The 11th typhoon of the year has formed, but South Korea will likely be safe from its influence, the national weather agency said Wednesday. The Korea Meteorological Administration said Typhoon Noul formed Wednesday around 3 a.m. off the southwestern coast of the Philippines. As of 3 p.m., the typhoon was advancing west toward Vietnam at 10 kilometers per hour. The typhoon is expected to grow to medium intensity, make landfall in Vietnam and gradually decline in power to a tropical depression

Social Affairs Sept. 16, 2020

Schools in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province will resume in-person classes next week as South Korea has eased its social distancing measures in parts of the country, the Education Ministry announced Tuesday. Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said in a press briefing that kindergartens and elementary, middle and high schools there will allow students to return to classrooms from Sept. 21. The decision was made after Korea lowered the social distancing restrictions in the capital region from the

Social Affairs Sept. 15, 2020

More than half of working parents are considering giving up their work due to child care issues amid the coronavirus epidemic, a survey showed Tuesday. According to a survey of 283 workers in dual-income families conducted by the office of Rep. Jang Chul-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, 50.5 percent of respondents said they have considered hanging it up to provide care for their children and supervise online learning in the absence of alternative options. As the virus outbreak con

Social Affairs Sept. 15, 2020

Gyeonggi Province is launching a provincewide voucher system for teenagers to buy feminine care supplies starting next year. A total of 486,000 girls aged 11 to 18 in the province will be eligible for the program, receiving 132,000 won a year. Another 24,000 girls from low-income families already receive subsidies for feminine care products. The initiative has been on a test run in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, since last year. The provincial government plans to expand it to all 31 of its cities a

Social Affairs Sept. 14, 2020

Sejong University in Seoul ranked ninth among South Korean universities in the 2021 world university rankings from the Times Higher Education, the college announced Monday. The UK institution for higher education moved Sejong University up one notch compared with last year’s evaluation. Its standing among 1,527 universities in 93 countries climbed from 401st-500th place last year to 301st-350th place this year. The World University Rankings evaluates universities every year on 13 criteri

Social Affairs Sept. 14, 2020

Coronavirus cases have surged again in Korea, and so has the use of single-use plastics. As the country struggles to curb a second wave of COVID-19 infections, people are buying food and drinks via takeaways or deliveries that come in plastic packaging. 　 Official data has yet to be compiled, but environmentalists say it is evident that the heightened Level 2 social distancing scheme, imposed nationwide in mid-August and to last until Sept. 20, is boosting waste from disposable packaging. &l

Social Affairs Sept. 13, 2020

A brutal war of words erupted on social media from what started as a mistake by a Filipino American TikTok personality. Over the past few days, ethnic Koreans and Filipinos have been exchanging derogatory and discriminatory insults over social media, with the Filipino side sharing posts with hashtags like #CancelKorea. An air of reconciliation was looming just as the weekend arrived. It all comes down to a dance video posted on TikTok on Sept. 5. A Filipino American TikTok personality in Hawai

Social Affairs Sept. 13, 2020

South Korea will see a wider variety of e-textbooks offered for elementary school students with the government’s plan to allow more options to schools and students. The Ministry of Education announced Friday that it plans to open up development and selection of social studies and science digital textbooks for third grade to sixth grade students to private publishers and have them government-authorized. At present, such e-textbooks are developed, published and distributed by the governmen

Social Affairs Sept. 11, 2020

South Koreans are in fury after a drunk driver fatally ran over a man in his 50s who was on his way to deliver fried chicken. A public petition on the Blue House website uploaded Thursday by someone claiming to be the deceased man’s daughter gained more than 300,000 signatures as of 11 a.m. Friday. Petitions with 200,000 signatures or more are entitled to a response from the Blue House The writer of the petition asked for severe punishment for the drunk driver, who she said devastated he

Social Affairs Sept. 11, 2020

A train line connecting Incheon with Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, will open Saturday, linking two major cities in the capital region via a trip that will take 70 minutes. The Transport Ministry announced Thursday the full opening of the Suin Line on Saturday. The line is divided into three sections, and two spanning over 20 kilometers were already in operation. A total of 2 trillion won ($1.68 billion) was poured into the project, which broke ground in 2004 and involved reconstructing an old ra

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2020

North London Collegiate School Jeju has produced its best batch of graduates ever, despite uncertainties and difficulties stemming from the coronavirus. The international school on Jeju Island, with English as its language of instruction, said its latest batch of graduates who left school in June reached the highest level of academic proficiency and college advancement in the school’s history, overcoming challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With a 100 percent pass rate, the class of 20

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2020

Infamous child rapist Cho Doo-soon is set to be freed from jail in December after completing his prison term. Cho, who brutally assaulted an 8-year-old girl in 2008, will be released Dec. 13 from a correction facility in Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang Province, where he has been imprisoned for 12 years. The criminal’s scheduled return to society has been a source of fear for many here -- parents in particular. Over the past years, scores of public petitions have been submitted to various

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2020

Children under the age of 9 will be offered free flu shots starting Tuesday as the government is keen to prevent the coronavirus and influenza from spreading simultaneously this fall. The group is the first cohort to be offered free flu vaccinations this fall as part of the government’s disease control initiative, which will eventually be extended to 19 million people. Health authorities are keen on providing flu shots as it is difficult to distinguish COVID-19 cases from flu cases. The t

Social Affairs Sept. 8, 2020

South Korea will shut down 30 additional coal power plants by 2034 in line with the country’s ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote eco-friendly energy sources, President Moon Jae-in announced Monday. In a speech delivered virtually for the first International Day for Clean Air for blue skies, the president said his administration plans to close 10 existing coal power plants by the end of 2022 and another 20 by 2034. At the same time, the country will more than triple the

Politics Sept. 8, 2020

Typhoon Haishen, the season’s strongest storm, left a trail of destruction as it passed through South Korea on Monday. Several were injured, one went missing and hundreds of cases of property damage, traffic disruptions, and power outages were reported from the southern island of Jeju and the southeastern port city of Busan to Gangneung, Gangwon Province. The typhoon landed in southern Ulsan at around 9 a.m. and exited through Gangneung at around 1:30 p.m. the same day. As of 4 p.m., Ha

Social Affairs Sept. 7, 2020