S. Korea to temporarily allow visa-free entry for tourists from Japan, Taiwan, Macau

Travelers from Japan, Taiwan and Macau will be temporarily allowed to enter South Korea without a visa this month, Seoul city said Wednesday. The city has pushed for the visa waiver program in consultation with the culture, justice and foreign ministries, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency since June. Travel to South Korea has been hampered by the lengthy time needed to get a tourist visa. The process takes three to four weeks in Japan. Seoul expects the visa exemption poli

Aug. 3, 2022

112 Thais denied entry into S. Korea for alleged attempt at illegal job-hunting

A total of 112 Thais were denied entry for an alleged attempt at illegal job-hunting after their arrival on the southern island of Jeju earlier this week, officials said Wednesday. Of 184 Thai nationals who arrived at Jeju International Airport from Bangkok on Tuesday morning, 125 underwent reexamination for their entry, according to the Jeju Immigration Service. Of them, 110 were flown back home late Tuesday night. Two others who had been staying at the airport were also sent back for the sam

Aug. 3, 2022

The tricky calculus of second boosters in mostly breakthrough-infected Korea

This spring, South Korea saw one of the highest case rates of the original COVID-19 variant omicron BA.1 and its “sibling” BA.2 in the world. Now the country is distributing a second round of boosters to fight the most recently dominant BA.5, another omicron subvariant. The initial omicron surge that lasted from late January through April led to about 16 million cases here, peaking at a one-day high of 621,147 cases on March 17, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention

Aug. 3, 2022

Government backpedals on lower school entry age

The South Korean government has backed away from plans it announced just days ago to lower the age at which children begin school to 5, but without actually scrapping the policy. Rep. Kang Deuk-gu of the Democratic Party on Wednesday unveiled a survey of 131,070 parents, students and school teaching staff, which showed 97.9 percent disapproved of the reform. The survey, conducted between Monday and early Wednesday, said 95.2 percent of the respondents were strongly against the reform. About

Aug. 3, 2022

[Newsmaker] Alumni slam university for overlooking the first lady’s alleged plagiarism

Kookmin University is facing backlash from alumni, current students and the main opposition party over its decision regarding first lady Kim Keon-hee’s papers. Kookmin University, where Kim attended her Ph.D. program, announced after eight months of investigation on Monday that among Kim’s four controversial papers, doctoral dissertation and two articles published in academic journals had no sign of plagiarism, saying “they do not correspond to plagiarism or cheating to the ex

Aug. 3, 2022

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases rise to over 3-month high, cumulative cases top 20m

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rose further on Wednesday amid a fresh wave of infections driven by a highly infectious omicron variant. The country added 119,922 new COVID-19 infections, including 600 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 20,052,305, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The nation, with a population of 51.6 million, reached the grim milestone 2 1/2 years after its first COVID-19 case was reported on Jan. 20, 2020. Wednesday's figure wa

Aug. 3, 2022

Yoon orders public discussion on plan to lower school entry age

President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered the education ministry to swiftly put to public debate the government's proposal to lower the elementary school starting age by one year to 5, an official said Tuesday. Yoon also instructed the ministry to play a role in facilitating bipartisan discussions about the plan in the National Assembly because the plan is subject to parliamentary approval, said senior presidential secretary for social affairs Ahn Sang-hoon. "Even if necessary reforms are ne

Aug. 2, 2022

Asan Medical Center nurse dies after collapsing while on duty

A nursing staff member at Asan Medical Center, Seoul’s largest general hospital, died late last month after collapsing while on duty, local reports said Tuesday. The reports, which were based on an anonymous post on Blind, a social app for workplace-related talk amongst verified workers, said the nurse fell unconscious in the wee hours of July 24, showing symptoms of a brain hemorrhage.  But the hospital with over 2,700 beds had no neurosurgeon who could give an emergency surgery

Aug. 2, 2022

Electricity use hits all-time high in July amid heat wave

South Korea's electricity consumption reached a record monthly high last month, as the country was gripped by a sweltering heat wave, the power operator said Tuesday. The country's average maximum power consumption came to 82,007 megawatts (MW) in July, up 1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Power Exchange (KPX). It marked the highest level since the government began compiling related data in 2005. The previous record was set in July 2021, when the figure stood at 81,

Aug. 2, 2022

Police bureau officially comes into being

A police bureau came officially into being at the interior ministry Tuesday, marking the first time in 31 years for the ministry to have an organization overseeing the law enforcement agency. The bureau's establishment came after some front-line police officers protested strongly against the envisioned organization that they claim would put police under political influence and compromise their political neutrality. The government has stressed that the bureau is necessary to keep massive pol

