Most Popular
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Seoul vows strong action against NK trash balloons
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Controversy ignites over regulation of online entertainment shows
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N. Korea sends some 720 more trash-carrying balloons to S. Korea, continues GPS jamming for 5 days
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Korea bets big on gas, oil prospects in East Sea
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Yoon OKs exploratory drilling for 'massive' oil, gas reserve in East Sea
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China lands on moon's far side in historic sample retrieval mission
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[Graphic news] S. Korea's children get taller
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S. Korea to fully suspend inter-Korean military pact after NK balloon barrage
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Korea, US, Japan to kick off 1st trilateral exercises this year
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Jin of BTS to meet fans on group's debut anniversary post-military discharge
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Users of bullet trains KTX, SRT hit record Q1 figures
The number of passengers on South Korea's bullet trains KTX and SRT hit a record high for the first quarter of a year, the trains' operators said Sunday. From January to March, the number of KTX users jumped to 19.26 million from 17.91 million during the same period of last year, according to Korea Railroad. SR Inc. said the number of SRT users rose to 6.43 million from 6.3 million during the same period. The operators said the "pent-up" travel demand after years of the COVID
April 7, 2024
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Local festivals disappoint as cherry trees blossom late
South Korea’s local flower festivals this year have so far fallen short of expectations as cherry blossoms did not reach their peak in time. Jinhae Gunhangje in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, saw a decline of about 1.2 million in the number of visitors this year, a Changwon official said to local media. While 4.2 million visited the most well-known cherry blossom festival in South Korea last year, the city tallied the number of visitors at 3 million during the 10 days of the festival
April 6, 2024
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Just one more? Gwangju police DUI is 4th this year
A Gwangju police officer was caught drunk driving Wednesday evening, local police said Thursday, marking the fourth such case in the southwestern city this year. The officer of Seobu Police Station in Gwangju was found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency. He had driven his car into another vehicle. The officer has been removed from duties. The incident occurred after the National Police Agency and the
April 6, 2024
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YouTuber transferred for prosecution over polling station spycams
A far-right YouTuber arrested for installing illegal cameras at voting stations and vote-counting venues nationwide has been handed over to the prosecutors, police in Nonhyeon, Incheon, said Friday. The police found that the suspect installed illegal cameras in a total of 41 locations and recovered the cameras at 36 locations through further investigations. In three of the remaining five locations, the cameras had already disappeared. In the other two locations, the suspect confessed that he had
April 5, 2024
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Police intensify monitoring throughout early voting
The South Korean police have deployed around 2,000 police officers for the first time to monitor closely the entire process of transferring early voting ballots from the constituencies where they were submitted to their actual constituencies. The Korean National Police Agency announced the deployment on Friday, coinciding with the commencement of the two-day early voting period for the April 10 general election. In South Korea, voters who partake in the early voting process can vote at whichever
April 5, 2024
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Korean election day: 2 in 10 work, 30% of them lack overtime pay or leave
As many as 30 percent of Koreans who are working on next week's parliamentary election on April 10 are unlikely to be compensated with overtime pay or paid leave, according to a survey released Friday. A survey of 901 employees by job search website Incruit in April found that 17.3 percent reported having work obligations on the upcoming national election holiday, while 31.4 percent of them said their companies did not offer any compensation, either in the form of extra pay or vacation ti
April 5, 2024
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Hopes for breakthrough fade as talks yield no change in stance
Hopes for a breakthrough in the protracted medical standoff are fading after the meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, ended without agreement Thursday, with the two sides still far apart. Amid the impasse, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during Friday’s government response meeting that the government would continue to “communicate flexibility” with junior doctors but “based on principles.” “
April 5, 2024
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[Graphic News] Tourists to Korea getting younger
According to the Korea Tourism Data Lab, the online information platform of the Korea Tourism Organization, one-third of tourists who visited Korea last year were 30 years old or younger. Of 11.03 million tourists to Korea in 2023, 3.93 million (35.6 percent) were under the age of 31. Those aged 21-30 were 2.79 million (25.3 percent), while those 20 and under were 1.11 million (10.3 percent). Among the young tourists, 42.3 percent came from Japan, showing a 15.7 percent increase from 10 years
April 5, 2024
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Trainee doctors' group head says 'no future for S. Korea's medical community' after meeting with Yoon
The leader of a trainee doctors' group said Thursday there is "no future for South Korea's medical community" after his meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol over the government's push to increase medical school admissions. Park Dan, the head of an emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association, wrote such a short message in his social media post after he met with Yoon for 2 hours and 20 minutes at the presidential office to discuss the standoff between the
April 4, 2024
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Yoon vows to respect views of junior doctors
