[Newsmaker] Leftover vaccines available for online reservation from Thursday

Coronavirus vaccines left over after people do not show up for inoculations will be available for anyone who wants to get vaccinated via online reservations starting later this week, health authorities said Wednesday. Starting on Thursday, people will be able to sign up to get the leftover doses through the country's major internet portal Naver and top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. People can search for the number of available COVID-19

Social AffairsMay 26, 2021

[Newsmaker] Seoul to install more security cameras at riverside parks after med student’s death

Seoul plans to spend 3.8 billion won ($3.4 million) to install more security cameras in 155 locations throughout its riverside parks in response to the death of a 21-year-old medical student late last month. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it was proposing a 4.24 trillion won supplementary budget on top of its 40.16 trillion won budget for this year to further assist those whose lives were damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve the city’s infrastructure f

Social AffairsMay 25, 2021

[Newsmaker] US raises travel advisory on Japan to highest Level 4: Do Not Travel

WASHINGTON -- The United States on Monday raised its travel warning for Japan to the highest level, advising Americans not to travel to the Asian nation. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Japan due to COVID-19, indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country. There are restrictions in place affecting US citizen entry into Japan," said the latest US travel advisory on the country. The move comes ahead of the Tok

Foreign AffairsMay 25, 2021

[Newsmaker] Harris under fire for wiping hand after handshake with Moon

US Vice President Kamala Harris is under fire in the US for an “insulting” gesture: She wiped her hand after shaking hands with President Moon Jae-in at the White House last week. Footage of Harris wiping her right hand on her jacket immediately after shaking hands with Moon at the end of a joint press conference last Friday went viral. Conservative US broadcaster Fox News said many Americans had become more germ-conscious since COVID-19 started, but that Harris may have made her

Foreign AffairsMay 24, 2021

[Newsmaker] Samsung Biologics sets out preparation for Moderna vaccine production

Samsung Biologics is working to expedite preparations to start churning out “hundreds of millions” of doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in early second half, the company said Sunday. At its sterile drug manufacturing facility in Songdo, Incheon, which is one of the largest in the world, the South Korean pharmaceutical will handle the fill and finish process of the production of mRNA-1273, Moderna’s messenger-RNA based COVID-19 jab. The firm signed a contract with Mo

TechnologyMay 23, 2021

[Newsmaker] Memorial service held for ex-President Roh Moo-hyun

South Korea held a ceremony Sunday to commemorate former President Roh Moo-hyun, marking the 12th year of his death. It took place at Bongha Village in Gimhae, Roh's hometown located 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, bringing together a number of key government and political figures. They included Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum; Song Young-gil, head of the ruling Democratic Party (DP); Kim Gi-hyeon, acting chief and floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP); and Lee Cheol-hee,

PoliticsMay 23, 2021

[Newsmaker] Crab cakes served as main lunch course for Moon and Biden

South Korean President Moon Jae-in's summit meetings with US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday presented contrasting appearances from those held about a month ago between the leaders of the United States and Japan, officials said. The most noteworthy differences were the length of the summit meetings and the lunch menu. Moon and Biden held 171 minutes of one-on-one, small group and expanded summit meetings, about 20 minutes longer than the April 16 meetings between the US president a

Foreign AffairsMay 22, 2021

[Newsmaker] Amorepacific, Bokwang heirs divorcing after 8-month marriage

Seo Min-jeong, the eldest daughter of Amorepacific Chairman Seo Kyung-bae, and Hong Jeong-hwan, the eldest son of Bokwang Investment Chairman Hong Seok-joon, have agreed to divorce after eight months of marriage, industry sources said Friday. The news followed Amorepacific’s regulatory filing on Friday, in which the company made a change to Hong’s holdings in the firm. Previously, Suh Kyung-bae, chairman of Amorepacific Group, gifted 100,000 shares in South Korea’s major b

PeopleMay 21, 2021

[Newsmaker] LH Corp. could be broken up to prevent recurrence of land purchasing scandal

The South Korean government has been reviewing whether to turn Korea Land and Housing Corp. into a holding company and spin-off key businesses to prevent further information leaks from the company, sources close to the matter said Friday. The reports come amid a nationwide crackdown on a massive land speculation scandal centered on LH employees who abused insider information concerning large-scale state funded land development projects. According to the sources, the Ministry of Economy and Fi

EconomyMay 21, 2021

[Newsmaker] Approval ratings for both ruling party, Moon rebound: poll

Both the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and President Moon Jae-in saw their approval ratings rebound this week, an opinion poll showed Friday. According to the poll by Gallup Korea, conducted from Tuesday-Thursday on 1,001 people age 18 or over, the approval rating for the DP stood at 32 percent, up 4 percentage points from a week earlier. The main opposition People Power Party, meanwhile, saw its approval rating edge down by 1 percentage point to 26 percent, while 30 percent of the total respon

