my timesThe Korea Times
South Korea

Others

Korea Times
About Us
Introduction
History
Contact Us
Products & Services
Subscribe
E-paper
RSS Service
Content Sales
Site Map
Policy
Code of Ethics
Ombudsman
Privacy Policy
Youth Protection Policy
Terms of Service
Copyright Policy
Family Site
Hankookilbo
Dongwha Group
FacebookXYoutubeInstagram
CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Fake drug makers arrested

By Lee Kyung-minThe police arrested two men, a monk, Hong, 44, and a Kim, 65, who faked being a doctor, and administered self-made fluid into cancer patients. Six accomplices were also booked without detention for the same charges, the police said. Three patients died after three months from the intake, and the cure-all magic fluid turned out to be an anesthetic, lidocaine mixed with water, according to National Forensic Service. Since October 2010, Kim set up what he called a lab, which was in unsanitary condition.In the bathroom, he made 3,700 bags of fluid, and sold them to desperate patients, ripping off 200 million won ($178,000). A bag cost 1,000 won each, but he sold it at 100,000 to 2 million won per a bag. Kim even published a book called “Fluid of Miracle” in 2008. The monk, Hong, was one of the avid readers of the book, according to the police. Hong made the fake drug himself, and travelled around the country from October 2010 until February this year.He injected the fluid to 30 patients with cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes netting himself 240 millio

May 27, 2013

Households tighten medical spending amid economic slump

South Korea's households appear to be tightening their spending on medical services in the face of the protracted slump in economic growth, data showed Monday.A household's monthly spending on medication, hospital visits and other medical treatment averaged 171,483 won (US$152.16) during the first quarter of this year, up 2.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the data provided by Statistics Korea.This marked the slowest growth since the first quarter of 2009 when the spending dropped 1.2 percent on-year. The 2009 shrinkage came as the country was still struggling in the wake of the global financial crisis.The slower growth can mean that people remain reluctant to open their wallets for medical treatment purposes amid the squeezing household finances.The data showed that the ratio of spending on medical products made up 1.63 percent of a household's monthly consumption-related expenditures during the first quarter. This is the lowest figure since 2003.Monthly household income also grew at a slower pace in the first quarter.The income of households consisting of

May 27, 2013
Households tighten medical spending amid economic slump

Probe over NIS illegalities

Kim Yong-pan, the former commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, is surrounded by reporters as he leaves the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at dawn on Sunday after being questioned on suspicion of attempting to hamper a police investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) alleged cyber campaign to discredit opposition candidate Moon Jae-in in last year’s presidential election.  / Yonhap

May 26, 2013

NK envoy

North Korean Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, front, arrives at Pyongyang International Airport, Friday, returning from a three-day visit to China. The North Korean envoy delivered a letter from leader Kim Jong-un to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and told him Pyongyang would take steps to rejoin stalled nuclear disarmament talks, according to a spokesperson Friday. / AP-Yonhap

May 26, 2013
NK envoy

Cooling heat

Children enjoy splashing water in a pool at Seoul Land in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday when the temperature hit a daily high of 28 degrees Celsius./ Yonhap

May 26, 2013

Rapper Psy dances with MC Tracy Morgan

Rapper Psy dances with MC Tracy Morgan during the ‘2013 Billboard Music Award’ at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, United States, May 19. / Yonhap

May 26, 2013
Rapper Psy dances with MC Tracy Morgan

N. Korea has dialogue phase in mind, paper says

North Korea has displayed a shift to a dialogue phase by dispatching a high-level envoy to China last week, a pro-North newspaper published in Japan said over the weekend.In a Saturday article on the visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's envoy to Beijing, the Choson Shinbo said that Pyongyang appears to have signaled its intention to shift toward dialogue for peace and prosperity, citing Chinese media reports that envoy Choe Ryong-hae, the director of the General Political Bureau of North Korea's People's Army, mentioned the willingness to rejoin the long-suspended six-party talks.Considering the status of the newspaper, the North Korean leadership seems to have again displayed its expectations for dialogue, experts in Seoul said.The Choson Shinbo went on to say that envoy Choe's visit has widened China's diplomatic position as the host of the six-party talks, opening the way for "peace diplomacy" that will urge the United States to come up with measures to resolve the crisis."If the phase is changed from confrontation to dialogue, efforts to avoid conflict wished by the U.S. pr

May 26, 2013

Seoul to weed out institutions suspected of leaking SAT questions

Private education institutions suspected of leaking exam questions for the U.S. college admission test will be subject to severe penalties, including business shutdown with implicated students losing qualifications for taking the test, Seoul's education authorities said Sunday.The announcement came as about 10 local private institutions providing lectures for the U.S.-based Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have been under prosecution investigations on suspicions of leaking test questions to exam takers.Amid the suspicions, the SAT operator College Board canceled a test session scheduled for May and another biology test scheduled for June.Under the new decision, private institutions that are under prosecution investigation on leakage suspicions are banned from offering courses or setting up new institutions even under other people's names, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said.The authorities also said they will carry out special inspections this week on the dozen private institutions that are now facing suspicions of leakage.The agency will also inspect all the 63 private SAT

May 26, 2013

Wife staying out drinking because of work not cause for divorce

A woman who stays out drinking late into the night because of work-related reasons is not cause for a divorce, a court ruled Sunday.The family court in Daegu passed the judgment in a case where the husband insisted that the marriage has been devastated because of his wife’s frequent drinking.The court said the wife was forced to work as an insurance agent because the husband was not able to make ends meet and she had to entertain her clients.It ruled that there is not enough ground to determine that her actions relating to work is sufficient to warrant a break up in marriage.The couple got married in 1989 ― the husband worked for a transportation company ― but the man failed to bring home home earnings from 2004, thus pushing the wife to work as an insurance agent.With little earnings and pressed by debt, they had to sell off their apartment through an auction and the husband left the family.

May 26, 2013

NK envoy wraps up visit to China

An envoy from North Korea concluded his visit to Beijing Friday after a series of meetings hailed by Chinese media as a step forward in talks between the two countries. Choe Ryong-hae, a top officer in North Korea's military and a confidante of leader Kim Jong-un, met with Chinese officials this week, including Liu Yunshan, the Chinese Communist Party's fifth-ranked leader. Chinese state media are reporting that North Korea is willing to accept China's proposal to open up dialogue. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei spoke about the meetings. He said North Korea hopes to improve upon economic development and wants to create a peaceful external environment. Hong said North Korea is willing to accept China's proposal to have dialogue with the parties concerned. Relations between the two countries have weakened since North Korea's nuclear test in February and China's support of UN sanctions in response to the test. Choe's visit is the first high-level contact between China and North Korea in six months. Kim Jong-un has not visited China since assuming power in North Korea in

May 26, 2013
previous page
492493494495496
next page

Most Read in South Korea