Concerns grow over teenagers using cheap, quasi-motels; experts say proper sex education is needed instead of telling them just not to go

Military police said Monday they had launched an investigation after a report that a sergeant had abused a soldier with a motor drill. According to a military statement, a sergeant at a unit located in the greater Seoul metropolitan area was reported Sunday for using a motor drill on the arm of a soldier on Friday. The names of the perpetrator and victim have not been disclosed. The sergeant appeared at the unit's cafeteria with a motor drill in his hand and, without warning, began to drill

Average age of elderly Seoulites who consider themselves “seniors” are 72.6 years old, 7.6 years older than legal standard

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell to the lowest tally in 224 days on Monday, a week after the country lifted most mandatory indoor mask-wearing rules amid a COVID-19 downtrend. The country reported 5,850 new cases, including 20 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,263,261, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. It is the lowest daily count since June 27 last year when the figure came to 3,419. The country added 18 COVID-19 deaths Monday, bringing the d

YouTube is home to a myriad of creators catering to people interested in Korean language and culture, but not many have the presence of Billy Go. The 36-year-old American has nearly 544,000 followers, amassed through a decade of engagement and several hundreds of tutoring clips and posts. His YouTube channel, which started in 2012, “Learn Korean with GO! Billy Korean” mostly features short-form videos of 10 minutes or less that teach the Korean alphabet, words and phrases, as well

SINAN -- 5 of crew members missing from fishing boat capsizing found dead Rescuers searching a 24-ton fishing boat that capsized off the southwestern coast found five missing crew members dead inside the shipwreck Monday, Coast Guard officials said. Seawater started to flood the ship's engine room, causing the vessel, the Cheongbo, to overturn at 11:19 p.m. Saturday in waters 16.6 kilometers west of the uninhabited island of Daebichi that lies some 20 km from the southwestern county of

South Korea’s population shrank last year, continuing its downward trend for three years in a row with the number of single-person households close to 10 million, government data showed. The Ministry of Interior and Safety said the country’s registered population stood at 51,439,038 as of Dec. 31 of last year, down 0.39 percent from a year earlier. Single-person households continued to rise to 9,724,256, accounting for 41 percent of the total of 23,705,814 households. Combined with t

Three crew were rescued from a fishing boat after it capsized off the southwestern coast late Saturday, and a search is underway for the other nine missing crew, South Korea’s Coast Guard said Sunday. The Mokpo Coast Guard received a report at 11:19 p.m. Saturday that the 24-ton fishing boat had overturned 16.6 kilometers west of Daebichido, an inhabited island in Sinan, South Jeolla Province. Two Koreans and one Indonesian were rescued by the Coast Guard and taken to the hospital. Nine ot

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 15,000 on Sunday amid the view that the winter wave of infections has probably peaked. The country reported 14,018 new cases, including 34 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,257,411, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The daily caseload fell to the lowest Sunday tally in 31 weeks. The country added 22 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the death toll to 33,596. The number of critically ill patients came to 313, do

Bereaved families of the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Saturday took to the streets of downtown Seoul and installed a memorial altar in a public square without approval from authorities, one day before the 100th day of the tragedy. About 5,000 people, including about 150 family members, marched from a memorial altar at Noksapyeong Station, near the site of the Oct. 29 accident that killed 159 people during Halloween festivities, to Sejongno Street, where they held a memorial rally for th

More than 90 people evacuated Saturday morning as a fire broke out at a public bathhouse in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, according to local media reports. The fire started at 8:07 a.m. from the bathhouse, which uses the second, third and the fourth floor of a six-story building. The fire was put out in around an hour, but smoke billowed into other facilities of the building. Of 92 people who evacuated the scene, three people who inhaled smoke were taken to nearby hospital, including a

An appellate court on Thursday upheld a prison term for a hunter who shot and killed a taxi driver, mistaking the victim for a boar. The 73-year-old professional hunter was sentenced to one year and four months in prison for murder by occupational negligence at an appellate trial in the second criminal appellate division of Seoul Western District Court on Thursday, reducing the sentence by four months from the lower court’s ruling. The shooting took place around 8 p.m. on April 29 during a

Former minister says he will appeal and continue fight against politically motivated prosecution

The government has advised municipalities to stop sending emergency text alerts on the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases in the respective cities on growing calls that the system is becoming something of "a nuisance," according to reports quoting the Ministry of Safety on Friday. Several local governments, including Seoul, have stopped sending texts, according to the ministry. The number of COVID-19 cases, instead, can be found on the websites for each municipality. Over the last

Capital region plans to raise metro fares by 300 or 400 won, unless Finance Ministry helps make up for losses