The employment rate of the nation’s full-time employees working 40 hours a week has remained in the 50 percent rage for two consecutive years, raising concerns over deteriorating labor market amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, a lawmaker said Monday. The “full-time equivalent” employment rate for 2021 posted 58.8 percent, nearly unchanged from 58.6 percent estimated a year earlier, accordi...

Starting in March, the signboards at Euljiro 3-ga and Sinyongsan stations in the Seoul Subway will become longer, with respective references to a certain company located at the station. The former will be renamed Euljiro 3-ga Shinhan Card Station and the latter Sinyongsan Amorepacific Station. The changes are the result of contracts worth 874 million won ($733,000) and 380 million won, respectiv...

North Korea announced on Monday it had employed a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile in its test a day earlier. “The test-fire of Hwasong 12-type ground-to-ground intermediate and long-range ballistic missile was conducted under a plan of the Academy of Defense Science, the Second Economy Commission and other related institutions,” said the North‘s official Korean Central News Agenc...

Mostly installed at highway rest areas, school cafeterias or amusement parks, the target customers are people looking for a quick meal, with costs typically 2,000 to 3000 won. Data shows Koreans’ unwavering affection for ramen. According to data from the World Instant Noodles Association, Koreans consume an average of 80 packets of instant noodles per year, which marked the highest figure among ...

“Some people say to me, ‘don’t rationalize obesity and laziness under the name of body positivity.’ I’m not trying to spread messages like ‘There’s no need to exercise’ or ‘It’s okay to get fat,’” Park said in a phone interview. The message she is trying to send is that people deserve to be confident and happy, even if their figure is far from tough social standards. “Sometimes, even if you don...

The TV station is under growing pressure to cancel the series, since the Korean Animal Welfare Association last week disclosed footage that shows the cruel method used to bring the horse to the ground for a scene. In the footage, a dark-brown horse runs at full-speed with a rope tied to one of its back legs and falls violently to the ground when the filming crew pulls the rope. The horse eventu...

Pro-ana online groups are also found in KakaoTalk open chat rooms. The group members go on fasts together or share images of super skinny models in an effort to motivate themselves. The pro-ana movement has been an emerging trend in online spaces in recent years, with teenage girls posting about their stick thin bodies and looking for “ana buddies” who also hail eating disorders as a lifestyle c...

The “Korean age” system came into the limelight Tuesday following leading presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol’s pledge to make the use of the international age system mandatory for all administrative matters. Alongside the international age calculation that measures how many years and months that a person has lived since his or her birthday, the nation has kept its unique way of counting a newb...

Aiming to further cement its rising global profile as a soft power nation, South Korea is set to introduce a new visa program this year to draw global cultural talents. Dubbed the Hallyu visa in reference to the Korean Wave of films, TV dramas and music sweeping across the world, the new program is designed to support the entry of foreigners eager to learn about the Korean culture and entertainm...

Also, watching the sunset and twinkling stars in the night sky from a quiet and peaceful island offers unforgettable memories to take home.

From Monday, Korea’s vaccine pass regime is expanded to department stores and big supermarkets measuring 3,000 square meters or more. Following a weeklong grace period, people will be asked to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result before entering the retail outlets. The recent expansion of the vaccine pass mandate to those stores, announced Dec. 31, 2021, is part of the g...

The South Korean government’s vaccine mandate on youths attending cram schools is facing strong backlash from parents and private academies. The vaccine pass system for people aged 12-18 using cram schools, reading rooms, study cafes and other private educational facilities faces a delay, after a local court issued an injunction on the controversial measure. Its introduction had already been pos...

“A 225ml of Byredo body lotion is being sold between 70,000-80,000 won at local department stores, so it was a real bargain,” she said. A quick search of popular secondhand marketplace platforms show that Yoon is not alone in trading hotel freebies. The number of postings on Joonggonara selling skin care amenities from hotels sharply rose from 550 in 2019 to 950 in 2021, data showed. Lim, a ...

Trees and plants adorn twinkling light displays at the Herb Island in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, inviting visitors to a winter fiesta. Flowers may not be in abundance due to the winter weather, the botanic garden is full of spectacular lights and holiday cheer at night, making it a perfect spot to celebrate the Yuletide season. Fairy-tale houses, which are surrounded by a vast field of herbs, ...

At the turn of the year, South Korea’s 10-year-old gaming curfew on minors under the age of 16 will be lifted. From midnight Friday, Koreans can play through the night as the anti-addiction system, introduced in 2011, is abolished, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Friday. Previously, those aged 16 or younger were banned from playing online computer games between midnig...