Seoul Metro to issue unlimited subway passes

Subway passes offering unlimited rides for a set duration will begin to be issued in the second half of the year, Seoul Metro announced Monday, with the intention to offer greater convenience in travel to the increasing number of tourists visiting the capital. The operator will begin issuing one-day and three-day passes, considering that 36.8 percent of foreign tourists visit Seoul for four to seven days on average, Seoul Metro said, citing its own polling. The base fare for a subway ride with a

Aug. 22, 2023

Man arrested after robbing convenience store with toy gun

A man was arrested on Monday for robbing a convenience store with a toy gun in Iksan, North Jeolla Province. He is accused of stealing 500,000 won ($373) from a convenience store while intimidating the clerk with a toy gun at 7 p.m. on Monday. The suspect, an Uruguayan national, is reported to have used a translator to demand money while threatening the clerk with the toy gun, which he kept concealed beneath his clothing. The police issued a code zero, denoting the highest response level, after

Aug. 22, 2023

Another baby for sale case sparks concern

Prosecutors have arrested and indicted a woman on charges of selling a newborn baby, officials said Tuesday, sparking concerns over continued reports of child trafficking cases. A woman in her 20s made a profit by selling the newborn baby of an unmarried woman for 3 million won ($2,239) after buying the baby for 980,000 won in 2019. The suspect read an online post by an expecting mother who was asking for advice on what to do with her unborn child, saying she got pregnant with her boyfriend with

Aug. 22, 2023

Suspect in credit union robbery escaped to Vietnam: police

The suspect in a credit union heist in Daejeon last week was confirmed to have fled to Vietnam, police said Tuesday. The man is suspected of robbing a credit union in the central city Friday, threatening employees with a weapon. He made off with 39 million won ($29,115). The Daejeon Police Agency confirmed that the man departed for Vietnam on Sunday and requested cooperation from Interpol to apprehend him. Police requested search and seizure warrants to investigate his residence and related loca

Aug. 22, 2023

Nationwide civil defense drill to take place Wednesday

South Korea will conduct its first nationwide civil defense drill in six years on Wednesday, a move that comes amid rising tensions with North Korea. Set for 2 p.m., the 20-minute exercise will require most people to evacuate to designated shelters or underground safe spaces. The country has identified 17,000 such shelters, with their locations available on widely-used apps like Kakao, Naver, and Tmap. During the drill, drivers must pull over to the side of roads and follow radio instructions. S

Aug. 22, 2023

2 in 5 murder threat suspects were teens: police

Teenagers accounted for 41.7 percent of the 192 suspects taken into police custody for allegedly posting murder threats online last month, the National Police Agency said Monday. Police found 431 murder threats posted online in the month since the deadly stabbing rampage near Sillim Station in Seoul on July 21. They tracked down 192 people in connection with the posts and have arrested 20 suspects. In South Korea, minors under the age of 14 cannot be convicted of a crime. Juvenile offenders aged

Aug. 21, 2023

Saemangeum Jamboree had 8,500 patients admitted: lawmaker

Some 8,500 patients out of the 43,000 Scouts who participated in the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province visited a medical facility during their stay at the campsite, an opposition party lawmaker said, citing state agency data. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's report, which recorded medical operations at the campsite between July 29 to Aug. 7, about 20 percent of participants had visited the site’s medical grounds due to infectious d

Aug. 21, 2023

‘Bikini debate’ opens up on public exposure

Relaxing by the poolside or a the beach in a bikini may not be banned by pool rules, nor is it deemed inappropriate, but walking around town in the skimpily stretched fabric could land one with a fine in Korea. Recently, several women have taken social media by storm for riding scooters and motorcycles while wearing bikinis in central Seoul. They were immediately reported to police for “causing discomfort,” and the issue has since sparked debate as to what is appropriate to wear in p

Aug. 21, 2023

Govt. to standardize ways of handling foreigners' names, DOB

The South Korean government is looking to remove potential disparities in the way personal information of foreigners, including overseas Koreans, is handled between different government entities here. The approval of the revision of the Immigration Act at a Cabinet meeting on Monday will pave the way for entities in central and local governments to address administrative bottlenecks involving foreigners when it comes to crimes, taxation and disease control, as well as provision of welfare benefi

Aug. 21, 2023

Unregistered babies to be included in state system

Children born in hospitals but whose births were never registered by their parents will now be added to a state system that manages their welfare, even though they do not have a designated registration number, following the revision of an enforcement decree. The government has decided to include the temporary numbers created and given to newborns when they get various vaccinations right after birth in its e-Child Happiness Support System database. Thus, even babies who have not been officially r

