Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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New law gives police more authority in emergency situations
A new bill stipulating the authority bestowed upon police officers dispatched in emergency situations has recently been passed by the National Assembly, police officials said Wednesday. According to the National Police Agency, the parliament passed the law on operation of the 112 emergency dispatch service last Friday, providing legal grounds for the police's actions in emergency situations including evacuation of citizens, imposing fines and forcing entry into buildings. South Korea's
Dec. 14, 2023
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School violence victims hit 10-yr peak: survey
The proportion of elementary to high school students who said they have experienced school violence reached the highest level in 10 years this year, a survey showed Thursday. The result was revealed in a school violence survey conducted by the education ministry for a month until May 10 on 3.17 million students from fourth year elementary to high school levels nationwide. In the survey, 1.9 percent of the respondents said they suffered school violence between August last year and May, up 0.2 per
Dec. 14, 2023
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[Graphic News] Marriages between Koreans and foreign spouses log largest growth in 2022 as pandemic eases
The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign spouses rose by the greatest number last year as the stable COVID-19 situation promoted people’s cross-border movements, the statistics agency said. The number of “multicultural marriages” jumped 25.1 percent on-year to reach 17,428 in 2022, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the sharpest growth since the statistics agency began compiling related data in 2008. The number of international marriages fel
Dec. 14, 2023
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[Herald Interview] Mayor Oh's grand schemes to bring out Seoul's fun side
In a crowded but somewhat solemn atmosphere, some 60,000 people gathered at Seoul's New Year's Eve celebration near Bosingak on Dec. 31, 2022, braving the cold and waving their smartphone flashlights while watching prominent figures here ring a 3.2-meter-tall bell 33 times after a countdown. For this year's New Year's celebration, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as the host of the event, is looking to spice things up by adding festivities to boost touristic appeal. Immersi
Dec. 13, 2023
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Korea 9th-biggest climate change contributor: study
South Korea ranked as the ninth-largest recent contributor to the global climate change crisis, with a financial liability of 517.7 trillion won ($392.7 billion), according to an analysis released by the nonprofit Solutions for Our Climate on Tuesday. Assuming the same liabilities for both developing and underdeveloped countries affected by the climate crisis every year until 2050, the organization concluded that Korea’s climate debt will average 20 trillion won per year. Among Korean comp
Dec. 13, 2023
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S. Korea seeks to bar former terrorists from seeking asylum
The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to strengthen legislation that could ban former members of terrorist organizations from seeking asylum in South Korea. On Tuesday, the ministry said it will propose a new bill that will allow the government to revoke a person’s refugee status if the individual commits a serious crime in Korea. The bill will also allow authorities to cancel a person's refugee status after they have been granted asylum in Korea if the individual has a record o
Dec. 13, 2023
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Man jailed after setting fire to mother-in-law in exorcism ritual
A Seoul court on Wednesday sentenced a 44-year-old man to two years and six months in prison for setting his mother-in-law on fire while performing what he claimed to be an exorcism. The defendant, surnamed Kim, was taking care of the 68-year-old victim at a hospital in Nowon-gu, northeastern Seoul, on May 29, when he lit pieces of tissue paper on fire and threw them at her. The victim sustained second-degree burns on various parts of her body including her scalp, left hand, face and neck. Kim w
Dec. 13, 2023
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S. Korean driver's tests to include section on self-driving cars
Starting next year, South Korean government will revise the traffic laws and driver's tests to accommodate for the rapidly advancing technology for automated driving systems and development of self-driving cars. The National Police Agency on Wednesday rolled out the traffic safety plans in preparation for when self-driving cars will hit the road, in which they announced that traffic safety education related to automated driving systems will be included in the state-issued driver's lice
Dec. 13, 2023
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[Graphic News] 6% of executives in S. Korea’s top 100 firms are women: data
The proportion of women in executive positions at the top 100 companies in South Korea reached the 6 percent mark for the first time ever this year, data showed. According to data of top 100 companies in terms of sales compiled by global headhunter UnicoSearch, 439, or 6 percent, of the total of 7,345 executives were women as of the first half of this year. The executives included executive directors, members of the owner families and unregistered directors, but not outside directors. By compani
Dec. 13, 2023
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S. Korea may downgrade COVID-19 alert level next year
The head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday that the government may downgrade the infectious disease notification level of COVID-19 from the current second-highest level of "alert" to the third-highest of "caution." "We (the government) are currently discussing the downgrade. Exactly when it will take place hasn't been decided yet, but we're watching the situation and thinking it should be after the winter season (sometime next year
