Court again rules against victims of Japan's forced labor in damages suit

A Seoul court on Wednesday ruled against South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor in a damages suit filed against Japanese companies, apparently on grounds that the cases' statute of limitations has expired. The suit was filed against Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kumagai Gumi Co. by a 104-year-old victim named Kim Han-soo and the bereaved family of a late victim, surnamed Park, with the Seoul Central District Court in April 2019. Kim and Park claimed they were conscri

Feb. 23, 2022

Drone exhibition to offer glimpse into future of mobility

South Korea's largest exhibition of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will be held in the southeastern port city of Busan this week, showcasing the latest technologies and models and offering a forum on the industry's future, organizers said Wednesday. Drone Show Korea 2022 will take place at Bexco Exhibition Center from Thursday to Saturday under the theme of "Connected by Drone." The sixth edition of the annual event, co-organized by the Korea Unmanned Vehicle System Association and BEX

Feb. 23, 2022

Supreme Court justice denies any link to Daejang-dong development scandal

Supreme Court Justice Cho Jae-youn on Wednesday categorically denied any link to a massive development scandal following a newspaper report that a central figure in the scandal promised him a luxury house. Cho made the remark during a press conference after the Hankook Ilbo daily reported last week that Kim Man-bae, the owner of an asset firm at the center of the scandal, said he promised a house worth about 5 billion won ($4.2 million) to an incumbent Supreme Court justice. "It is comple

Feb. 23, 2022

S. Korea OKs first vaccine for children aged 5 to 11

South Korea has approved the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday, amid growing concerns over sharply soaring infections ahead of schools' opening next week. The country reported a record high of over 170,000 daily cases of COVID-19 from the previous day. Of the new cases reported in the last week, almost 30 percent were found in children aged 18 or younger, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Age

Feb. 23, 2022

Population mobility dips for 13th month in Jan.

The number of South Koreans who moved to different residences in the country dropped for the 13th consecutive month in January on fewer housing transactions, government data showed Wednesday. The number of people who changed their residences stood at 552,000 last month, down 12.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It represented the 13th straight month since January last year that the country's population mobility has declined on-year. The decrease w

Feb. 23, 2022

Seoul vows to become digital emotional culture city

The Seoul city government on Wednesday announced a digital culture city project centered on creating digital media artworks throughout the capital. The city government declared this year as the first year of the "Digital Emotional Culture City" project and unveiled 10 cultural policy tasks. Under the project, the Gwanghwamun Square area in central Seoul will be transformed into a huge media art stage and Nodeul Island, an uninhabited artificial island in the Han River, and other waterf

Feb. 23, 2022

S. Korea's total fertility rate hits record low last year

South Korea's total fertility rate hit a record low last year as the number of childbirths continued to fall, data showed Wednesday, underlining the country's bleak demographic situation. The country's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- came to 0.81 last year, down from 0.84 the previous year, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest since 1970 when the statistics agency began compiling related data. Last year marked the fourth stra

Feb. 23, 2022

PM says people should not be scared over number of new COVID-19 cases

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Wednesday that there is no reason to feel fear over the soaring number of COVID-19 cases, as South Korea reported more than 170,000 new cases on Wednesday.Kim made the remark during a COVID-19 response meeting, stressing that the fatality rate and the number of critical patients are being managed stably, as the country reported 171,452 new virus cases, up more than 70,000 from a day earlier. "Although we should not ease our vigilance and execution of antivir

Feb. 23, 2022

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases surge to fresh high of over 170,000 amid raging omicron

South Korea's new COVID-19 infections soared to hit another high of over 170,000 on Wednesday, nearly doubling from a week earlier, as the highly contagious omicron variant continued to spread across the country. The country reported 171,452 new COVID-19 infections, including 171,271 local cases, raising the total caseload to 2,329,182, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This marked a drastic surge from the previous day's 99,573 and is far higher than the prev

Feb. 23, 2022

1 dead, 11 evacuated in apartment building fire

A fire in an apartment building in southern Seoul has left one resident dead and caused 11 others to evacuate, authorities said Wednesday. The fire broke out on the 10th floor of the building in Seoul's Sangdo-dong at 11:48 p.m. Tuesday and was extinguished 40 minutes later. A woman in her 70s was found unconscious on the 10th floor and transferred to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The eleven other residents all safely evacuated the building. Police and fire authorities are investiga

