Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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Prosecutors seek jail term for convicted child sex offender who broke curfew
South Korean prosecutors on Monday asked the court to sentence Cho Doo-soon to one year in prison, after the convicted child rapist broke his curfew and stepped outside of his home after dark late last year. The prosecution said Cho violated a legal order not to leave his home after 9 p.m., and left his residence in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province at around 9:05 p.m. on Dec. 4, where he allegedly wandered around the adjacently stationed police post. Officials also said Cho denied a police order to retu
March 11, 2024
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Man starves himself to avoid military service, gets suspended term
South Korean court on Monday sentenced a 22-year-old man to two years in prison, suspended for two years, for starving himself in a bid to avoid mandatary military service. Gwangju District Court found the defendant guilty of violating the Military Service Act, which mandates all able-bodied male citizens to serve in the military for at least 18 months as of 2024. But men whose physical conditions are under certain standards can carry out alternate non-combat service for a similar period. Betwee
March 11, 2024
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Medical schools paralyzed due to en masse boycotts
The doctors' protest against the South Korean government's planned medical enrollment quota hike is taking a toll on medical school campuses as students are boycotting classes en masse. All 40 medical schools in the country have either postponed the opening of classes or are unable to hold lectures, as students refuse to attend classes, according to the Education Ministry. "Ten medical schools have been confirmed to be boycotting classes," the Ministry of Education remarked.
March 11, 2024
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S. Korea’s sky-high elderly poverty edges even higher to 38.1%
More than 38 percent of over-65s were in relative poverty in 2022 a South Korean government report showed Monday. OECD data shows the country had the highest old-age poverty rate among all member states. The relative poverty rate for South Korea marked a 0.5 percent point increase from 37.6 percent before, according to the report jointly announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Statistics Korea. OECD defines relative poverty rate refers to the percentage of the population with income
March 11, 2024
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Korean workers thought to slack off for 80 mins of work day: survey
Human resource managers at major companies in Korea think their workers spend approximately 17 percent of their working hours, around 80 minutes, on other activities, a survey showed on Monday. According to the survey by the Korea Enterprises Federation, human resource managers of the largest 100 companies by sales rated their office workers’ productivity at an average of 82.7 out of 100. The survey revealed that HR managers think their office workers spend an average of around 1 hour and
March 11, 2024
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Seoul to establish business agreement with Catch Table
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and Wad, the developer behind the app Catch Table, will sign a business agreement Tuesday to make it easier for international tourists without Korean phone numbers to make restaurant reservations and join online queues. The move comes amid an increase in the number of international visitors coming to South Korea for culinary tourism purposes. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in 2022, 68 percent of tourists answered
March 11, 2024
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License suspension notices sent to some 5,000 defiant trainee doctors
The health ministry said Monday it had sent prior notices of license suspension to some 5,000 trainee doctors who have defied an order to return to work, in protest of a plan to boost the number of medical students. Deputy Health Minister Jun Byung-wang told reporters that it completed sending the notices to 4,944 junior doctors last week. When receiving the notices, the doctors will be required to submit their opinions on punitive measures by March 25. With the government vowing to take legal a
March 11, 2024
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Visitors to Korea getting younger amid Hallyu
A third of foreign arrivals in Korea last year were under 30 amid the continuing popularity of Korean popular culture among younger generations worldwide. The Korea Tourism Organization's data, released Monday, showed a surge in young people coming to Korea. Of the 11.03 million foreign nationals who entered the country in 2023, 3.93 million, or 35.6 percent, were 30 years old or younger. This is a significant jump from 27.6 percent in 2013, when the overall number was only slightly higher,
March 11, 2024
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Police officers save woman from attack by tracking license plate number
South Korean media on Monday reported that police had apprehended a man in his 60s who allegedly attacked a woman after she refused his sexual advances. The police tracked down the man after receiving his license plate details from the victim, who read out the number from a bathroom window. According to local broadcaster MBN, the suspect met the victim at around 2 p.m. Sunday through a mutual acquaintance. After the two met and had a drink, the victim visited the suspect's home, where the s
March 11, 2024
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Two dogs rescued from middle of the freeway return home
The two samoyed dogs that were recently rescued from the middle of an expressway have been returned to their owner, animal rescue authorities said Monday, marking a happy ending to an incident that sparked concerns from animal lovers across the country over the weekend. Dangjin Animal Shelter, which had been looking after the dogs, told The Korea Herald that they were reclaimed by their owner living in Dangjin, Chungcheong Province, on Monday morning. The elderly owner had left her door open by
March 11, 2024
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Health minister voices leniency for defiant trainee doctors
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Monday the government will take lenient measures if trainee doctors return to work before administrative procedures to suspend their licenses are completed, although they defied a deadline to avoid punitive steps. Cho made the remark as some 93 percent of the 13,000 junior doctors have been absent from their worksites for three weeks, in a prolonged labor action against the government's proposal to increase medical school enrollments by 2,000 next year. "A
March 11, 2024
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Govt. to push for public high schools for military children
The government seeks to establish public high schools for children of military families in an effort to improve their living and education conditions, the defense ministry said Monday. The defense and education ministries were set to sign a memorandum of understanding later in the day to make joint efforts to designate existing high schools as those catering for military families and start admissions in 2026. The move seeks to ensure a stable education environment for such families, who are freq
March 11, 2024
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Health minister vows to speed up medical reform despite walkout by trainee doctors
Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Sunday that the government would hasten its policy of increasing the number of medical students while issuing warnings against defiant trainee doctors who attacked their colleagues returning to the medical field. "It is completely unacceptable to attack people who are working day and night in the field and coerce them to participate in the collective action," Cho told a government response meeting. "We will thoroughly investigate it and take stri
March 10, 2024
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Is S. Korea violating ILO rules in fight against junior doctors?
