[Newsmaker] Coffee shops, bars, internet cafes join protest against virus restrictions

Coffee shops, bars and internet cafes have joined a growing list of businesses protesting the government's coronavirus restrictions, with shop owners lighting signboards, staging demonstrations and petitioning the Constitutional Court. The shop owners say the restrictions are applied unfairly, allowing some businesses to reopen while shuttering others, and without any promise of proper compensation for their losses. The complaints have grown since the government extended Level 2.5 social dista

Social AffairsJan. 6, 2021

Correctional staff to be tested for virus weekly, more facilities to undergo mass testing

South Korea's government on Wednesday said it will test weekly all correctional employees nationwide for the coronavirus to slow down its rapid spread and prevent mass outbreaks. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), all staff working at correctional facilities will receive quick tests to detect bits of coronavirus proteins called antigens. The test is slightly less accurate than laboratory tests called PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, but produces results withi

Social AffairsJan. 6, 2021

[Newsmaker] Public sharply divided over pardons for two ex-presidents in jail: poll

South Koreans were almost evenly divided on the idea of granting pardons to two former presidents currently in prison for corruption charges, a hotly debated topic recently brought up by the ruling party chief, a survey showed Wednesday. In a one-day survey by Realmeter conducted on 500 voters nationwide on Tuesday, 47.7 percent of respondents said they were in favor of providing amnesty to Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, while 48 percent said they were against the idea. The remaining 4.3 perc

PoliticsJan. 6, 2021

S. Korea culls 13.6m poultry as highly pathogenic bird flu cases near 50

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Wednesday it has completed culling 13.6 million poultry as a preventive measure to cope with the rising number of highly pathogenic bird flu cases from local farms, with the total caseload approaching closer to 50. Under the country's quarantine guideline, all birds within a 3-kilometer radius of infected farms should be culled, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. They included 10.8 million chickens. The ministry confirmed

Social AffairsJan. 6, 2021

PM orders measures to address unfairness complaints on forced gym closures

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Wednesday demanded authorities come up with measures to address growing complaints from owners of commercial gyms forced to shut down for weeks under strict social distancing schemes. Indoor gyms in the capital area are subject to an assembly ban under Level 2.5 social distancing measures, which were recently extended by two weeks until Jan. 17. In announcing the extension, however, the government allowed ballet and taekwondo schools to hold classes of up to nin

Social AffairsJan. 6, 2021

New cases below 1,000 for 2nd day amid tentative signs of slowdown

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed below 1,000 for the second consecutive day on Wednesday amid signs of a slowdown, while nursing homes and churches continued to be hot spots for virus outbreaks despite extended virus curbs. The country added 840 more COVID-19 cases, including 809 local infections, raising the total caseload to 65,818, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Wednesday's daily caseload rose from 715 on Tuesday but fell sharply from 1,

Social AffairsJan. 6, 2021

S. Korea, US conduct combined air exercise amid coronavirus

South Korea and the United States conducted their wintertime combined exercise last month amid concerns over the new coronavirus pandemic, a military source said Wednesday. The allies held a scaled-back version of their original wintertime drills, codenamed Vigilant Ace, from Dec. 7-11, involving fighters, such as F-15K and KF-16 jets from South Korea and F-16s from the US, according to the source. The annual Vigilant Ace exercise was replaced with a smaller training starting in 2018 to suppor

DefenseJan. 6, 2021

US should not lose sight of progress made with N. Korea: DeTrani

The incoming US administration of Joe Biden should recognize the progress made with North Korea so far and reengage the North in denuclearization talks to build on such progress, a former US nuclear negotiator said Tuesday. Joseph DeTrani also argued North Korea would be willing to come back to the negotiating table. "President Donald Trump and his two summits had success, certainly in Singapore, with that joint statement, that declaration coming out of Singapore that spoke about a transf

North KoreaJan. 6, 2021

NK leader admits economic failure as he opens party congress

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has admitted the failure to meet the country's economic development goals as he opened the ruling party's first congress in nearly five years, state media said Wednesday. Kim made the acknowledgement in his opening speech for the eighth congress of the Workers' Party, which took place in Pyongyang on Tuesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency. The party congress, the North's biggest political event, was launched amid expectations the North will unveil

North KoreaJan. 6, 2021

54 violations of quarantine measures identified

The government’s joint inspection team for checking social distancing measures caught a karaoke bar in Gyeonggi Province that received customers through an online prebooking system on Dec. 22. The bar had turned off its outside signboards and closed the doors. The inspection team went undercover near the bar and spotted customers walking out at around 11 p.m. This was one of 54 cases of violation of quarantine measures identified so far. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Tuesd

