Seoul begins preemptive strike on ginkgo trees before nuts become stink bombs

The refreshing autumn breeze offers a welcome respite from the sweltering summer, but it also heralds the season of smelly ginkgo fruits. To tackle the annual nuisance of rotting ginkgo nuts stinking out the streets, the Seoul Metropolitan Government launched Monday a city-wide initiative in which specialized personnel will remove the nuts from trees before they have a chance to fall and rot. The operation, spanning all 25 districts of the city, targets female ginkgo trees, which account for a

Sept. 23, 2024

[Online Predators] Online reviews of sex tourism in Southeast Asia proliferate

South Koreans leaving online reviews about visiting prostitution establishments in Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Laos have proliferated, despite legal prohibition both here for Koreans and there abroad, according to observers and legal experts here Monday. The posts often use terms like "byeonma" -- referring to a clandestine brothel disguised as a massage parlor -- and "cheolchang" -- for an establishment where five to seven minors are confined in smal

Sept. 23, 2024

Russian man found dead in disused zoo

A Russian national has been found dead at a shuttered zoo in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. The deceased, a male aged 67 years, had worked as a zookeeper at the facility until it was closed in 2023. The zookeeper was spotted at 12:45 p.m. on Sept. 11 by an individual who had gone to the zoo to purchase items from the defunct business, Gimhae Seobu Police Station told local media on Sunday. Bugyeong Zoo had been out of business since August last year after it had come under fire for holding

Sept. 23, 2024

Civil servant jailed for posing as seniors, poor to gain business rights

The Supreme Court said Monday it has confirmed a two-year prison term for a former government worker for abuse of power and using the names of senior citizens and welfare recipients to win the rights to operate stores and vending machines at educational facilities. South Korea's top court confirmed the lower court ruling that found the former employee of the Daejeon Metropolitan Government guilty of obstruction of performance of official duties by fraudulent means, ordering the seizure of 4

Sept. 23, 2024

Seoul to host 'Smart Life Week' tech expo next month

An international tech exposition showcasing how technology can help people and urban living will take place at Coex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul next month, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday. Scheduled to take place Oct. 10-12, the Seoul Smart Life Week will feature exhibitions hosted by local companies showcasing the newest technologies and products under the theme of urban living. It will also host international conferences and forums as a platform for cities around

Sept. 23, 2024

3 in 4 self-employed make less than 1 million won a month

Three-quarters of self-employed people and small business owners in South Korea report a monthly income of less than 1 million won ($750), well below the monthly minimum wage, government data showed Sunday. Out of 11.46 million self-employed people who filed for income tax in 2022, 75.1 percent, or 8.6 million reported a monthly income below 1 million won, or an annual income of less than 12 million won, according to data obtained from the National Tax Service by Rep. Park Sung-hoon of the rulin

Sept. 23, 2024

Charges sought against doctor who told nurses to ‘butt out’

A civic group said Monday it has filed defamation and insult charges against Park Yong-eon, the vice president of the Korea Medical Association who recently told nurses to "butt out" of doctors' treatment roles after recent passage of the Nurses Act. The People's Welfare Countermeasure Committee said Park's comment would hurt the trust between those in the medical circles by sending a message that the doctors do not respect nurses. The KMA has been at the forefront of

Sept. 23, 2024

25-year-old bullied to death at work ruled occupational accident victim

The death of Jeon Yeongjin, 25, who took his own life last year after experiencing severe bullying at his workplace, has been ruled an "occupational accident" by the state authority on workers' welfare. Jeon's bereaved family members told local media Sunday that the Seoul committee of the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service recently decided that his death should be considered an occupational accident. Defined in Article 5-1 of the Industrial Accident Compensa

Sept. 23, 2024

Regulator makes over 3,000 requests for removal of suicide-related content since 2020

South Korea's telecommunications regulator has requested platforms to revise their content to delete information that can potentially induce suicide on 3,243 occasions since 2020, government data showed Monday. From 2020 to August of this year, content with possibly suicide-inducing content have been reviewed by the Korea Communications Standards Commission on 4,100 occasions, according to the KCSS data submitted to Rep. Lee Jeong-heon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. The c

Sept. 23, 2024

[Graphic News] Number of international flight passengers rises 19.9% in July-Aug.: data

The number of international flight passengers during the summer vacation season this year increased 19.9 percent on-year to fully recover to the prepandemic level, data showed. A total of 15.69 million people used international flights at South Korean airports in July and August, up nearly 20 percent from a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Korea Airports Corp. and the Incheon International Airport Corp. This year’s figure came to about 97 percent of that logged in 2019. By

Sept. 23, 2024

Prominent pro-democracy, labor activist Chang Ki-pyo dies at 78

Chang Ki-pyo, a prominent pro-democracy and labor activist in the 1970s, has died. He was 78. Chang died of gallbladder cancer early Sunday at a hospital in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, according to his family. Born in 1945 and enrolled at Seoul National University in 1966, Chang began actively campaigning for democracy and labor rights in 1970 in the wake of the self-immolation of Jeon Tae-il. Jeon burned himself to death in 1970 in protest of brutal working conditions at a Seoul sewing factory.