Amid the ongoing standoff between the South Korean government and medical professionals, a new criticism has been raised from within medical circles that the back-to-work order imposed on junior doctors in teaching hospitals violates international labor standards. The doctors' walkout in South Korea began in mid-February as a boycott of the government's plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota by at least 2,000 places each year, from 3,058. As of Thursday, nearly 12,000 jun
March 10, 2024
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Man gets 1-year jail term for assaulting pregnant girlfriend
A South Korean court on Sunday said it has sentenced a 30-something man who had repeatedly assaulted his pregnant girlfriend with a one-year prison term. The defendant, whose identity was withheld by the authorities, has been accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend multiple times in Cheongju, 112 kilometers from Seoul, in August 2022, after accusing her of causing him to lose in a video game. He is also accused of hitting the victim in the face multiple times for secretly looking into hi
March 10, 2024
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Falls in employment linked to higher suicide rate: study
A recent think tank study showed that the suicide rate in South Korea tends to go up as the employment rate falls with the effect stronger among women and the younger population. The report by the state-run Korea Labor Institute analyzed the data of 16 major cities across the country between 2000 and 2021, comparing the suicide rates with both employment and unemployment rates. They found that suicide rates go down as employment rates go up, and rise proportionally to the unemployment rates. In
March 10, 2024
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Fruit vendor praised as hero after taking down man wielding knife
A store owner who took down a man on a rampage while wielding a knife is being heralded as a hero here, after reports of the incident made headlines Friday afternoon. According to Gangbuk Police Station, a man in his 50s attempted to start a fire in the streets of Suyu-dong, northern Seoul at around 1:25 p.m. on Friday. When a passerby tried to stop him, he swung a knife and inflicted a minor injury to the victim’s face. Sensing danger, Jo Yu-chan, a local fruit vendor who was near the sus
March 10, 2024
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Late bloomers eye medical schools amid hike plan
Amidst the South Korean government's move to boost the medical enrollment quota, a growing number of Koreans in their 20s to 50s are flocking to private academies in a determined bid to prepare for medical school applications, or what they are calling their "second chance" in life. Due to rising demands, private academies that help students prepare for the Korean college entrance exam, or Suneung, have recently opened late-night classes targeting those who already have careers but
March 10, 2024
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Court denies compensation for death after COVID-19 vaccine
South Korean court said Sunday it has recently ruled against the compensation for the family of an 88-year-old woman who died shortly after being vaccinated for COVID-19, saying her death could not directly be linked to the vaccination. According to officials, the victim experienced severe chest pain an hour and 30 minutes after receiving the shot on April 23, 2021. She died two hours and 37 minutes after the vaccination. The bereaved family requested financial compensation from the government,
March 10, 2024
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Court upholds dismissal of Air Force sergeant accused of abusing colleagues
South Korean court said on Sunday it has rejected the request made by a former member of the Air Force to reverse his dismissal, saying the military's decision is justified. The Chuncheon branch of the Seoul High Court upheld the earlier court ruling that ruled in favor of the Air Force dismissing the senior non-commissioned officer, who had the rank of "wonsa" which is roughly equivalent to chief master sergeant in the US Air Force. He was removed from the post in May 2022 after
March 10, 2024