A father was booked by police on Monday for possessing and using controlled drugs in the presence of his newborn baby. The Women’s and Juvenile Affairs bureau under Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that it had booked the man, only identified by his surname Jung, for breaching the Child Welfare Act, stating that abuse of drugs can cause emotional child abuse to an infant. According ...

The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Tuesday introduced blueprints to build a floating pool and marina facilities on the banks of the Han River in Ichon, central Seoul. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said during his trip to Denmark on Sunday that the swimming complex was inspired by the Harbor Bath, an open-air floating public swimming pool in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Seoul city authorities expl...

As a growing number of South Korean women are tying the knot in their early 40s, the number of middle-aged first-time brides has outstripped brides in their 20s for two consecutive years, government data showed Monday. According to data from Statistics Korea, there were 10,949 marriages among women aged between 40 to 44 last year, outpacing the 10,113 marriages by women aged between 20 to 24. T...

A physician at a medical examination center in Seoul has been indicted for taking endoscopic pictures of patients and sharing them in a group chat room. The 52-year-old, whose name and gender weren’t disclosed, is facing charges of breaching the Personal Information Protect Act, according to police and prosecution on Monday. The doctor reportedly took pictures of computer screens that contained...

Public servants of all ages have a low preference for eating lunch with their teammates, a report showed Sunday. According to a report by the Korea Institute of Public Administration on the values and organizational innovation of public servants per generation, both the MZ Generation -- a Korean term referring to millennials and Generation Z, or those roughly born from 1981 to 2012 -- and older ...

South Korea’s military said late Wednesday that it would look into claims made by the grandson of the late former President Chun Doo-hwan that his acquaintances, incumbent officers in the military, had used drugs inside the army. The military said that it would try to confirm such claims raised by the grandson, declining to further comment on the issue. The two military men are reportedly lieute...

South Korean police raided the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a claim made by a former spokesperson for the ministry that a fortuneteller had been involved in the relocation of the presidential residence to Yongsan in central Seoul. Investigators from the cyber bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency were sent to confiscate evidence, including v...

The presidential office said Wednesday that the maximum weekly working hours would be decided after adhering to the will of the public, especially underprivileged workers. This semi-reversal came just a week after the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on March 6 that it would revise the current 52-hour workweek to allow workers to manage their working hours depending on their workload b...

Seoul also hopes to attract more foot traffic by opening up more public spaces in the urban core, following the example of London, where private spaces are often open to the public. London’s first urban cable car opened in 2012 to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics. It stands 90 meters above the river and can carry up to 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction, which is the equivalent of 5...

South Korean prosecutors said Monday that they had indicted 137 people on charges of attempting to evade the country’s mandatory military service, including charges for those aiding such offenses, vowing it will beef up efforts to prevent these crimes from happening in future. Among those indicted were the sons of lawyers and doctors, musicians, actors, professional athletes, an entertainment ag...

Currently, Korea has 39 foreign schools, according to the ministry. Of them, admission is most coveted at the “big four”: Seoul Foreign School, Yongsan International School of Seoul, Korea International School and Seoul International School. Education offices said they do not have the number of Koreans attending foreign schools across the country because such information is outside of their juris...

A middle school teacher in Seoul was booked by police on suspicion of brandishing scissors at a colleague. The Seoul Seongbuk Police Station said Friday that the offender, whose name and age have not been disclosed, is facing assault charges involving scissors and physical abuse. According to police, the offender, who also serves as the director of the school affairs department, allegedly shout...

Airport police said they evacuated 218 passengers and 12 crew members from a Korean Air plane after a suspicious item reported to be a live bullet was found on the plane as it was ready for departure early Friday morning. No injuries were reported as everyone disembarked. Korean Air flight KE621 was scheduled to depart from Incheon to Manila, the Philippines, at around 7:45 a.m., but a report wa...

South Korea’s Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon met with French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Wednesday, his office confirmed Thursday, a trip highlighting his focus on coping with the fast-growing number of foreign residents here. The two ministers exchanged information on immigration and border and migration management policy issues between Korea and France and decided to build a cooperati...

Koreans spent a record high of 26 trillion won ($20 billion) on private education in 2022, with spending on English being the highest, data from Statistics Korea and the Education Ministry showed Tuesday. Last year’s out-of-school expenditure marked a 10.8 percent increase from 2021’s 23.4 trillion won, showing that obligations for students here extend beyond the school curriculum to hagwons, al...