Presidential candidates decry panel's decision to ban Yonhap articles from internet portals

Presidential candidates from the ruling party and the main opposition on Monday criticized a panel's decision to ban articles by Yonhap News Agency on mainstream internet portals. A committee jointly formed by leading web portals -- Naver and Daum -- in 2015 to evaluate news partnerships on Friday announced that the two portal operators should cancel their partnerships with Yonhap, in a measure that limits readers from viewing the agency's news articles on the portal sites for one year, as the

Nov. 15, 2021

Tourists arrive in S. Korea from Singapore on 'travel bubble'

The first tourists from Singapore since the start of the coronavirus pandemic arrived Monday in South Korea under a bilateral travel bubble agreement. A travel bubble refers to a quarantine-free travel partnership between two or more cities or countries with similar levels of COVID-19 cases. The tourists landed at Incheon International Airport earlier in the day and will be free to travel around the country without quarantine if they test negative on a polymerase chain reaction test, the Korea

Nov. 15, 2021

SIS students host fundraising event for young North Korean defectors

South Korean students at Seoul International School on Nov. 6 hosted a flea market to raise funds for young and teenage North Korean defectors suffering from economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. High school students at the school community club the Peace by Piece, which has continued its activities to support North Korean teen defectors for five years, held the flea market fundraising event in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. The flea market was co-organized by SIS and the Youth Forum of North

Nov. 15, 2021

Wider Seoul passes threshold for rollback into social distancing

Hospitals in Greater Seoul are seeing their intensive care rooms fill up again, just 14 days since South Korea began its phased return to normal. By Sunday afternoon, 76 percent of the capital city’s beds for the sickest patients with COVID-19 were full, crossing the threshold of 75 percent for triggering an emergency response. 　 Despite the figures, the government is not activating the emergency action plan, which involves restoring social distancing requirements and other curbs that h

Nov. 15, 2021

Customs office to conduct special crackdown on marijuana smuggling during Black Friday season

INCHEON -- The customs office at Incheon International Airport will launch a special crackdown on drug smuggling ahead of Black Friday and other seasonal sales in the United States, officials said Monday. The seven-week crackdown will last for seven weeks through the end of the year, officials said. Smuggling of marijuana could jump during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which fall after Thanksgiving in the fourth week of November, as discounts are offered during the holiday shopping period in

Nov. 15, 2021

[Us and Them] Korea’s division runs deeper than South and North

"When I met a new friend in Busan, he asked me where I was from. I said Gwangju and he called me a ‘Jeolladian.’ I did not know what it meant at first." A 20-something cellphone seller in Busan, S has lied about his hometown to his customers, not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble. "My customers would ask me where I was from," he said. "I did not say that I was from Gwangju because I thought it would not benefit me in any way if I told them the truth

Nov. 15, 2021

Seoul increases nighttime taxi services amid 'living with COVID-19'-driven growth in demand

The Seoul city government will temporarily lift operating day restrictions on privately-owned taxis in an effort to increase nighttime taxi services, as eased anti-virus restrictions are jacking up demand for nocturnal transportation, officials said Monday. The city will temporarily remove the restrictions under which privately-owned cabs were required to take every third day off, allowing them to run services in the nighttime period from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. on the otherwise off day, the city gove

Nov. 15, 2021

Police to deploy over 10,000 officers for college exam-related security

About 10,000 police officers will be deployed for security and safety activities related to this week's College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), the National Police Agency (NPA) said Monday. On Thursday, about 509,800 high school seniors and graduates are set to take this year's CSAT, seen as one of the nation's most important annual academic events. The NPA said 10,506 officers will be mobilized to safeguard the delivery of exam papers and answer sheets from Monday to Thursday and guard the te

Nov. 15, 2021

New cases over 2,000 for 6th straight day amid eased virus rules

South Korea on Monday reported more than 2,000 daily coronavirus cases for six days in a row, fueling worries of a surge in COVID-19 infections after the country relaxed its virus-related restrictions early this month. The country reported 2,006 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,986 local infections, raising the total caseload to 397,466, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The number of daily cases has stayed in the quadruple digits since July 7, with the tally peaking

Nov. 15, 2021

[News Focus] Seoul, Busan take lead in slashing Korea’s gender ratio

SEJONG -- The number of men and boys in South Korea has continued to decline since August 2019 on a monthly basis, which has led the gender ratio -- the number of men per 100 women – to fall to an all-time low, government data showed. It has been found that Seoul and Busan -- the nation’s top two populous cities -- have taken the initiative in widening the gender disparity in demographic figures. According to the data held by the Ministry Interior and Safety, the male population p

