Korea International School has won the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award, in recognition of the school’s effort to bring diversity to a program for advanced computer science. The College Board, a nonprofit organization established to expand access to higher education, honored the school’s Design and Innovation Department (D&I) for its near equal gender representation in AP computer science principles courses. Other classes in the department also strive to draw more fem

Social Affairs March 10, 2022

The 2022 presidential election showed that age and regional divides in Korea continue to remain solid. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition conservative People Power Party beat his liberal rival Lee Jae-myung from the Democratic Party of Korea by 0.73 percentage points, marking the smallest point gap in the presidential election history of Korea. The previous record of the smallest point gap was set in 1997, when former President Kim Dae-jung won the election by 1.53 percent

Politics March 10, 2022

Voter turnout for this year’s presidential election reached 77.1 percent, similar to the figures from the previous election. Nearly 8 in 10 eligible South Korean voters cast their votes to elect a new president, including ballots from two days of early voting. Approximately 34 million out of 44.2 million eligible voters ultimately cast their ballots. A final figure is expected to come out sometime Thursday. The preliminary tally released less than two hours after polls closed at 7:30 p.m

Politics March 9, 2022

Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the People Power Party, continued fanning the “gender war,” claiming women are less likely to vote than men. “Some surveys show women have less intention to vote compared to men. They may show systemized movements online, but it is difficult to say that (the movements) lead to actual voting,” Lee said on a radio show Monday. When asked about his party’s candidate Yoon Suk-yeol’s vow to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and F

Politics March 9, 2022

With the presidential election just around the corner, candidates traveled to regions across the nation, in hopes of wooing voters from rival strongholds, and also to appeal to those who have not yet made their mind up. Lee Jae-myung, the major ruling Democratic Party of Korea candidate, visited Jeju Island on Monday for the first time since his official election campaign kicked off.  “State affairs is not a practice field for an amateur,” Lee said while canvassing near Don

Politics March 7, 2022

Schools in Korea are scrambling in confusion as the country’s COVID-19 cases continue to rapidly increase. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 15,337 students in Seoul were newly confirmed to have COVID-19 between Feb. 28 and Thursday, while 1,417 school faculty members in Seoul were also confirmed. The tally has been on a steep rise. Though there were 2,883 new confirmed cases in students in Seoul on Tuesday, the number rose to 6,240 on Wednesday and 6,214 on Thu

Social Affairs March 6, 2022

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate for the minor opposition People’s Party, stepped down once again from a election race on Thursday, marking his fourth withdrawal in a political career that extends just over 10 years. Ahn became a big name in local politics starting in 2011, when there were rumors that he -- a respected doctor-turned-software mogul at the time -- would run in the Seoul mayoral by-election. Ahn, however, declined to join the race, instead choosing to endorse the

Politics March 3, 2022

The new school year kicked off Wednesday while the country’s daily COVID-19 tally soared to nearly 220,000. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s report on Wednesday, the number of daily cases here reached 219,241, up 80,248 from the previous day. The total caseload reached 3,492,686 accordingly, the country’s health authorities said.　 Despite the tally, most schools opted for in-person classes Wednesday. Though the Education Ministry gave school

Social Affairs March 2, 2022

Unvaccinated students living with confirmed COVID-19 patients will be allowed to attend in-person classes staring March 14, as part of the Ministry of Education’s new guidelines announced Monday. Schools will not penalize students’ COVID-19-related absences from the new semester onward. Also, from March 14, students can attend classes in person even if their family member has been infected with COVID-19. The Ministry of Education announced more details to its response against the

Social Affairs Feb. 28, 2022

Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate for the minor opposition People’s Party, attacked Yoon Suk-yeol of the major opposition People Power Party for being unrealistic about leading a government in a situation where opposition parties are the majority. “If (the Democratic Party of Korea) attempts to disturb the government because it has 180 seats in the National Assembly, I believe it goes against the orders of the Constitution,” Yoon said during a TV debate held Friday,

Politics Feb. 25, 2022

The two frontrunners in the quickly approaching presidential election addressed the Russian invasion of Ukraine with different focuses. While Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea spoke of economic aspects, Yoon Suk-yeol from the main opposition People Power Party attacked the Moon Jae-in administration’s security policies. Lee tried to bring the focus on how the war will affect the Korean economy in an attempt to emphasize his capability in handling economic matters. Lee

Politics Feb. 25, 2022

The Korean government joined an intergovernmental announcement to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Countries that are members of the Community of Democracies issued a statement Thursday, condemning Russia’s massive military assault against Ukraine. Following the international community’s shock as Russia launched an all-out invasion on Ukraine, the governing council members of the Community of Democracies, including Korea, the US, Japan, Canada, Estonia, Finland and many m

International Feb. 25, 2022

South Korea on Wednesday reported more than 170,000 new COVID-19 cases, outpacing the government’s earlier estimates. Despite the record figure, authorities tried to reduce some of the pandemic panic, stressing the virus crisis is under control. The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures said a total of 171,452 cases had been confirmed as of Tuesday midnight, raising the total caseload to 2,329,182. On Monday, the government announced it expects the peak of the omicron variant spr

Social Affairs Feb. 23, 2022

Teachers’ unions are voicing out their concerns after the government announced schools will have the choice to provide full remote classes during the first two weeks of March. The Ministry of Education announced Monday that it has designated March 2 -11 to be a new semester adjustment period, allowing schools to hold online-only classes if needed. Previously, the ministry had warned schools to refrain from switching to an online-only class scheme. However, it changed its stance with a s

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2022

Yoon Suk-yeol, candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, put forward the idea of “digital data economy” in Monday’s televised debate, inciting criticism from Ahn Cheol-soo, the opposition People’s Party’s nominee. “It is an era of slow growth. It is difficult to resolve the economic polarization and encourage social mobility at a time like this. We have to strengthen the digital data economy, creating a new paradigm,” Yoon said during a TV pr

Politics Feb. 21, 2022