Four out of 10 South Koreans aged 10-29 have spent money on goods related to celebrities such as music albums or character dolls featuring K-pop stars, a survey showed Friday. According to the survey of 1,142 adolescents, teens and young adults conducted by Hyungji Elite, a school uniform brand, from May 8-19, 40 percent of the respondents said they have purchased celebrity-related products befo...

BKL, one of the five largest law firms by revenue in South Korea, held a roundtable with Vietnam’s Ambassador to South Korea Nguyen Vu Tung in Seoul on Friday, as the two countries seek to expand business ties. “For the last years our ties have grown strong and they will so in the years to come,” the envoy said, referring to a summit last year in Seoul between President Yoon Suk Yeol and his Vie...

South Korea is facing calls for universal provision of free period products, like menstrual pads or tampons, for young Korean women, as the nation is already experiencing the world's lowest fertility rate. Rep. Jang Hye-young of the progressive minority Justice Party told reporters on Friday at the National Assembly that she was working to propose a revision of the Youth Welfare Support Act to a...

According to Asiana Airlines and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, a male passenger in his 30s who was sitting in an emergency exit aisle pulled the emergency exit lever by force. The man reportedly claimed that he accidentally opened the door by touching the wrong device. The case was being handled by the Dongchon District Office under the Daegu Police Agency. Asiana said the...

The Ministry of Environment issued guidelines for the safety of hikers, as moon bears inhabiting the mountainous area of Jirisan are about to end their hibernation, Friday. Asiatic black bears, also known as moon bears due to the moon-like pattern on their chest, are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s endangered animal list as "vulnerable." As of this year, 86 Asiati...

Foreign residents of Seoul were happier than than their Korean neighbors, a poll conducted by Seoul City showed Thursday. The “happiness index” of foreign residents in Seoul (7.07) was higher than that of the city’s Korean residents (6.72), according to the survey of some 20,000 families, 5,000 citizens and 2,500 foreign residents of Seoul conducted from September through October last year. Ove...

President Yoon Suk Yeol lauded the successful launch of space rocket Nuri on Thursday, saying it is a "splendid feat" marking South Korea's entry into the Group of Seven space powers. Yoon made the remark in a statement issued shortly after the government confirmed the launch's success. "The success of Nuri's third launch is a splendid feat declaring that South Korea has entered into the G-7 sp...

Household loans increased for the first time in eight months in April due to an increase in home mortgage loans issued by policy financing, data showed Thursday. Household loans climbed 200 billion won ($150.6 million) in April from a month earlier largely due to a 4.7 trillion-won increase in mortgage loans provided by state-run housing firms, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. Bu...

The following is a chronology of major events leading to the development of South Korea's homegrown space rocket Nuri, or Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II (KSLV-II), which was launched from Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung on Thursday. June 4, 1993 -- South Korea launches the homegrown one-stage solid propelled science observation rocket, called the Korea Space...

Barley could help weight control in dogs, the Rural Development Administration reported Thursday. According to the government agency, pet foods containing sprouted barley were found to be conducive to controlling obesity in dogs.​ In the study where the researchers fed obese dogs on a diet containing 2.75 percent sprouted barley for four months, the dogs lost an average 6.45 percent of their bo...

Three middle school students have been given jail terms for stealing and driving a vehicle without a license, as well as for assaulting police officers. On Wednesday, the Jeju District Court handed down jail terms ranging between 8 and 18 months. Under South Korean law, minors can be given short and long sentences, with the short term incarceration dependent on behavior during the period of dete...

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration's plan to restrict protests by groups with a record of allegedly illegal demonstrations as well as ban nighttime and rush-hour rallies, contradicts the Constitution as well as Yoon’s repeated emphasis on freedom and individual rights, critics said Thursday. Political commentator Chin Jung-kwon called this plan "a ridiculous and unconstitutional idea" in an era wh...

Aerosols in the checked luggage of student passengers on a field trip to Jeju triggered the bottleneck

Former US Vice President and environmentalist Al Gore called for bigger climate ambitions on the part of South Korea and the US at the “Alliance Plus” forum hosted by Herald Corp. on Wednesday in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ alliance and the founding of The Korea Herald. Korea and the US are already working on clean energy technologies that are driving what Gore re...

An elementary school teacher who was alleged to have been convicted of the sexual assault of a middle school student 13 years ago has been removed from his post, Gyeonggi Province’s Office of Education said Thursday. Officials said the decision was made Wednesday, but that the teacher in question has been on a leave of absence since an anonymous online post pinpointed him as one of the 16 high s...