anju, South Pyeongan Province, now part of North Korea, Yoo graduated from Hastings College in Nebraska.

Jun 3, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

Travel & Food

US beckons more Korean tourists

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter ORLANDO, Florida ― The United States is putting more effort into boosting tourism among Korean travelers based on existing relations and the visa waiver program (VWP). The International Pow Wow 2010, the largest tourism industry marketplace in the U.S., took place at the Orange County Convention Center in May. More than 5,000 travel agents met tourism officials and agreements made are expected to generate over $3.5 billion in future visits to the U.S. according to the United States Travel Association (USTA). Some 10 representatives from Korean tour agencies including Hana Tour and Mode Tour took part in the three-day trade show to make contracts with U.S. providers. Tourism is big in America, making up 2.7 percent of the total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and supporting 8.2 million jobs. The number of Korean visitors to the U.S. was 760,000 in 2009, ranking it ninth among a total of 54.9 million. "We have a very strong commercial relationship with South Korea and I hope that will grow more as we have a pending Free Trade Agreement,"

Jun 3, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

40 people committed suicide daily in 2009

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter Nearly 40 people committed suicide daily last year, up from 35 in 2008, according to the National Police Agency Wednesday. A total of 14,579 people took their own lives in 2009, up 18.8 percent from 12,270 the previous year. By age group, those aged 60 and above comprised 4,614 or 32 percent of the total suicides ― indicating that more senior citizens are at risk ― followed by people in their 40s at 2,770 or 19 percent. Though people in their 20s made up only 12 percent at 1,749, this represented a jump of 29 percent from 2008, and 35 percent over the last three years. Around 28 percent of suicides took their own lives due to psychological problems, followed by 22 percent because of physical illness. Economic, domestic and love issues were next in the top five reasons. "Statistics show suicides are rising sharply nationwide, though it's hard to pinpoint a single reason for the increase. Society as a whole should make greater efforts to stop people killing themselves," a police officer said. News of people committing suicide comes

Jun 2, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Will star marketing help win votes?

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter A number of popular entertainers have been participating in campaigns for the June 2 local elections to win over voters to the candidates they support, while some entertainers are even running for certain posts. Candidates seek to take entertainers along with them to every campaign venue to attract the attention of otherwise nonchalant voters. They expect a sort of "halo effect" from the stars but most voters are skeptical that "star marketing" will actually lead to more votes. Among the stars running for the local elections is actor Yoon Dong-hwan who is challenging for a city councilor position at Gangdong-gu, Seoul. He made his debut in 1992 and has appeared in various television dramas including the recent hit "The Slave Hunters." "Democracy belongs to the people, but I wondered how the people are really playing the role of master. I want to find that out by running in the election directly," Yoon said. Some entertainers rushed to join the election campaign because of their family involvement. Actor Ji Sung appeared on a placard of a

May 31, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Fees on weather information use slashed

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) drastically cut the fees it charges for using its weather data, Sunday. Now, academic meteorologists can use KMA data, such as surface and aerospace observations, satellite and radar data, and numerical models at a rationalized rate of around 2 million won ($1,670) per year, a sharp drop from a possible maximum of 240 billion won per year under the previous system. The fee for using the KMA’s weather data was 200 won per kilobyte, but this drew criticism for being too expensive. For example, it cost around 20 million won for downloading 100 megabytes of data and 240 billion won for 1.2-terabytes of yearly data. Due to the extremely high, unrealistic fees, scholars were forced to give up using weather data. The KMA altered its system to charge some 300,000 won per gigabyte. “We reduced the fees so researchers can use the data created with taxpayers money,” a KMA official said. “We expect a more diverse use of meteorological data.”

May 30, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

South Korea

Smokers in public places will be fined

By Kwon Mee-yoo Staff reporter Seoul Metropolitan Government said Thursday it will impose fines on smokers if they are caught smoking in designated public places such as bus stops, parks and school zones. It revised its ordinance to impose fines of up to 100,000 won ($97) for those who smoke such places or within 200 meters of a school. "We will protect citizens from the harm of passive smoking and raise the quality of the city prior to important international events such as the G-20 summit in November," a city official said. The National Health Promotion Act designating public areas as non-smoking zones was passed at the National Assembly last month. The city will give advance notice of rules in July and implement the municipal ordinance this year, after receiving approval from a council session scheduled in October. The city surveyed the effects of second-hand smoke last May and 91 percent of Seoulites supported reinforcing anti-tobacco policies ㅡ 67 percent of smokers also agreed to the plan.

May 27, 2010By Kwon Mee-yoo

Kwon Mee-yoo

Read more

Most office workers stressed by dieting

KBS to shed 20% of jobs by 2014

136 probed for election fraud

Seouls top educator-elect promises free school meals

Ex-PM Yoo Dies at 92

US beckons more Korean tourists

40 people committed suicide daily in 2009

Will star marketing help win votes?

Fees on weather information use slashed

Smokers in public places will be fined

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