A Seoul district court on Monday sentenced the former chief of the Yongsan Police Station to three years in prison without labor in a ruling that held, for the first time, the South Korean public office responsible for the deadly Halloween crowd crush on Oct. 29, 2022 in Itaewon, central Seoul. Delivering the ruling, the Seoul Western District Court said Lee Im-jae, the then-head of Yongsan Police Station, had failed to establish and implement a safety management plan to prevent the possibility

Social Affairs Sept. 30, 2024

The Seoul city government will hold an international forum on its Stepping Stone Income welfare initiative at Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Oct. 7, marking the program's third-year run. Under the theme, “Solutions for Alleviating Poverty and Income Disparity,” the city government said its forum would bring together experts in economics, social welfare and sociology to discuss the city’s income support system and its results. The city’s Stepping Stone Income, or Didimdol

Social Affairs Sept. 30, 2024

Nearly 45 percent of the over 423,000 unregistered foreign nationals living in South Korea had originally entered the country under its visa waiver program and overstayed their permitted period of stay as of the end of 2023, according to data from the Ministry of Justice released Sunday in a report created by Rep. Song Seog-jun of the ruling People Power Party. The data in the report said 16.9 percent of the more than 2.5 million foreign national residents in Korea were unregistered as of the en

Social Affairs Sept. 29, 2024

The number of patients suffering from malnutrition in South Korea has increased by nearly three times in the last five years, particularly among low-income households, data showed Tuesday. According to an official report from the National Health Insurance Service delivered to Rep. Jun Jin-sook of the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 63,274 patients received treatment for malnutrition from 2019 to the first half of this year. The number of patients suffering from malnutrition increased signi

Social Affairs Sept. 24, 2024

The National Assembly’s Gender Equality and Family Committee approved a bill to strengthen punishment against deepfake sex crimes and victim support Monday, with the aim of passing it during a plenary session on Thursday. During Monday’s committee meeting, representatives of both the ruling and opposition party approved amendments to the Juvenile Protection Act and the Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act. According to the amendments made to the Juvenile Protection A

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2024

An international tech exposition showcasing how technology can help people and urban living will take place at Coex in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul next month, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday. Scheduled to take place Oct. 10-12, the Seoul Smart Life Week will feature exhibitions hosted by local companies showcasing the newest technologies and products under the theme of urban living. It will also host international conferences and forums as a platform for cities around

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2024

Heavy rain, with strong winds of up to 25 meters per second, is expected over the weekend when Typhoon Pulasan passes near South Korea’s southern region on Saturday evening, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration on Friday. The state weather agency warned that heavy rain will be concentrated in the Greater Seoul area of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, the eastern coast of Gangwon Province, and Jeju Island, with some areas expected to receive up to 300 mm of rainfall by

Social Affairs Sept. 20, 2024

Three suspects are accused of selling sexually explicit deepfake images and videos of over 20 South Korean celebrities, including minors, through Telegram, according to Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency on Friday. Police officials announced two suspects were arrested and one was apprehended without arrest Thursday in violation of the Juvenile Protection Act and the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. The police said the three suspects were in their 20s and were

Social Affairs Sept. 20, 2024

Rainfall reaching up to 250 millimeters will fall nationwide from Friday afternoon, bringing an end to the prolonged summer weather in South Korea, said the Korea Meteorological Administration on Thursday. The atmosphere above the Korean Peninsula was covered by the Tibetan and North Pacific high-pressure systems, resulting in unprecedented heat waves and tropical nights during Chuseok, Korea’s traditional mid-autumn festival to wish for a good harvest. According to the KMA, the continued

Social Affairs Sept. 19, 2024

The number of foreign nationals illegally working as delivery workers in South Korea has surged by 50 percent since the Ministry of Justice initiated a crackdown on illegal employment practices in the industry in 2023. According to the Justice Ministry, 171 cases of foreign nationals being illegally employed in food delivery services and parcel services were detected as of July 2024, up from 117 cases detected in the whole of 2023. If this trend continues, the ministry expects numbers to double

Social Affairs Sept. 18, 2024

Amid the prolonged summer in South Korea, research revealed Wednesday shows that rising temperatures can cause not just heat-related illnesses but also increase the risk of obtaining mental illnesses such as depression. According to joint research conducted by the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul National University and Pusan National University with 219,187 respondents of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s Community Health Survey, for every increase in average annual t

Social Affairs Sept. 18, 2024

The Embassy of Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions with the immersive exhibition, “Digital Dilemmas – Civilians a+ Heart,” at the War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul. The Geneva Conventions, a set of international humanitarian laws that were concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1949, established international legal standards for humanitarian treatment during war. The set of intern

Foreign Affairs Sept. 15, 2024

Environment Minister Kim Wan-sup said Wednesday that the government would find more ways to switch to renewable energy sources instead of being content with a recent feat of reducing 4.4 percent of emissions last year. Kim’s recent remarks come after the Greenhouse Inventory and Research Center affiliated with the Environment Ministry announced Tuesday that Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions, calculated in CO2 equivalents, were estimated at 624.2 million tons in 2023, marking a second

Social Affairs Sept. 11, 2024

The South Korean government announced a set of measures to prevent fires and explosions in battery production factories by proposing specific safety management standards for such factories on Tuesday. The recent set of measures comes after the fatal fire at a lithium battery plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on June 24, which resulted in 23 deaths. Since the incident, a task force consisting of officials from the Ministry of Interior and Safety as well as other ministries and experts was for

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2024

Though Chuseok is drawing near, the weather for Korea's traditional midautumn harvest festival remains similar to summer conditions, as heat wave advisories were issued in most parts of the country Tuesday. As of Tuesday, several major cities in Korea saw their highest September temperatures on record, with cities such as Daejeon seeing daytime temperatures reach as high as 35.3 degrees Celsius, marking the first time since 1969 that the city saw a temperature as high as 35 C in September.

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2024