Officials confirmed on Tuesday that a ghostly-looking woman who had climbed on top of a highway tunnel near Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, had been successfully rescued. The incident had gained widespread attention after her eery silhouette scared numerous drivers. As fleeting images of her standing on top of the 10-meter-tall tunnel, taken from fast-moving vehicles, went viral Tuesday, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police announced her rescue on Sunday. The person captured in the video and photos is a f

Social Affairs June 13, 2023

A 12-year-old child died after a playground bench swing broke and collapsed on top of him, officials said Monday. The incident occurred at around 3:30 p.m. Saturday at a playground on the premise of an apartment complex in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province. According to local reports, the steel frame of the bench swing suddenly detached from the base, crushing the deceased boy and hitting another child who was playing in front of it. The surviving child suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Social Affairs June 12, 2023

A Chinese couple has been arrested by the Cambodian police on suspicion of murder after the body of a female live streamer of Korean nationality was found near Phnom Penh, officials and reports said Sunday. The woman in her 30s was found dead on June 6, wrapped in a blanket and dumped in a pond, according to Cambodian newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea Daily. Local villagers discovered her body and alerted the police. The Cambodian police soon identified the victim as a Korean woman with over 250,000 fo

Social Affairs June 11, 2023

One of the most popular cafes located in Itaewon, Seoul, is off-limits to guests aged 12 and under. "Our cafe wasn't a no-kids zone at the beginning," the owner of Cafe Kyeri told The Korea Herald in an interview on May 31. The cafe, located on the edge of the district, aims to provide a quiet and relaxing environment for visitors. That is why it decided to restrict children from entering the venue six years ago, the owner explained. "We would love to have children at the c

Social Affairs June 10, 2023

A local Hangeul foundation is hosting an online contest for foreigners to transcribe their native language in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, this summer. The contest, dubbed "Hangeul Festa 2023," hosted by Hangeul Nuri Foundation, requires its applicants to submit videos of the following descriptions from June 1 to Aug. 31 via its official website (https://www.hangeul-festa.org/en/). The contest will be held in three categories: transcribing in Hangeul the lyrics to a song; transcribing

Social Affairs June 1, 2023

From the infamous Jonestown Massacre in Guyana in 1978 to the more recent case of the "starvation cult" in Kenya this April, the world has witnessed a disturbing string of mass deaths associated with religious cults. In the summer of 1987, South Korea, too, had its own harrowing experience. On Aug. 29, a chilling discovery was made in the attic of a factory in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. It was a bizarre scene: Bodies were stacked upon one another, their feet bound and nostrils stuffed

Social Affairs May 31, 2023

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration's plan to restrict protests by groups with a record of allegedly illegal demonstrations as well as ban nighttime and rush-hour rallies, contradicts the Constitution as well as Yoon’s repeated emphasis on freedom and individual rights, critics said Thursday. Political commentator Chin Jung-kwon called this plan "a ridiculous and unconstitutional idea" in an era where "violent protests" have ceased to exist, saying it is a thinly veil

Social Affairs May 25, 2023

With the COVID-19 pandemic seemingly in the rear-view mirror, South Korea is witnessing a late-season resurgence of seasonal flu and the common cold this spring, with the number of patients five times greater than the average of previous years, officials said Monday. According to government data, the ratio of patients diagnosed with or suspected of having seasonal influenza in the 19th week of the year -- May 7-13 -- came to 23.4 per 1,000, up 26.5 percent from four weeks earlier. The 19th-week

Social Affairs May 22, 2023

When Cha Mi-joo asked about her 14-year-old son's opinion on his school lunch, he nonchalantly shrugged and gave a one-word response, "kebake." She had to ask what he meant, because the term didn't align with her knowledge of the Korean language. It was during this exchange that she discovered a new slang term derived from the English phrase "case by case." "Kebake," which according to her son, is “used widely” by young Koreans, is a combinatio

Culture May 21, 2023

An ill-fated replica of Korea's 16th century turtle-shaped warship was sold for 1.5 million won ($1,100), less than 0.1 percent of the money spent for its creation, officials at Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, said Thursday. According to Geoje, the sale of the recreated Geobukseon took place on Tuesday during the eighth round of bidding, starting from the initial bidding price of 117.5 million won in February last year. Built in 2010 with 2 billion won of taxpayers’ money, the woode

Culture May 18, 2023

The story of two middle-school students who walked 11 hours through the night to reach Everland for a school trip went viral after it was shared on social media recently. The reason for their arduous journey? A bet proposed by their friends with a reward of 70,000 won ($52). According to the person who shared their story in an online community, the two teenage boys were found wandering in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, by residents on May 12. The teenagers said they were from Hanam, a city just ea

Social Affairs May 17, 2023

Families that communicate in group chat rooms on mobile messaging apps are more likely to have stronger bonds compared to those who don’t, a study showed Sunday. “There is a higher chance that families with group chat rooms feel more satisfaction due to in-depth communication,” according to a report released by the research team led by Sogang University communications professor Cho Jae-hee. “Family members who are part of such chat rooms are more inclined to accept shared

Social Affairs May 14, 2023

The mid-80s were a harrowing time for South Koreans, marked by traumatic events that shook the entire nation. The shock of the Korean Air Flight 007's shot down by a Soviet missile on Sept. 1, 1983, which killed all of its passengers and crew, was compounded by another horror, just a month later, at the hands of communist forces in the northern part of the peninsula. On Oct. 9, in Myanmar’s capital of Yangon, a bomb went off, killing key members of South Korea’s economic team le

Social Affairs May 10, 2023

In the country with the highest suicide rates in the world, a disturbing new trend may be emerging: the live broadcasting of suicides on social media. On April 16, a teenager livestreamed her death by suicide on Instagram. Such content has been of international concern for some time, but the girl’s death marked the first known case of its kind in South Korea. Further jolting the nation, two teenage girls were stopped by the police from taking their own lives while livestreaming last Friday

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

As their knowledge and understanding of Korea, its culture and language deepen, some Korean learners choose to come to Korea to pursue further studies at Korean universities or graduate schools, with the hopes of starting a career and life here. But visas and job opportunities are limited, which leads many students to feel that, regardless of the efforts they put into studying here, Korea does not welcome them or want them to stay. Some of these foreign students end up giving up on their Korea

Social Affairs May 8, 2023