Feb. 23, 2022

S. Korea reports over 150,000 daily COVID-19 cases for 1st time

South Korea's new COVID-19 infections surpassed 150,000 for the first time Tuesday amid the fast spread of the omicron variant across the country. According to health authorities and local governments, a total of 158,005 cases had been confirmed nationwide as of 9 p.m., up 60,070 from 97,935 posted the same time the previous day. The previous daily high was set last Friday at 109,823. The total number for Tuesday is expected to rise further, as daily cases are counted until midnight and announ

Feb. 22, 2022

Pandemic’s bereaved seek accountability

The first known COVID-19 death in South Korea was a 63-year-old hospitalized at a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province. The man, who was schizophrenic, died with pneumonia on Feb. 19, 2020, at the hospital where he had been a resident for over 20 years. He tested positive postmortem. In less than a week after his death, six more at the hospital lost their lives to the virus. All of the 101 patients save for just two ended up getting infected. The outbrea

Feb. 22, 2022

Feeling lethargic too often? Two books offer advice

In a country known for long working hours, short vacations, and a culture of competition and pressure, many Koreans experience lethargy and burnout syndrome. It’s so common that it is even regarded as a rite of passage at the workplace. Koreans worked 1,967 hours a year per employee in 2019, 241 hours more than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average of 1,726 hours. It had the second-longest working hours among OECD member countries. A survey conducted on some

Feb. 22, 2022

[Newsmaker] Teachers’ unions accuse Education Ministry of fanning confusion

Teachers’ unions are voicing out their concerns after the government announced schools will have the choice to provide full remote classes during the first two weeks of March. The Ministry of Education announced Monday that it has designated March 2 -11 to be a new semester adjustment period, allowing schools to hold online-only classes if needed. Previously, the ministry had warned schools to refrain from switching to an online-only class scheme. However, it changed its stance with a s

Feb. 22, 2022

Seoul city to provide online street view service of all 14,699 alleys

Street views of all 14,699 alleyways in Seoul, including those of narrow back alleys unavailable even in commercial road view services, will be available within the first half of this year, the city government said Tuesday. The city government created 53,715 images of the alleys over the past two years to offer the complete street views of every alley that even online map services by major internet portals like Naver and Daum have not provided so far, officials said. Street views of 10 districts

Feb. 22, 2022

3-yr prison term confirmed for ex-Busan mayor due to waiving of appeal

BUSAN -- A three-year prison sentence has been confirmed for former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don, who was convicted of sexually assaulting female employees at work, as he decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court, judicial officials said Tuesday. The Busan High Court approved the prison sentence by a lower court for Oh on charges of sexually assaulting two female employees of the city government in 2018 and 2020, respectively, during a hearing on Feb. 9. Oh, who stepped down as mayor of the nation's

Feb. 22, 2022

Seoul to launch experimental welfare project to provide monthly subsidies to low-income earners

The Seoul city government said Tuesday it will launch an experimental welfare program aimed at providing regular subsidies to low-income households in the capital under Mayor Oh Se-hoon's initiative. Under the project, a total of 800 households in the bottom 33 percent income bracket and with less than 326 million won ($272,575) in assets will be given monthly subsidies over the next three years, according to the city office. A total of 19.5 billion won of the city budget will be spent to financ

Feb. 22, 2022

S. Korea's new COVID-19 cases again near 100,000 over raging omicron

South Korea's new COVID-19 infections rose again to just shy of 100,000 on Tuesday amid fears that the cases could further surge due to the fast spread of the omicron variant across the country. The country reported 99,573 new COVID-19 infections, including 99,444 local cases, raising the total caseload to 2,157,734, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). New daily infections have risen at a fast pace in recent weeks, surpassing the 100,000 mark for the first time F

Feb. 22, 2022

Man sentenced to 3 yrs in prison for putting bathroom cleaner into patient's IV line

DAEJEON -- A 32-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison for putting liquid bathroom cleaner into the intravenous drip line of another patient for unclear reasons while in hospital for burn treatment, sources said Tuesday. The man committed the crime at a hospital in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, in March last year. Following the infusion, the patient complained of chest pains and a nurse changed the IV solution, but the man put the cleaner into the line again abo

Feb. 22, 2022

Omicron surge ‘necessary process’ to get to endemic stage, says Health Ministry

South Korea’s top health official said Monday the surge the country is experiencing now is necessary to move toward an endemic phase from the pandemic, and omicron’s milder severity aids the transition. Son Young-rae, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s spokesperson, said the recent uptick in hospitalizations and deaths driven by the omicron variant “does not warrant the same level of alarm as with the delta wave.”　 From cases diagnosed Jan. 16-29, the overall f

Feb. 21, 2022