S. Korea records highest temperature for March, earliest cherry blossom bloom in Seoul in 99 yrs

South Korea recorded its highest average temperature for March last month, with Seoul seeing its earliest cherry blossom bloom on record, the state weather agency said Tuesday. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), last month's average temperature was 8.9 C, the highest since monitoring on a national scale began in 1973. The previous records were 8.1 C in 2018 and 7.9 C in 2020. High atmospheric pressure brought high temperatures, which in turn led to the earliest cherry

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

Single foreigners raising Korean kids can also get child support

Marital status will no longer matter in getting child care support from the government under a new rule that will benefit low-income foreigners raising their Korean children. Under current rules, foreigners who are not married to Korean nationals are not eligible to receive a monthly child care support of 200,000 won ($180) per child even though they are raising their Korean children. This will change when a set of revised rules on support to single-parent families takes effect in May. The ch

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

Main opposition interim leader to quit after by-elections

Kim Chong-in, the interim leader of the main opposition People Power Party, said Tuesday he will leave the party this week after seeing the results of local by-elections. The veteran politician took office as chairman of the emergency leadership committee in June 2020. At that time he promised to quit after refurbishing the conservative party to better compete in the presidential election slated for March 2022. "I will leave the party after the emergency committee's meeting the day after

PoliticsApril 6, 2021

PM heading to Iran for talks on seized vessel

Prime Minister Chung Se-kyun is heading to Iran in the next few days for talks to release a seized South Korean oil tanker and its captain, according to his office and diplomatic sources Tuesday. Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the visit earlier in the day, but did not specify a date. With the two governments still consulting on the timing, the Prime Minister’s Office said it was seeking to arrange a meeting between Chung and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. In early January,

Foreign AffairsApril 6, 2021

S. Korea willing to cooperate with Quad countries on issue-by-issue basis: official

South Korea is willing to cooperate with the member countries of the US-led Quad forum on an issue-by-issue basis, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday, amid speculation Washington wants Seoul to join the forum seen as a counterbalance to China's influence. Officials in Seoul have made it clear that there has been no formal request from the US to join the Quad, also involving Australia, India and Japan, stressing that the country would take part in an initiative of any form as long as it se

Foreign AffairsApril 6, 2021

Seoul to educate students on Myanmar crisis

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Tuesday that it would provide educational materials for schools in the city on the violence of the military government in Myanmar and how it is oppressing the country’s people. The package, consisting of PowerPoint slides, a workbook and a guidebook for teachers, comes in two versions depending on grade level. To make it accessible to multicultural students who aren’t fluent in Korean, the office said, the package will also be availabl

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

[Seoul Struggles 4] Inter-floor noise, the scourge of apartment life

Finding a place to live in Seoul was no problem for Seo Jee-sun when she had a full-time job at a massage parlor in Seoul, but the real problem was finding a house where she can sleep at night without having to worry about noise from upstairs. Living on the 12th floor of an apartment building in Mapo-gu, western Seoul, Seo was happy to find a rather affordable housing option with reasonable monthly rent, except the unit came without an option to sleep comfortably at night. For the past six mo

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

PM calls this week 'watershed' in efforts to prevent new wave of coronavirus infections

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Tuesday that South Korea is at a critical juncture this week in its bid to preclude a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections. "A sense of crisis is heightening, with coronavirus cases spreading rapidly especially in the greater Seoul area," he said during a daily interagency meeting on the coronavirus response. This week will be a "grave watershed" to determine whether the country enters the path of a fourth wave of large-scale outbreaks or it

PoliticsApril 6, 2021

Revised law allows extending unit period of flexible work hours to 6 months

A revised law took effect Tuesday to give employers greater flexibility in implementing the 52-hour legal workweek, the labor ministry said. The revised Labor Standards Act increases the time period over which employers must ensure employees work no more than an average of 52 hours a week, from three months to a maximum of six months, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The change comes at the request of businesses that have complained of difficulties in meeting production deadl

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

Parties scramble for last-minute campaigns on eve of by-elections

On the eve of the April 7 Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections, rival parties scrambled to make final appeals to voters in the country's two biggest cities Tuesday. Voting for the two mayoral seats and 19 other regional public posts is set to begin at 6 a.m. and last till 8 p.m. on Wednesday at 3,459 polling stations across the country in by-elections that are deemed harbingers of public opinions ahead of next year's presidential poll. Leaders and candidates of the ruling Democratic Party (DP)