Sept. 22, 2024

Bereaved families, Seoul council butt heads over Sewol memorial

The commemorative space for victims of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster in Seoul is facing possible removal by the city council, which is refusing to allow unauthorized use of its premises as the location of the memorial. The Seoul Metropolitan Council is reportedly slated to meet with the representatives of the bereaved families next month to discuss removal of the memorial in the plaza in front of the council's main building in Jung-gu, central Seoul. The bereaved families asked for the me

Sept. 22, 2024

Evicted guest burns down inn; 3 killed

Police said Sunday they will request an arrest warrant for a 48-year-old man accused of starting a fire at an inn after he had recently been kicked out, an incident that has left three guests dead. The suspect is believed to have set fire to the three-story building in Sangdang-gu of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, at 1:46 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Sangdang Police Station. A long-term guest at the establishment, he was evicted a day earlier by the innkeeper when he failed to pay h

Sept. 22, 2024

1 in 5 households to have breadwinner over 80 in 30 years

While South Korea is on track to become a "super-aged society" by 2025, with over 20 percent of the population aged 65 years or older, one in five households in South Korea will have a breadwinner aged 80 or older, recent data showed. Future household projections for the period of 2022 to 2052 by Statistics Korea revealed Sunday that the number of households with a primary caregiver aged 80 or older is expected to increase from 1.194 million in 2022 to 4.876 million in 2052, markin

Sept. 22, 2024

Doctors defend colleague accused of blacklisting non-strikers

Several doctors in the ongoing medical strike against government reform defended a trainee doctor who is currently under criminal investigation for making and distributing a blacklist of physicians not participating in the prolonged walkout. Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korea Medical Association, said called Jeong "a victim" of the government. "Both the doctor who has been arrested and put behind bars, and everyone who was harmed after being on the list, are victims of the go

Sept. 22, 2024

Torrential rainfall forces 1,500 to evacuate, causes widespread damage to homes, roads

Over three days of relentless downpours, 1,500 people across the nation were forced to evacuate as heavy rains wreaked havoc on homes, roads and infrastructure. Heavy rain from Thursday afternoon to Saturday began from Jeju Island and along the southern coast, before spreading across the nation. Along the southern and western coasts, heavy rain fell at a rate of about 100 millimeters per hour, while southern regions and the North and South Chungcheong provinces experienced 50-80 millimeters pe

Sept. 22, 2024

40% of Korea's workers who reported bullying faced retaliation: survey

Some 40 percent of South Korean workers who reported workplace bullying said they faced retaliation from their superiors afterward, a survey by a local civic group showed Wednesday. Workplace Gabjil 119, an organization that assists victims of workplace abuse, surveyed 1,000 workers across the country in the second quarter of this year about bullying at the workplace. Of the 305 respondents who said they had been bullied, only 12.1 percent said they had reported the case to the company or labo

Sept. 21, 2024

Over 82,000 Korean young people unemployed, not searching for job long-term

Nearly a quarter million South Korean young people have been unemployed for at least three years, recent government data showed Thursday, with over 80,000 saying they were neither looking for work nor receiving education related to their career during the period. According to Statistics Korea, 238,112 people aged 15-29 were found not to be working at least three years after graduating from their most recent educational institution, as of May this year. Of those, 82,545 said they weren't d

Sept. 21, 2024

600 evacuated as heavy rain floods roads, homes in southern regions

Heavy overnight rains across South Korea triggered landslides and flooding, forcing the evacuation of more than 600 people in southern regions and submerging roads and buildings Saturday. No casualties have been reported so far, according to authorities. Heavy rain warnings were in effect across the southern Gyeongsang region and parts of Gangwon, Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces as of Saturday morning, with more rainfall expected through Sunday, according to the Korea Meteorological Adminis

Sept. 21, 2024

Presidential security official accused of extorting funds in 2022 office relocation

A presidential security official who was recently arrested on charges of illegally taking personal profits when handling the 2022 presidential office relocation project, was found to have extorted a large sum of money from a construction broker to funnel the relocation budget, reports said Friday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, which last week arrested the official, identified by his surname Jeong, found that the suspect threatened and extorted a total of 176 million won ($132,15

Sept. 20, 2024