Hopes are high that a US-supplied shipment of COVID-19 vaccines will give a much-needed push to South Korea’s vaccination campaign as the first batches are slated to arrive Saturday morning. One million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine are scheduled to arrive at Seoul Airbase in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province at 00:50 a.m. Saturday, health officials said Friday, following an announcement from the White House a day earlier. “The animating purpose behind t

Social Affairs June 4, 2021

Lee Jun-seok’s lead seems to have become cemented in the main opposition People Power Party’s election for its new leader, with chances becoming greater for the conservative party to undergo a huge generational shift ahead of the presidential race next year. A poll of 1,044 adults conducted this week showed Friday that Lee was the most favored among five candidates for the top party post with 46.7 percent support, far surpassing the other four candidates in the race. Lee’s le

Politics June 4, 2021

President Moon Jae-in’s election campaign promise to halve the number of fatal industrial accidents during his term appears to be increasingly out of reach, data showed. In the first three months of this year, 238 workers died from industrial accidents, down 5.9 percent on-year, according to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency released Wednesday. Some 49.2 percent of deaths occurred in the construction sector, followed by 18.

Social Affairs June 2, 2021

The mayor of Seoul and the governor of Gyeonggi Province, the heads of the two largest local governments in South Korea, exchanged words over the weekend on the topic of basic income support. While Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung proposes prioritizing the equal distribution of funds to people of all socioeconomic levels, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon wants to give more to those with less income. The two had clashed in the past over the matter, but the conflict flared up again last week when Oh wrote a so

Politics June 1, 2021

The smoking rate in Seoul dropped to its lowest level ever in 2020 as more smokers quit amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Monday that the smoking rate for adult residents of Seoul was 15.5 percent in 2020, down 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier. It is the lowest figure ever recorded since the city began collecting the data in 2008. The smoking rate for adult men in Seoul fell below 30 percent for the first time, hitting 28.9 percent, down 2.0 percent fr

Social Affairs May 31, 2021

Advocacy groups for overseas Koreans are demanding for measures to protect the rights of expats living outside of South Korea in carrying out their mandatory military service, as a revision that recently took effect infringes their right to visit and stay in their home country as lawful citizens. The Korean International Network and others claimed in a joint statement Sunday that the right to choose their place of living could be infringed for third and fourth generation Korean nationals living

Defense May 30, 2021

Starting Thursday, South Korea launched a system for people to reserve leftover COVID-19 vaccines on a daily basis through mobile applications. For those concerned about vaccine supplies, the news could be exciting, as they now have a chance to skip ahead of the line. The system could also play a role in helping the country carry out its vaccination plan on time, or even sooner than originally scheduled. Korea aims to inoculate 13 million people by the end of June and achieve herd immunity by

Social Affairs May 27, 2021

South Korea’s capital city will shorten its approval procedures for real estate reconstruction projects and ease regulatory limits in line with the new mayor’s plan to supply 240,000 new housing units by 2025. Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in a press briefing Wednesday that his office had prepared six deregulatory measures to combat rising home prices, expedite reconstruction projects and allow new apartment complexes to be built. “Measures centered on limiting supplies over the pas

Social Affairs May 26, 2021

Itaewon, once a bustling neighborhood in Seoul crowded with locals and foreigners, has lost so many visitors that more than a third of its shops have had to close their doors. The area, long known for its vibrant nightlife and international flair, had already grown quieter since the United States military started relocating to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, but the situation got much worse with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The district lost much of its appeal as a tourist attraction in

Social Affairs May 26, 2021

Seoul plans to spend 3.8 billion won ($3.4 million) to install more security cameras in 155 locations throughout its riverside parks in response to the death of a 21-year-old medical student late last month. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday that it was proposing a 4.24 trillion won supplementary budget on top of its 40.16 trillion won budget for this year to further assist those whose lives were damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and to improve the city’s infrastructure f

Social Affairs May 25, 2021

Paying fines for illegal parking has become a habit for Lee Hyeon-seok, a 34-year-old office worker based in Jung-gu, central Seoul, where finding a parking spot by his workplace is nearly impossible on most days. Driving to and from his workplace, where designated parking space is not guaranteed, he spends most weekday mornings driving around every corner of the block trying to locate a spot that would be able to house his four-door sedan for eight hours. He has cash waiting in his pocket wai

Social Affairs May 24, 2021

Drinking in South Korea almost invariably involves soju. The ubiquitous green bottle filled with watered-down alcohol has been, and is, at center stage of Seoul’s drinking scene. The soju most people usually think of -- a mixture of water, alcohol and sweeteners -- is very much an integral part of Korea’s social fabric, and accounts for close to 40 percent of all alcohol consumed in Korea. But while it may be an iconic feature of Korean drinking, many say its taste doesn’t l

Social Affairs May 22, 2021

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon from the main opposition People Power Party faces a steep wall of resistance within the city’s political scene, dominated as it is by the ruling Democratic Party. This is likely to serve as a roadblock to his reelection next year. The council of district mayors announced Thursday that it was rejecting Oh’s proposal to jointly submit a tax break proposal to the central government. That proposal called for a discount on property taxes on real estate assets valu

Politics May 22, 2021

More than a third of South Korea’s working population saw their incomes fall last year, a survey showed Thursday, continuing to showcase the deepening polarization in the job market from the pandemic. According to a survey of 16,244 workers from 537 occupations by the Korea Employment Information Service conducted from August to November last year, 35.8 percent of the respondents said their overall income or monthly wages fell since the pandemic started in January 2020. Some 2.9 percent

Social Affairs May 20, 2021

New measures to expedite housing redevelopment projects and deter real estate speculation are among a raft of policies currently in the works, Seoul’s mayor said Monday, as the city looks to supply 240,000 new housing units by 2025 to combat rising home prices. In a meeting with reporters Monday, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said his ambition to alleviate the regulatory pressure affecting real estate reconstruction and renovation projects in the city remained “unfazed,” as his offic

Social Affairs May 17, 2021