Middle school student arrested for throwing firecrackers at police patrol division

A middle school student has been arrested for throwing firecrackers at a police patrol division in Daegu on Wednesday. According to Daegu Gangbuk Police Station, the student is accused of throwing a set of firecrackers at a police outpost located in Buk-gu, a district located in northwestern Daegu, at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday. He ran away right after but was caught by the police within 10 minutes. No one was injured due to the firecrackers, but parts of the sidewalk near the patrol division were da

June 7, 2023

Police arrest man who murdered father who threw away diary

Anyang Manan Police Station said Wednesday it had arrested a man in his 30s for murdering his father, after he threw away his diary. The man is suspected of stabbing his father several times while he was sleeping, at around 8:54 p.m. on Tuesday. After he committed the crime, he called the police and said that he had “killed his father.” The man said that he had committed the crime due to a sudden rush of anger. The police plan to seek a warrant for his further detention after further

June 7, 2023

Pride parade to take to Euljiro streets after Seoul Plaza refusal

The annual Seoul Queer Culture Festival parade this year, which had struggled to secure a venue due to the city's refusal of its request to use Seoul Plaza, will be held on July 1 starting in Euljiro 2-ga, Seoul, the organizing committee said Wednesday. The organizing committee expects more than 50,000 people to participate in the parade alone and 150,000 in all festival events. The parade starts from Euljiro but the route will include Seoul Plaza, they said. “The meaning of the Pride

June 7, 2023

Luxury apartment ad sparks criticism for inciting classism

The wording of an advertisement for an apartment complex in southern Seoul sparked criticism on Wednesday for inciting classism. The ad for a residential complex called The Palace 73 read: “We've built this for those who've always dreamt of an unequal world." The builder said the apartment aspires to be South Korea’s own version of Central Park in New York, establishing a new standard for luxurious living space for centuries to come. As the ad came under attack online,

June 7, 2023

Jeju population declining as young Koreans leave

The population in Jeju has been shrinking, as young people leave the southern resort island in search of jobs. According to the nation's population registry released by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security Wednesday, 677,057 Korean citizens were registered as residents in Jeju as of May, down 1,102 from 678,159 in December last year. The population is declining as the number of births decreases, the number of incoming people from other regions to Jeju decreases, and the youth

June 7, 2023

Hydrogen to power all Incheon Airport buses by 2030

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday plans to have all 450 shuttle buses running between Incheon Airport and Seoul powered by clean energy by 2030. Currently, all 450 airport buses are diesel-powered. Airport shuttle buses run about 550 kilometers a day on average -- shuttling from the airport to a final destination twice a day -- double that of city buses, meaning the amount of carbon they emit is 30 times more than that of sedans, according to Seoul city. In Seoul city's

June 7, 2023

Police bust drug ring suspected of peddling to teenagers

A drug ring accused of selling synthetic cannabinoids by passing them off as e-cigarettes to teenagers has been arrested by the police, said Yongin Dongbu Police Station on Monday. The four suspects are currently detained on suspicion of carrying out an elaborate drug distribution scheme from March to May around Yongin and Suwon of Gyeonggi Province. They are also accused of selling other drugs such as ketamine and ecstasy. The leader of the ring first bought synthetic cannabinoids worth 5 milli

June 7, 2023

[Graphic News] Public transportation rides in Seoul hits 3.4 billion

The use of public transportation in Seoul reached a record high of 3.4 billion rides last year, with an average of 9.44 million rides daily, according to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The busiest subway station in Seoul was Gangnam Station on Line No. 2 with 71,598 passengers per day, followed by Jamsil Station and Hongik University Station. Among bus stops, the highest usage was at Seoul Express Bus Terminal Station, with 9,318 passengers per day. Once passengers boarded, data in

June 7, 2023

[Housing Talk] I have a new landlord. Can I ask the former landlord to return my deposit?

Let’s say you rented a house under a two-year "jeonse" contract using your life savings, and your landlord sold the house to someone else. The new owner of the house automatically becomes your new landlord. What happens if the new landlord is unlikely, or rather, unable, to return your deposit, potentially because he or she heavily relied on mortgage financing to buy the house? The law doesn't explicitly say what you can do, but according to case law, you may refuse successi

June 6, 2023

82-year-old Seoul Paik Hospital set to close

An 82-year-old general hospital in central Seoul is in the process of closing its doors, due mainly to mounting losses. Inje University Seoul Paik Hospital’s board of directors will convene on June 20 to finalize the decision, proposed by the hospital’s self-help task force, an official from the hospital said. The hospital, located near Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul’s Jung-gu district, has accumulated a deficit of 174.5 billion won ($135 million) over the past 20 years. Sin

