South Korea remained on high alert for torrential downpours Wednesday as heavy rains hit the Seoul metropolitan area and parts of northern Gyeonggi Province, causing rush-hour traffic disruptions and home evacuations. Heavy rains of 100.9 millimeters per hour had battered Munsan in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, for an hour until 7:03 a.m., while Singok-dong in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, received 103.5 mm of rain for an hour from 6:22 a.m. Also, nearly 300 reports regarding heavy rains were repor

Social Affairs July 17, 2024

Amid monthslong medical disruptions, Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Cheonan said Tuesday that its ER would run at minimum capacity this week as several emergency medicine professors have tendered their resignations. The medical institution said that four out of eight professors, who juggle as senior doctors at the hospital, had left their posts. Emergency room operations will be suspended for 24 hours until Wednesday at 8 a.m., while nighttime emergency services at the ER will be halted fr

Social Affairs July 16, 2024

The police said they are to investigate a YouTuber who posted a controversial video of her going through an abortion at 36 weeks of pregnancy last month. In an unprecedented move on Monday, police vowed a "thorough crackdown" on the YouTuber, noting that it plans to take stern measures against the issue compared to other cases involving abortion. Officials made the remarks after the Health Ministry said it requested a thorough investigation by the police into the woman and the doctor l

Social Affairs July 16, 2024

Cases of whooping cough are on the rise across South Korea, data showed Monday. Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection that can easily spread between humans through coughing, sneezing and breathing in close proximity to another person. A total of 6,986 patients have already been confirmed with the disease this year, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, as of July 6. The Korea Children's Hospital Association found

Social Affairs July 15, 2024

Some 10,000 junior doctors who left hospitals five months ago in protest of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's decision to expand the medical school quota, remained unresponsive on Monday even though hospitals they worked for started to process their resignations under the government's instruction. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said last month that it would allow hospitals to process resignations while withdrawing return-to-work orders by setting the deadline for returning to hosp

Social Affairs July 15, 2024

South Korea has been taking pride in its high digital literacy, but such technological advancements in recent years have enabled perpetrators to exploit sexually explicit content on the dark web. A report on Korea’s safety published by Statistics Korea showed that 10,605 digital sex crimes were reported in 2022, double the 5,079 reported just a year earlier, thanks to improvements in protections for victims who report them. A total of 243,855 illegally produced and distributed sexual photo

Social Affairs July 14, 2024

The medical circle once again appears to be at odds as some are drawing up a "blacklist" of doctors who have refrained from joining the strike and returned to their workplaces amid the ongoing dispute with the government over the medical school expansion plan. A Telegram online chat room created on July 7 aptly named "grateful doctors and medical students, thank you" began disclosing personal details of non-protesting medical students and doctors on Thursday and has since rap

Social Affairs July 12, 2024

The number of South Koreans aged 65 or above has surpassed the 10 million mark for the first time, making up nearly 20 percent of the total population, government data showed Friday. According to data provided by the Interior Ministry, the population of senior citizens reached 10,000,062 as of Wednesday, which accounted for 19.51 percent of the officially registered population of nearly 51.27 million. The figure shows a sharp increase from the corresponding figure from January 2013, when the reg

Social Affairs July 12, 2024

Prosecutors said Thursday that South Korean footballer Hwang Ui-jo will stand trial on charges of filming his sexual encounters with two women without their consent. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office's Criminal Division 1, which handles gender-related crimes, said it charged the 31-year-old Hwang, who has played 62 international matches for the South Korean national soccer team, for his alleged breach of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. The pr

Social Affairs July 11, 2024

Tzuyang, a South Korean YouTuber with over 10 million subscribers, has revealed she suffered years of abuse from her late ex-boyfriend, including sexual assault and blackmail. The YouTuber, widely known for "mukbang" -- shows in which streamers talk to their audience while eating -- claimed in a live-streamed video that her former boyfriend had abused her physically and sexually, repeatedly threatened her and extorted money from her. "I tried to break up with him after witnessing

Social Affairs July 11, 2024

A 22-year-old male medical student went missing during a heavy downpour in the southwestern city of Iksan, North Jeolla Province Wednesday, Jeonbuk Provincial Police said Thursday. A search operation was underway but bore no fruit as of press time. Authorities said emergency number 112 received a report at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday that the missing student had gone outside their guesthouse in Iksan, early in the morning and had not been heard from since. There were reportedly 24 medical studen

Social Affairs July 11, 2024

Record heavy rains hit South Korea's southern regions Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, leaving at least four dead and one missing, with weather authorities saying it was the most intense downpour in 200 years. Heavy rains battered parts of North Jeolla Province starting early Wednesday. Gunsan received 131.7 millimeters of rain within one hour to 2:24 a.m., the heaviest hourly downpour recorded nationwide. The hourly precipitation accounted for over 10 percent of the city's avera

Social Affairs July 10, 2024

Starting on Friday, suicide prevention education in schools, workplaces, public institutions and hospitals will be made mandatory once a year as part of the country's efforts to tackle the devastating suicide rates and increase help-seeking behaviors for those struggling, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The strengthened suicide awareness and prevention training comes after the Cabinet on Tuesday approved a partial amendment to the Act on the Prevention of Suicide and the Creation of Cultu

Social Affairs July 9, 2024

The Seoul High Court recently turned down an injunction filed by professors and students at South Korea's only university teaching Go, calling for the suspension of the decision to shut down the department, according to legal professionals on Tuesday. The court ruled that students planning or preparing to enroll in the major faced an unexpected situation following the department's decision to close. However, the court also pointed out that upholding the injunction to halt the closure w

Social Affairs July 9, 2024

Five months after protesting junior doctors tendered their resignations en masse despite stern legal warnings from the government, the Health Ministry said Monday it would scrap all administrative actions imposed on intern and resident doctors, in a move seen as an effort to convince protesting doctors to resume their training and end disruptions to the nation's medical service. Describing the appeasement step as a "last resort" for the government to address the medical standoff a

Social Affairs July 8, 2024