Nov. 14, 2021

Living with COVID: ICUs near capacity amid new surge

Two weeks into Korea’s “living with COVID-19” scheme, the number of critically ill patients in intensive care is inching closer to the government’s threshold. The number of coronavirus patients undergoing intensive care treatment reached 483 as of Saturday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The figure is just short of the record high of 485 reported on the previous day. Of the 483 critically ill patients, 82.2 percent were over the age of 6

Nov. 14, 2021

New COVID-19 cases stay over 2,000 for 5th straight day amid relaxed virus curbs

South Korea's COVID-19 cases stayed above 2,000 for the fifth consecutive day Sunday amid worries over a resurgence of infections, as the country relaxed its social distancing restrictions earlier this month in line with the campaign of "living with COVID-19." Throughout the previous day, 2,419 new coronavirus cases were confirmed nationwide, raising the total caseload to 395,460, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). The daily caseload has stayed in th

Nov. 14, 2021

Korea extends overseas travel advisory until Dec. 13

Korea has extended its special advisory against overseas travel for another month due to the continued spread of COVID-19, the foreign ministry said Saturday.    Citizens are recommended to cancel or postpone non-essential trips abroad until Dec. 13, as the rise of variant cases in many countries poses risks to their health, the ministry said.    The travel advisory was first imposed in March and has been extended every month as many countries struggle with the outbreaks o

Nov. 13, 2021

New infections above 2,000 for 4th day amid woes over serious cases

    South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed above 2,000 for the fourth consecutive day Saturday amid concerns over a growing number of serious cases following eased virus curbs.    The country reported 2,325 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 393,042, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).    The daily caseload has stayed in the quadruple digits since July 7, including the record high of 3,272 cases on Sept. 2

Nov. 13, 2021

Korea launches COVID-19 vaccine safety committee

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Friday launched a COVID-19 immunization safety surveillance and research committee, to be operated by the National Academy of Medicine of Korea. The committee’s head Dr. Park Byung-joo, the national academy’s vice president, said the committee aimed to provide a scientific basis for assessing each adverse event’s potential link to vaccination. Asked how the committee’s role would differ from the KDCA’s existing

Nov. 12, 2021

Natl. Security Office, Coast Guard ordered to disclose info on NK killing of S. Korean official

Cheong Wa Dae's National Security Office (NSO) and the Coast Guard were ordered Friday to provide undisclosed information in connection to North Korea's killing of a South Korean fisheries official near the inter-Korean sea border in September last year to his family. The Seoul Administrative Court made the ruling in an information disclosure suit launched by the family of the then 47-year-old official, who was fatally shot and then set on fire by North Korean soldiers while on duty near the we

Nov. 12, 2021

Korea sees record-high ICU admissions for COVID-19 for third day in row

South Korea marked a record high for a third consecutive day in the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals’ intensive care units, amid the country’s phased return to normal. According to a situation report from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 475 COVID-19 patients were undergoing intensive care treatment as of Thursday at midnight, on top of the 4,178 patients who were hospitalized but did not require intensive care. In Seoul, which accounted for abo

Nov. 12, 2021

5 Vietnamese sentenced to prison for going on rampage with weapons at apartment complex

JEONJU -- An appeals court upheld prison sentences for five illegal immigrants from Vietnam for attacking each other with weapons in a fight over unpaid wages at an apartment complex in the southwestern city of Jeonju earlier this year, court records showed Friday. The incident happened on April 12 when a 33-year-old Vietnamese punched and stabbed a 39-year-old coworker in an apartment complex parking lot in Jeonju, about 245 kilometers southwest of Seoul. One of the three other Vietnamese han

Nov. 12, 2021

Man faces conviction for secretly peeing on stranger

Secretly urinating on a stranger constitutes forced molestation, the Supreme Court said Friday, overturning a not guilty verdict by lower courts. The unnamed defendant in the unusual legal case was charged with secretly peeing on a girl's hair, hoody and padded jumper from behind while she was talking on a cell phone on a bench at an apartment playground in the central city of Daejeon around 11 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2019. The 33-year-old defendant, known only as a theater actor, allegedly committed

Nov. 12, 2021

2.1 magnitude quake hits southeastern city of Pohang: KMA

A 2.1 magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern city of Pohang early Friday but is not expected to cause any damage, the state weather agency said. The quake occurred at 1:31 a.m. in a region about 12 kilometers north of the Buk ward office in Pohang, some 375 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The epicenter was at a depth of 8 km. The quake's tremor was recorded at Level 2 on the seismic intensity scale in North Gyeongsang Provinc

Nov. 12, 2021