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that he would respect junior doctors’ position on the medical student quota expansion plan when discussing the matter with the medical community in the future, his office said, after he met with the head of the group. Yoon met with Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, two days after he had offered to talk with the trainee doctors, saying he was willing to hear their voices. At the meeting held at the presidential office lasting
April 4, 2024
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S. Korea to stack up 7.23m COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk groups this winter
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday said it would secure some 7.23 million doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines for winter this year for individuals at a higher risk of developing the illness as variants of the virus continue to pose a risk to public health. Additionally, the government has decided to convert a portion of homegrown COVID-19 vaccines into NovaVax’s synthetic antigen vaccine, totaling between 300,000 to 500,000 doses. The synthetic antigen vaccine ha
April 4, 2024
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Seoul to provide free breakfast after morning exercise
Starting in late April, students from schools that operate morning exercise classes will be provided with free breakfast, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Thursday. Launched in October last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has initiated morning physical education activities to revitalize student exercise. Some 573 schools currently holding morning workout sessions that apply for the breakfast plan will benefit from the project. Elementary schools will be
April 4, 2024
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Korea has most 'skinny fat' young women: report
South Korea has the highest percentage of "skinny fat” women in their 20s out of 17 countries surveyed, according to a report. According to InBody, a South Korean maker of body composition analyzers, a person is described as "skinny fat" when they have a low body weight but are high in their body fat percentage and low in their muscle mass. Data collected between January 2018 and December 2022 showed 15.8 percent of South Korean women in their 20s fall within this category
April 4, 2024
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[Graphic News] International marriages up 18%
The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign national spouses rose more than 18 percent in 2023, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of international marriages fell sharply to some 15,300 cases in 2020 from the previous year's 23,600 and further to about 13,000 the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the figure bounced back to over 17,000 in 2022 and further to nearly 20,000 last year. Vietnamese women took up the largest share of all wives of
April 4, 2024
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Constitutional Court to halt impeachment trial of senior prosecutor
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday decided to temporarily halt the impeachment trial of a senior prosecutor in a political meddling scandal. The court said the decision was made under a provision of the court's governing law, which allows for the suspension of trial proceedings if a related criminal case is ongoing. However, it did not provide a specific reason for the decision. Son Jun-sung, deputy chief prosecutor of the Daegu High Prosecutors Office, was accused of meddling in the las
April 3, 2024
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Almost half of schools join state-backed after-school programs
Students and schools' participation in before- and after-school care programs, a new state-backed child care initiative, has increased over a month into the launch, the Ministry of Education reported Wednesday. Dubbed "Neulbom" which directly translates to "always caring," a total of 2,838 out of 6,175 elementary schools have joined the government-run child care education, accounting for 46 percent of the total number of elementary schools nationwide, Education Minister
April 3, 2024
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Prospect for dialogue grows as senior doctors welcome Yoon’s offer
Eyes are on whether junior doctors would engage in talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol to seek a breakthrough in the ongoing medical standoff and the expansion plan, as senior doctors on Wednesday encouraged them to accept his offer of dialogue. In a statement released on Wednesday, the Korean Medical Association -- the country’s largest doctors’ group with some 140,000 members -- said it “gladly welcomes” the decision and “believes the possibility of talks is high.&
April 3, 2024
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Govt. approval to be required for owning 'dangerous dogs'
Are you considering raising a pit bull terrier? Then you will soon need to get approval from the local authorities, according to a government plan unveiled Wednesday. Starting April 27, government approval will be required to own certain dog breeds considered dangerous under the Animal Protection Act, which specifies five dangerous breeds including tosa inu, pit bull terriers and rottweilers, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. The decision comes in response to a s
April 3, 2024
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Govt. open to change in medical school quota hike if better option is proposed: minister
The government is open to the possibility of changing its policy to increase the medical school admission quota if a better option is proposed, the interior minister said Wednesday, as the walkout by protesting trainee doctors continued for the seventh week. Interior Minister Lee Sang-min made the remark during a government response meeting amid no signs of a breakthrough in the prolonged standoff between the government and the medical community over the plan to add 2,000 more medical school sea
April 3, 2024
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[Graphic News] Damages from phishing scams jump over 35%
Damages from phishing scams jumped on-year in 2023 despite growing awareness of the crime, data showed. Damages from phishing crimes came to 196.5 billion won ($147.8 million) last year, up 35.4 percent from 145.1 billion won in 2022, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The number of people who fell victim to the crime dropped 10.2 percent to 11,503 from 12,816 over the cited period. Phishing is a crime where victims are conned into transferring money to scammers or s
April 3, 2024