Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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Patients, families on edge as more doctors consider resigning
Oh Myung-jin, 44, who has to care for two critically ill family members, blew a fuse after hearing the news of medical professors considering leaving their hospitals too, joining junior doctors in their protest against the government increasing the medical school student quota. “If professors also walk out, (patients) won’t be able to get the same treatment starting this month or even next week. (My daughter and father) including myself are living in constant fear,” she told Th
March 14, 2024
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More speeding tickets issued with bidirectional traffic cameras
A total of 2,018 cases of speeding and traffic signal violations were detected after bidirectional traffic enforcement cameras were installed in four locations across Gyeonggi Province, according to the National Police Agency on Thursday. Bidirectional traffic enforcement cameras capture license plates on both the front and rear ends of a vehicle. These are different from the traditional kinds of cameras installed in most locations nationwide which are only capable of capturing license plates on
March 14, 2024
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Junior doctors ask ILO to intervene in Seoul's back-to-work order
A group of medical interns and residents who left hospitals in protest of the government’s planned medical school admissions hike has demanded the International Labor Organization, a labor rights watchdog under the United Nations, intervene in Seoul's back-to-work order, it said on Thursday. “The government is threatening junior doctors to return to work by mentioning suspension of their licenses, a forced labor prohibited by the ILO. Accordingly, we have asked the ILO to interv
March 14, 2024
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Woman throws dogs from ninth floor
South Korean police on Thursday said they were investigating a woman in her 30s on suspicion of killing her two dogs by throwing them from her ninth-floor apartment. The suspect is believed to have thrown two of her dogs out of her apartment window at around 7 a.m. on Monday at Bupyeong-gu, Incheon, according to Incheon Samsan Police Station. Officers arriving on the scene found the bodies of the two dogs on the site. The suspect has a history of mental illness and has been institutionalized wit
March 14, 2024
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Basketball legend-turned-coach faces parent's complaints for 'meokbang'
Parents of student basketball players at Whimoon High School recently filed complaints against the team's head coach Hyun Joo-yup to Seoul education office, claiming that his TV and YouTube appearances are disrupting his duties as the coach. According to reports by local media, the petitioners -- which also include officials from the school and the team -- accused Hyun of abnormal operations of his team due to his side job. The suspicions reported to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Educati
March 14, 2024
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Leader of doctors' group questioned again over trainee doctors' walkout
A leader of the Korean Medical Association, the biggest doctors' group, appeared before police Thursday for his second round of questioning over suspicions of instigating a mass walkout by trainee doctors. Park Myung-ha, chief of the KMA emergency committee's organizational affairs, arrived at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's office in the city's western Mapo district for the second time, following his last on Tuesday. Park is one of the five former and current KMA leaders against whom the
March 14, 2024
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10 rescued, 1 missing after fishing boat sinks off south coast
A fishing boat carrying 11 people sank off the country's south coast Thursday, leaving three dead and another missing, the Coast Guard said. Four South Korean and seven foreign crew members were aboard the 139-ton trawler when it sank in waters 4.6 nautical miles south of Yokji Island off the coastal city of Tongyeong, some 330 km south of Seoul, after sending a distress call at 4:12 a.m., the Coast Guard said. Ten crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard and nearby boats, including thr
March 14, 2024
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Miss Chunhyang beauty pageant accepts foreign candidates for first time
For the first time in its 75-year history, South Korea's Miss Chunhyang beauty pageant will see foreign nationals compete. This year’s beauty pageant is accepting applicants from five countries -- China, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Canada -- the Chunhyang Festival Organizing Committee told The Korea Herald on Wednesday. Named after the heroine of the Korean folk tale Chunhyangjeon, the Miss Chunhyang beauty pageant has taken place in the story's setting of Namwon, North Jeolla
March 13, 2024
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Women's groups protest adult content convention
Local women's rights groups in Tuesday held a joint protest against an adult film convention to be held in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, next week. Suwon Women’s Group Network, an umbrella group of seven women's groups based in Suwon, and other civic groups voiced their opposition to the "K-XF: The Fashion!" festival. According to the festival's organizers, the event scheduled for April 20-21 will feature adult film actors from Japan, along with local online celebritie
March 13, 2024
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[Campus Now] Hallyu, brokers and students' Korean dreams
South Korea's universities are witnessing a transformative shift in their cultural landscape, brought by a surge in the number of international students. Though the trend was stagnant during the pandemic era, the number of international students in Korea has steadily increased over the decades, amounting to 181,842 as of 2023. That is more than double the number 10 years ago (85,923), and 10 times more than in 2004 (16,832), when the Education Ministry began compiling related statistics. Th
