The Yoon Suk Yeol administration plans to unveil a population strategy road map next year, coinciding with the launch of a new ministry dedicated to addressing South Korea’s declining birth rate and rapidly aging population, the presidential office announced Sunday. You Hye-mi, senior presidential secretary for low birth rate issues, underscored the initiative, noting that "with the establishment of the ministry of population strategy and planning, defining the ministry’s vision

Politics Oct. 27, 2024

Despite the main opposition’s bid to break the medical impasse, Saturday’s closed-door meeting between the Democratic Party of Korea leader and the junior doctors’ representative failed to secure key stakeholders' backing for a proposed four-way consultative body. The bipartisan consultative body, designed to bring together the Yoon administration, ruling and main opposition parties, and the medical community, has been touted as a possible tool for resolving the continue

Social Affairs Oct. 27, 2024

The debate on legalizing tattooing by non-medical practitioners further heightened on Thursday, after a veteran tattoo artist called to scrap the decades-old regulation that officially restricts the practice to only being conducted by licensed medical personnel. "I looked around the room, and about half of the people here have tattoos. But I don't think there's a single person who got it legally," Kim Do-yoon, who heads the country's first labor union of tattooists, told

Social Affairs Oct. 24, 2024

Low-income patients are less likely to survive any type of cancer, as they have a lower prevalence of cancer screening than wealthier patients, data showed Wednesday. The five-year survival rate for stomach cancer patients receiving medical aid was 22.7 percent lower than for patients covered by health insurance, 20.4 percent lower for colorectal cancer, 27.2 percent lower for liver cancer, 13.5 percent lower for breast cancer and 16.6 percent lower for cervical cancer. The data was presented

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2024

Seven out of 10 civil servants who have worked for less than five years at their posts have considered leaving their jobs, according to government data Tuesday, indicating a shift in the perception of what had once been considered among the most coveted positions by young workers for lifetime job security to prioritize a horizontal and efficient work culture. A survey of public sector organizational culture among civil servants with low seniority conducted by the Interior Ministry submitted to R

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2024

The head of a senior citizens' association in South Korea proposed on Monday that the government raise the standard age classifying people as senior citizens from the current 65 to 75, arguing it is necessary to address the country's demographic imbalance. "Currently, the senior citizen population is about 10 million, but the figure is expected to double to 20 million in 2050," Lee Joong-keun, the new chief of the Korean Senior Citizens Association said during his inauguratio

Social Affairs Oct. 21, 2024

South Korea is expected to see a drop in temperature this week, following nationwide rain showers in the middle of the week, according to the state weather agency on Monday. Temperatures in Seoul on Monday morning registered 11.3 degrees Celsius, along with 11.8 C in Incheon, 10.1 C in Daejeon, 12.9 C in Gwangju, 16.1 C in Ulsan and 12.7 C in Daegu, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. Daytime highs ranged between 18 and 24 C. Some parts of northern Gyeonggi Province and mountainous are

Social Affairs Oct. 21, 2024

진행자: 박준희, Chelsea Proctor 'Culinary Class Wars' producers deny trying to spice up results 기사 요약: '흑백요리사' PD, 공정성 논란에 입 열었다. "방출 규칙 논란, 겸허히 듣고 있다." [1] Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" is indisputably one of the hottest shows in Korea right now. Since the first episode was released on Sept. 17, the show has skyrocketed in popularity, sitting at the top of Netflix's global non-English TV shows list for two consecutive weeks as of Monday. * Indi

Podcast Oct. 21, 2024

The poor condition of regional medical schools came under fire during Thursday's parliamentary audit at the National Assembly, just five months ahead of the start of the 2025 school year which will see a sharp rise in medical students. While several medical schools will have as many as twice or more medical students next year, Rep. Bak Seung-a of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea pointed out during the session held Thursday afternoon that the quota hike may not be feasible witho

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2024

Test takers are preparing to file a collective suit to invalidate a leaked Yonsei University entrance exam and seek a court injunction to suspend the test result if the school refuses a retest, citing unfairness and defrauding of early-admission candidates. More than 100 test-takers and parents have expressed their intention to take legal action over the irregularities in the exam as of Thursday at around 3 p.m. and plan to hire a lawyer for the case, according to local media reports on Friday.

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2024

South Korea saw a continuing rise in "godoksa," or lonely deaths, in 2022 and 2023, respectively, with men in their 60s and 50s accounting for over half of them, according to a government report on Thursday. The Health Ministry defines "lonely death" as those living alone, disconnected from their family, relatives, friends and neighbors, who died alone from suicide, illness or other causes. There were 3,559 and 3,661 lonely death cases in 2022 and 2023, respectively, the mini

Social Affairs Oct. 17, 2024

진행자: 박준희, Chelsea Proctor Conscripting women to lead to 'more babies,' claims military think tank 기사 요약: 국방부 산하 한국군사문제연구원 원장이 ‘여성이 군대에 가면 전우애가 생겨 혼인율과 출산율이 올라갈 것’이라는 취지의 발언으로 구설에 올랐다. [1] The chief of a military think tank in South Korea has sparked controversy after suggesting that conscripting women into the military could boost marriage and fertility rates. * Chief: 최고위자 * Suggest: 제안하다 * Boost: 북돋우다 * Fertility rate: 출산율 [2] “We have reached a point where wom

Podcast Oct. 17, 2024

One in four South Korean senior citizens wish to use their assets for themselves and their spouses rather than passing them on to their children, according to government data on Wednesday. The 2023 survey of 10,078 senior citizens by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Gallup Korea and the Health Ministry between Sept. 4 and Nov. 12 last year showed that 24.2 percent of the respondents chose to prioritize using their assets for their own and their spouse during their lifetime inst

Social Affairs Oct. 16, 2024

South Korea's southern Jeju Island could have its first tertiary hospital in 2027. President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that the government is considering easing policy hurdles for the self-governing province to have an accredited general hospital, which currently requires a population of 1 million in the region. The island is home to nearly 700,000, remaining far short of the requirement, but Yoon said such a "policy hurdle" needed to be addressed as part of a medical reform driv

Politics Oct. 15, 2024

South Korean law firm Kim & Chang and US law firm Debevoise & Plimpton will jointly host a seminar on private equity disputes on Oct. 28, according to the Seoul-based company on Monday. The event will be held as part of the Seoul ADR Festival, which will take place from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1. The SAF is one of the most well-known alternative dispute resolution events hosted by the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board and co-organized by the Justice Ministry, the International Chamber of Comme

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2024