North Koreans expressed doubts about their country’s participants in the PyeongChang Winter Paralympics, according to Radio Free Asia, an international radio broadcasting station.A source from North Hamgyeong Province told the RFA that North Korean athletes at the 2018 Paralympic Games were likely to have been “arranged in a hurry by North Korean authorities to utilize the Winter Games for international propaganda.” North Korean skiers Ma Yu-chol (left) and Kim Jong-hyon practice at the Alpensia

Olympic Games March 13, 2018

A man in his 20s was booked without detention for installing cameras in and outside a woman’s home, Busan local police said Tuesday.The man is charged with entering the victim’s residence 12 times while it was empty and installing the hidden cameras inside the home.According to the police, the man spotted the victim in January around the Haeundae neighborhood in Busan and tracked her to home. The man installed a camera in the form of a black box outside the woman’s door to discern the code to th

Social Affairs March 13, 2018

South Korean state-run broadcaster KBS has decided to extend its broadcast duration of Paralympic programs to 34 hours.According to Joongang Ilbo on Monday, KBS added nine hours of Paralympic programs to its broadcast schedule in response to criticism of local TV networks’ lack of interest in the Paralympic Winter Games. Paralympic athletes compete in the Men`s 20km cross-country skiing event held at the Alpensia Biathlon Center on Monday. (Yonhap)KBS’ two channels, KBS 1TV and KBS 2TV, were pre

Olympic Games March 12, 2018

Despite being the host country of the 2018 Winter Games, South Korea is far behind other countries in its TV coverage of the Paralympic Games, which kicked off on Friday.Three major Korean broadcasting stations, KBS, MBC and SBS, are each expected to spend a total of around 18 to 30 hours on programs devoted to the Paralympic Winter Games.As the 2018 Paralympics will be held for ten days from March 9 to 18, this means that major TV networks in Korea are to air about two hours of Paralympic progr

Olympic Games March 9, 2018

A couple of years ago, college student Do Ji-eun unfollowed every single person she followed on Instagram. She started to follow people again, but choosing only those whom she really cared about. Painstaking though this process may seem, Do said that cutting off unnecessary ties had a positive impact. In Korean, an “inmaek diet” -- inmaek meaning relationships in Korean -- involves detaching oneself from numerous acquaintances or personal connections. It’s a common practice for Koreans suffering

Social Affairs March 9, 2018

A North Korean media outlet said on International Women’s Day that social participation of North Korean women is active in the country. The North’s state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Thursday that “what is mercilessly crushed when you don’t have enough money in a capitalist society are women’s rights.” The article went on to say that North Korea’s “socialist regime” is where women are truly respected and their rights guaranteed.An online propaganda medium also said Thursday that women in Nor

North Korea March 8, 2018

The Jeonju District Court has sentenced a man to five years in prison for committing sexual assault on his dead colleague’s wife.The ruling also ordered 80 hours of sexual abuse education, according to the court on Tuesday. Personal information of the man will be made public for five years.The man was charged with raping the wife of his former co-worker in 2012. After his co-worker died, the perpetrator repeatedly demanded that the dead colleague’s wife see him.  (Yonhap)Despite the woman’s reje

Social Affairs March 6, 2018

Daesung of K-pop group Big Bang will start his mandatory military service on March 13, YG Entertainment said Monday. According to the agency, Daesung applied for military service in 2017 with hopes of enlisting at a similar time with other members of the group.In South Korea, all able-bodied men have to carry out their military duty for about two years.  Daesung, member of Big Bang (Yonhap)As Taeyang is set to enlist on March 12, Seungri will be Big Bang’s only member yet to enlist. T.O.P and G-

Performance March 5, 2018

The Incheon District Court has sentenced a man to eight months in prison with two years of probation for committing lewd acts in front of schoolgirls.According to the court on Monday, the man, 61, has also been sentenced to 120 hours of community service and 40 hours of sexual abuse education under probation. The man was charged with exposing parts of his body and committing other lewd acts on a bench near a school building. The acts were committed three times in June 2017, aimed at female stude

Social Affairs March 5, 2018

The Daegu District Court has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for severely injuring her one-month-old baby.The court handed down the prison term as well as 40 hours of child abuse education for the woman for physical abuse that left her daughter with a fractured skull and bleeding near the head.The woman slapped her daughter’s leg, then repeatedly pulled her up by the arms and pushed her back down on the floor, after the baby kept crying until early in the morning.The injuries are expe

Social Affairs March 4, 2018

Roughly seven out of 10 Koreans have received traditional Korean medical treatment, a study showed Tuesday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare put out the results of their study conducted on a total of 6,914 citizens. Results showed that 90.6 percent of those in their 60s or older have used Korean medicine, followed by those in their 50s (86.1 percent) and in their 40s (77.7 percent).Acupuncture was the most popular method of treatment for patients going to clinics specializing in Korean medicin

Technology Feb. 27, 2018

Fifth-graders at the Pangyo Campus of Korea International School showcased inventions for rehabilitating the environment at the Eco Trade Show held at the school located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, on Friday. Some 70 students in fifth grade had each designed, built and tested prototypes to solve an environmental issue during the past trimester, with help from high school students at the KIS.The halls where the event took place were abuzz with teachers, parents and students moving from booth

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2018

The former Olympic figure skater Kim Yuna is dominating Korea’s ad industry during the PyeongChang Winter Games. Kim is featured in Coca-Cola’s Olympics commercials alongside actor Park Bo-gum, as well as a host of other ads, reminding viewers of her solid standing as a top-notch model for big-time advertisers here. (The Coca-Cola Company) Kim Yuna models for Korean beauty brand, It's Skin. (YouTube)Widely dubbed “Queen Yuna” or “figure queen” in Korea, Kim reaped gold in the Vancouver Olympics

Olympic Games Feb. 22, 2018

The flag of South Korea has been spotted in unexpected places by attentive watchers of the PyeongChang Winter Games, providing Koreans with a pleasant surprise. When Korean-American snowboarder Chloe Kim finished her competition in the women’s halfpipe on Feb. 13, the game which won her a gold medal, she was spotted shedding a tear with her parents by her side. (Yonhap)What caught the eyes of some spectators were not only her tears but also the delicately painted Korean flag settled on a fingern

Olympic Games Feb. 20, 2018

Figure skating coach Brian Orser and his ‘costume changes’ are in the spotlight as three of the athletes he coached performed in the same event on Saturday.South Korean figure skating star Cha Jun-hwan, Japan’s gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu and Javier Fernandez from Spain competed at the men single free skating event held on Saturday at Gangneung Ice Arena. All three figure skaters are coached by Orser, which led the coach to change his outfit between intervals to match the skater who is performing

Olympic Games Feb. 19, 2018