An association of disability groups in South Korea is continuing their protest actions at subway stations, disrupting operations during the morning rush hour for the fourth weekday in a row. On Tuesday, some members of the Solidarity against Disability Discrimination staged a rally at Chungmuro Station at around 7:30 a.m., demanding the government do more to help disabled people. “The protest by the disability rights group, which was held on the morning of Feb. 8, ended at 10:18 a.m.,

Social Affairs Feb. 8, 2022

Transparent and unbiased data will help potential voters and politicians make rational choices, putting an end to the era of heavily skewed public polls and knee-jerk policy reactions. This is the guiding philosophy at Oxopolitics, where scores of data engineers are working to change political decision making with the power of data. “I wanted to build an open data platform that enables each user to have their say about politics and see the data on themselves, like-minded people and al

Politics Feb. 6, 2022

Old ramshackle mom-and-pop stores have provided a lasting subject for Lee Me-kyeoung, a 53-year-old painter, from the human life cycle to childhood nostalgia, when no one even showed the slightest interest in them. “When I started to draw small stores back in late 90s, people hated to see outdated and obsolete things,” Lee said during an interview with The Korea Herald. Lee has produced more than 450 pen drawings on mom-and-pop stores in small villages across the nation in the

Arts & Design Jan. 27, 2022

Self-assessment of one‘s attractive qualities is a critical step to becoming a successful influencer, according to Ryo Chu-hyeop, a 36-year old YouTuber and South Korea’s first professor of “influencer affairs.” In order to make other people follow you online, aspiring influencers need to ruminate on their own ideas and thoughts and what kind of attributes they have to attract others. “Attractiveness does not necessarily mean (physical) beauty. It can be somet

People Jan. 26, 2022

Heavy show fell in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces on Wednesday, prompting authorities to issue alerts over potential traffic disturbances and frozen roads. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul received 3.5 centimeters of snow while Gangwon Province‘s Seoraksan and the southeastern Ulleung Island saw heavy snow of 18.5 centimeters and 19.5 centimeters, respectively, as of 2 p.m. The weather agency lifted a heavy snow alert, which indicates that snow of at le

Social Affairs Jan. 19, 2022

Nearly 400 empty school buildings, chiefly in rural areas, are sitting idle after closing their doors due to lack of students, government data showed Tuesday. The Ministry of Education has a thorny task of giving new life to abandoned classrooms. As of May last year, a total of 3,855 schools have closed across South Korea in nearly 40 years since 1982, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Education, as the number of students declined to just 60.3 percent of 1990 levels. The data on

Culture Jan. 18, 2022

KF94 masks, the Korean version of an N95 mask, are gaining popularity in the United States, with experts calling for upgraded protective options over cloth masks as the omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly throughout the country. Michael Baym, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School shared his review of using KF94 masks produced by Korean firm Dr. Puri. “They’re very comfortable. I was also happy to see on the CDC/NIOSH testing page that they test at ove

Social Affairs Jan. 14, 2022

The white peaks of Mount Hallasan on Jeju Island has gained notable popularity this winter, promoting hikers to pay extra cash to get access to the snowy landscape. Dozens of postings seeking to sell, buy or exchange QR tickets to Hallasan National Park have been posted at secondhand online stores. Offered by the national park, tickets are available online for free on a first come first serve basis. One post uploaded on Joonggonara, the country‘s largest online used goods marketplace, sh

Social Affairs Jan. 12, 2022

Everyone talks about the March 9 presidential election. But the local elections to be held in June are the big day Park Hye-min, 29, has been counting down the days to. Park is the executive director of Newways, a nonprofit organization that she founded about a year ago with a friend she met at a book club. The organization’s goal is to discover rookie politicians who speak the same language they do, and foster them as city or provincial councilors who represent young people’s inte

Social Affairs Jan. 12, 2022

Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin on Friday continued to express his discontent over Instagram’s removal of his post expressing his hostility toward communism. Chung criticized Instagram for its engagement in political activities by deliberately taking down posts that don’t match the preference of the platform, according to a story by local media outlet Maeil Business Newspaper, which cited an anonymous close acquaintance of Chung. “The value of free expression

Social Affairs Jan. 7, 2022

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday pledged to establish “workcation” centers in rural areas of the country to allow people working remotely to stay and help struggling local economies. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, over 9 in 10 of the country’s biggest firms have adopted a telework system, according to Lee. “I will support a balanced life between work and rest in line with the changes in the new era and in the

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2022

Lee Kyung-ran, who has been working as a therapist for the past 15 years, has ditched face-to-face consultations thanks to a growing demand for phone and virtual sessions after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since late 2019, she has been offering therapy sessions through Naver eXpert, a service launched by the country’s largest portal Naver. Naver eXpert provides a wide range of one-on-one online consultations and classes from experts including lawyers, accountants and asset con

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2022

An online post purportedly written by a street cleaner saying he is “100 percent satisfied” with his salary and working conditions has gone viral Sunday.  The writer of the job review, posted on online community bobaedream.co.kr., introduces himself as a 42-year-old sanitation worker who started work on Jan. 1 last year. “I’m 100 percent satisfied with my job largely due to the salary I receive,” he wrote, adding that his annual wages easily exceed 50 million

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2022

Women working at the Seoul Metropolitan Government earn about 11 percent less than their male colleagues, data showed Wednesday, marking a smaller gap than the average figure registered by members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The data found that the gender wage gap, referring to the rate of men’s average pay to that of women, reached 11.28 percent last year, lower than 12.8 percent, the latest average of member nations of the OECD. Female civil servants f

Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2021

On Sunday, gazaahome.com launched with a list of a few hundreds of restaurants in the country that do not “discriminate against” unvaccinated people. As of Tuesday afternoon, the digital map showing the location of the businesses garnered some 70,000 views, with entry suggestions flowing in from users, according to its developer Goda. “It seems that our society is going through a somewhat chaotic period due to the recently strengthened vaccination pass policy. I have deve

Social Affairs Dec. 28, 2021