Korea explores new birth registration policy for non-Korean babies

The Ministry of Justice is accelerating its efforts to implement a birth registration system for non-Korean children born in South Korea, in a bid to provide legal status to newborns, regardless of their parents’ social and legal status. On Monday, the ministry held a policy committee meeting and deliberated on introducing a “foreign child birth registration system.” As the current system is riddled with problems, the ministry has been pushing for the enactment of a special l

Feb. 16, 2021

Volleyball players accused of bullying likely to lose future coaching opportunities

South Korean professional volleyball players recently suspended for bullying their former school teammates will face hurdles when seeking coaching opportunities in the future, the sport's national governing body said Tuesday. Volleyball's V-League is reeling from a bullying scandal centered on two of the biggest stars in the women's division, Lee Jae-yeong and her twin sister Lee Da-yeong of the Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders. The 24-year-old sisters have admitted to allegations of physical, verbal

Feb. 16, 2021

Over 5,000 virus rule violations reported during Lunar New Year holiday

Over 5,000 violations of antivirus measure were reported to authorities on the eve and during the extended Lunar New Year holiday last week amid the third wave of coronavirus pandemic, officials said Tuesday. According to the Central Disease Control Headquarters, the interior ministry received a total of 5,615 reports of breaches in anti-COVID-19 protocols between Wednesday and Sunday. This year's Lunar New Year holiday fell from Thursday through Sunday. Ahead of the holiday, the government

Feb. 16, 2021

New virus cases bounce back to over 400; deals signed to secure additional vaccines

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back to over 400 on Tuesday after the four-day-long Lunar New Year holiday, while the government signed deals to secure additional COVID-19 vaccines to better fight the pandemic. The country reported 457 more COVID-19 cases, including 429 local infections, raising the total caseload to 84,325, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country added seven more deaths, raising the total to 1,534. Tuesday's daily caseload w

Feb. 16, 2021

JCS civilian employee tests positive for COVID-19

A civilian employee working at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has tested positive for the new coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. The employee, working at the defense ministry compound in Yongsan, central Seoul, was confirmed the previous day to have contracted the virus, marking the first such case among JCS personnel. It is the first time since November for a COVID-19 case to be reported at the Yongsan compound, where the headquarters of the defense ministry and the JCS are located. Som

Feb. 16, 2021

Minor quake hits S. Korea's western coastal region

A 2.5-magnitude earthquake struck South Korea's lower western coastal region on Monday evening, with no damage reported, the weather agency said. The quake occurred in a region 10 kilometers east-northeast of Gunsan, located about 270 km south of Seoul, in North Jeolla Province at 6:59 p.m., according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. The epicenter was at 35.99 degrees north latitude and 126.84 degrees east longitude at a depth of 14 km. "(Those who are in) regions near the af

Feb. 15, 2021

9 ex, current maritime police officials acquitted of botched rescue activities in Sewol ferry sinking

A Seoul court on Monday acquitted former and current maritime police officials of mishandling the rescue operation during the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people. The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Suk-kyoon, then chief of the Korea Coast Guard, and eight other former and current senior maritime police officials not guilty of professional negligence in one of the country's worst peacetime disasters. Delivering the ruling, judge Yang Chul-han said the pro

Feb. 15, 2021

[Newsmaker] In Korean sports, medals cover a multitude of sins

South Korean sports’ “medals-only” meritocracy is revealing its dark side after patterns of violent behavior were laid bare, shocking sports fans and the public. On Monday the Incheon Heungkuk Life Insurance Pink Spiders, a women’s professional volleyball team, announced the indefinite suspension of twin sisters Lee Jae-young and Lee Da-young over assaults they had perpetrated on classmates in middle school. It was only the latest scandal related to violence and bully

Feb. 15, 2021

Korea advises against AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 65

The AstraZeneca vaccine will not be used on those aged 65 and over for the time being, the Korean government committee for COVID-19 immunization said Monday, citing insufficient evidence on how well the vaccine works for the age group. As Korea’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines would be from AstraZeneca, changes to the country’s vaccination plan appear inevitable. The country had planned to give the first jabs to those over 65 alongside front-line health care workers. “Pri

Feb. 15, 2021

Seoul to temporarily ease rules on foreign seasonal workers

South Korea will temporarily ease rules on the employment of foreign seasonal workers in the agriculture and fisheries sectors to cope with the labor shortage aggravated by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Justice said Monday. Under the temporary deregulatory measure, foreigners who are staying here without a work visa or overstayers unable to return home due to COVID-19 will be permitted to work at local farming and fishing villages for up to 13 months, the ministry said. I