Aug. 21, 2023

Child prodigy bullied into dropping out of high school, family says

An 11-year-old who earned nationwide fame as a child prodigy recently dropped out of high school, with his father alleging he had been subject to bullying from his much-older classmates. Baek Gang-hyeon’s father on Sunday afternoon posted to the child’s YouTube channel that bullying against his son at school directly affected Baek’s decision to leave Seoul Science High School, one of South Korea's elite science academies, which the boy had entered this year. Earlier in the

Aug. 21, 2023

Emergency services advise avoiding dark colors and strong scents as bee, wasp incidents rise

Avoid wearing dark clothing and using strong scents, the local emergency service authorities advise, as casualties from bee and wasp attacks continue to rise. According to local authorities, 11 people died and more than 6,400 people were injured in bee and wasp attacks last year alone. According to the Fire Department, the highest number of bee attacks causing human casualties occur in August, with the three-year average death toll standing at 9.7. Most recently, a man in his 70s died after bein

Aug. 21, 2023

Police to decide whether to disclose identity of rape and murder suspect Wednesday

Police said Monday they plan to decide whether to disclose the identity of a 30-year-old man arrested recently for sexually assaulting and murdering a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul in a review committee meeting later this week. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the identity disclosure review committee will be convened Wednesday to determine whether to make public the rape and murder suspect's face photo, name and age. The suspect, currently identified only by his family name Choi

Aug. 21, 2023

New class policy leaves teachers open to child abuse accusations: experts

South Korea’s Education Ministry rolled out a set of new class policies last week to bolster waning teachers’ rights, but some experts have raised concerns that the measures would make teachers more vulnerable to child abuse accusations. When verbal discipline fails or students pose a physical threat to teachers or other students, the ministry’s guideline states that teachers will be allowed to use force to physically restrain disruptive students. They can also confiscate phone

Aug. 20, 2023

Police focus on proving Sillim attacker's 'intent to kill’

The police said Sunday they were looking for proof that a man who raped and beat a woman to death on Thursday had intended to kill her. The woman in her 30s was assaulted with brass knuckles in an alleged rape at a park in Seoul’s Sillim-dong on Friday. As she was pronounced dead on Saturday, the assailant’s alleged crimes were changed from rape and assault to rape and murder. "Since the victim has passed away, we changed the suspect’s charges to rape and murder,” sa

Aug. 20, 2023

Arrest warrant under review for assault, rape suspect in Seoul

A Seoul court will determine on Saturday whether to issue an arrest warrant for a 30-year-old man accused of assaulting and raping a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul earlier this week, police officials said. The suspect surnamed Choi was put under police custody on Thursday shortly after he allegedly beat and raped the victim he randomly picked on a hillside trail in the Sillim district in southwestern Seoul at 12:10 p.m. The woman was immediately transported to a hospital but remains unconsci

Aug. 19, 2023

Assault, rape suspect in Seoul says brass knuckles were used: police

The 30-year-old man accused of assaulting and raping a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul has said he used two brass knuckles when beating her, police officials said Friday. The suspect surnamed Choi was put under police custody the previous day shortly after he allegedly beat and raped the victim he randomly picked on a hillside trail in the Sillim district in southwestern Seoul at 12:10 p.m. The woman was immediately transported to a hospital but remains unconscious. The suspect told police the

Aug. 18, 2023

Endangered wildcat kitten put down by mistake

An injured leopard cat kitten was euthanized at an animal shelter in Taebaek, Gangwon Province, after staff mistook the animal to be a domestic cat. While the shelter and the veterinarian have claimed that there was little that could be done to have helped the animal, a number of issues with the handling of the situation has been raised. Leopard cats are listed as class II endangered wildlife, which means they are threatened with imminent extinction, and have been protected by the Ministry of En

Aug. 18, 2023

Child overcomes rare heart disorder with successful surgery in Seoul

An Indonesian boy born with his heart outside the chest cavity has been successfully treated at a South Korean hospital. Mikhael, a 7-year-old from Indonesia, was born with ectopia cordis, an extremely rare condition where the heart is located outside the chest cavity. Most infants diagnosed with the condition do not survive beyond their first three days of life. Medical professionals in Indonesia initially predicted he would only live for two years. Despite defying initial prognosis, Mikhael fa

Aug. 18, 2023

7 of 10 part-time workers has faced customer abuse: survey

A recent poll of part-time workers across the country showed that 68.3 percent have been subject to “gapjil” -- which refers to abusing of one’s position to make unreasonable and unfair demands of someone in a lower position -- by customers while on the job. Employees who work face-to-face with customers are more than twice as likely to experience gapjil than those who do not -- 74.1 percent versus 31.1 percent, according to the survey by Alba Cheonguk, a part-time job search w

Aug. 18, 2023