[Graphic News] Tourists to Korea getting younger

According to the Korea Tourism Data Lab, the online information platform of the Korea Tourism Organization, one-third of tourists who visited Korea last year were 30 years old or younger. Of 11.03 million tourists to Korea in 2023, 3.93 million (35.6 percent) were under the age of 31. Those aged 21-30 were 2.79 million (25.3 percent), while those 20 and under were 1.11 million (10.3 percent). Among the young tourists, 42.3 percent came from Japan, showing a 15.7 percent increase from 10 years

Social AffairsApril 5, 2024

FM Cho meets with Italian, Turkish foreign ministers on sidelines of NATO meeting

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul has met with his Italian and Turkish counterparts in Brussels to discuss bilateral cooperation and North Korean issues on the sidelines of a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers, his office said. Cho held talks with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Wednesday (local time) and discussed ways to cooperate on Africa development and artificial intelligence (AI), key agendas for this year's summit of the Group of Seven (G7)

Diplomatic CircuitApril 4, 2024

1 S. Korean dies in gunfight with police in Cebu during robbery

A South Korean national has died in a gunfight with police in Cebu, the Philippines, while allegedly robbing a house with two other Korean companions, local news outlets reported Thursday. The 47-year-old deceased, surnamed Choi, was robbing a house in a luxury neighborhood in Cebu at around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday (local time), with two other South Korean nationals, both surnamed Kim, according to the media reports. The suspects reportedly threatened the owner of the house, who is also a South Korean

Diplomatic CircuitApril 4, 2024

Trainee doctors' group head says 'no future for S. Korea's medical community' after meeting with Yoon

The leader of a trainee doctors' group said Thursday there is "no future for South Korea's medical community" after his meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol over the government's push to increase medical school admissions. Park Dan, the head of an emergency committee at the Korea Intern Resident Association, wrote such a short message in his social media post after he met with Yoon for 2 hours and 20 minutes at the presidential office to discuss the standoff between the

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

S. Korea to chair first UN Security Council meeting with focus on cyber threats

South Korea is poised to chair a UN Security Council meeting on cybersecurity on Thursday to shed light on the repercussions of cyber threats and malicious cyber activities, including North Korea's sanctions-busting maneuvers in cyberspace, on international peace and security. The chairing of South Korea's first Arria-formula meeting — an informal gathering convened by a Security Council member or members — represents a significant milestone for Korea since assuming its pos

Foreign AffairsApril 4, 2024

Yoon eyes foreign students, spouses as domestic helpers

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered South Korean government ministries to explore ways to help South Korean families hire foreign students and marriage migrants as domestic helpers, doubling down on a troubled program designed to address the country's low fertility rate. Conservatives such as Yoon and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon have proposed hiring foreign nannies at below minimum wage for some time, but faced difficulties in putting the plan into action. Presiding over a meeting at his office to discus

PoliticsApril 4, 2024

Skepticism clouds young voters ahead of general election

Bae Yu-jin, a 33-year-old office worker in Seoul, has made several plans for April 10, when the nation’s 22nd legislative election is set to take place. But heading to the polls is not one of them. “I’m going to Daegu with my friend to blow off some steam,” Bae told The Korea Herald on Thursday. “I don’t think I’m going to vote this year. The past few months have been full of fighting and criticizing (between the two rival parties), and I don’t tru

PoliticsApril 4, 2024

Yoon vows to respect views of junior doctors

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that he would respect junior doctors’ position on the medical student quota expansion plan when discussing the matter with the medical community in the future, his office said, after he met with the head of the group. Yoon met with Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, two days after he had offered to talk with the trainee doctors, saying he was willing to hear their voices. At the meeting held at the presidential office lasting

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

NK kids face death penalty for distributing K-dramas: Seoul envoy

South Korean Ambassador to the UN Hwang Joon-kook stated that children in North Korea face grave human rights abuses, including receiving the death penalty for distributing South Korean dramas, during a UN Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday. During the UNSC Briefing on Children and Armed Conflict, Hwang mentioned that children in North Korea face “egregious human rights violations,” despite North Korea being a signatory country to the Convention on t

Foreign AffairsApril 4, 2024

S. Korea to stack up 7.23m COVID-19 vaccines for high-risk groups this winter

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday said it would secure some 7.23 million doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines for winter this year for individuals at a higher risk of developing the illness as variants of the virus continue to pose a risk to public health. Additionally, the government has decided to convert a portion of homegrown COVID-19 vaccines into NovaVax’s synthetic antigen vaccine, totaling between 300,000 to 500,000 doses. The synthetic antigen vaccine ha

