Most Popular
-
1
Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
-
2
S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
-
3
Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
-
4
Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
-
5
[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
-
6
Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
-
7
Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
-
8
France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
-
9
Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
-
10
Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
-
Man injured trying to stop misogynist attack to be honored
A South Korean man who sustained serious injuries while trying to stop an assault of a woman will be designated as a "wounded noble person" by the law and receive state compensation, the city government of Jinju said Monday. The city government recently granted a model citizen certificate to the man in his 50s, and is preparing for the abovementioned official designation. The Act on Honorable Treatment and Support for Persons Who Died or Were Injured for Public Good stipulates benefits
April 8, 2024
-
S. Koreans shoulder slightly less than W1m a year for medical services
South Koreans paid an average of 960,000 won ($709) in 2021 for medical services, excluding state health insurance coverage, government reports showed Monday. In a joint report, the National Health Insurance Service and the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs analyzed the data of 12,874 adults across the country, out of whom 11,844 used medical services in 2021. South Korean law subsidizes the costs of medical services through the National Health Insurance program, to which all citizen
April 8, 2024
-
Stray bullet injures American, state to pay compensation
A South Korean court recently ordered the state to pay 209 million won ($154,000) as compensation to a US national who police mistakenly injured with a gun while trying to take down a dog on a rampage. The civil case division of the Seoul District Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the 68-year-old American, who demanded compensation for injuries he sustained in the unintended attack. "The accident occurred as a result of a police officer's illegal actions, which is beyond the degree o
April 8, 2024
-
Seoul's transit pass hits 1 million issuance milestone
Seoul’s all-inclusive monthly transit pass, the "Climate Card," surpassed 1 million issuances last week, just 70 days since its debut, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday. According to the city's data, the number of climate cards issued as of Friday had reached 1,008,000, since its launch on Jan. 27. Of the total, mobile-only cards accounted for approximately 49 percent, while the remaining 515,000 issuances were for physical cards, a city official said. The number
April 8, 2024
-
Senior doctors positively assess Yoon-junior doctors meeting, vow 'unified' response hike plan withdrawal
A major doctors' association on Sunday assessed positively the recent meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and the chief of a striking trainee doctors' group despite criticism by some junior doctors, vowing a unified response with trainee doctors and medical professors to the government's medical school quota hike plan. Last week, Yoon met with Park Dan, the head of an emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association, to discuss the ongoing standoff over the plan to
April 7, 2024
-
Teen's death in online suicide inducement case results in suspended sentence
A South Korean who gave instructions to a teen concerning suicide has been given a 10-month prison term, suspended for two years, after the teen died using the information, a local media outlet reported Sunday. The Uijeongbu District Court recently found the defendant guilty of violating the Act for the Prevention of Suicide and the Creation of Culture of Respect for Life, according to a report by the Seoul Economic Daily. It bans distribution of information that shows specific methods of suicid
April 7, 2024
-
86-year-old woman who donated life savings dies alone
A Busan district office on Saturday announced the death of an 86-year-old woman who had recently donated 50 million won ($37,000) that she saved up while working as a housekeeper. Gweon Ok-seon donated her life savings in January to three welfare organizations in the southern port city -- the regional branch of the Red Cross, the Community Chest of Korea and the welfare center of her local Mandeok 3-dong -- according to the Buk-gu Office in Busan. She passed away alone at a hospital in Mandeok-d
April 7, 2024
-
Ministry to study how much repeat Suneung-takers spend on tutoring
The Ministry of Education said Sunday it has ordered a study on private education spending of those taking state-administered college entrance exam multiple times, in a bid to figure out a more accurate estimate of the private education sector in South Korea. According to the ministry, 31.7 percent of college entrance exam takers in 2023 had already graduated from high school, an increase from 23.2 percent in 2017. South Korean students take the annual exam, known as Suneung, in the last Novembe
April 7, 2024
-
Reports of workplace abuse double over past 5 years
Over 10,000 cases of workplace abuse were reported to authorities last year, the Labor Ministry said Sunday, marking a steep increase every year since the government first started compiling such reports in 2019. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, it received 10,028 reports of workplace abuse in 2023, up 12 percent from 8,961 the year before. South Korea in 2019 revised the Labor Standards Act to stipulate in Articles 76-2 and 76-3 the prohibition against workplace harassment and
April 7, 2024
-
Users of bullet trains KTX, SRT hit record Q1 figures
