The South Korean government announced a set of measures to prevent fires and explosions in battery production factories by proposing specific safety management standards for such factories on Tuesday. The recent set of measures comes after the fatal fire at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on June 24, which resulted in 23 deaths. Since the incident, a task force consisting of officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety as well as other ministries and experts was for

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2024

Though Chuseok is drawing near, the weather for Korea's traditional midautumn harvest festival remains similar to summer conditions, as heat wave advisories were issued in most parts of the country Tuesday. As of Tuesday, several major cities in Korea saw their highest September temperatures on record, with cities such as Daejeon seeing daytime temperatures reach as high as 35.3 degrees Celsius, marking the first time since 1969 that the city saw a temperature as high as 35 C in September.

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2024

Amid growing concerns of fast-spreading digital sex crimes like deepfake pornography, there has been an increase in the number of social media users falling victim to "cyberflashing," or sending someone unsolicited sexual images or videos. According to an official report released jointly by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea, the number of people seeking help at the institute for cyber harassment increased from 251 individua

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2024

North Korea sent more than 1,000 trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea over five consecutive days, resuming its launch of trash balloons following a monthlong hiatus, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Sunday. The JCS said that North Korea resumed its balloon launches at around 9 a.m. Sunday morning, just hours after it had sent around 200 trash-filled balloons toward South Korea late Saturday. “Around 50 trash balloons were confirmed to have landed in Seoul and the northern

North Korea Sept. 8, 2024

The Oxbridge Society, an integrated alumni association in South Korea for graduates from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, held an alumni reception on Aug. 31, where society members were urged to be at the forefront of leading country relations between Korea and the United Kingdom. According to the alumni association on Friday, around 100 alums from both universities were in attendance at the annual reception, including former Foreign Minister and former President of Oxfo

Social Affairs Sept. 8, 2024

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Thursday that it will soon officially begin construction for the Namsan Gondola, a five-minute gondola lift route from Myeong-dong Station to the top of Seoul's central mountain, to be completed in spring 2026. During the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, the city government said it will officially begin constructing the 832-meter-long gondola lift route in November this year. Once completed, each gondola

Social Affairs Sept. 5, 2024

As hundreds of reports have been recently made to police regarding the distribution and creation of sexually explicit deepfake images and videos, calls for increased protection and stronger punishment of perpetrators are being raised in South Korea. According to the Korean National Police Agency, authorities have seen a giant surge in the number of reports made by victims of deepfake pornography since it declared a seven-month crackdown on digital sex crimes from Aug. 27 to March 31, 2025. As of

Social Affairs Sept. 4, 2024

Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on Tuesday that it would open a dog-friendly campground for dog owners at Noeul Park in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, as part of the city government’s initiative to establish a pet-friendly culture in the city. The city government will operate a trial run of its new service after taking reservations from 64 groups starting Wednesday at 3 p.m. After monitoring the trial run, the city government will officially begin running the dog-friendly camping sites fr

Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2024

South Korea’s police officials have launched an initial investigation into Telegram, following allegations of "complicity, aiding and abetting" online sexual crimes involving deepfake technology. Woo Jong-soo, the head of the National Office of Investigation, told reporters Monday that the police have launched an unofficial and preliminary investigation into Telegram on suspicion of "complicity, aiding and abetting crimes involving deepfake pornography.” “Investi

Social Affairs Sept. 2, 2024

Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Jung-gu, central Seoul, is celebrating the return of fall with an annual media art festival that garnered over a million visitors last year. Seoul Light DDP, a media art festival jointly hosted and organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Design Foundation, showcases media artworks by projecting them onto the 222-meter-long exterior of the city's landmark with spaceship-like architecture. This year’s festival, which runs through Sunday, celeb

Social Affairs Sept. 2, 2024

Nearly 60 percent of all slow and rapid electric vehicle charging stations in South Korea are installed underground, with the majority being slow chargers lacking overcharge prevention systems -- a major fire risk. According to a report provided by the Environment Ministry to Rep. Lim Lee-ja of the People Power Party, 373,961 EV charging stations were installed nationwide as of July 2024. This marks the first time the ministry has fully assessed the total number of underground EV chargers. The s

Social Affairs Sept. 1, 2024

Song, a 17-year-old high schooler based in Gyeonggi Province, used to be just like any other girl her age on social media -- posting photos and short-form videos of herself or with her friends dancing along to trending audio tracks. That was until she received an anonymous message on Instagram. It still haunts her to this day. “I looked at my phone after school when I saw a message sent through an unidentified account,” Song told The Korea Herald. “The message read, ‘Do y

Social Affairs Aug. 28, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday called for a thorough investigation and identification of digital sex crimes involving deepfake pornography, amid growing concerns over the rapid spread of sexually explicit content made using artificial intelligence. “Recently, deepfake videos targeting an unspecified number of people have circulated rapidly on social media,” Yoon said at a Cabinet meeting. “Anyone can be a victim of such digital sex crimes. I urge all authorities involved

Social Affairs Aug. 27, 2024

A temporary end to the scorching heat could be near, as the Korea Meteorological Administration stated Monday that high temperatures will decrease in some parts of South Korea from Wednesday. According to the KMA, the Tibetan and North Pacific high pressure systems -- which brought hot and humid temperatures into Korea -- has shrunk, opening a gap for cold, dry air from the north to enter into the atmosphere above Korea. The weather agency added that while ocean surface temperatures around the

Social Affairs Aug. 26, 2024

The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced Monday that emergency alerts sent through the “Emergency Ready App” will now be available in five different languages. According to the Interior Ministry, the application formally sent out its emergency alerts through the app in English and Chinese only. However, starting Monday, the app will also begin to issue its alerts in Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese. The Emergency Ready App is an application run by the Ministry of Interior and Safet

Social Affairs Aug. 26, 2024