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

Seoul to provide free breakfast after morning exercise

Starting in late April, students from schools that operate morning exercise classes will be provided with free breakfast, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Thursday. Launched in October last year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has initiated morning physical education activities to revitalize student exercise. Some 573 schools currently holding morning workout sessions that apply for the breakfast plan will benefit from the project. Elementary schools will be

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

Korea has most 'skinny fat' young women: report

South Korea has the highest percentage of "skinny fat” women in their 20s out of 17 countries surveyed, according to a report. According to InBody, a South Korean maker of body composition analyzers, a person is described as "skinny fat" when they have a low body weight but are high in their body fat percentage and low in their muscle mass. Data collected between January 2018 and December 2022 showed 15.8 percent of South Korean women in their 20s fall within this category

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

Early voting for parliamentary elections to kick off Friday

Early voting for next week's parliamentary elections will kick off Friday for a two-day run, the election watchdog said. Eligible voters will be able to cast ballots at 3,565 polling stations nationwide from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the two-day period, according to the National Election Commission. The NEC said that thorough preparations will be made to ensure voters can cast their votes with confidence in the fairness of the process, particularly in light of the recent discovery of spy cameras a

PoliticsApril 4, 2024

Biden, Kishida to discuss N. Korean threats, trilateral cooperation with S. Korea: White House

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will discuss an array of issues, including North Korean threats and the two countries' trilateral cooperation with South Korea, during their summit next week, a White House official said Wednesday. The two leaders are set to hold the summit on April 10 as Washington and Tokyo are stepping up defense cooperation amid growing security uncertainties stemming from North Korea's evolving military threats, China's growing assertiveness and

North KoreaApril 4, 2024

[Graphic News] International marriages up 18%

The number of marriages between South Koreans and foreign national spouses rose more than 18 percent in 2023, according to the data from Statistics Korea. The number of international marriages fell sharply to some 15,300 cases in 2020 from the previous year's 23,600 and further to about 13,000 the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the figure bounced back to over 17,000 in 2022 and further to nearly 20,000 last year. Vietnamese women took up the largest share of all wives of

Social AffairsApril 4, 2024

Russia says S. Korea's sanctions on Russian ships, individuals 'unfriendly'

Russia's foreign ministry on Wednesday criticized South Korea's decision to impose sanctions on Russian ships and others, and vowed to take actions in response to the "unfriendly step." On Tuesday, South Korea imposed sanctions on two Russian individuals and their companies involved in the illegal sending of North Korean IT workers overseas as well as two Russian vessels involved in shipping containers of military supplies between Pyongyang and Moscow. "The introduction

Foreign AffairsApril 3, 2024

NATO invites S. Korea to Washington summit in July

The chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Wednesday leaders of South Korea and three other nations in the Indo-Pacific region were invited to the upcoming summit scheduled in July in Washington. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said South Korea was invited to the NATO summit for the third year as one of the non-NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific region, which include Japan, Australia and New Zealand. "I welcome the fact that I have now invited for the third time the hea

Foreign AffairsApril 3, 2024

Constitutional Court to halt impeachment trial of senior prosecutor

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday decided to temporarily halt the impeachment trial of a senior prosecutor in a political meddling scandal. The court said the decision was made under a provision of the court's governing law, which allows for the suspension of trial proceedings if a related criminal case is ongoing. However, it did not provide a specific reason for the decision. Son Jun-sung, deputy chief prosecutor of the Daegu High Prosecutors Office, was accused of meddling in the las

Social AffairsApril 3, 2024

April 10 election sees record overseas voter turnout

Overseas voter turnout for the April 10 general election hit an all-time high of 62.8 percent, but experts on Wednesday were divided as to whether the number will play a significant role in determining the fate of the South Korean legislative body. The state watchdog National Election Commission said in tentative data released Tuesday that 92,923 of an estimated 148,000 eligible overseas voters had cast their ballots for the upcoming election. Polls were open for a total of six days, from March

PoliticsApril 3, 2024

Almost half of schools join state-backed after-school programs

Students and schools' participation in before- and after-school care programs, a new state-backed child care initiative, has increased over a month into the launch, the Ministry of Education reported Wednesday. Dubbed "Neulbom" which directly translates to "always caring," a total of 2,838 out of 6,175 elementary schools have joined the government-run child care education, accounting for 46 percent of the total number of elementary schools nationwide, Education Minister

Social AffairsApril 3, 2024