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

Namsan Park’s noise-free, pollution-free operation kicks off

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it will replace all 27 buses on four of the green circuit bus lines that travel along the Namsan Park area with electric, low-floor buses. The bus routes go to Namsan Park, Myeong-dong, Seoul Station, Insa-dong, and the main palace Gyeongbokgung. The city will ban diesel tour buses that used to pick up and carry group tourists from entering Namsan Park. Namsan Park was designated a “clean-air district” in 2015, showing off i

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

S. Korea passes 1,000 COVID-19 deaths

More than 1,000 people in South Korea had lost their lives to COVID-19 as of Monday at midnight. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Tuesday announced 26 more deaths from the previous day, bringing the death toll to 1,007. The country reported its first death from the virus on Feb. 20 last year. The third surge of the pandemic in Korea is proving to be the deadliest yet. About half of all deaths in the country had taken place between the first day of December and Tuesday. The

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

N. Korea requests vaccine from global group despite zero COVID claims

North Korea has sent an application to secure a coronavirus vaccine supply from a global group that helps low-income countries with inoculations, the Wall Street Journal said Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter, adding it has reached out to several European embassies asking about vaccines. Gavi, an international vaccine alliance that helps impoverished countries vaccinate their people, declined to comment on North Korea’s application. The group is assessing the demand in diffe

North KoreaJan. 5, 2021

Ex-presidents' pardon debate continues within DP despite strong objection from base supporters

The political debate over the idea of offering pardons to two convicted former presidents continued to reverberate within the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Tuesday, despite an earlier backlash from the party's base supporters. DP Chairman Lee Nak-yon stated Friday that he would ask President Moon Jae-in to grant pardons to Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak -- two former conservative presidents in jail on corruption and influence-peddling charges -- at an appropriate time in order to transcend p

PoliticsJan. 5, 2021

S. Korea confirms three more highly pathogenic bird flu cases

South Korea said Tuesday it has identified three more highly pathogenic bird flu cases from local poultry farms to raise the total caseload to 46. Authorities said they have found the highly contagious H5N8 strain of avian influenza in Buan, 280 kilometers south of Seoul, and the central city of Sejong, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. Earlier in the day, South Korea also found another case from a duck farm in Cheonan, 92 kilometers south of Seoul. The minist

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

Season's coldest weather to grip S. Korea this week

South Korea is forecast to come under the grip of the season's coldest weather later this week, with the morning lows dipping to minus 17 C in the greater Seoul area and minus 23 C in Chuncheon, 85 kilometers east of Seoul, the state-run weather agency said Tuesday. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) has issued a cold wave alert or advisory for Seoul and the central regions, warning that temperatures will be as low as around minus 20 C there between Thursday and Saturday. The KMA ex

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

[News Focus] 3 in 7 women from North choose South Korean husbands

SEJONG -- South Korea is home to about 35,000 defectors from North Korea. Recent government agency data revealed sharp gender disparities in their spouses’ countries of origin. The analysis concerns country of origin only, regardless of whether the defectors’ spouses have acquired South Korean citizenship. According to Statistics Korea and the Korea Hana Foundation, at least 3 out of every 7 female married defectors -- 43.3 percent -- had South Korean-born spouses as of 2019. The

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

Seoul demands release of S. Korean tanker seized by Iran, sends military

Seoul is scrambling to respond to the seizure of a South Korea-flagged tanker by Iran, sending a Navy unit to the Strait of Hormuz and summoning Tehran’s envoy to Seoul demanding the immediate release of the vessel and its crew. 　   　 South Korea’s Foreign Ministry is to dispatch a delegation to Iran soon for talks to free the tanker and its sailors, while First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun is planning to visit Tehran early next week.　   　 Cheong Wa Dae’s Nati

Foreign AffairsJan. 5, 2021

S. Korea reports 2 more British COVID-19 variant cases

South Korea's health authorities on Tuesday confirmed two more cases of a more transmissible variant from arrivals from Britain, bringing the total caseload here to 12. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the two people, who entered the country on Dec. 13 and Dec. 20 from Britain, respectively, were confirmed to have the new COVID-19 strain. The two tested positive for COVID-19 after landing and were immediately quarantined, meaning others in the community had no contac

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021

Annual bar exam starts after govt. lifts ban on COVID-19 patients

The national bar examination began across South Korea on Tuesday, one day after the Ministry of Justice reversed its earlier decision to ban anybody infected with the new coronavirus from sitting for the annual exam. The ministry initially planned to prohibit anybody diagnosed with COVID-19 from taking the bar exam scheduled to continue through Saturday. It had only planned to offer separate test sites for those put under self-quarantine or with suspected coronavirus symptoms. But the ministry

Social AffairsJan. 5, 2021