The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Friday that it will implement the city’s comprehensive cleanup measures to help residents spend Lunar New Year‘s Day in a pleasant environment. To prevent inconvenience during the holiday period, the government plans to designate both discharging and collection dates of domestic waste, dividing the dates for different regions into three sections: before, during and after the Lunar New Year’s Day. Starting next week, from Monday to

Social Affairs Feb. 5, 2021

Artificial intelligence is on the way to help out police officers pinched for time, as they are overloaded with filing reports and handling disputes on the scene simultaneously. The National Police Agency said Thursday that it will invest some 7 billion won ($6.2 million) in government contributions to develop the AI-based 112 Emergency Decision Support System by 2024. Currently, the city and provincial police departments’ integrated situation rooms receive an average of 19 million 112 e

Social Affairs Feb. 5, 2021

Artists with less than two years of experience will be eligible to receive “art creation funds” from March, to help carry on their initial art productions with financial stability. Unfair practices that have lingered over the nation’s arts scene, such as overdue wages, are also to be addressed. The Korea Artists Welfare Foundation, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced its 2021 business plan on Jan. 27. On the agenda are the establishment of the New Arti

Culture Feb. 5, 2021

For over a decade, preferences for foreign language classes have favored some languages over others, and by 2022, only one French teacher will be left in Seoul's public schools. To guarantee that students have a choice of subjects and maintain a diverse range of language education offerings, growing concerns have risen over the need to appoint new eligible teachers. According to the Korea Association of French Professors and Teachers (ACPF), on Wednesday, there are currently nine French teac

Social Affairs Feb. 2, 2021

A 64-year-old man, who ran a fried-chicken restaurant located in Jangsu, North Jeolla Province, passed away in a tryout for forest fire watchers, police said Monday. The man lost consciousness during the fitness test held at a gym in Jangsu in the afternoon on Jan. 29, then later died, according to the Jeonbuk Police Station. At the time of the accident, the man had been carrying a 15-kilogram backpack equipped with an oxygen pump while running along a 1.2-kilometer track. The man reportedly c

Social Affairs Feb. 2, 2021

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea’s leading science and tech university, will launch an online forum with three other renowned universities, exploring ways to gain a competitive edge in the industrial sector in the COVID-19 era. The online forum titled, “The Roles and Responsibilities of Universities in a Global Crisis,” will be livestreamed on Wednesday, featuring a range of issues that affect universities in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Social Affairs Feb. 2, 2021

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