June 6, 2023

Supreme Court sides with depressed policyholder in suicide case

South Korea's top court ruled in favor of two parents' life insurance claim after their son, the policyholder, died by suicide due to chronic depression, recognizing that the man was unable to make decisions of his own free will. The Supreme Court dismissed a lower court's decision on Tuesday to exempt the insurance company from paying out after the parents of the deceased had filed a lawsuit against the insurance company. The lower court had argued that the suicide did not appe

June 6, 2023

Korean fathers miss out on OECD's longest paternity leave

Only approximately one in five fathers in Korea are using paternity leave, despite being entitled to the longest period of child care leave among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's member countries, data showed Tuesday. According to the OECD Family Database, of Korea's total parental leave takers in 2021, 22.7 percent were fathers. This figure differs from countries that implement what is called a "father’s quota" system, such as Sweden, Icela

June 6, 2023

College students rush to delete tutor-matching apps after Busan murder

College students rush to deactivate their accounts on tutor-matching apps after Jung Yoo-jung, a 23-year-old suspect in the murder of a woman in her 20s in Busan, was identified as having found the victim through one of these apps. A female student residing in Busan has expressed concern on Everytime, a community popular among university students, saying, “I feel dizzy and disgusted at the thought of Jung having seen my information on the app. I could have been a victim.” She added

June 6, 2023

Indigenous streaming platforms see rise in users in May while Netflix suffers fall

Three indigenous streaming platforms in South Korea saw a rise in their users in May while global streaming giant Netflix suffered a slight fall. Tving, the nation's largest streaming platform run by CJ ENM, saw the number of its monthly active users reach some 5.15 million in May, up 4.8 percent from the previous month, according to data from app tracker Mobile Index. The May figure also marks a 35 percent jump from 3.81 million monthly active users in May last year. Coupang Play and Wavve

June 6, 2023

Air passengers rise 24% on-year in May amid return to pre-pandemic normalcy

The number of flight passengers using Korean flag air carriers rose nearly 24 percent in May from a year earlier amid a nationwide move to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, government data showed Tuesday. Korean airlines carried a total of 9.32 million people on international and domestic routes last month, up 23.8 percent from 7.54 million tallied a year ago, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. International passengers soared more than sixfold to

June 6, 2023

Presidential office recommends collecting KBS license fee separately from electricity bill

The presidential office said Monday it has recommended collecting the license fee for state broadcaster KBS separately from the electricity bill amid overwhelming public support. The recommendation was sent to the Korea Communications Commission, the state broadcasting watchdog, and the industry ministry, calling for an amendment to relevant laws and the implementation of follow-up measures. KBS has charged a monthly fee of 2,500 won ($1.91) to households on top of their electricity bills since

June 5, 2023

Cabinet approves bill to remove sunset clause for death sentence

  The South Korean government on Monday approved a bill to remove the sunset clause for the death penalty in a bid to prevent inmates on death row from avoiding execution after 30 years in prison. The revision, once enacted, will be applied retroactively, the government added. Before being signed into law, the revision bill, which was proposed by the Ministry of Justice, will require parliamentary approval after passing through the Cabinet. South Korean law requires a government-proposed bi

June 5, 2023

Man in 20s indicted for online sexual abuse of teenagers

A man in his 20s has been indicted on charges of committing sexual abuse against teenagers through online platforms including YouTube, according to the prosecution on Monday. According to the Seoul Northern District Prosecutor's Office on Monday, the suspect enticed minors by posting messages seeking a "slave" on various online platforms, including YouTube, between January 2022 and March of this year. He allegedly demanded the teenagers who responded to his message to send explici

June 5, 2023

[Local and Beyond] Gwangju, Korea's next high-tech hub: mayor

GWANGJU -- Gwangju has been a symbolic city for its contribution to South Korea's democratization, most notably the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising where hundreds of civilians protested against the then military government. Keeping its historic legacy and the spirits for freedom and democracy in its heart, the city is now setting sights on the future, said Kang Ki-jeong, the city's mayor, pointing at the city's high tech industries. “Gwangju has a developed lighting industr

June 5, 2023

Man sentenced to 10 years for abandonment death of intellectually disabled brother

South Korea's Supreme Court has recently sentenced a 46-year-old man to 10 years of imprisonment for subjecting his intellectually disabled younger brother to alcohol and drug influence and abandoning him near a stream, leading to his death by drowning. According to the top court on Monday, it upheld the commuted sentence for the man, who had earlier been sentenced to a 30-year imprisonment by a district court. The man, surnamed Lee, offered his younger brother, then 38, whisky and sleepi

June 5, 2023