South Korea’s abnormal heat wave that has been ongoing since July will come to an end this weekend, the state weather agency said Thursday. The Korea Meteorological Administration said that the heat will subside at the end of the week and the tropical night phenomena will also diminish. The temperatures are expected to cool off as sporadic rain is set to hit central regions such as Gangwon Prov...

South Korean health authorities said Tuesday that the heat wave nationwide is leading to an increased number of virus infections caused by mites that can be lethal. A total of 41 patients have contracted thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), which has a 30 percent fatality rate, from mites this year. This is a 30 percent rise from last year. The surge is caused by the sweltering heat, during which ...

Cho Kyeung-kyu, the deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister’s Office, was nominated as the new environment minister Tuesday. Cho is to steer the Environment Ministry, which is responsible for dealing with pending issues such as the toxic humidifier disinfectant tragedy, Volkswagen’s emissions-rigging scandal and fine dust countermeasures. Cho is co...

South Koreans worked the second most hours, but earned less than average compared to other countries last year, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report showed Monday. Out of the 35 OECD member countries, a South Korean laborer worked 2,113 hours on average last year, 347 hours more than the OECD average of 1,766 hours. This amounted to 43 extra working days, considering e...

Seoul has seen the most heat wave days this summer since 1994, while southern port city Busan has recorded its highest temperature in more than a century, according to the state weather agency. Over the weekend, Seoul continued to see daily high temperatures of around 33 degrees Celsius that began last week and daily lows of over 25 degrees Celsius, according to the Korea Meteorological Agency. ...

Damages related to agriculture, livestock and people’s health have been on the rise as South Korea has been experiencing abnormally hot weather since July. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least 1,000 patients were diagnosed with heatstroke since May, surpassing the total figure recorded in 2014. Local insurance company NongHyup Property & Casualty Insurance said tha...

Ninety-eight percent of groundwater found at Seoul’s 253 subway stations is wasted daily, despite being a good natural resource, a report showed Monday. According to the report released by the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s audit committee, just 2 percent of 68,446 cubic meters of groundwater was used to clean roads or recycled at public toilets and parks as of December 2014. More than 78 perce...

South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world, with the world’s fastest average Internet connection speed. About 47 million people, or 92 percent of the population, are Internet users, indicating the nation’s inseparable relationship with their digital space. In an ever so connected society, words spread faster than ever before. So do the malicious comments. In an effort to fight ...

Sweltering heat continues to grip the nation while the state weather agency said the record-breaking hot summer weather had been influenced by weather systems in northern China. The Korea Meteorological Agency said Thursday that heated air that was created in northern China had risen to a high altitude and moved across southern Russia and the Korean Peninsula, before descending on South Korea. ...

An accident caused by a driver with a neurological disorder killed four and injured a dozen pedestrians in Busan on Sunday, raising concerns over whether the process of getting a driver’s license is too easy. Police said Monday that the 53-year-old driver had renewed his driver’s license in July, without notifying authorities that he was suffering from epilepsy. Authorities said there were no le...

The Ministry of Environment said Thursday it joined hands with the mayors of Seoul and Incheon and the governor of Gyeonggi Province to control the number of worn-out diesel cars to create a cleaner atmosphere in the metropolitan area. Following the accord signed by the municipalities with the ministry, some 1.4 million diesel cars registered before 2005 in metropolitan areas that are under air ...

The South Korean Environment Ministry said Tuesday that it has cancelled authentication for 32 types of Volkswagen vehicles as their test results were forged. This affected 83,000 vehicles. Another 126,000 vehicles were decertified last November for emissions rigging, which means that a total of 209,000 vehicles will now be banned from sales. This accounts for 68 percent of the total number of V...

Civic groups and some victims of toxic humidifier disinfectants remained bitterly opposed to the final compensation plan released by household products company Oxy Reckitt Benckiser on Sunday. The victims and their families said they opposed the plan because the additional compensation still deviates from direct mention of responsibility and neglects victims with relatively less damage. They den...

Yongsan-gu showed the highest number of deaths caused by traffic accidents last year, Road Traffic Authority data showed Sunday. A total of 7.26 deaths per 100,000 people was caused by vehicle-related accidents in the central district, the highest among 25 districts in Seoul. Yeongdeungpo-gu and Jung-gu followed, with 6.7 deaths and 5.96 deaths per 100,000 respectively. An average of 3.18 peop...

Air purifier companies found to have used toxic air filters agreed recently to revise product regulation standards, a source said Sunday. According to the source from the Korea Air Cleaning Association, the decision was made after a closed-door meeting last week to discuss how to deal with disputed air filters manufactured by 3M. An experiment last month by the Environment Ministry showed that ...