PoliticsMay 21, 2021

[Newsmaker] Soldiers given substandard clothing, berets

South Korean soldiers have been using substandard exercise clothes and berets for years, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said amid continued reports about poorly fed troops. According to DAPA data released by Rep. Yoon Joo-kyung of the main opposition People Power Party on Thursday, eight of the 18 companies that provide apparel for the military has supplied substandard exercise clothes and berets. The total cost of the faulty products supplied by the eight firms over the past

DefenseMay 20, 2021

[Newsmaker] Defense minister convenes meeting over soldiers' meal quality

Defense Minister Suh Wook convened a meeting of top military commanders Thursday to discuss troops' living conditions, his office said, amid continued complaints over poor meal quality, especially for those under coronavirus quarantine. Earlier this month, the defense ministry unveiled a set of measures to improve service members' living conditions, including a plan to raise the average daily meal cost, following a series of complaints over the quality of meals. Yet questions were raised over

DefenseMay 20, 2021

[Newsmaker] New lead in death of student who drowned in Han River

New information continues to emerge regarding the night Sohn Jung-min disappeared near the Han River, further fanning public interest in the case. The medical student was found dead in the river the next day. According to police investigations so far, Sohn was with a friend at Han River Park until around 3:38 a.m. on April 25. Later, at around 4:27 a.m., the friend woke up alone and went home without knowing where Sohn had gone. Later, the police checked each of the 154 vehicles entering an

Social AffairsMay 19, 2021

[Newsmaker] 'Smart poles' to be installed at Han River parks amid safety concerns following college student's death

The Seoul city government said Wednesday it plans to install "smart poles" at riverside parks along the Han River to strengthen CCTV surveillance as safety concerns have grown in the wake of the death of a medical college student. Smart poles, also known as intelligent light poles, can perform their prime function of shining light along with other advanced functionality such as CCTV, public Wi-Fi and Internet of Things (IOT) sensors. Calls have risen in recent weeks for installing mo

Social AffairsMay 19, 2021

[Newsmaker] Korea has no cases of COVID-19 vaccine-induced blood clot: KDCA

Korea has yet to confirm a case of rare blood clots in people who received AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said in Tuesday’s press briefing. Park Young-joon, the agency’s head of case management team, said in response to The Korea Herald’s question that none of the post-vaccine clotting cases identified so far were accompanied by low platelet levels. The specific kind of blood clots -- termed thrombosis with thrombocytope

Social AffairsMay 18, 2021

[Newsmaker] Moon recalls 1980 Gwangju uprising, hopes for breakthrough in Myanmar

President Moon Jae-in commemorated the anniversary of a 1980 pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju on Tuesday with a call for finding the truth behind the bloody crackdown by soldiers and recovery of victims' honor. Thanks to "courageous" testimonies by some of those involved, "We are coming close to the truth of Gwangju," Moon wrote on his Facebook and Twitter accounts in commemoration of the May 18 Democratization Movement. In Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul, at that t

PoliticsMay 18, 2021

[Newsmaker] Friend of medical student found dead in Han River speaks out

The case of a 21-year-old medical student found dead in the Han River on April 30, which has received much media interest, took a new turn on Monday as his friend spoke out through his lawyer for the first time. Sohn Jung-min went missing early on April 25 after drinking overnight with his friend at a riverside park in Banpo, Seoul, and was found dead in the river days later. As Sohn’s father desperately looked for his son, and after he told the press that he wanted to know how his son g

Social AffairsMay 17, 2021

[Newsmaker] Poll respondents divided on whether to reform confirmation hearing system

South Koreans appear to be almost evenly divided on whether to remedy the current parliamentary confirmation hearings for minister nominees, a poll said Monday, as the ruling party and the presidential office are pushing to shift the focus of the system to their job performance ability. In the Realmeter poll of 500 adults nationwide conducted Friday, 47.9 percent agreed to the need to refurbish the present confirmation hearing system, while 45.5 percent expressed an opposite view. The remaining

PoliticsMay 17, 2021

[Newsmaker] Paid ‘vaccination leave’ spreading among big firms

Major conglomerates in South Korea are introducing paid leave of 1-3 days for workers who get COVID-19 vaccine shots, following the government’s recommendation. CJ Group was the latest to announce it would introduce the system, allowing its employees to take two days off work -- the day of the vaccination and the day after. Those who suffer from side effects of the vaccine can take one more day off paid, without a doctor’s note, the company said. The vaccination leave is also g

IndustryMay 16, 2021

[Newsmaker] Uncommitted voters outnumber respective supporters of two main parties: poll

Uncommitted voters without preference for a particular political party outnumbered respective supporters of the two biggest rival parties, a poll showed Sunday. According to the poll conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,000 people aged 18 or over from Tuesday through Thursday, 30 percent of the respondents said they do not support any party, up 1 percentage point from the previous week. Twenty-eight percent threw their support behind the ruling Democratic Party (DP), down 2 percentage points from

PoliticsMay 16, 2021