Choi Won-jong, a 22-year-old suspect in the deadly car and knife attack on Aug. 3 in a department store in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, was transferred to the prosecution for further investigation and indictment, police said Thursday. Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said it has referred Choi to the prosecution on charges of murder, attempted murder and making preparations to commit murder. While leaving a police detention center to be taken to the prosecution Thursday morning, Choi told reporter

Social Affairs Aug. 10, 2023

Hospitals should not just be institutions treating people, but also important members of the community committed to building a sustainable future, the director of Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital said. “Domestic medical institutions are not very interested in ESG management yet. However, Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital has decided to take the lead in ESG management,” Yoo Jae-doo told The Korea Herald. The hospital aims to minimize emissions during treatment, have a saf

Social Affairs Aug. 10, 2023

Two Vietnamese workers died Wednesday when a building under construction collapsed in Okseon-dong, Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, authorities said, crushing them. According to fire authorities, the uppermost floor of a nine-story shopping complex under construction collapsed onto the floor below at 11:49 a.m. Two men of Vietnamese nationality -- one in his 20s and one in his 30s -- were crushed between the eighth and top floors. They were found in cardiac arrest by rescue authorities at 12:25 p.m.

Social Affairs Aug. 9, 2023

Four Korean teenagers allegedly involved in a case of group assault against a Vietnamese worker in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province were transferred to the prosecution and the court, police said Wednesday. Pocheon Police Station said it has referred the four teenagers to the prosecution and the juvenile department of the family court, respectively, on three charges, including joint principal offense, unlawful restraint and extortion, on Tuesday. The police have accused the teens of assaulting a Vietna

Social Affairs Aug. 9, 2023

Only 12 percent of patients diagnosed with severe mental illness use government-provided mental health care services, data showed Tuesday. According to statistics released by the National Mental Health Center, the number of people registered at government-run mental health centers and who accessed services accounted for 12.1 percent of 651,813 patients diagnosed with severe mental illnesses as of the end of 2021. Severely mentally ill patients ever treated at least once for schizophrenia, delusi

Social Affairs Aug. 8, 2023

The nation was rattled by a random mass stabbing in a city south of Seoul on Thursday that left 14 injured, just two weeks after a fatal stabbing in a crowded area in Seoul that left one dead and three injured. Another stabbing case involving a man and his purported former teacher in Daejeon on Friday further raised alarm among the public. On the same day, police arrested a man carrying sharp objects in a shopping mall connected to the Express Bus Terminal in southern Seoul. Korea has seen a f

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2023

An elementary school teacher who died in an apparent suicide last month was found to had difficulties dealing with a student who showed problematic behavior since the beginning of the first semester, in addition to an excessive workload, according to the results of a government inquiry released on Friday. A student had scratched a classmate's forehead with a pencil in the late teacher's classroom on July 12, said the Education Ministry, which had announced a joint inquiry into the case

Social Affairs Aug. 4, 2023

Koreans have relatively low life satisfaction, which is an essential determinant of health and well-being and even affects mortality, particularly among older people, data showed on Thursday. According to a study report titled “Difference of Associating Factors of Happiness Index among Korean Adults by Life Cycle Age Brackets” published in the journal of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the average happiness index of adults in Korea stood at 6.68 points out of

Social Affairs Aug. 3, 2023

The head of South Korea's disease control agency said Wednesday that the government would take caution when deciding whether to downgrade the infectious disease classification of COVID-19 next week, noting an uptick in the number of infections in recent weeks. “We will carefully assess the timing of lowering COVID-19's classification to class 4 by studying domestic and foreign trends, quarantine operations and consulting with experts,” Jee Young-mee, commissioner of the Kor

Social Affairs Aug. 2, 2023

Six days after two cats were confirmed to have been infected with avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, at an animal shelter in Seoul, an additional cat was confirmed to have contracted the virus at an animal shelter in another district of the city, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday. A cat at an animal shelter in Gwanak-gu died after showing respiratory symptoms and receiving treatment. An in-depth test found it was infected with a highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, according

Social Affairs Aug. 1, 2023

With the number of people suffering from heatstroke growing in South Korea, medical experts and health authorities warned of the consequences of the condition on Monday, saying that it could damage the brain and multiple organs if left untreated. Heat-related illnesses refer to several acute illnesses caused by the body's exposure to an excessively hot environment. They are caused by the body's inability to cool itself down. They can lead to a number of symptoms, including headaches, high fever,

Social Affairs July 31, 2023

North Korea retaliated to a human rights report released by South Korea’s Unification Ministry early this year with its own, criticizing human rights conditions in the South. Pyongyang Publishing Co., an organ of the North's ruling Workers' Party, published a book that roughly translates to "Barren Land of Human Rights" and is full of disparaging remarks on human rights conditions in South Korea, on July 21. “We will examine the human rights condition in South Kor

North Korea July 30, 2023

Korea has the second-lowest number of physicians among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, leading to some of the highest doctors' wages among surveyed member nations. Doctors in Korea earn the most among 28 member countries that provided related data. Following Korea, the highest earners are in the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and the UK. The US was among the countries for which data was not provided. Measured by PPP, which takes into account local living

Social Affairs July 30, 2023

Parents with twins and other multiple-birth babies could be given more subsidies, longer maternity leave and postpartum care support, the Korean government said Thursday in a new proposal. Under the Ministry of Health and Welfare‘s plan, the amount of vouchers given to mothers of multiple-birth babies that can be used to pay medical bills for pregnancy or maternity services would be increased to 1 million won ($790) per child, from the current total of 1.4 million won. This means if a moth

Social Affairs July 27, 2023

South Korean babies born in 2023 are expected to live 83.6 years, 3.3 years longer than the average life expectancy for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, data showed Tuesday. The life expectancy of South Koreans born this year increased by 1.8 years from 10 years ago, and is one month longer than a year earlier, according to the OECD's Health Statistics 2023 report. The average life expectancy for OECD countries was 80.3. Of the OECD members, South

Social Affairs July 25, 2023