“Managing fire and time is the essence of my major,” said Choi Hyo-ryeong, who majors in metal craft at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in Buyeo-gun, South Chungcheong Province. Choi demonstrated how she creates Korea’s traditional decorative metal works called "chilbo," an enameling technique similar to cloisonne, in which metal is coated with various powders and subjected to high temperatures of 600 degrees or above. Often worn as accessories, the

weekender May 20, 2023

  A firefighter rescued a woman as she was attempting to jump from a bridge in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday. Kim Chan-soo with the Gimhae Seobu Fire Station pulled the woman to safety from Samrangjin Bridge as she was trying to jump after taking sleeping pills. Kim was driving over the bridge to go to work in another city and came across the woman sitting at the side of the bridge. She was taking pills and bleeding from her arms and legs. Kim approached the woman and found she

Social Affairs May 18, 2023

Twin brothers are under investigation, with one twin allegedly taking an employment exam for a public financial institution on behalf of the other in 2022. The Bank of Korea and Financial Supervisory Service on Wednesday reported the twin brothers to the police for cheating on their entrance exams, which took place simultaneously on Sept. 24, 2022. While the younger of the twins took the exam for the BOK, the elder twin took the exam for the FSS, which was taking place in another part of Seoul a

Social Affairs May 18, 2023

Luxury brand Gucci is facing a backlash over a loud party held late into the night after the brand's fashion show Tuesday at Seoul's Gyeongbokgung. Residents of the area near the party's venue in central Seoul claim that the party generated excessive noise and light pollution late into the night, and more than 50 complaints were filed with the police. Gucci held the party after the 2024 Cruise Collection Fashion Show at Seoul’s Joseon-era main palace, Gyeongbokgung. The afte

Social Affairs May 17, 2023

An off-duty police officer on Saturday saved a three-year-old child by performing CPR in Yeongwol-gun, Gangwon Province. As he headed to work on Saturday at around 1 p.m., police officer Lee Do-Kyeong of Youngwol Police Station heard a woman crying in front of a store in Yeongwol-eup, the downtown area of Yeongwol-gun. The woman ran out of the store holding her unconscious son, and while the child's father attempted CPR, the father was trembling too much to be effective, according to news r

Social Affairs May 16, 2023

A snake was removed from an apartment complex in Mapo-gu, western Seoul on Monday, after a report from an elementary school student recognized it as a venomous species. The one-meter-long snake was spotted by a group of children, and one of them noticed that it had some features of the tiger keelback breed, based on his knowledge of reptiles, local media reports. Thanks to the child’s rapid report, the snake was caught by the emergency personnel. No injuries involving the snake were report

Social Affairs May 16, 2023

Google chose Korean and Japanese as the first service languages for its artificial intelligence-based chatbot, Bard, to expand its presence to compete with ChatGPT, which is backed by Google’s rival Microsoft. “They're incredibly dynamic and exciting regions, which are at the cutting edge of an opting technology,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday, explaining the reason for launching Bard services in Korean and Japanese in advance of the 40 other most spoken langua

Social Affairs May 12, 2023

Eight people were apprehended for attempting to steal oil from a public pipeline by digging an underground tunnel, police said Tuesday. The police caught the suspects at the site of the tunnel in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province in March after being tipped off by the National Intelligence Service, Daejeon Provincial Police Agency said on Tuesday. The case was handed to the prosecution while the four suspects, including the 58-year-old leader, were detained. The suspects dug a 9-meter tunne

Social Affairs May 10, 2023

The police is investigating two men who reacted aggressively to a request to move to another place to smoke from a cafe’s terrace in Incheon. Incheon Seobu Police Station on Tuesday said that they received a report of two middle aged men pouring coffee and throwing a cup onto the sidewalk after being told by the cafe’s staff to move elsewhere on Saturday. The men are under fire after the footage of them -- initially uploaded by the owner of the cafe on a self-employed shopkeepers&rsq

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

Children shave their heads and participate in five precept ceremonies Tuesday before entering a 21-day training experience at the Buddhist Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul. In the ceremonies, the children train as monks by swearing to follow the lessons of Buddha and renouncing themselves of worldly possessions by cutting their hair. The temple headquarters of South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, holds a religious education camp for children between the ages of 5 and 6 ever

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

A Siberian tiger cub has died from feline panleukopenia at Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday, and two other cubs and three mature tigers are being treated for the disease. The cub, named Parang, was born at the zoo and had reached one year old just 10 days ago. Feline panleukopenia is an infectious disease that causes a fatal decrease in white blood cells in cats. The disease has a 50 to 59 percent fatality rate, and is easily transmitted through contact with infected a

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

South Korea began expanding preventative vaccinations against mpox to members of unspecified vulnerable groups on Monday, while the total number of cases of infection reached 60 as of 12 a.m. that day. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is offering preventive shots of the two-dose Jynneos vaccine to groups considered more susceptible to mpox infection on a reservation basis. The government has secured 5,000 doses of the vaccine and plans to secure more, the agency announced Monday. The

Social Affairs May 8, 2023

Two teenage girls, aged 15 and 17, were stopped from attempting to take their own lives while livestreaming the event by the police on Friday. The teens are said to be members of the online forum, "Depression Gallery," a teenage member of which livestreamed the taking of her own life last month. According to reports, the police were alerted to the two teens' attempt by their friend at 3:55 a.m. on Friday, after they had climbed over the railing on the northern end of Hannam Bridge

Social Affairs May 8, 2023

Nam Chang-dong was 8 years old when he was spellbound by jultagi tightrope walking. “The jultagi player looked like a hero in a fantasy film for me," he said. Now 22 and a professional “rope clown,” he is the custodian of jultagi, the tightrope walking art that is officially recognized as part of South Korea’s intangible cultural heritage. It might be compared to tightrope walking, but in jultagi the performers dance, sing and tell stories while walking, standing and

weekender May 6, 2023

Four general hospitals in Daegu are to be penalized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for refusing to accept a severely injured teenager on March 19, which led to the girl’s death after two hours of driving from hospital to hospital in an ambulance. The ministry determined that the hospitals -- Daegu Fatima Hospital, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Kyungpook National University Hospital and Daegu Catholic University Medical Center -- unreasonably refused to treat an emergency p

Social Affairs May 4, 2023