Dec. 12, 2023
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Sejong University ranks 76th in Asia
Sejong University, located in eastern Seoul, has taken the 76th spot in Asia and ranked No. 12 in Korea in the "2024 QS World University Rankings for Asia," conducted by Quacquarelli Symonds, the renowned global higher education analyst. This year's edition stands as the largest to date, featuring a whopping 856 institutions hailing from 25 different countries and territories. Sejong University has been on an upward trajectory since 2020, climbing another three spots this year. Se
Dec. 12, 2023
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Man awarded W100m by court over unlawful prison term
Incheon District Court on Tuesday ruled that the South Korean court should pay 100 million won ($76,000) in compensation to a man who was wrongfully arrested and jailed during the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. The civil suit was filed by a man who was arrested by police during the pro-democracy movement of May 18, 1980. The military junta Chun Doo-hwan had declared martial law as the anti-government movement spread across the country, and subsequently ordered the bloody crackdown on the cont
Dec. 12, 2023
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Teen threatened to massacre children 'as a joke'
Incheon Seobu Police Station on Tuesday said it is investigating a high school student on suspicion of threatening to kill elementary school students, which he claimed was a joke. The suspect, whose exact identity was withheld by authorities, is believed to have posted that he would "kill all the kids while they are on their way home from school" around 9:35 a.m. Monday, via a KakaoTalk instant message board shared by parents of children who attend an elementary school in Seo-gu, Inche
Dec. 12, 2023
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[Out of the Shadows] Enemy within: Illegal drug cases rare but rising in barracks
The South Korean Air Force announced on Dec. 3 that it had enlisted two dogs -- Dindin and Tank -- to detect the smuggling of drugs into the military. It was the first case of the military deploying and nurturing its own dogs not to detect enemy soliders, but illegal drug activities at the barracks. Bringing the detection dogs in is just a part of measures devised to prevent the use of illegal substances at all levels of command, as the military has been dealing with the rise of illegal drug act
Dec. 12, 2023
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Colder weather expected from Wednesday following rain
Following rain across South Korea in the past few days, the Korea Meteorological Administration stated Tuesday that temperatures will begin to drop below zero from Wednesday morning. “After the low-pressure system that brought nationwide rain ebbs away, Korea will be on the edge of the high pressure over northern China,” said the KMA. “This will bring in northern winds and colder temperatures into the country.” According to the weather authorities, Wednesday morning tempe
Dec. 12, 2023
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Ministry to expand support for early morning delivery workers
The Ministry of Employment and Labor on Monday urged South Korean retailers operating early-morning deliveries to care for workers’ health. Labor Minister Lee Jeong-sik had a meeting on Monday at a distribution center of Kurly in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, with the top retailers offering early-morning delivery services, including Kurly, Coupang, SSG.com, and Oasis Market. “To protect the health of workers on early-morning delivery services, the government plans to expand support for i
Dec. 12, 2023
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Prosecutors demand death penalty for rape-murder suspect
Prosecutors on Monday demanded the death penalty for a 30-year-old suspect behind the attempted rape and killing of a woman on a hiking trail in southern Seoul. Choi Yun-jong was indicted on charges of fatally beating, throttling and attempting to rape the victim he randomly picked on a hillside hiking trail in the Sillim neighborhood on Aug. 17. In the final hearing at Seoul Central District Court, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Choi, arguing that he poses a high risk to society if
Dec. 11, 2023
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New chief justice sworn in, vows to tackle trial delays
Cho Hee-dae was sworn in Monday as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court, ending over two months of a leadership vacuum at the country's top court. During his inauguration ceremony held at the Supreme Court in southern Seoul, the newly appointed chief justice vowed to address the pending issues facing the top court, including trial delays. "The court has aggravated public pain by not abiding by the people's right to a speedy trial," Cho said. He vowed to resolve the prob
Dec. 11, 2023
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Doctors start voting on whether to strike over medical school quota
The Korean Medical Association, South Korea's largest group of medical doctors, began collecting votes on Monday on whether they should launch a general strike against the government’s plan to expand the medical school enrollment quota. The organization will collect votes until Dec. 17, and announced that doctors will stage a mass rally on the same day near Gwanghwamun in central Seoul. The majority of the association's membership consists of doctors running their own clinics. Ahead of suc
Dec. 11, 2023
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Amid fewer marriages, S. Korean newlyweds have more debt than ever
With fewer couples getting married each year here, the amount of combined debt of recently married couples recorded an all-time high, a report showed Monday. According to a report on those recently married by Statistics Korea, the median amount of combined debt for these households in South Korea in 2022 was 164 million won ($124,000), marking both an all-time high and jump of 7.3 percent from the year before. It also showed that 89 percent of such couples overall are in debt. The report concern
Dec. 11, 2023