130 people caught on charges of running illegal gambling website from overseas: police

Police have apprehended 130 members of a criminal ring that operated an illegal gambling website from the Philippines, where about 1.3 trillion won ($1.09 billion) was bet over a two and a half year period, officials said Wednesday. Of them, nine have been formally arrested, and the group's leader, who had fled to the Philippines, will be repatriated to South Korea, the international crime investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said. The group was found to have streamed ga

Nov. 24, 2021

New cases soar to new high, PM warns of tougher measures

With Korea’s daily tally rising above 4,000 for the first time since the pandemic began last year, the prime minister said the wider Seoul area might return to stricter restrictions if cases continue to surge. As of Tuesday midnight, the number of new daily cases marked 4,116, with 4,088 locally transmitted. The number of severely ill patients increased by 37 from the previous day to 586, and the number of deaths was 35, the highest since the implementation of phased daily recovery. Pri

Nov. 24, 2021

S. Korea's birth rate at record low in Sept.

The number of babies born in South Korea fell to a record low in September, data showed Wednesday, underscoring the country's bleak demographic situation with the chronically low birth rate. A total of 21,920 babies were born in September, down 6.7 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest for any September since 1981, when the statistics agency began compiling related data. In the third quarter, the number of newborns also reache

Nov. 24, 2021

Runaway bear remains at large south of Seoul for 3rd day

A massive search operation resumed Wednesday to find an Asiatic black bear that remained on the loose for a third day after escaping from a bear farm just south of Seoul, officials said Wednesday. The escape occurred at the farm in Yongin, 50 kilometers south of Seoul, at 10:30 a.m. Monday, when five Asiatic black bears left their cage. Three of the bears were soon discovered by officials of the Han River Basin Environmental Office, who captured two of them and killed a third that ran to attac

Nov. 24, 2021

Daily infections, critical cases soar to all-time highs

South Korea's new coronavirus cases and critical cases soared to all-time highs Wednesday, prompting the government to consider imposing an emergency COVID-19 response plan just weeks after easing social distancing rules under the "living with COVID-19" scheme. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum urged health authorities to beef up containment measures, saying the country is facing the first hurdle in its move back toward normalcy and the Seoul metropolitan area, home to half of the country's

Nov. 24, 2021

Remains of Korea's first Catholic priest to be enshrined in Burkina Faso

Part of the remains of St. Andrew Kim Tae-gon, the first native Korean Catholic priest, will be enshrined in an African country, the Catholic church here said Wednesday. Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the archbishop of Seoul, handed over the relic to Monsignor Julien Kabore, charge d'affaires of the Apostolic Nunciature in Manila, in a meeting held in Seoul the previous day, according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul. The remains will be enshrined in the Cathedral of St. Joseph of the Arch

Nov. 24, 2021

[Newsmaker] Korea extends COVID-19 home care to elderly patients as beds fall short

South Korea is extending COVID-19 home recovery to elderly patients amid critical shortages of hospital beds, after ordering hospitals to free up beds twice in the past month. In Seoul, which has long dealt with the largest surge of cases, patients aged 70 and older can now be prescribed home recovery if they are vaccinated and have other household members taking care of them. The city said as demand for hospital beds soar, more patients were being offered at-home care as an alternative. As

Nov. 23, 2021

[What’s your say?] A ‘runaway’ officer

A neighbor had a grudge against the family downstairs and attacked them with a knife in the western city of Incheon on Nov. 15. The mother was stabbed in the neck, leaving her with grave injuries, and the rest suffered multiple knife wounds. This could have been just another shocking crime story if it hadn’t happened in the presence of a police officer.  The officer’s actions -- or inaction -- sparked debate over the responsibility the police have to fight crime and protect the

Nov. 23, 2021

Civic groups slam late ex-President Chun for leaving no apology for Gwangju crackdown

Victims of the bloody crackdown on a 1980 democracy uprising voiced frustrations Tuesday, as their efforts to bring former President Chun Doo-hwan to justice came to a sudden halt with his death earlier in the day. Chun, an Army general-turned strongman, died at his home in western Seoul at age 90 after suffering from chronic illnesses, leaving behind a dark legacy of seizing power in a 1979 military coup and ruthlessly cracking down on the civil uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju the

Nov. 23, 2021

1 in 6 S. Korean women quit their jobs after marriage

More than 1 in 6 South Korean married women suffered a career break this year as they quit their jobs due to child rearing and getting married, data showed Tuesday. The number of women aged 15-54 who have stopped working after marriage reached 1.45 million in April, down 3.8 percent, or 57,000, from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. Such women accounted for 17.4 percent of the total 8.32 million married women, down from 17.6 percent a year earlier. The 2021 tally

