South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 10,000 on Monday due to fewer tests over the weekend. The country added 6,253 new COVID-19 infections, including 164 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,395,864, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Monday's tally declined from 10,059 the previous day but nearly doubled from 3,423 a week ago. The daily count tends to fall on Mondays and Sundays due to fewer tests on the weekend before rising toward the

A Seoul court has ordered rapper Dok2, famously known for his extravagant lifestyle on media, to pay an unpaid jewelry bill to an overseas jeweler, legal sources said Monday. Upholding a lower court's ruling, the Seoul Southern District Court delivered a mandatory mediation, ordering the 31-year-old, Lee Joon-kyung, to pay $34,740 to the jeweler based in Los Angeles. The court's mandatory mediation was delivered last month and took effect Friday after a two-week grace period, they said

WASHINGTON -- Abortion, guns and religion -- a major change in the law in any one of these areas would have made for a fateful Supreme Court term. In its first full term together, the court's conservative majority ruled in all three and issued other significant decisions limiting the government's regulatory powers. And it has signaled no plans to slow down. With former President Donald Trump's appointees in their 50s, the six-justice conservative majority seems poised to keep control of the cour

Welfare Ministry plans full-scale program in 2025

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases topped 10,000 for the second consecutive day, highlighting the risk of a resurgence in the country during the summer season that some experts have pointed out. During the 24 hours of Saturday, the country added 10,059 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total caseload to 18,389,611, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. The country added eight COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,570. The fatality rate now stands at 0.13 p

With more people returning to the office amid easing of social distancing restrictions, instances of workplace harassment have also been on the rise, a survey showed Sunday. According to a poll by Embrain Public, conducted between June 10 and 16 on 1,000 office workers aged 19 or older, 29.6 percent said they had experienced some form of workplace harassment within the past year. In the same survey conducted in March this year, 23.5 percent had said they had suffered workplace harassment, such a

South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed above 10,000 for the second consecutive day Sunday as the daily cases seemed to be rising again after months of subsiding. The country added 10,059 COVID-19 infections, including 191 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,389,611, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country reported eight COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,570. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent. The number of critically

The third-highest alert against a scorching heat wave was issued nationwide on Saturday, 18 days earlier compared to last year. 　 　The Ministry of the Interior and Safety issues the alert when the daily temperature ceiling in over 40 percent of the country reaches 33 C or higher for at least three straight days. 　 　Under the heat alert, the safety ministry is looking at measures to support workers who are vulnerable to inclement weather, including construction workers, elderly farmers and seni

　South Korea‘s new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 10,000 Saturday as the daily cases seemed poised to take an upturn again after months of decline. 　 　The country added 10,715 COVID-19 infections, including 173 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,379,552, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 　 　The tally increased from 9,528 the previous day and 6,786 a week ago. 　 　The country added seven COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,562

   Tropical storm Aere is likely to affect Jeju Island and other southern parts of South Korea early next week after having formed off Japan's Okinawa, the weather agency said Friday.    Aere was moving north-northeast at a speed of 13 kilometers per hour, packing winds of up to 65 km per hour and with a central pressure of 1,002 hectopascals upon its formation in the sea 760 km off south-southeast of Okinawa at 9 a.m. Friday, according to the Korea Meteorological Administr

The life story of Eva Yoo Ri Brussaard, a Korean adoptee in the Netherlands, is heartbreaking, yet it is sadly familiar. At age 2, she was abandoned by her biological father and was sent oversea with her blind sister to be adopted by a Dutch couple. The couple got divorced only three years later, her sister was sent to an orphanage, and she stayed with the Dutch mother, only to live in neglect. “I always dreamt about my (birth) parents and thought that I could have a better life in Kor

South Korea has joined the European Union’s digital COVID-19 certificate system, to come into effect from Friday. The connection to the system allows certificates of vaccination issued in South Korea to be valid in EU countries, and vice versa. “The equivalent COVID-19 certificates will facilitate travel between South Korea and the 31 member states of the EU,” the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s commissioner Peck Kyong-ran said in a press release Friday.

Gangwon Province, on the east coast of South Korea, is set to have more autonomy as a municipality. A Cabinet meeting on June 7 voted in favor of laws giving Gangwon Province new status as a “special autonomous province,” which will come into effect from June 11 next year. The special status was proposed as a pledge during the 2012 and 2017 presidential campaigns, but was never fulfilled. Gangwon Province’s new powers mean it can now have its own police, park services and

Disturbing growth of murder-suicide cases reveals some Korean parents‘ dangerous obsession with family

There was no significant change in the number of abortions in the first year since the procedure was decriminalized in South Korea, government researchers said Thursday.  According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the overall declining trend in abortions appeared to continue through the recent years. Ending a pregnancy was no longer deemed a crime in Korea as of Jan. 1 last year, after the Constitutional Court ruled in April 2019 that the ban on abort