Articles by Kim Arin
Kim Arin
arin@heraldcorp.com-
Yoon highlights North Korea threat, budget to half-empty National Assembly
President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday addressed the National Assembly amid escalating partisan conflict that led to an unprecedented complete boycott by the main opposition party. Doubling down on defense In the address, Yoon stressed the need to strengthen deterrence against North Korea, saying that another nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang is imminent. “It is judged that North Korea has already completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test,” Yoon said. "North Korea has rece
Politics Oct. 25, 2022
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What will South Korea do when Russians come fleeing draft?
Diplomatic and other questions are being raised for South Korea, as Russians trying to avoid conscription into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are anticipated to head to the country to seek refugee status. Earlier this month, about two dozen Russians apparently fleeing Vladimir Putin’s draft were refused entry to South Korea. Over the first few days of October, five yachts carrying Russian passengers were spotted in South Korean waters, according to Coast Guard data submitted to
Politics Oct. 12, 2022
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‘South Korea rode out BA.5 wave without social distancing,’ says health ministry
The South Korean government says the resurgence of COVID-19 this summer has subsided without leading to a spike in hospital admissions or deaths, despite social distancing rules being phased out. In recent briefings the Ministry of Health and Welfare called the summer resurgence, triggered by omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, “the first large wave of COVID-19 the country has gone through without social distancing.” “South Korea was able to minimize critical and fatal cases in th
Social Affairs Oct. 10, 2022
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Gangneung welcomes tourists with portal site, ‘Visit Gangneung’
You might know Gangneung as one of the host cities for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and among the host cities of another Olympics event, the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics. But Gangneung is so much more. Gangneung, a city in Gangwon Province on the east coast of South Korea, is where you can watch the first sunrise in the country. If you take the high-speed KTX train, it takes an hour and 50 minutes from Seoul to get to Gangneung, and three hours from Incheon Airport. The Yangya
Social Affairs July 5, 2022
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[H.eco Forum] Small island nations warn developed world: ‘Our present is your future’
Small island countries were on the front lines of climate change but the clock is now ticking for the developed world, former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said at the H.eco Forum in Seoul on Thursday. “Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern US in 2005, at a time when many parts of the country were still in denial of climate change,” Tong said. “The scale of destruction caused by that hurricane left even the most economically developed country on the planet struggling.&r
Social Affairs May 26, 2022
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Pandemic’s bereaved seek accountability
The first known COVID-19 death in South Korea was a 63-year-old hospitalized at a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province. The man, who was schizophrenic, died with pneumonia on Feb. 19, 2020, at the hospital where he had been a resident for over 20 years. He tested positive postmortem. In less than a week after his death, six more at the hospital lost their lives to the virus. All of the 101 patients save for just two ended up getting infected. The outbrea
Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2022
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Omicron surge ‘necessary process’ to get to endemic stage, says Health Ministry
South Korea’s top health official said Monday the surge the country is experiencing now is necessary to move toward an endemic phase from the pandemic, and omicron’s milder severity aids the transition. Son Young-rae, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s spokesperson, said the recent uptick in hospitalizations and deaths driven by the omicron variant “does not warrant the same level of alarm as with the delta wave.” From cases diagnosed Jan. 16-29, the overall f
Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2022
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Safety of COVID-19 self-care scheme in doubt as patients die at home
South Korea stopped monitoring COVID-19 patients younger than 60 beginning Feb. 10 in a switch to what is known as a self-care scheme, after the milder omicron overtook delta as the dominant strain here. But following deaths among younger patients isolating at home, concerns are rising over possible safety oversights in the new system. According to health authorities Monday, at least two patients died in the Seoul area while in home isolation over the weekend. In Suwon, Gyeonggi Provi
Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2022
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Why isn’t COVID-19 top priority for S. Korea’s next president?
A new president is about to be elected, leading South Korea through the next phase of the pandemic. So why is COVID-19 getting so little attention in the presidential race? It wasn’t until after a hospital bed shortage induced by the “living with COVID-19” scheme in November that the leading candidates -- the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and main opposition People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol -- set up dedicated committees for outlining their p
Politics Feb. 21, 2022
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[Newsmaker] Korea’s plans for COVID-19-positive voters spark voting rights concerns
South Korea has changed the rules around voting to let people infected with COVID-19 cast their ballots in polling stations, as the omicron surge places record numbers of people under self-quarantine. On the second day of advance voting, March 5, and on the day of the presidential election, March 9, eligible voters with active cases will be able to vote in person past the regular hours, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. The National Assembly passed the exceptional measure into a bill on Monday. As many as
Social Affairs Feb. 15, 2022
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Ahn Cheol-soo is only presidential contender with science literacy: adviser
Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate for South Korea’s centrist People Party, will prioritize sound judgments based on science over populism as Korea seeks a safe exit from the pandemic, according to his COVID-19 adviser. Dr. Park Jin-kyu, COVID-19 adviser to Ahn and the former Korea Medical Association vice president, told The Korea Herald that response has been swayed by political meddling. Ahn -- the qualified medical doctor, software engineer and two-time presidential candida
Politics Feb. 11, 2022
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[Weekender] How South Korea went from ‘test, trace, treat’ to ‘let it spread’
South Korea is determined to go easy on omicron, which is behind the ongoing record surge in COVID-19 patients, in the hope that the new dominant variant will not be as bad as the ones that came before. But is this reckless? The rationale for the shift to the omicron response plan is that the new variant is less threatening than its predecessor, delta, the government says. Messaging from health officials surrounding omicron has been consistently hopeful. Son Young-rae, spokesperson for th
Social Affairs Feb. 4, 2022
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Confusion on day of Korea’s big shift to omicron plan
From Thursday onward, Korea has begun its transition to the omicron response that entails a reduced governmental role in controlling the spread of the coronavirus and patient management, but a lot of the foretold changes are yet to be implemented in practice. Despite announcing that select primary care doctor offices would take on rapid antigen testing and both remote and in-person care of nonhospitalized patients, the list of clinics providing these services had not yet been disclosed as of
Social Affairs Feb. 3, 2022
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Korea to limit PCR testing as omicron rises
Korea is limiting the polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests -- which have long remained the gold standard of COVID-19 diagnosis -- in parts of country where omicron is dominant, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare Friday. Coming into effect from Jan. 26 in three cities of Gwangju, Pyeongtaek, Anseong and the entire South Jeolla Province, the new testing protocol will be expanded to the rest of Korea once omicron officially becomes dominant nationwide. Omicron showed up in 47 p
Social Affairs Jan. 21, 2022
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Omicron to engulf Korea faster, cause sharper rise
Omicron is spreading through South Korea at a faster pace with the potential to cause a sharper rise than earlier projections, according to an expert advising the government. Dr. Jung Jae-hun, a preventive medicine specialist and COVID-19 adviser to the prime minister, said Thursday the omicron wave is “feared to be worse than previously thought.” Three weeks ago, all of the scenarios modeled by Jung’s team showed more than 10,000 cases a day and up to 2,000 intensive care a
Social Affairs Jan. 20, 2022
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