Feb. 15, 2021

Cat tests positive for COVID-19 in Seoul's 1st case involving pet

A cat living with a family infected with COVID-19 has tested positive for the coronavirus in Seoul's first case involving a pet, the city government said Monday. The female, 4-to-5-year-old cat was tested Saturday after she showed symptoms, including vomiting and lethargy. The result came back positive Sunday, and the cat was sent to a city-run animal welfare center to quarantine, according to the local government. "The cat is being taken care of at the animal welfare center because its

Feb. 15, 2021

Child abuse reports in February double from last year

Reports of child abuse made to the police over the past two weeks nearly doubled compared with a year ago amid heightened awareness, the police said Monday. Police said they had run a Lunar New Year’s security campaign from Feb. 1 through Sunday and that the daily average number of child abuse reports during the period was 47 cases, compared with 24 cases a year ago. “Child abuse reports rose sharply upon growing awareness,” an official with the National Police Agency said.

Feb. 15, 2021

Cold wave advisory issued for Seoul and most parts of Korea

A cold wave advisory will be issued in Seoul and almost all other parts of the nation Monday night, as a cold snap is forecast to grip the nation for three days or longer this week, the weather agency said. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the cold wave advisory will take effect at 9 p.m. in Seoul and many other major cities and regions, including Busan, Daegu, Gwangju and Daejeon. The advisory is issued when the morning low is below minus 12 C for more than two consecutive d

Feb. 15, 2021

S. Korea to temporarily ease bird flu-related culling rules

South Korea said Monday it plans to temporarily ease precautionary measures against bird flu as the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza has slowed. The country plans to destroy the same kind of poultry within a 1-kilometer radius of infected farms for the next two weeks, when bird flu cases are reported, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The country has so far culled 26 million poultry under its policy of destroying all birds within a 3-km radius of infe

Feb. 15, 2021

New infections in 300s for 3rd day; distancing rules eased for small businesses

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases stayed in the 300s for the third consecutive day Monday on fewer tests during the Lunar New Year holiday, with social distancing measures eased to help small businesses whose operations have been in limbo over tougher regulations. The country reported 344 more COVID-19 cases, including 323 local infections, raising the total caseload to 83,869, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The country added five more deaths, raising the

Feb. 15, 2021

Police raid religious group over breach of virus rules

DAEJEON -- Police on Monday raided the headquarters of a local Christian missionary group over suspected violations of antivirus protocols that led to a large outbreak of the coronavirus. Investigators have been seizing computer hard drives and documents from the International Mission headquarters in Daejeon, 164 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the police. IM has been blamed for more than 400 cases of the coronavirus at its facilities, including at the IEM School in Daejeon. The city

Feb. 15, 2021

Number of discouraged female workers hits new high in 2019

The number of discouraged female workers in South Korea hit an all-time high in January due to a tough employment situation amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Monday. The country had 359,000 discouraged female workers in January, up 65.5 percent, or 142,000, from a year earlier and setting a new record, according to the data from the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS). Last month, the overall number of discouraged workers in Asia's fourth-largest economy came to

Feb. 15, 2021

Inter-Korean reunification activist Paek Ki-wan dies at 88

Paek Ki-wan, who devoted his life to the reunification of the two Koreas and labor and social issues, died in hospital Monday, hospital officials said. He was 88. According to Seoul National University Hospital and his aides, Paek had been in the hospital since January of last year with symptoms of pneumonia. Born in 1932 in what is now Unnyul in North Korea's South Hwanghae Province, he came to the South in 1946 after graduating from elementary school there. Suffering emotional distress du

Feb. 15, 2021

[News Focus] Korea 26th of 33 OECD members in foreign residents’ share of population

SEJONG -- The number of registered foreign residents in South Korea came to 1.27 million at the end of 2019, making up 2.4 percent of the population of 51.84 million. The nation saw its foreign population climb quickly, from 1.7 percent a decade earlier in 2009 when 870,600 of Korea’s 49.77 million people where non-citizens. But the figure for Korea is still behind of the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which compared 33 of its total 37 members for

Feb. 14, 2021

Korea reports first COVID-19 fatality involving patient in 20s

A patient in his or her mid-20s died Friday, becoming the youngest in Korea and the first under 30 to die with COVID-19, health officials said over the weekend. The Busan patient, who had preexisting complications from a cerebrovascular disease, died just a day after being confirmed with COVID-19, according to the city office. Before symptoms appeared Thursday, the day of diagnosis, the patient had yielded negative results in PCR tests for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. In a

Feb. 14, 2021