Aug. 2, 2022

New infections at over 3-month high; imported cases at all-time high

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases sharply rose to over 110,000 on Tuesday as a highly infectious omicron variant has fueled a surge of new infections. The country added 111,789 new COVID-19 infections, including 568 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,932,439, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Daily cases tend to increase through the mid-week before falling again on weekends and Mondays on fewer tests. Tuesday's figure jumped from the previous day

Aug. 2, 2022

Backlash against lowering elementary school entry age intensifies

Opposition from the education community and parents against the Ministry of Education’s elementary school entry age reorganization plan is intensifying. On Friday, at the meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol, Education Minister Park Soon-ae reported the plan to gradually lower the enrollment age at elementary schools to 5 years old starting as early as 2025. The plan was never mentioned in Yoon’s campaign pledges or in state affairs announced at the presidential transition committe

Aug. 1, 2022

What we need is consistency: Unmasking the criminal suspects

On July 17, a freshman at Inha University in Incheon, was formally arrested on charges of raping and causing the death of his schoolmate. Shocked that such a terrible crime took place inside the campus, people demanded that the suspect’s identity be disclosed, but police decided not to reveal it on the grounds that the suspect’s charge does not belong to the six major crimes subject to personal information disclosure. The decision reignited a decades-long controversy over the discl

Aug. 1, 2022

S. Korea’s Transport Minister mentions Uber as last resort to solve late-night taxi shortage

South Korea’s Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong said on Sunday evening that the country could consider implementing ride-sharing services like Uber to fight off the country’s dire nighttime taxi shortage. During a speech posted to his personal YouTube channel, Won said the government would first try other measures to relieve the taxi shortage and, if unsolved, may introduce car- and ride-sharing services as “last resort.” Uber entered South Korea in 2013, but withdrew

Aug. 1, 2022

[Newsmaker] Negligence outstrips alcohol as leading cause of road deaths

Around a fortnight ago, emergency operators in North Chungcheong Province received a call from a driver who suffered second-degree burns while driving. The cause of the accident? Trying to enjoy a bowl of hot noodles while driving on the freeway, for some reason. What seems to be a random act of foolishness is actually linked to the leading cause of traffic accidents and deaths in South Korea: failure to drive safely. Article 48 of the Road Traffic Act stipulates every drivers’ duty of

Aug. 1, 2022

Opposition growing among teachers, parents to govt. plan to lower school entry age to 5

Opposition is growing among teachers and parents alike to the government's plan to move up the elementary school starting age by one year to 5 starting as early as 2025. Reporting this year's key policy plans to President Yoon Suk-yeol last week, the education ministry said it will soon begin discussions on the plan to lower the school starting age from the current 6 to 5 and implement it in 2025 at the earliest upon social consensus. Through the plan, the government seeks to take on m

Aug. 1, 2022

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases at 44,689; serious cases hit 2-month high

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 50,000 on Monday on fewer virus tests during the weekend, but the number of seriously ill patients reached a two-month high amid a virus resurgence fueled by a highly contagious omicron subvariant. The country added 44,689 new COVID-19 infections, including 436 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,820,739, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Monday's figure sharply fell from the previous day's 73,589 due mainly to f

Aug. 1, 2022

[Newsmaker] Bodies of North Koreans wash up in the south. What happens next?

Last week, another corpse thought to be of a North Korean was recovered from the South Korean side of the Imjin River, which flows from North Korea and crosses the border. The deceased, a woman, was wearing a badge with portraits of the North’s two former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, according to local police investigators. It was the fourth time in July that a body suspected to be of a North Korean was found washed up in the South. The three other bodies wore no badge to indica

July 31, 2022

Lowering elementary school entry age sparks debate

A proposal to allow all children to enter elementary school one year earlier at 5 years old, starting as early as 2025, has been met with support and criticism from the education sector. On Friday, Education Minister Park Soon-ae directly reported the reform of the school system, which would require amending the country’s education law, to President Yoon Suk-yeol at the presidential office in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. Yoon ordered Park to push for the reform “immediately,” a

July 31, 2022

New COVID-19 cases at 73,589; serious cases hit 2-month high

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases fell below 80,000 for the first time in about a week, but the number of seriously ill patients hit a two-month high amid a virus wave driven by a highly contagious omicron subvariant, according to the nation's health authorities Sunday. The country added 73,589 new COVID-19 infections, including 341 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,776,050, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Sunday's figure is down from the previous day's

July 31, 2022