The Korea Herald

Vegan croissants, gluten-free pasta: Europe wakes up to fussy eating

VILLEPINTE, France (AFP) ― Once firmly entrenched in their traditional gastronomy, consumers in gourmet havens like France and Italy are slowly starting to demand gluten-, dairy- and meat-free diets as environmental and health concerns kick in.No-allergen pasta, vegan croissants, meatless hamburgers ― “free-from” food is one of the leading trends at this week’s SIAL international food fair outside Paris, where companies say Europeans are starting to care as much about what is left out of their f

Technology Oct. 23, 2014

Vegan croissants, gluten-free pasta: Europe wakes up to fussy eating

Young Koreans’ struggles behind low birthrate

South Korea’s low birthrate is generating deep concern among policymakers. The government is scrambling to shore up the falling birthrate, a threat that could jeopardize Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which is saddled with a rapidly aging population. What many policymakers have failed to tackle is the underlying problem that forces Koreans to delay or forgo having children. Just ask Kim Jin-ah, a 28-year-old Seoulite who still hasn’t been “properly” employed, despite her two university degrees.

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2014

Young Koreans’ struggles behind low birthrate

Safety concerns raised over Korean Ebola team

Safety concerns are mounting over preparations to send South Korean medical teams on their first trip to West Africa to help treat Ebola patients.Following the South Korean government’s announcement on Monday that it would send a group of medical officials to Ebola-hit countries next month, local experts expressed worries about the lack of safety training to guard against the deadly virus among health-care workers here. Shin Hyun-young, a physician and the spokeswoman for the biggest representat

Social Affairs Oct. 21, 2014

Safety concerns raised over Korean Ebola team

More Koreans opt for cremation

More than 75 percent of Koreans who died last year were cremated, a fourfold increase from 20 years ago, a government survey found.According to the Health Ministry, 76.9 percent of those who died last year were cremated, compared to only 19.1 percent in 1993.The country’s lack of burial sites and their expensive cost, as well as the convenience and efficiency of cremation are some of the major reasons behind the increase, according to the ministry.Major cities and the Seoul metropolitan area had

Social Affairs Oct. 20, 2014

Young civil servants would bear brunt of pension reform plan

Public servants who have not already worked for a long time would be most disadvantaged by the government’s latest proposal to cut the monthly pension for public workers by more than 30 percent. The Ministry of Security and Public Administration on Saturday officially submitted to the ruling Saenuri Party its latest proposal to reform public servants’ pensions. According to the proposal, which has been fiercely opposed by unionized public workers since earlier this year, all public employees wil

Social Affairs Oct. 20, 2014

Young civil servants would bear brunt of pension reform plan

Korea ill-prepared for possible Ebola outbreak

Amid growing concerns about the spread of Ebola worldwide, health experts and lawmakers in South Korea say the country is ill-prepared for a possible outbreak of the deadly virus.Fears escalated here last week as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of transmission of the virus in the U.S. Oct. 12.While the government says it is doing everything necessary to prevent the disease from spreading in South Korea, experts say that the country’s health-care workers ar

Social Affairs Oct. 19, 2014

Korea ill-prepared for possible Ebola outbreak

Obesity rises as serious health concern in Korea

Worried at the serious health implications and economic concerns of obesity in South Korea, the nation’s national health insurance agency is forming a special task force to combat the medical condition. According to the National Health Insurance Service, South Koreans spent 2.7 trillion won ($2.65 billion) on obesity and obesity-related diseases in 2011. Back in 2007, however, only 1.9 trillion won was spent in total on the health condition.As of last year, 32.4 percent of adult South Koreans we

Social Affairs Oct. 15, 2014

Seoul mayor suspected of interfering in college hiring

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon was accused of wrongfully interfering in personnel decisions at the University of Seoul, a public university funded and supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, in a parliamentary audit session Tuesday.Rep. Lee Noh-guen of the ruling Saenuri Party said he discovered that about half of the visiting professors at the university hired over the past five years are former high-ranking public officials of the municipal government of Seoul.The lawmaker also found that s

Social Affairs Oct. 14, 2014

Health Ministry criticized for tobacco tax plan

South Korea’s Health Ministry came under fire for using the money it raised from this year’s tobacco taxes for projects not related to smoking prevention, during a two-day parliamentary audit session which started Monday in Sejong.The criticism toward the ministry came about a month after it announced it would raise tobacco prices by a whopping 80 percent in the name of improving public health. According to Rep. Kim Yong-ik of the main opposition party, the ministry set aside 990 million won ($9

Politics Oct. 14, 2014

Seoul mayor endorses same-sex marriage

Seoul mayor Park Won-soon told a U.S. newspaper that he personally supports same-sex marriage and would like to see South Korea being the first country in Asia to legalize it, during his recent visit to San Francisco.With his comments, Park has become one of the first mainstream South Korean politicians to openly support LGBT rights, following the current Gender-Equality Minister Kim Hee-jung. Gay marriage is opposed by political conservatives and Christians, as well as a majority of the public

Social Affairs Oct. 13, 2014

[Graphic News] 1 in 4 Korean boys suffers from obesity

One in four South Korean male children aged 5 to 17 are obese, a rate that is higher than the OECD average, according to the nation’s Health Ministry.According to the ministry, 25 percent of young male Koreans are obese, compared to the OECD average of 23 percent.The ministry announced the statistics using Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development data from no earlier than 2010. “Some 60 percent of obese children end up becoming obese as adults as well,” said the Health Ministry in a

Technology Oct. 12, 2014

[Graphic News] 1 in 4 Korean boys suffers from obesity

Public servants’ pension reform continues to stir controversy

Amid fierce resistance from the nation’s public servants to the ruling Saenuri Party’s proposal to cut their monthly pension, a lawmaker has revealed that one in five retired public workers receive more than 3 million won ($2,798) in pension payouts, an amount about nine times higher than what retired workers in private sectors receive.According to Rep. Cho Won-jin of the ruling party, the number of retired public workers who receive such large amounts will only increase rapidly if no reform is

Social Affairs Oct. 12, 2014

1 in 3 elderly obese: report

One in 3 South Korean elderly people suffered from obesity last year, according to the latest report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The researchers discovered that 25.7 percent of Korean males aged 65 or older were obese, while 40.1 percent of their female counterparts were.Earlier this month, the state-run agency announced that Korean women in their 60s are most prone to develop obesity, while Korean men become obsess the most commonly during their 30s.While only 14.4 percent

Social Affairs Oct. 9, 2014

Ex-diplomat named KEI vice president

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― A former deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul has been appointed vice president of the Washington-based think tank Korea Economic Institute of America, the institute announced Wednesday.Mark Tokola retired as a career diplomat after 38 years of experience in the U.S. Department of State, where he served as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassies in South Korea, Mongolia and Iceland. Most recently, he served as the minister-counselor for political a

Industry Oct. 9, 2014

Nuke graft bill delayed for 10 months

No progress is being made on the anticorruption bill aimed at high-ranking energy industry officials, despite repeated calls for tougher measures from lawmakers themselves. The bill has been waiting for review by the National Assembly for almost 10 months since last year.The situation is creating an ironic twist during the ongoing parliamentary audit period, as many lawmakers are criticizing the poor maintenance of the country’s nuclear reactors ― while the standing committee has been sitting on

Politics Oct. 9, 2014

Articles by Claire Lee