March 13, 2024
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PM denounces attempts to delay med school quota hike plan
South Korea's Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Tuesday criticized recent attempts made by protesting doctors to delay the government's plan to increase the annual medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 and to lower the cap on the number of students. Han's remarks follow a proposal made by a group of senior doctors and medical school professors the same day, who called for the government "to decide on the quota increase after allowing overseas researchers to review the matter
March 13, 2024
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Police bust illegal gambling ring that hired minors to attract peers
Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency said Tuesday it had uncovered a cybercrime ring accused of operating an illegal gambling website and attracting minors into gambling. Police apprehended 35 suspects, including the ringleader in his 40s, on suspicion of operating illegal gambling websites for five years, from December 2018 to March this year. Out of the 35 suspects, 10 had been arrested as of Tuesday. According to police officials, the criminal ring operated gambling websites out of Dubai a
March 13, 2024
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Jeju introduces virtual news presenter
Jeju’s provincial government has recently hired a news anchor to conduct its weekly YouTube program for 600,000 won ($450) a month: virtual human J-na. The computer-created female presenter primarily delivers policy updates and local news from the island, reading scripts prepared via artificial intelligence. The program, developed and managed by a private contractor company, costs 600,000 won per month, according to the island province. "Employing human news presenters incurs signif
March 13, 2024
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Labor groups slam BOK report on foreign care worker wages
Labor groups have reacted with anger to a report by South Korea’s central bank that proposed to bring in foreign care workers and pay them less than the minimum wage. “The bank’s suggestions of paying migrant workers cheaper than the minimum wage are discriminatory and anti-human rights ideas,” said Citizens‘ Solidarity for Securing the Publicness of Care and Realizing the Right to Care, a major coalition comprised of the country’s two umbrella trade unions, t
March 13, 2024
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Late firefighter's father donates life savings in memory of son
The father of a firefighter who perished on the job has donated 500 million won ($381,000) to the National Fire Agency, which the NFA on Tuesday vowed to use to provide scholarships for the bereaved family members of those who lost their lives in service. The agency on Tuesday held a ceremony for the launch of the Firefighter Hero Kim Gi-beom Scholarship at Gangbuk Fire Station in Daegu. The scholarship was based on funds donated by Kim Gyeong-su, whose son Kim Gi-beom died at the age of 26 in 1
March 13, 2024
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Protesting medical students to press for schools' granting of their leave of absence requests
Medical students nationwide have resolved to request their schools grant leave of absence applications they filed in collective action protesting the government's plan to dramatically raise the medical school enrollment quota, their association said Wednesday. The Korean Medical Student Association said the decision was unanimously reached during a plenary session over the weekend. Under the resolution, members from all 40 medical schools across the country will ask their respective schools
March 13, 2024
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On-year job additions rise over 300,000 for 2nd month in Feb.
South Korea added more than 300,000 jobs for the second consecutive month in February led by solid job growth in the manufacturing sector amid rising exports, data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people came to 28.04 million last month, up 329,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It is the second month in a row that the number of new jobs has exceeded 300,000. In January, 380,000 jobs were added after three months of job additions below 300,000. F
March 13, 2024
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Doctor denies giving drugs to Lee Sun-kyun's blackmailer
A South Korean doctor accused of providing drugs to a bar hostess, believed to have blackmailed late actor Lee Sun-kyun, denied the accusations at a court hearing on Tuesday. The lawyer for the 43-year-old plastic surgeon told Incheon District Court that his client denies all the charges related to the 30-year-old hostess of a high-end bar, who has been charged with receiving the drug from the doctor. Contrary to what the defendant said, the hostess has already pleaded guilty to all the charges
March 12, 2024
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City councilman proposes marriage in the middle of assembly
A 47-year-old member of the Gwangyang municipal council made headlines by proposing to his girlfriend in the middle of a general assembly meeting on Monday According to the council in Gwangyang, Gyeonggi Province, councilman Park Chul-soo of the main opposition Democratic Party took to the podium to pose questions about the city’s policies to officials. After the questions, he said, "Pardon me for speaking about my personal matters in the assembly." "I thought making it publ
March 12, 2024
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Drought levels to maintain normal conditions for next 3 months
Meteorological drought levels are forecast to remain normal nationwide, due to high levels of precipitation over the past few months compared to previous years, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Tuesday. According to the Interior Ministry, the total precipitation levels recorded over the past six months reached up to 504.7 millimeters nationwide -- 150.6 percent above the average precipitation levels recorded between 1991 and 2020. In February alone, up to 102.6 mm of rain was recorded, m
March 12, 2024