The Ministry of Education will go forward with restricting students confirmed with COVID-19 from taking the upcoming midterm exams, sticking to its original plans despite protests from students and parents. Students who had been confirmed with COVID-19 amid the pandemic were restricted from taking exams at school and given scores based on the average of their past exam records. For the upcoming midterm exams slated for the end of this month, it is likely that a significant number of students

Social Affairs April 11, 2022

Taking a step back from its initial decision to ban COVID-19-confirmed students from taking midterms, the Ministry of Education is now looking into allowing them to sit for the exams. The Education Ministry said it is currently reviewing the possibilities of having students with active coronavirus cases take the tests later this month. “We have not decided to allow students who have been ordered into isolation from the disease control authorities to take the midterm exams,“ the m

Social Affairs April 8, 2022

A ship with six Koreans aboard has been reported missing off the waters of Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday. “Taiwanese authorities have informed the Korean government that they received distress signals from Kyoto 1 near the waters of Taiwan at 9:50 a.m. on Thursday,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding the six crew members who were on the Kyoto 1 are all of Korean nationality. The boat was on its way to Indonesia’s Port of Batam from Busan, while tow

Social Affairs April 8, 2022

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections stayed in the 220,000s for the 24 hours of Wednesday, the government reported Thursday. Authorities are looking at the reinfection rate, which stands at 0.0018 percent amid the omicron wave, relatively lower than that of other countries. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country’s daily COVID-19 cases came to 224,820, down 61,474 from the previous day’s 286,294. It is a significant drop from the 320,699

Social Affairs April 7, 2022

The Education Ministry’s decision to maintain a ban on students with COVID-19 from taking midterm exams has drawn backlash, with students and parents voicing concerns that missing out on the exams could put them at a disadvantage. “It is rather fortunate that our whole family already had COVID-19,” a high school student who attends a school in northern Seoul said. “It would be frustrating to miss the midterms as I had messed up on the previous one,” said the hig

Social Affairs April 6, 2022

The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday issued specific guidelines for the restriction on the use of plastic products, specifying that all types of food service businesses, including convenience stores and internet cafes, come under the ban. The government has banned restaurants, cafes, food stalls and bars from giving out single-use products for customers dining in. Single-use products are only available for takeout or delivery services. The latest guideline says that all types of food serv

Social Affairs April 5, 2022

The Education Ministry said Monday it will inject 600 billion won ($492.69 million) into its “education recovery” project to provide academic and psychological support for students that have had to cope with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. With the social distancing rules in Korea expected to take a new turn in the gradual return to normalcy, the ministry is set to draw up a new guideline for infectious disease control and prevention at schools. “This week, we will have a

Social Affairs April 4, 2022

Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, denounced South Korea’s defense chief, Suh Wook, for his remarks over the nation’s missile capabilities, warning that Seoul may face “serious threats.”　 Kim, the vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, is a key figure in the Kim family regime, serving her brother Kim Jong-un closely. “(Suh) is a confrontation maniac,” Kim said in an English-la

North Korea April 3, 2022

　After a two-year hiatus during the pandemic, Korea has brought back the ban on in-store use of single-use products at food service businesses, causing mixed reactions from employees, customers and environmental activists. 　Starting Friday, customers dining in at restaurants, cafes, food stalls, and bars cannot use single-use products, including plastic cups, containers, wooden chopsticks, and toothpicks. The products will only be available for takeout or delivery service customers. 　The ba

Social Affairs March 31, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on how receptive Koreans are to a multicultural society, a study by government-run think tank Korean Women’s Development Institute suggests. The research, titled the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s 2021 Multicultural Acceptability Study, has been conducted every three years since 2012. This year, 5,000 adults aged between 19 and 74 and 5,000 middle and high school students were polled. According to the survey, the adult re

Social Affairs March 30, 2022

Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday denied recent rumors regarding the first lady’s expenses over clothes and fashion items, saying that no state funds had been used. “The groundless assertions related to first lady Kim Jung-sook using special activity expenses for costumes to wear at official events are completely false,” Shin Hye-hyeon, deputy spokesperson for Cheong Wa Dae, said at a briefing Tuesday. “National budget, including special activity expenses, have not been drawn

Politics March 29, 2022

Busan Metropolitan Government has signed memorandums of understanding with businesses on investments worth 360 billion won ($293 million), the city said Monday. According to the local government, the city hosted a conference in central Seoul to promote business opportunities in the southern port city to corporations located in Greater Seoul. Through the event, it signed memorandums with four corporations, including digital shopping platform SSG.com, which is owned by retail conglomerate Shin

Social Affairs March 28, 2022

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed bilateral cooperation for peace on the Korean Peninsula in a telephone conversation on Friday. During the 25-minute phone conversation, Yoon stressed the two countries should cooperate for peace on the Korean Peninsula and the complete denuclearization of North Korea. “Yoon said the South Korean people are greatly worried about the tension between the two Koreas following the consecutive intercontinental ballistic

Politics March 25, 2022

The ongoing COVID-19 surge in Korea is wreaking havoc on schools, leaving students, parents and teachers confused with quarantine protocols. The Education Ministry said Wednesday that 379,983 kindergarteners, elementary, middle and high school students in Korea were confirmed of COVID-19 from March 15 to Monday. A total of 1.05 million students have tested positive since the new semester began earlier this month. Even amid the virus crisis, more schools are continuing to hold in-person class

Social Affairs March 23, 2022

Health authorities are expecting the omicron variant spread to reach its peak within 10 days, reaching some 370,000 COVID-19 cases a day. South Korea saw 282,987 new confirmed cases as of Thursday midnight, while the number of deaths hit 229. “According to predictions from multiple research teams, the spread will reach its peak within 10 days. The average daily new cases can reach the maximum of 370,000,” Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said at a meeting held at the government complex

Social Affairs March 11, 2022