Record high March temperatures reported Wednesday

The mercury soared far above 20 C across the country on the last day of last month, setting new temperature records for March, a state weather agency said Thursday. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the daily highest temperature in Seoul surged to 22.9 C on Wednesday, the third highest for the month of March after 23.8 C recorded for both March 28, 2014, and March 9, 2013. In Chuncheon, 85 kilometers east of Seoul, the daily high reached 23.5 C, higher than the previo

April 1, 2021

Pandemic propels jobless rate, as women suffer more employment strain: report

South Korea's jobless rate hit a 19-year high last year amid the pandemic, and women faced tougher job market situations than men, a report showed Thursday. The country's unemployment rate reached 4 percent last year, up from 3.8 percent the previous year and the highest since 2001, according to the report on sustainable development goals by Statistics Korea. The report was issued to assess South Korea's implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) adopted to end poverty and pr

April 1, 2021

Seoul to resume city bus tours this week

The Seoul metropolitan government said Thursday it will resume operation of its city bus tours later this week. The buses will start running again from Saturday, about a year after the city government suspended the tours in March last year as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. To ensure tourists' safety, it will conduct mandatory virus tests on all bus drivers, limit the number of people aboard and ban eating on buses. All passengers' entry logs and body temperatures will be al

April 1, 2021

New COVID-19 cases above 500 for 2nd day, Busan under tougher distancing rules

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases rose to more than 500 for the second day Thursday, with tightened social distancing rules to be implemented in the second-largest city of Busan over the continued emergence of cluster infections. The country reported 551 more COVID-19 cases, including 537 local infections, raising the total caseload to 103,639, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. It marked the highest daily tally in 41 days. The country added four more deaths

April 1, 2021

S. Korea to adopt 'vaccine passport' showing person's COVID-19 vaccination status: PM

South Korea will introduce a digital certification system to verify a person's COVID-19 vaccination status through a smartphone application this month, amid the government's efforts to boost people's participation in the public vaccine program, the prime minister said Thursday. "The people will be able to experience a sense of return to normality from a vaccine passport or green card systems," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a daily interagency meeting on the government's co

April 1, 2021

All not equal before COVID-19: Politicians get away with social distancing breaches

Koreans are growing wary of politicians breaking social distancing rules and getting away free of repercussions, as the country stands on the brink of what may be a fourth big surge in infections. Rep. Lee Nak-yon, the recently-resigned Democratic Party of Korea chief and Moon Jae-in’s former prime minister, became the latest elected official to face allegations of a major social distancing hypocrisy. Gangnam’s district office said Monday it was investigating Lee over a report he

March 31, 2021

Noise complaints jump over 60% as more stay home during pandemic

Noise complaints surged more than 60 percent last year, as people spend more time at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a state environment promotion agency said Wednesday. Korea Environment Corp. (KECO) said its hotline dedicated to the matter received 42,250 complaints in total last year, a 60.9 percent year-on-year increase. Inquiries for on-site inspections to determine the level of noise came to 12,139, which grew 52.3 percent from 7,971 cases in 2019. Noise disputes have long been an issu

March 31, 2021

Dokdo not marked as Japanese territory in 1904 school textbook

A Japanese elementary school textbook published about a century ago did not define the easternmost Korean islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory, a Seoul-based public foundation said Wednesday. The state-funded Northeast Asian History Foundation disclosed the old Japanese geography textbook printed in 1904 at a seminar of history experts in Seoul, slamming Tokyo for its latest approval of school textbooks renewing territorial claims to Dokdo. A textbook screening committee under Japan's educati

March 31, 2021

[News Focus] “Recommended” vaccination leave program feared to fail

Beginning Thursday, the South Korean government is instituting a “vaccination leave” program that would allow up to two days of recovery time for people with immune responses after getting their COVID-19 vaccines. But questions are raised as to how the program will be followed in the private sector, as the program is advised rather than required for employers, some of which are already short on labor power. Some are asking the government to make the measure mandatory for employers

March 31, 2021

COVID-19 text alerts to be reduced amid public weariness

The central and local governments will reduce their emergency coronavirus text alerts amid mounting complaints that frequent arrivals of such messages have increased the public weariness in the prolonged pandemic, the interior ministry said Wednesday. The revised guidelines for coronavirus-related text alerts, which go into effect Thursday, require only essential information to be sent out to the public and for the alert system to be turned off between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. To deal with growing p