PoliticsApril 6, 2021

Military reports 3 new COVID-19 cases

An arms procurement agency official, a civilian worker for the military and a soldier tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Tuesday. The official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, was confirmed to have been infected after showing symptoms. Over the past week, the agency reported three COVID-19 patients, including the latest one. "Contact tracing is under way. All the employees who use the same building w

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

N. Korea slams UN report on child malnutrition as 'sheer lie'

North Korea on Tuesday slammed a recent UN report on child malnutrition in the country as a "sheer lie," saying it will need to review whether humanitarian assistance can "truly help us." The director of the Research Institute for Nutrition Care of Children from the North's health ministry made the statement in response to the panel of experts report that close to 100,000 kindergarten-aged children in the North lack access to fortified foods due to border restrictions over t

North KoreaApril 6, 2021

[Newsmaker] COVID-19 vaccination tops 1m in S. Korea

South Korea has inoculated over 1 million people in 40 days since the country launched its long-awaited COVID-19 vaccination campaign, health authorities here said Tuesday. An accumulated 1,014,019 people were administered with their first shots as of noon Tuesday, which account for around 1.95 percent of the country's 52 million population, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). On Feb. 26, the country began its inoculation program, with health care workers and p

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

New virus cases in 400s for 2nd day, upticks worrisome amid spring break

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 400s for the second day in a row Tuesday amid sporadic cluster infections nationwide, with a potential resurgence looming amid loosened vigilance and increased spring travelers. The country reported 478 more COVID-19 cases, including 460 local infections, raising the total caseload to 106,230, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload had been hovering above 500 since Wednesday last week, before falli

Social AffairsApril 6, 2021

NK 'party cell' leaders visit historical sites in Pyongyang ahead of conference

Leaders of grassroots units of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party visited several museums and historical sites in Pyongyang, state media reported Tuesday, in an apparent effort to tighten internal unity ahead of a conference. State media earlier said that the conference of secretaries of "party cells" was set to take place early this month to discuss "affairs in prioritizing the position and the role" of the cells, without specifying the date. Party cells refer to the party

North KoreaApril 6, 2021

US takes alliance commitment with S. Korea very seriously: Pentagon spokesman

The United States takes its defense alliance with South Korea very seriously, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday, highlighting US efforts to ensure the countries' joint defense readiness at all times. John Kirby also said the US always evaluates its military exercises in any given year to make sure that the military is ready. "Obviously, we're all committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, and to security and stability on the peninsula," he said when asked about the US' ongoing

Foreign AffairsApril 6, 2021

N. Korea decides not to participate in Tokyo Olympics over coronavirus concerns

North Korea said Tuesday it will not participate in the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympics to protect its athletes against the coronavirus pandemic, dashing South Korea's hopes to use the games to kickstart the stalled peace process with Pyongyang. The decision was made during a general assembly meeting of the North's Olympic Committee held in Pyongyang on March 25, according to Sports in the DPRK Korea, a website on sports affairs in North Korea. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea ha

North KoreaApril 6, 2021

PM Chung may offer resignation next week: source

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, a potential presidential candidate, is likely to offer his resignation as early as next week, a source said Monday. "Chung has made up his mind to offer his resignation to President Moon Jae-in next week when he returns from a visit to the Middle East," said the source who asked not to be named. Chung is scheduled to visit Tehran to close the negotiations with Iranian officials regarding a South Korean ship was seized by Iran over three months ago. The

PoliticsApril 5, 2021

S. Korea, Thailand agree to hold high-level talks on health security

The top diplomats of South Korea and Thailand agreed to launch a "two plus two" dialogue of foreign and health ministers to discuss cooperation in health and other related fields, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday. Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong agreed to hold such a meeting "at an appropriate time" when he spoke by phone with his Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwina, earlier in the day, the ministry said in a release. The ministers also agreed to work together to resume h

Foreign AffairsApril 5, 2021

S. Korea, US agree 'in principle' on Moon-Biden summit in Washington

Seoul and Washington reached an agreement "in principle" to hold a summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden in Washington, Seoul's national security adviser Suh Hoon said Monday. Suh made the remarks as he arrived in Seoul from a three-way meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts, Jake Sullivan and Shigeru Kitamura, at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Suh, however, stopped short of saying when Moon and Biden will hold a summit, b

PoliticsApril 5, 2021