The number of passengers on South Korea's bullet trains KTX and SRT hit a record high for the first quarter of a year, the trains' operators said Sunday. From January to March, the number of KTX users jumped to 19.26 million from 17.91 million during the same period of last year, according to Korea Railroad. SR Inc. said the number of SRT users rose to 6.43 million from 6.3 million during the same period. The operators said the "pent-up" travel demand after years of the COVID
April 7, 2024
-
Local festivals disappoint as cherry trees blossom late
South Korea’s local flower festivals this year have so far fallen short of expectations as cherry blossoms did not reach their peak in time. Jinhae Gunhangje in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, saw a decline of about 1.2 million in the number of visitors this year, a Changwon official said to local media. While 4.2 million visited the most well-known cherry blossom festival in South Korea last year, the city tallied the number of visitors at 3 million during the 10 days of the festival
April 6, 2024
-
Just one more? Gwangju police DUI is 4th this year
A Gwangju police officer was caught drunk driving Wednesday evening, local police said Thursday, marking the fourth such case in the southwestern city this year. The officer of Seobu Police Station in Gwangju was found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency. He had driven his car into another vehicle. The officer has been removed from duties. The incident occurred after the National Police Agency and the
April 6, 2024
-
YouTuber transferred for prosecution over polling station spycams
A far-right YouTuber arrested for installing illegal cameras at voting stations and vote-counting venues nationwide has been handed over to the prosecutors, police in Nonhyeon, Incheon, said Friday. The police found that the suspect installed illegal cameras in a total of 41 locations and recovered the cameras at 36 locations through further investigations. In three of the remaining five locations, the cameras had already disappeared. In the other two locations, the suspect confessed that he had
April 5, 2024
-
Police intensify monitoring throughout early voting
The South Korean police have deployed around 2,000 police officers for the first time to monitor closely the entire process of transferring early voting ballots from the constituencies where they were submitted to their actual constituencies. The Korean National Police Agency announced the deployment on Friday, coinciding with the commencement of the two-day early voting period for the April 10 general election. In South Korea, voters who partake in the early voting process can vote at whichever
April 5, 2024
-
Korean election day: 2 in 10 work, 30% of them lack overtime pay or leave
As many as 30 percent of Koreans who are working on next week's parliamentary election on April 10 are unlikely to be compensated with overtime pay or paid leave, according to a survey released Friday. A survey of 901 employees by job search website Incruit in April found that 17.3 percent reported having work obligations on the upcoming national election holiday, while 31.4 percent of them said their companies did not offer any compensation, either in the form of extra pay or vacation ti
April 5, 2024
-
Hopes for breakthrough fade as talks yield no change in stance
Hopes for a breakthrough in the protracted medical standoff are fading after the meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, ended without agreement Thursday, with the two sides still far apart. Amid the impasse, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during Friday’s government response meeting that the government would continue to “communicate flexibility” with junior doctors but “based on principles.” “
April 5, 2024
-
[Graphic News] Tourists to Korea getting younger
According to the Korea Tourism Data Lab, the online information platform of the Korea Tourism Organization, one-third of tourists who visited Korea last year were 30 years old or younger. Of 11.03 million tourists to Korea in 2023, 3.93 million (35.6 percent) were under the age of 31. Those aged 21-30 were 2.79 million (25.3 percent), while those 20 and under were 1.11 million (10.3 percent). Among the young tourists, 42.3 percent came from Japan, showing a 15.7 percent increase from 10 years
April 5, 2024
-
Trainee doctors' group head says 'no future for S. Korea's medical community' after meeting with Yoon
The leader of a trainee doctors' group said Thursday there is "no future for South Korea's medical community" after his meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol over the government's push to increase medical school admissions. Park Dan, the head of an emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association, wrote such a short message in his social media post after he met with Yoon for 2 hours and 20 minutes at the presidential office to discuss the standoff between the
April 4, 2024
-
Yoon vows to respect views of junior doctors
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that he would respect junior doctors’ position on the medical student quota expansion plan when discussing the matter with the medical community in the future, his office said, after he met with the head of the group. Yoon met with Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, two days after he had offered to talk with the trainee doctors, saying he was willing to hear their voices. At the meeting held at the presidential office lasting
April 4, 2024
-
S. Korea to stack up 7.23m COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk groups this winter
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday said it would secure some 7.23 million doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines for winter this year for individuals at a higher risk of developing the illness as variants of the virus continue to pose a risk to public health. Additionally, the government has decided to convert a portion of homegrown COVID-19 vaccines into NovaVax’s synthetic antigen vaccine, totaling between 300,000 to 500,000 doses. The synthetic antigen vaccine ha
April 4, 2024