South Korea’s health authorities said Monday they plan to conduct research on cigarettes with flavor capsules, which are becoming increasingly popular with Korean smokers, to determine if they contain harmful substances. 　Smokers can crush the flavor capsules embedded in cigarette filters to add flavor, primarily menthol, to the smoke they inhale. During the first three months of the year, some 1.05 billion cigarettes were sold in Korea. 　“We still don’t know a lot about these cigarettes and wh

Social Affairs Oct. 26, 2015

 To help prevent foreign patients from being overcharged at medical institutions in South Korea, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday announced that all medical costs for treatments at 50 clinics endorsed by the city government will soon be made public. 　The plan was announced as part of the city’s ambitious project to attract at least 400,000 foreign patients annually by 2018. 　The city government also plans to establish a special website for foreign patients, recommending government-certified m

Social Affairs Oct. 26, 2015

　MUJU, North Jeolla Province -- Located in the rural part of Muju, North Jeolla Province, the Internet Dream Village at first glimpse looks like another humble house in the countryside, surrounded by a large number of apple trees and pink garden cosmos flowers.　But the property is in fact South Korea’s only state-run institution for teenagers addicted to the Internet and smartphones. Once inside, everyone must hand over their phones to the authorities. There is no Wi-Fi service. What’s waiting f

Social Affairs Oct. 25, 2015

Last month, there was a news article with the story of a young university graduate who landed a coveted internship position at a state-run company, only to find out her main task was to do school assignments for her boss’s daughter. She would volunteer to do late-night shifts to make PowerPoint presentations and other school projects for her boss’s grown child. 　In this era with a critically low fertility rate and record-high youth unemployment, we constantly hear about how the children of those

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2015

The Korean government’s proposal to raise the state pension age from 65 to 70 in its attempt to save on the cost of welfare programs is facing fierce opposition from the elderly population as well as local experts and critics.　Once the proposal is implemented, those aged 65-69 will become ineligible to receive all state welfare benefits for the elderly, including state pension payments and free public transportation. 　The proposal was recently released after the Korea Senior Citizens’ Associatio

Social Affairs Oct. 21, 2015

Transfer payments, such as social retirement benefits and public pension payments, only make up about 28.8 percent of the average income of Korean elderly, with almost 50 percent of the elderly living below the poverty line, a newly released report showed.　The high poverty rate and inadequate public transfer payments mean that most of the Korean elderly must stay employed -- even if they don’t want to -- or financially depend on family members or children in order to live above the poverty line,

Social Affairs Oct. 20, 2015

 After designating priority seats for pregnant women and offering free diapers and dried milk powder for all newborns for a year, the South Korean government has come up with yet another measure to boost its critically low fertility rate: matchmaking services.　The plan was announced through a government report released Sunday, which stressed that the nation’s increasing number of delayed marriages is one of the biggest factors behind the low fertility rate, which currently stands at 1.21 childre

Social Affairs Oct. 19, 2015

A German mayoral candidate active in helping refugees was seriously wounded on Saturday in what police described as a stabbing with a “racist, political” motive, heaping further pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel over the migrant crisis.　The German leader expressed her “shock” over the attack in the western city of Cologne which left mayoral hopeful Henriette Reker with serious neck wounds.　The stabbing comes as Merkel prepares to travel to Istanbul on Sunday for talks on the crisis with Turki

Foreign Affairs Oct. 18, 2015

 About 10 percent of Korean women in their 20s are smokers, accounting for the largest portion of all female smokers in South Korea, a government study showed Sunday. 　While Korean women’s smoking prevalence rates are quite low compared to other developed nations, research findings show that the rates may rise in the future if young women in their 20s as well as female teenagers continue to smoke as they grow older, according to the government report.　As of last year, only 4.3 percent of all Kor

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2015

In 2012, South Korea’s public broadcaster MBC sparked outrage among international viewers when it aired a segment of two Korean female comedians in blackface on its comedy show “Three Wheels.”　The show received mounting criticism, mostly from overseas viewers, who claimed the particular scene was blatantly racist. The producer of the show eventually offered a public apology, explaining the two women were simply parodying Michol -- a black male character featured in Korea’s hugely popular 1987 TV

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2015

　South Korea’s single-income households earning minimum wage with two children must work at least 62 hours a week to live above the poverty line, a new research report showed. This means whoever is in charge of the household finances must work more than 12 hours daily, if he or she is allowed to work five days a week.　The report, published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, showed that such long work hours make it impossible for income earners of such households to balance wor

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2015

A total of 61 people have been isolated after South Korea’s last Middle East respiratory syndrome patient, who had been recovering from the disease after being released Oct. 3, was rehospitalized Sunday and tested positive again for the virus, according to the Health Ministry.　The quarantined individuals include the patient’s family members, hospital inpatients and their guardians and medical professionals. However, the chance of them being infected by the virus from the particular patient is “v

Social Affairs Oct. 13, 2015

South Korean lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex activists claimed they were denied entry to the National Assembly audit of the Gender Ministry, which was held Monday, although they had been previously scheduled to attend the session as witnesses.　The two activists included Ryu Min-hee, an attorney at the Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights, and Jeong Min-seok, the director of the DDing Dong LGBTQ Youth Crisis Support Center, who said they were abruptly told Oct. 5 b

Social Affairs Oct. 12, 2015