Ex-Asiana Airlines chief fined for rejecting menstrual leave

South Korea's top court said Sunday it has upheld a lower court ruling that found a former Asiana Airlines chief guilty of rejecting menstrual leave for flight attendants. Kim Soo-cheon was indicted in 2017 for declining to approve 138 requests for period leave by 15 flight attendants between May 2014 and June 2015. Under local law, companies are mandated to allow one day of menstrual leave each month upon a female employee's request. A lower court found Kim guilty of breaching employment law

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

Politicians call for leniency for boy accused of damaging by-election posters

Politicians and the public have appealed for leniency for a middle school student who faces legal punishment for allegedly damaging election posters ahead of the April 7 mayoral by-election in Seoul. The 13-year-old boy is accused of damaging posters of Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Kim Jin-ah of the minor Women’s Party with a wooden ice cream stick at an apartment complex in Seocho-gu early this month, according to the police. While under questioning he

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

Homeowning newlyweds have more children than couples without homes: data

Newlywed couples who have owned a home since getting married had a greater chance of having children than newly married couples without homes, data showed Sunday, indicating that owning houses may affect childbirths. Of 212,000 first-time and newly married couples who tied the knot in 2014 and maintained their martial status through 2019, 60,949 couples, or 28.7 percent, had their own home during the five years after getting married, according to the data by Statistics Korea. Among the couples

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

Police seek to adopt auto-lock systems for DUI offenders

In efforts to clamp down on repetitive drunk driving, South Korean police are looking at introducing automatic lock systems in cars owned by people with drunk driving track records. "Police plan to launch a research project in cooperation with the traffic authority next month, focusing on the details and system for the automatic lock system," a police official told Yonhap News Agency. The National Police Agency recently worked with Rep. Lim Ho-seon of the ruling Democratic Party to p

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

[Newsmaker] Bookstore chain pulls memoirs of NK founder over controversy

South Korea's biggest bookstore chain has ceased sales of memoirs of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung following a legal and political controversy surrounding the eight-volume series. On Wednesday, a local publishing company said it has begun selling the memoirs, titled "With the Century," here for the first time since the books were published by the North Korean regime in the early 1990s. The memoirs, which mostly feature Kim's anti-Japanese fight, have sparked controversy as they ar

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

New cases dip on fewer tests, but fears of next wave remain

South Korea's daily new virus cases fell below 700 for the first time in five days on Sunday due to fewer tests during the weekend, amid lingering concerns about a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections. The country reported 644 more COVID-19 cases, including 603 local infections, raising the total caseload to 118,887, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country added one more death, raising the total to 1,813. The daily infections neared 800 last week as cluster infec

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

Portion of cyberbullying sharply increases as pandemic turns classes online: survey

Cases of cyberbullying involving elementary to high school students increased sharply last year as the new coronavirus pandemic turned many classes online, a survey showed Sunday. According to the survey released by the Blue Tree Foundation, cyberbullying accounted for 16.3 percent of all school bullying cases experienced by respondents last year, up more than threefold from 5.3 percent in 2019. The survey canvassed 6,230 students attending elementary, middle and high schools in 17 cities and

Social AffairsApril 25, 2021

S. Korea secures additional Pfizer vaccines for 20m people

South Korea said Saturday it has signed a deal with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to import additional Pfizer vaccine doses for 20 million people. The deal came after South Korean health minister Kwon Deok-cheol held two video conferences with his Pfizer counterpart on April 9 and 23. "The additional deal would allow South Korea to receive coronavirus vaccines more stably," Kwon said in a news conference at the government complex building in Seoul. South Korea is set to receiv

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

[#WeFACE] Japan’s contaminated water release will ‘play havoc’ on human health: ecologists, nuclear experts

Japan’s planned release of contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant will play havoc with human health and is more hazardous than that of Wolseong nuclear plant’s in 2016, experts say. Japan announced last week it would discharge more than 1.25 million metric tons of contaminated water from the nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, arguing the radioactive water will not pose a threat to human health. However, Korean experts warn high-risk radioactive mater

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

[#WeFACE] Jeju Island under threat from planned Fukushima wastewater release

Following the Japanese government’s decision to release wastewater from its Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, South Korea is concerned of the potential harm it will bring when the radioactive water reaches local seas. But concern is especially high for Jeju Island, the first province in Korea that would be affected by the contaminated water once it is gradually released from 2023 onward. Experts have warned in their research reports that the radioactive water would re