March 31, 2021

[#WeFACE] Floating solar farms show how green projects can thrive in South Korea

JECHEON, North Chungcheong Province -- Over 2.75 trillion liters of water behind the Chungju Dam in North Chungcheong Province, dozens of solar panels are laid out to generate power. While it may seem odd to some as to why these solar panels are over water as opposed to other, more conventional places, the idea is one of many projects that South Korea is betting on to generate renewable electricity as it promised to the international community. The country has announced plans to achieve carbon

March 31, 2021

[#WeFACE] S. Korea’s new ‘climate law’ should put ‘justice’ at its core: activist

As South Korea’s National Assembly works to draft and pass a climate law to make the country’s goals of going carbon neutral by 2050 legally binding, the law should put “justice” at its core to effectively address the climate emergency, according to a local environmental activist. Last year, the Moon Jae-in administration jumped on the climate crisis bandwagon by announcing its ambitious Green New Deal and promising to go carbon neutral by 2050. The National Assembly

March 31, 2021

Vaccine rollout hiccup worrisome amid delayed shipment

South Korea's nationwide inoculation against the novel coronavirus is expected to lose pace due to vaccination delivery delays as health authorities aim to achieve so-called herd immunity by November. Earlier this week, the authorities announced that a planned delivery of COVID-19 vaccines by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University to the country has been pushed back to the third week of April. Initially, 690,000 doses, or shots for 345,000 people, of the AstraZe

March 31, 2021

Arms procurement agency official tests positive for virus

An official at the country's arm procurement agency in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Wednesday. The official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after showing symptoms, according to the ministry. Among service members, four soldiers in the border county of Cheorwon and a Marine in Gimpo, west of the capital, have tested positive while in quarantine fter vacation. Ano

March 31, 2021

New COVID-19 cases back above 500 as virus spread accelerates

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases bounced back above 500 on Wednesday, in a sign that virus infections are accelerating across the country as people's movement increases amid spring weather. The country reported 506 more COVID-19 cases, including 491 local infections, raising the total caseload to 103,088, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. It marked the highest daily tally in four days. The country added two more deaths from COVID-19, increasing the total to

March 31, 2021

S. Korea to roll out vaccine against FMD by May

South Korea's agricultural ministry said Wednesday it plans to roll out vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) by May as the country raises its guard against the potential outbreak of the acute infectious viral disease. Under the plan, all cattle and goats from 117,000 farms across the nation, estimated at 4.25 million units, will be required to receive the jabs, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The inoculation program will be carried out through mid-May

March 31, 2021

Korea’s goal of November herd immunity getting more elusive

Supply shortages and waning vaccine confidence are posing a growing risk to Korea’s hope of reaching herd immunity by November. “High uptake is anticipated in Korea, which has always been a quite well-vaccinated country,” said Dr. Jung Ki-suck, onetime director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But I worry that the latest developments surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine could hurt public perceptions of its safety,” he said, referring

March 30, 2021

20 LH employees under probe by police over alleged property speculation

Police have added two more people to the list of the state housing developer's employees suspected of speculative land purchases in a widening probe into alleged real estate speculation by public officials. The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency said Tuesday it booked two workers of the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) on suspicion of property speculation and corruption, raising the total number of former and current LH employees under investigation to 20. Eighteen of them are current employees. Th

March 30, 2021

Migrant workers report more claims of sexual assault on farms

Amid a growing shortage of migrant workers in South Korea, reported cases of sexual violence, assault and overdue wages among foreign workers have continued to emerge as they accuse their employers for exploiting their vulnerable status. Police said on Monday it is investigating a case of sexual assault after receiving a complaint that a Cambodian worker was sexually assaulted by a farm owner. The complaint, filed by a migrant worker rights protection civic group, alleges that the farm owne

March 30, 2021

Over half of single S. Koreans in 30s living with parents: report

More than half of unmarried South Koreans in their 30s are living with their parents, a report showed Tuesday, as young people are delaying marriages amid an economic slowdown. A total of 54.8 percent of single Koreans in their 30s are living with their parents without moving out on their own, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The report showed 62.3 percent of unmarried people aged between 20 and 44 are living with their parents. Of the surveyed, 42.1 percent have no jobs, indicati

March 30, 2021