South Korea has unveiled plans to promote healthy lifestyles in order to help extend one’s period of prime health by three years, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said. The ministry said it has earmarked a 2.5 trillion-won budget to carry out a comprehensive blueprint to promote public health, which will be implemented from this year through 2030. Korea’s life expectancy recorded 82.7 years in 2018, exceeding the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ave

Social Affairs Jan. 28, 2021

On top of the crisis posed by the pandemic, Incheon Airport has another headache: A growing number of apparently abandoned vehicles in the airport parking lot, with one such car there for seven years. The number of such cars has doubled in the past year. Because long-term parking is not illegal in most airports, the process of disposing abandoned vehicles is not simple. According to the Incheon International Airport Corp. on Wednesday, some 48 vehicles have been in the airport parking lot fo

Social Affairs Jan. 28, 2021

Amid the drop in demand for print media, the local magazine industry has seen a huge loss in both sales and number of workers over the past two years. According to the “2020 Magazine Industry Status Survey,” published by the Korea Press Foundation on Wednesday, the total magazine sales profit was 777.5 billion won ($703 million) in 2019, a 24.9 percent drop from 2017. A total of 1,264 publishers were surveyed, and the average annual sales for a single company was estimated to be 4

Social Affairs Jan. 27, 2021

For many smokers, quitting smoking might be on top of their list of new year’s resolutions, and it appears that North Korea is also no exception. An article titled, “Anti-smoking and our lives” was published on Meari, one of North Korea’s propaganda media websites, on Monday, promoting the nation’s anti-smoking activities, campaigns and research centers specializing in treatments to stop smoking. Since the enactment of an anti-smoking law on Nov. 4. last year that

North Korea Jan. 27, 2021

Korean teenagers have jumped on the stock investment bandwagon, as investment tutorials targeted at students -- as young as elementary school kids -- have soared over the winter holidays. Bae Jin-han from the Fine Start Academy recently launched a lecture series over the winter vacation aimed at teens interested in investing in stocks. Nicknamed “super ant” -- a term referring to retail investors -- Bae is a parent of a 15-year-old child who made 600 million won ($543,000) worth

Social Affairs Jan. 25, 2021

New opportunities are opening up for young job seekers after the novel coronavirus caused severe internship cuts in 2020. On Monday the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it would provide 350 job seekers with professional training and field experience. The Seoul Youth Internship Job Training Camp will place participants at global companies such as 3M, GM, Procter & Gamble, Visa and Coca-Cola, as well as at emerging startups in industries such as computer programming and big data.

Social Affairs Jan. 25, 2021

Public transportation in urban cities has been one of the central places of anxiety and fear amidst the COVID-19 era, since physical contact with other people is unavoidable, especially during rush hours. Korea Smart Card says it is trying to reduce these concerns with a “face recognition payment system” that eliminates the need to tap in with a card or a phone. This pilot scheme of instant tag-less payment introduces a safer and more efficient non-contact payment method, it said.

Technology Jan. 22, 2021

More than 80 percent of respondents to a recent survey said online platforms needed to change their practices for search ads to protect consumers from misleading marketing. The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday announced the results of a consumer awareness survey regarding attitudes toward search ads on online platforms. The respondents were 1,152 ordinary users. Online search ads are displayed together with search results when users type a keyword in the search bar of a website. The survey

Technology Jan. 20, 2021

A team of four Chinese nationals was caught smuggling tobacco leaves from China in punching bags and other household goods shipped to South Korea, officials said on Wednesday. The Incheon Main Customs uncovered some 1.3 metric tons (1,300 kilograms) of tobacco leaves at the Incheon International Airport, which can be used to manufacture up to an estimated 13 million packs of cigarettes. Customs authorities slapped each of the four smugglers, including a 30-year-old woman in charge of the opera

Social Affairs Jan. 20, 2021

A dedicated resting area for essential public workers is to be newly built in central Seoul’s Euljiro 5-ga. Jung-gu Office announced Wednesday that it plans to build a seven-floor resting area building with a floor space of 200 square meters by October, with construction to begin early this month. The existing rest areas in Jung-gu for on-site essential public workers were installed on a small scale and mostly located underground. They have been vulnerable to ventilation problems,

Social Affairs Jan. 20, 2021

The Gwacheon branch of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, is holding an exhibition titled “Olympic Effect: Korean Architecture and Design From 1980s to 1990s.” The show reexamines the foundations of South Korea’s architecture and design culture, which grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. It presents some 300 artworks, photos, documents and interview clips that shed light on the effects of the 1988 Seoul Olympics on urban development and industrial desig

Arts & Design Jan. 18, 2021

A parent of an autistic child filed a presidential petition Friday after having received numerous complaints by neighbors in their apartment building. According to the presidential office’s petition website, a petition titled “Please save our family of autistic children” was posted under the category of “child-rearing/education.” The petitioner noted that he lives with a 9-year-old son who has autism in an apartment in Seo-gu, Incheon. He said, “Some residen

Social Affairs Jan. 18, 2021

South Korea’s popular GPS location service Kakao Map is dealing with controversy surrounding allegations of leaking user data, amid heightened concerns about private information following a string of recent incidents. Users of Kakao Map, which has some 5 million users, raised the issue earlier this week through a media outlet, claiming their personal information seems to have leaked from the location service. It turned out to be partially true, but it was also pointed out that the users

Technology Jan. 15, 2021

To combat the pandemic in 2021, private industries and nonprofit organizations are developing vaccine passports or identification cards that can serve as proof of inoculation to governments and businesses, including airlines. The ID card targets both domestic and international purposes of use, such as simply going out to theaters or stadiums, or traveling abroad to neighboring countries. On Thursday, Microsoft, Salesforce and Oracle, in collaboration with the US health care nonprofit Mayo Cli

Industry Jan. 15, 2021

Terrestrial broadcasters will be allowed to air commercial breaks starting June, the first time since laws regulating the TV industry have been in place 48 years ago. 　 The Korea Communications Commission announced its “Broadcasting Market Promotion Policy Measures” on Wednesday. The Enforcement Decree of the Broadcasting Act states that commercial breaks will be allowed for all broadcasters regardless of their service providers. Current laws prohibit local terrestrial broadcasters

Technology Jan. 14, 2021