South Korea’s COVID-19 tally surpassed 20,000 on Tuesday amid a growing number of patients with severe conditions in the aftermath of the second wave of infections that hit the country’s capital and surrounding area, some seven months after the first case was reported. The new daily case number reached 235, raising the total caseload to 20,182 as of midnight Monday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the new cases, just 13 were imported from over

Social Affairs Sept. 1, 2020

The main opposition United Future Party filed an application with the National Election Commission on Monday, seeking to rename itself as part of a rebranding effort. The new name is “People’s Power.” The name change came just six months after the Liberty Korea Party merged with minor conservative parties in February to form the United Future Party. The new name won an endorsement at the party’s general meeting, held online earlier in the day. It was one of three na

Politics Aug. 31, 2020

The ruling Democratic Party’s approval rating has bounced back to the 40 percent-level for the first time in nine weeks, widening the gap with the main opposition United Future Party to over 10 percentage points, a survey showed Monday. According to the opinion poll conducted by Realmeter, the ruling party’s support increased 0.7 percentage points from a week ago to 40.4 percent, while that of the main opposition party dipped 5.0 percentage points to 30.1 percent. The survey w

Politics Aug. 31, 2020

A recent resurgence of coronavirus infections has kept people from chilling out with coffee at large franchise cafes, as the government tightened its social distancing measures for Greater Seoul starting Sunday. The Gwanghwamun area, located in the heart of Seoul and densely packed with coffeehouse chains like Starbucks, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, A Twosome Place, Hollys Coffee, Ediya Coffee and Paul Bassett, had a quiet Sunday morning as businesses embraced a totally different way of w

Social Affairs Aug. 30, 2020

Ventilation systems are unlikely to be the transmission route of eight coronavirus cases detected at an apartment complex in Guro-gu, western Seoul, health authorities said Thursday, while saying it was looking into all possibilities. 　 Eight people residing in the same building have been confirmed to have contracted the virus since the first case was detected there on Aug. 23. They are from five households living both above and below the first patient’s apartment. Twenty more cases l

Social Affairs Aug. 27, 2020

The National Assembly shut down its facilities and canceled all meetings scheduled for Thursday following a positive COVID-19 test by a beat reporter. According to the National Assembly Secretariat, a photo reporter who covered a meeting of the Supreme Council of the ruling Democratic Party Korea on Wednesday morning received a positive test result later in the day. Some 50 people including lawmakers, key party officials and journalists attended the meeting. Leaders of the Democratic pa

Politics Aug. 27, 2020

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Wednesday it will provide emergency cash assistance to foreigners residing in the city who were excluded from its coronavirus relief program in March. Under the plan, the city will pay up to 500,000 won ($421) to households whose income is below the median income -- for a single household it is 1.75 million won and around 3 million won and 4.7 million won for two-person and four-person households. “We hope that this emergency support for foreig

Social Affairs Aug. 26, 2020

The government and ruling Democratic Party of Korea said Wednesday they will actively pursue expansionary fiscal policy next year, with plans to inject 20 trillion won ($16.9 billion) from next year’s budget into the “Korean New Deal” initiative and another 20 trillion won into youth support programs. After a meeting at the National Assembly between the government and the ruling party on the 2021 budget bill, they decided to continue to expand government spending on projec

Politics Aug. 26, 2020

The Sarang Jeil Church, which recently emerged as a hotbed of mass coronavirus infections, hit back at President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday, criticizing him for making accusations that the religious group obstructed the government’s antivirus fight. A statement issued from the “emergency committee representing participants of the Aug. 15 rally” said the church had actively cooperated with health authorities to contain the novel coronavirus by voluntarily shutting down the facil

Politics Aug. 25, 2020

Service on two Seoul city bus routes was temporarily halted Sunday afternoon after three drivers tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Two bus drivers were confirmed to have the virus on Sunday after having come into close contact with a co-worker who tested positive Friday, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. All three people work for Boseong Transportation. Of some 192 Boseong employees and their family members who underwent testing, 189 tested negative. Service was sus

Social Affairs Aug. 24, 2020

At least seven police officers who were dispatched to a mass rally on Aug. 15 tested positive for the novel coronavirus as of Monday amid a slew of cases across the country that have been linked to the event. Two more officers were confirmed to have contracted the virus on the weekend, raising the total to seven, according to the National Police Agency on Monday. All seven people who tested positive work for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. The officers were among 9,536 police who unde

Social Affairs Aug. 24, 2020

About eight in 10 South Korean people said they were worried about contracting the novel coronavirus, showing the highest level of concern ever seen since the respiratory virus arrived here early this year. According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea released on Friday, 83 percent of respondents saw the coronavirus as a threat to their personal health with 46 percent saying that they were “very worried” and 37 percent who were “concerned to a certain degree.” Th

Social Affairs Aug. 21, 2020

The government has filed complaints against members of a Seoul-based church, accusing them of being uncooperative with health authorities’ COVID-19 containment measures despite hundreds of coronavirus cases linked to the religious group. The Sarang Jeil Church, led by far-right pastor Jun Kwang-hoon, has been in hot water for failing to cooperate with government contact tracing efforts by omitting or falsifying the contacts of some church members from the list it submitted to health off

Social Affairs Aug. 21, 2020

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 tally exceeded 300 Friday. It was the highest figure in over five months, as locally transmitted infections continue to be diagnosed in the Greater Seoul area. The new daily case number reached 324, raising the total caseload to 16,670 as of midnight Thursday, according to the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the new cases, only nine were imported from overseas while the rest were locally transmitted. Two more deaths were added, bring

Social Affairs Aug. 21, 2020

The conservative pastor of a Seoul-based church that became a key source of mass infections of the novel coronavirus has alleged that the government manipulated virus-related data to blame his church for a second wave of the virus outbreak. Jun Kwang-hoon, who leads the 4,000-member Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul and is a vocal critic of President Moon Jae-in, criticized the government for forcibly conducting diagnostic tests and enforcing isolation on them in a full-page advertisement that ran

Social Affairs Aug. 20, 2020