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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 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

April 24, 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

April 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

April 23, 2021

Govt. to decide on conditional approvals of 2 virus self-test kits: acting PM

Health authorities plan to decide Friday whether to conditionally approve the use of two types of COVID-19 self-test kits, acting Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki said, as the country aims to further boost its testing capacity. "Unless there are unexpected events, the government will decide on the conditional approvals of two self-test kits to allow their temporary use before official approvals," Hong said during a daily interagency meeting on the coronavirus response. The results will be

April 23, 2021

New COVID-19 infections nearing 800, rising untraceable cases portend further spike

South Korea's daily new virus cases neared 800 on Friday as growing untraceable cases, coupled with cluster infections, continued to hamper the country's virus fight against the pandemic. The country conditionally approved the use of COVID-19 self-test kits to beef up its testing capacity. The country reported 797 more COVID-19 cases, including 758 local infections, raising the total caseload to 117,458, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily caseload has been

April 23, 2021

Church group leader prays for democracy in talks to Myanmar prime minister

South Korean churches have begun raising funds to support Myanmar’s democracy activists, chief of a church group here told the leader of Myanmar’s anti-junta National Unity Government on Wednesday. So Kang-suk, pastor and leader of the United Christian Churches of Korea, one of the country’s biggest associations of Protestant churches, told Mahn Win Khaing Than, prime minister of the NUG, in a video call that he prays for democracy to come swiftly to Myanmar.  The NUG wa

April 22, 2021

Korea delays serious COVID-19 vaccine adverse report, again

South Korea’s national health agency once again put off announcing a case of a serious adverse event following COVID-19 vaccination, inviting concerns that it may mar public trust in the program. The latest case, the report of which was filed with the agency as early as April 9, went unaddressed until after a press leak Tuesday evening forced the disclosure. According to officials in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, a previously healthy civil servant was taken to the hospital on Apr

April 22, 2021

No. of chickens dips to over 3-year low in Q1 amid bird flu

The number of layer chickens raised in South Korea fell to the lowest in more than three years in the first quarter, affected by the outbreak of bird flu across the nation, data showed Thursday. The number of layer chickens reached 62.1 million as of end-March, down 14.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest number since the third quarter of 2017, when the number of such chickens came to 51 million. The number of ducks raised in the cou

April 22, 2021