Nov. 23, 2021

Seoul, UN-Habitat to co-host webinar on heritage, metropolis next week

The Seoul city government will co-host a virtual international conference with UN-Habitat next week to explore ways to protect heritage sites in large cities, officials said Tuesday. The webinar, titled "Heritage and Metropolis," will bring together city and heritage management experts from more than 30 cities in 15 nations for two days of discussions on Dec. 1 and 2, city officials said. Other participating cities include Shanghai, Milano, Delhi, Istanbul and New York. On the firs

Nov. 23, 2021

Temperatures dive below zero, snow falls in many parts of S. Korea: KMA

Temperatures fell by over 10 degrees to below zero in many parts of the country Tuesday morning, with snow falling in many regions as well, the state weather agency said. The mercury had dropped to minus 3.7 C in Seoul as of 7:30 a.m., the lowest this fall, and below minus 5 C in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital and mountainous areas of the northeastern Gangwon Province, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Morning lows dipped below ze

Nov. 23, 2021

Chun Doo-hwan dies at 90

Chun Doo-hwan, who was president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988 after seizing power in a military coup and whose reign was marked by the brutal repression of pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju in 1980, died Tuesday. He was 90 years old. He died less than a month after Roh Tae-woo, one of his closest aides in the 1979 coup, who was elected president after democracy protests forced Chun to stand down. Chun, who had multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, died at 8:40 a.m. at his home in Y

Nov. 23, 2021

Daily infections stay below 3,000, but critical cases hit all-time high

South Korea's new coronavirus cases stayed below 3,000 for the second straight day Tuesday, but the number of critically ill patients hit an all-time high, raising concerns over a shortage of hospital beds for treatment. The country reported 2,699 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,685 local infections, raising the total caseload to 420,950, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This marked the second straight day that the daily infections remained below 3,000. The

Nov. 23, 2021

COVID-19 situation ‘very dangerous,’ says Korea’s disease control chief

The head of Korea’s disease control agency said Monday that the state of the COVID-19 outbreak here has gone from “low risk” to “high risk” over the last three weeks as the country began its phased return to normal. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong told a televised briefing that “intensive care beds at Seoul hospitals were nearly full to the brink,” with other metrics worsening all across the country. 　 In re

Nov. 22, 2021

1,956 people caught for drug-related charges from Aug.-Oct.: police

A total of 1,956 people have been apprehended in special drug crackdowns between August and October, with 406 of them formally arrested, police said Monday. Of the total, 1,404 were caught for using or distributing methamphetamine, ecstasy and other psychotropic drugs, another 417 for marijuana-related products and the remaining 135 for other types of narcotics, including opium, cocaine and fentanyl, according to the National Police Agency. Those in their teens, 20s and 30s totaled 1,365, almo

Nov. 22, 2021

In-person classes fully resume at schools nationwide amid virus resurgence

In-person school classes fully resumed across South Korea on Monday in line with the country's "living with COVID-19" scheme. All kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools welcomed students without anyone left behind for remote-learning for the first time since schools switched to learning from home or classes being held in shifts since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The full reopening of schools came after the country kicked off the first stage of "li

Nov. 22, 2021

Police face flak over inadequate responses to violent crimes

Police have come under fire for their inadequate responses to violent crimes, as seen in the recent death of a stalking victim under police protection and an alleged dereliction of duty by two Incheon officers accused of sidestepping a knife attack scene. A man in his 30s was arrested Saturday for killing his ex-girlfriend with a knife at her studio apartment in central Seoul the previous day. The murder sparked public fury, as it was known that the victim was under police protection after suff

Nov. 22, 2021

Daily infections fall below 3,000, country's guard up as in-person classes resume

South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 3,000 for the first time in six days Monday due to fewer tests over the weekend, but concerns remain high over a virus resurgence amid eased social distancing rules and this week's full-fledged reopening of schools. The country reported 2,827 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,086 local infections, raising the total caseload to 418,252, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This marked the first time in six days that th

Nov. 22, 2021

Police chief apologizes over bungled response to violent dispute between neighbors

Police chief Kim Chang-yong apologized Sunday for the police's bungled response to a violent dispute between neighbors that left one person unconscious. "I offer my deep apology to the victims, their family and the nation over the recent case of the Incheon Nonhyeon Police Station having failed to protect people in danger even though it is the most important mission and the calling of the police to protect the lives and safety of the people," Kim, commissioner-general of the Nationa

Nov. 21, 2021