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

[Weekender] Seoul faces tough road ahead to stop Fukushima wastewater release

Since the Japanese government announced plans to dispose of radioactive wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant by releasing it into the sea, Seoul is scrambling to stop it from happening. At the very least, it wants Tokyo to provide transparent information to the international community. South Korea, Japan’s closest neighbor, views the discharge of more than 1 million tons of contaminated water as a threat to its people and the surrounding marine environment. Even though

Foreign AffairsApril 24, 2021

LPGA legend Pak Se-ri diagnosed with COVID-19

Retired South Korean LPGA legend Pak Se-ri said Saturday she has been diagnosed with COVID-19. Pak told Yonhap News Agency that she received a positive coronavirus test result Saturday morning after having come into contact with an infected musical actor during an online broadcast earlier this week. "I was told that an actor who joined me in a broadcast on April 21 tested positive for the coronavirus on April 23. I immediately took the coronavirus test and was given the positive result th

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

9 out of 10 stalking suspects go unpunished

More than 4,500 stalking cases were reported to police across the country last year, but offenders were punished by law in only 1 in 10 cases, police data showed Saturday. According to the National Police Agency's data released by an opposition lawmaker, police received reports of 4,515 stalking cases in 2020 but closed 4,027 cases, or 89.2 percent, on the scene without taking further action. Of the total, 1,444 cases were reported in Seoul. Offenders were punished by summary procedures or oth

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

S. Korea, Mexico share concerns about Japan's Fukushima decision

South Korea and Mexico shared concerns about Japan's planned release of contaminated water from its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant during a vice ministerial meeting, the foreign ministry here said Saturday. South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun, who is now on a nine-day trip to Latin America, met with Carmen Moreno Toscano, Mexico's undersecretary of Foreign Relations, in Mexico on Friday (local time) to discuss the Fukushima and other issues, the ministry said. At the talk

Foreign AffairsApril 24, 2021

New virus cases near 800 for 2nd day on increased cluster

  South Korea's daily new virus cases stayed in the high 700s for the second straight day Saturday as community infections and untraceable cases continued to rise across the country. The country reported 785 more COVID-19 cases, including 760 local infections, raising the total caseload to 118,243, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. The daily infections soared to the 700 range Wednesday, deepening woes over another wave of the pandemic in the country. Untraceable c

Social AffairsApril 24, 2021

Foreign ministry denies reports linking vaccine cooperation with US to Quad participation

The foreign ministry on Friday denied media reports speculating that South Korea was not included on the US list of potential foreign vaccine support because it has taken a negative stance about joining the US-led Quad forum. Major local dailies carried such reports, quoting the remarks by US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday (local time) that the US is willing to help other countries with vaccine supplies but it is more focused right now on first containing the disease dome

Foreign AffairsApril 23, 2021

South Korea grants conditional approval to COVID-19 self-test kits

COVID-19 self-test kits will hit stores in South Korea this month for the first time as the country looks to increase its virus testing capacity amid a continued resurgence in the number of new cases detected each day. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Friday that it had granted temporary use approval for two COVID-19 self-test kits, one made by SD Biosensor and the other by Humasis. The move will bring the self-test kits to local pharmacies and online stores by end of April or early M

Social AffairsApril 23, 2021

32 Navy sailors from same vessel test positive for COVID-19

At least 32 Navy sailors who serve on the same naval ship have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Friday. One Navy officer who serves on a landing ship underwent a virus test and tested positive after learning that a teacher of his child's day care center contracted COVID-19, according to the ministry. The child tested negative, however, and how the officer got infected is currently under investigation. Health authorities have found 31 more cases of his colle

DefenseApril 23, 2021

City of Seoul seizes cryptocurrencies from tax delinquents

The Seoul metropolitan government said Friday it has seized the cryptocurrencies of hundreds of top tax delinquents who hid their assets in digital form, becoming the country's first local government to do so. The city government said its tax collection department found the cryptocurrencies of 1,566 individuals and heads of companies in three cryptocurrency exchanges and seized more than 25 billion won ($22 million) in virtual assets from 676 of them. These 676 owed the government 28.4 billion

PoliticsApril 23, 2021

[Newsmaker] Police search public housing developer in bribery investigation

Police searched offices of a public housing corporation in Seoul on Friday as part of an investigation into bribery allegations involving its employees. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said investigators searched the headquarters and two branch offices of Seoul Housing and Communities Corp. (SH) affiliated with the city government. Three employees of the company are being probed over suspicions they took bribes from real estate agents operating in an SH-led housing development area. The

Social AffairsApril 23, 2021