Articles by Shin Ji-hye
Shin Ji-hye
shinjh@heraldcorp.com-
Man arrested for stealing semen of hanwoo breeding bull
A South Korean man was arrested for breaking into a livestock lab in Jangsu County, North Jeolla Province, and stealing the semen of a Korean bull of high genetic significance, local police said Monday. According to the county police, the suspect, a meat industry insider in his 30s, is alleged to have broken into the laboratory around 8 p.m. on March 8 and committed the theft. He stored the stolen semen in a cryogenic nitrogen container which he had to preserve its condition. The suspect was i
Social Affairs March 18, 2024
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[Weekender] A new equation in sharing costs of marriage
“The groom provides the home, and the bride furnishes it" has been a long-standing custom in Korean marriages. But, with evolving perspectives on gender roles, and home prices virtually beyond reach for average Korean men of marrying age, the way couples manage the finances of their marriage is undergoing severe changes. Newlyweds, single men and single women interviewed by The Korea Herald generally envisioned an equal partnership founded on equal contributions -- be it financially,
Social Affairs March 16, 2024
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Parents with higher education levels spend more on children’s private education: study
Parents with higher levels of education spend more on their children’s private education, data showed on Friday. Parents holding master’s degrees spent an average of 600,000 won ($450) to 640,000 won per child per month on private education last year, according to Statistics Korea. This is 3.8 times more than the monthly average of 170,000 won to 200,000 won spent per child by parents with educational backgrounds below middle school. Mothers with a high school degree spent an avera
Social Affairs March 15, 2024
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Korea ranks last in OECD for women’s working environment 12 years in row
South Korea ranked last, at 29th out of 29 OECD countries, in the working environment for women for 12 consecutive years, according to UK-based The Economist on Thursday. Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, The Economist released the glass-ceiling index. This UK media outlet has published the index annually since 2013 for OECD member nations, assessing factors such as women’s labor participation rate, gender income disparity, the proportion of women in high-ranking posit
Social Affairs March 8, 2024
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[LLG] Four women's inspiring journeys back to school
Lee Bok-ja vividly recalls the day, 47 years ago, when she learned that she had been admitted to high school, having secretly taking and passing the entrance exam. She remembers the tuition fee: 23,520 won, a sum she couldn't bear to ask her ailing father for. This amount was worth nearly half the monthly salary of a government employee of the lowest rank at that time. Lee never went to high school, working instead to earn money, often as a cleaner. But in her dreams, she would sometimes se
Hashtag Korea March 6, 2024
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70% of globe's hooded cranes now in S. Korean bay: experts
Nearly 70 percent of the entire global population of hooded cranes, an endangered migratory bird species, is thought to be resting in a South Korean bay, local experts said Wednesday. A joint on-spot survey of Cheonsu Bay, in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, reported the spotting of about 14,000 cranes in the area -- 11,000 at the eastern part of Ganwol-ho, an artificial lake in the bay, and another 3,000 at the western part. The research was conducted by Seosan Birdland, an ecotourism center
Social Affairs March 6, 2024
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Man jailed for fraud after faking lottery forecast program
A Korean man in his 40s was sentenced to one year in prison for swindling hundreds of millions of won from another man by persuading the victim to invest in a program that the man said aids in winning the lottery, a court said Friday. According to a Daejeon court, the perpetrator met the victim through social media in 2019. The man presented fake receipts that showed he had won the first and second prizes in the lottery through a "lottery number forecast" program he claimed to have dev
Social Affairs March 1, 2024
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Aboriginal Australians call on Seoul to stop funding gas project near their islands
A group of Aboriginal Australians called on South Korea to withhold its loan support to a major Korean company participating in the consortium for a massive offshore gas project in the Timor Sea. In a press conference held in Seoul on Tuesday, they called out for the Korean government’s help in preserving their cultural and spiritual heritage which they say are under threat from the Barossa gas field project. “For thousands of years, we have retained and maintained our spiritual conn
Social Affairs Feb. 29, 2024
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Teachers and native English instructors now required to undergo drug testing
Drug and substance addiction screenings have been added to the recruitment process of all school teachers in South Korea, including native English speakers on short-term contracts, education authorities said Tuesday. According to the Education Ministry, the new rule, effective from the start of this year, mandates that teachers will be disqualified if they fail to submit a “confirmation of drugs, cannabis and psychotropic substances addiction test results” within one year of their
Social Affairs Feb. 27, 2024
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Faces of wealth, intellect and longevity, as revealed by veteran face reader
"Who has the face of a king?” In the 2013 hit film "The Face Reader," set in the 15th century during the Joseon era, Grand Prince Suyang sought the advice of the most renowned face reader of the day about his potential to become king. The physiognomist thought Suyang had the face of a cruel and ruthless traitor but refrained from voicing this belief out of fear. Some years later, Suyang ascended to the throne as the 7th king of Joseon, known as King Sejo, by dethroning Dan
Hashtag Korea Feb. 27, 2024
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Medical drama's prospects hit as doctors lose sympathy
As public opinion toward doctors worsens over the medical vacuum caused by physicians’ collective action against a planned increase in medical school admissions, a planned medical drama seems to be suffering the fallout. “Wise Resident Life” is a spin-off of the 2020-2021 series Hospital Playlist, and depicts the lives and friendships of professors and doctors at the fictional Yulje University Hospital. It is scheduled for release on tvN in the first half of this year. Earl
Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Death & denial: Why Koreans refuse to contemplate the end
A few years ago, Kim Sun-yong (not her real name) stumbled upon a Facebook post written by an acquaintance from work. The author, an American who was battling late-stage cancer with no prospects of recovery, asked his Facebook friends for suggestions on what to include on his bucket list as he braced for the inevitable. Most comments expressed their sadness about the man's impending death and offered suggestions as asked. But one comment written by a person with a Korean name responded, &
Hashtag Korea Feb. 25, 2024
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Airline reservations for Japan nearly full on March 1st Movement Day
Many Koreans are planning to travel to Japan during the three-day holiday starting on March 1, a national holiday commemorating the independence movement against Japanese rule, according to the aviation industry on Wednesday. Low-cost carrier Jeju Air said among the international routes departing from Incheon Airport from March 1 to March 3, the route to Matsuyama, Japan, has the highest reservation rate. As of Wednesday, the reservation rate is in the high 90 percent range. The overall averag
Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2024
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[Pressure points] Bear with us: Conservation success story or public hazard?
Korea’s ancient founding myth features two predatory animals, a tiger and a bear, both of which once freely roamed the hilly terrains of the Korean Peninsula. By the late 1990s, however, both species had become extinct or nearly extinct in the wild, while hikers and trekkers came to replace them as rulers of the mountains. In 2004, a government-led restoration effort was launched for Korean moon bears, starting with the introduction of six Asiatic black bears from Primorsky Krai, Russia. T
Hashtag Korea Feb. 20, 2024
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Reality check: How diverse is Korea really? LGBTQ+ and society (9)
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2020, there has been a notable shift in public opinion in South Korea regarding the acceptance of homosexuality. The survey revealed that the percentage of individuals who believed that homosexuality should be accepted by society increased from 25 percent in 2002 to 44 percent in 2019. This shift suggests growing openness and changing attitudes towards LGBTQ+ issues within South Korean society over the years. However, it's impo
Social Affairs Feb. 19, 2024
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