The owner of a tangerine orchard has been detained for deliberately poisoning birds on Jeju Island, police said on Friday. The owner faces charges of violating the Wildlife Protection and Management Act after injecting pesticides into tangerines with a syringe, leading to the deaths of approximately 200 birds, including birds like the bull-headed shrike and the light-vented bulbul. This act was carried out in the orchard in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo City. The arrest followed reports to the local po

Social Affairs March 29, 2024

Police have initiated an investigation into a candidate for the National Assembly who has taken it upon himself to forcefully detain and inspect migrant workers, a local media outlet reported Wednesday. Police in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and Daegu received multiple complaints alleging that Park Jin-jae, a candidate for the Liberty Unification Party, has been accosting people who appear to be migrant workers, according to a report by the Kyunghyang Shinmun. The Liberty Unification P

Politics March 28, 2024

Find the answer at the bottom. Retro has become the latest dessert fad in South Korea. Dubbed “halmaenial,” the trend has seen millennials embrace the tastes and preferences traditionally associated with their grandparents' generation. Halmaenial is a portmanteau of "halmae," the Korean word for granny, and "millennial." Enjoying renewed popularity are traditional Korean snacks yanggaeng, yakgwa and yugwa. Recently, yanggaeng, or sweet red bean jelly, has s

Hashtag Korea March 27, 2024

Regular exercise at least twice a week significantly reduces sleep disorders, according to a recent study conducted by an Icelandic college. A research team led by Erla Bjornsdottir from the University of Reykjavik, Iceland, disclosed a link between physical activity and insomnia. The study analyzed data from 44,000 participants over a decade across nine European countries, with findings published in The BMJ, a British medical journal, Wednesday. The team analyzed data from 4,399 individuals who

Social Affairs March 27, 2024

The state-run Korea Environment Corporation in Seo-gu, Incheon, became the latest site to host a Climate Clock on Monday, marking the tenth installation of the clock in South Korea. This significant event continues the journey that began in 2021, when the Herald Corp. headquarters in Seoul unveiled Asia's first digital Climate Clock, underscoring the nation’s growing commitment to environmental awareness and action. The Climate Clock is a visually compelling reminder of the urgent n

Social Affairs March 26, 2024

A majority of large companies in South Korea disadvantage applicants who craft their resumes using artificial intelligence services, such as ChatGPT, according to a survey released Sunday. The Labor Ministry and the Korea Employment Information Service unveiled a report on employment trends in the second half of 2023, which was based on a survey of human resource managers at the nation’s top 500 companies by sales. The survey was conducted from Nov. 20 to Dec. 22 last year, with 315 out of

Industry March 25, 2024

The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld a previous ruling that acquitted a man on charges of violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act, noting that the act did not apply in the case of this man, who secretly recorded his wife's conversation using a home camera and shared the contents of the recording with a third party. In February 2020, a man installed a home camera with a recording function in the living room of the apartment he shared with his wife in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk. The c

Social Affairs March 25, 2024

In a swift, life-saving operation that was made public Wednesday, police in Seoul’s Seongbu District last week traced an emergency phone call in just 6 minutes and saved a girl from choking. The call lasted just 25 seconds, with only the sound of sobbing heard. On March 14, officers dispatched to a house in Anam-dong identified as the origin of the call found a 4-year-old girl lying unconscious after her neck became caught in the cord of a window blind. They performed CPR and after about

Social Affairs March 20, 2024

Huh Kyung-young, a cult leader, singer and fringe politician who has run in presidential elections multiple times, faces accusations of sexually harassing over 20 female followers. He has denied the allegations. The Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police said Tuesday that 22 members of “Sky Palace,”a cult group founded and led by Huh, filed complaints, asking the police to investigate the leader’s alleged misconduct. They claimed that at the cult’s headquarters in Yangju, Gye

Politics March 19, 2024

A South Korean man was arrested for breaking into a livestock lab in Jangsu County, North Jeolla Province, and stealing the semen of a Korean bull of high genetic significance, local police said Monday. According to the county police, the suspect, a meat industry insider in his 30s, is alleged to have broken into the laboratory around 8 p.m. on March 8 and committed the theft. He stored the stolen semen in a cryogenic nitrogen container which he had to preserve its condition. The suspect was i

Social Affairs March 18, 2024

“The groom provides the home, and the bride furnishes it" has been a long-standing custom in Korean marriages. But, with evolving perspectives on gender roles, and home prices virtually beyond reach for average Korean men of marrying age, the way couples manage the finances of their marriage is undergoing severe changes. Newlyweds, single men and single women interviewed by The Korea Herald generally envisioned an equal partnership founded on equal contributions -- be it financially,

Social Affairs March 16, 2024

Parents with higher levels of education spend more on their children’s private education, data showed on Friday. Parents holding master’s degrees spent an average of 600,000 won ($450) to 640,000 won per child per month on private education last year, according to Statistics Korea. This is 3.8 times more than the monthly average of 170,000 won to 200,000 won spent per child by parents with educational backgrounds below middle school. Mothers with a high school degree spent an avera

Social Affairs March 15, 2024

South Korea ranked last, at 29th out of 29 OECD countries, in the working environment for women for 12 consecutive years, according to UK-based The Economist on Thursday. Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, The Economist released the glass-ceiling index. This UK media outlet has published the index annually since 2013 for OECD member nations, assessing factors such as women’s labor participation rate, gender income disparity, the proportion of women in high-ranking posit

Social Affairs March 8, 2024

Lee Bok-ja vividly recalls the day, 47 years ago, when she learned that she had been admitted to high school, having secretly taking and passing the entrance exam. She remembers the tuition fee: 23,520 won, a sum she couldn't bear to ask her ailing father for. This amount was worth nearly half the monthly salary of a government employee of the lowest rank at that time. Lee never went to high school, working instead to earn money, often as a cleaner. But in her dreams, she would sometimes se

Hashtag Korea March 6, 2024

Nearly 70 percent of the entire global population of hooded cranes, an endangered migratory bird species, is thought to be resting in a South Korean bay, local experts said Wednesday. A joint on-spot survey of Cheonsu Bay, in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, reported the spotting of about 14,000 cranes in the area -- 11,000 at the eastern part of Ganwol-ho, an artificial lake in the bay, and another 3,000 at the western part. The research was conducted by Seosan Birdland, an ecotourism center

Social Affairs March 6, 2024