Last week, a number of South Korean newspapers published articles featuring the visit of Sister Marianne Stoger, an Austrian nun who spent more than 40 years caring for Korean patients with Hansen’s disease in the nation’s remote island of Sorokdo from the 1960s to the mid-2000s.She had left Sorokdo and returned to Austria back in 2005 in secret, just leaving a hand-written letter to the staff and her patients. Featuring her first visit to the island in 10 years, many papers here described Stoge

Social Affairs May 2, 2016

OKINAWA, Japan -- When Dr. Klaus Hambrecht was in his early 20s, he suffered a shoulder condition that caused him pain. It was only when he was treated by an Oriental medicine expert who performed acupuncture that his condition significantly improved. “I was very impressed,” the German physician told The Korea Herald during the International Congress of Oriental Medicine in Okinawa, Japan, earlier this month. “Now I’ve been practicing Chinese medicine and acupuncture (in Germany) for the last 20

Social Affairs May 1, 2016

When her daughter turned 18 months a few years ago, Lee Ji-seon faced a totally unexpected situation. Her daughter only wanted to spend time outdoors -- all day, every day. She’d sit on her stroller and cry nonstop until Lee would take her outside, even if it was two o’clock in the morning.“So I’d take her on a stroller walk at 2 a.m., and just walk around the neighborhood until she fell asleep,” said Lee, a former teacher who now raises two children. “And I’d very carefully take her back to her

Social Affairs April 29, 2016

South Korea’s health authorities confirmed the nation’s second Zika virus case on Wednesday night, identifying the patient as a 20-year-old man who lives in Nowon-gu, Seoul. According to the Health Ministry, the patient visited the Philippines from April 10-14, where infected mosquitoes bit him. He was asymptomatic until April 20, when he developed mild, cold-like symptoms including fever. He visited a local clinic in Seoul that day, but his doctor did not see him as a potential Zika virus patie

Social Affairs April 28, 2016

More than 50 years after her American solider father left South Korea, Jang Yeon-hee still longs to meet the parent who she has never known. “Whenever I take the subway I see a lot of foreign tourists en route to Incheon International Airport,” Jang said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “When I see such visitors I’d break down in tears. There are so many people coming in and out of this country, and yet the person who gave me my life left before I was even born and never bothered to visit

Social Affairs April 27, 2016

When Kim Eun-hyung arrived in South Korea from China in 2008, at age 14, he didn’t speak a word of Korean. Prior to his arrival, he had been living alone with his maternal grandfather in China’s Fushun, Liaoning province, as his mother had moved to Korea by herself upon her marriage to a South Korean national.“My biological father died about five months after I was born,” the 22-year-old said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “My mother and I moved a lot while living in China. As a result I

Social Affairs April 24, 2016

About five years ago, Jessica Wood, a British expat living in South Korea, learned that her then 1-year-old daughter had cerebral palsy. Wood had been living in Korea for four years prior to having her child here. But even to this day, her daughter cannot be legally recognized as a disabled person in the country because she is not a South Korean national. 123rfWithout recognition of her daughter’s status, Wood and her husband -- who is also a British national -- cannot get a parking permit, even

Social Affairs April 19, 2016

When Kim Eun-ji was a child, her favorite part of the day was to have her mother read her “Gyeonwu and Jiknyeo,” a Korean folk tale about two lovers who were forced to live on opposite sides of the Milky Way. Their love had angered the heavenly king, as Jiknyeo, whose job was to weave clothes, and Gyeonwu, a cowherd, only wanted to spend time with each other and neglected their duties. “But of course, they were allowed to reunite once a year,” the 28-year-old office worker said. “A flock of magp

Social Affairs April 13, 2016

The proportion of newborns who need critical medical care, including premature babies, has been rising in South Korea since 2010, while general fertility rate has been going down in the country, a study showed Tuesday.According to the report released by the Health Insurance Policy Research Institute in the National Health Insurance Corporation, the number of newborns decreased in Korea from 425,786 in 2010 to 402,516 in 2014. However, the proportion of newborns who needed critical medical attent

Social Affairs April 12, 2016

In 2012, when Kang Min-jin was 17 years old, she decided to go public about her sex life. Back then, in a rally focusing on youth rights in Seoul, she held a banner which she thought was both deeply personal and political. It said: “I’m not a virgin (and I’m a teenager).”“Yes, it was a political statement,” she said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “When you live in a country where you can be punished at school for dating a fellow student, where you need to be 19 or older to get informatio

Social Affairs April 11, 2016

South Korea on Thursday released a set of measures to reduce its citizens’ sugar consumption, after a recent government study revealed almost half of young Koreans aged 3-29 are eating too much sugar, leaving them vulnerable to a number of health conditions, including obesity and diabetes. “Our goal is to make sure every citizen’s sugar consumption only makes up 10 percent of their daily calorie intake,” said an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. “For example, if an in

Social Affairs April 7, 2016

When Alaina Yildiz started taking her Korean language class at a state-run institute in Busan in February, she could not believe what her teacher told her and her classmates. 　The class, officially named the Korea Immigration and Integration Program, was offered by South Korea’s Justice Ministry and specifically targeted marriage immigrants who wish to obtain South Korean citizenship after marrying Korean nationals.　“My Korean teacher said Vietnamese names aren’t beautiful so Vietnamese women sh

Social Affairs April 6, 2016

Almost 80 percent of South Koreans take no follow-up actions after being sexually harassed at work, while 45 percent of such cases involving female victims occur at drinking gatherings at the hands of those in managerial positions, a government study showed Tuesday.The study, which surveyed workers at 400 public institutions and 1,200 private firms, showed that a total of 6.4 percent of 7,844 surveyed workers had been sexually harassed at work. Among all surveyed women, 9.6 percent had been hara

Social Affairs April 5, 2016