South Korea’s star defender Kim Min-jae officially apologized Saturday to Son Heung-min, captain of the national football team, amid reports of alleged friction between the two. “I was entirely wrong about Son. Son always makes such (Instagram) posts after a national football match but I misinterpreted his words (on his Instagram post) and acted irrationally,” Kim announced in a statement through his agency Orangeball, admitting to having "unfollowed" Son on Instagram

Soccer April 3, 2023

A woman in her thirties living in Seoul, revealed online a secret that she has vowed to conceal at all costs until her death: that she is a “motae solo.” This Korean slang phrase, often abbreviated as “mossol,” refers to those who have never been in a relationship, with "motae" meaning a mother’s womb in Korean and "solo" meaning alone. So, to translate literally, it means "single since birth." Coming out as a mossol can be very tough

Social Affairs April 1, 2023

A course called “Gender and Culture” at Sejong University has been attracting public interest for its mandatory dating assignment in which students are randomly paired with a classmate of the opposite sex to spend at least four hours together. The course came on the public radar when its teacher, professor Bae Jeong-weon of the humanities department, talked about the course on the tvN variety show "You Quiz on the Block" in February. The course covers various theories on lo

Social Affairs March 14, 2023

South Jeolla Province announced Sunday that it would expand the distribution of the AI companion robot Hyodol for seniors living alone in the region. South Jeolla Province Public Agency for Social Service plans to deliver Hyodol to 1,360 of those aged 65 and older -- a high risk group for solitary death and suicide -- up from 260 last year. Hyodol, launched by the start-up of the same name in 2018, is an AI robot designed to help manage the emotions, life and safety of the seniors. A total of

Social Affairs Jan. 15, 2023

Kakao, which runs the KaKaoTalk messenger app, started handing out three emoji packages to its messenger users Thursday as a general compensation for a data center fire last October, but faced criticism that a free service it also offered transitioned into a paid subscription. “To compensate all our users for the damage caused by the fire at SK C&C data center last year, we are going to hand out the ‘heart package’ which includes our three new emoticons,’ Kakao announ

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2023

The South Chungcheong Province Office announced Tuesday that it has built a large "bee food forest" as part of efforts to prevent the ongoing mass death and disappearance of bees. The size of the bee food forest constructed by the province is equivalent to 4,733 soccer fields -- 31 percent larger than the original target of 25.79 million square meters. More than 8 million honey trees have been planted in the forest. Honey trees refer to those that provide food and habitat for honeybees

Social Affairs Dec. 27, 2022

A local civic group supporting Muslims in the conflict over a mosque construction in Daegu announced Monday that they filed a petition to the UN requesting emergency relief. The activists condemned the central government, Daegu Metropolitan Government and Daegu’s Buk-gu office, accusing them of inaction in the issue. “The fact that the government, Daegu and Daegu Buk-gu turn a blind eye to ongoing acts of religious discrimination and racial hatred constitutes a serious human rights v

Social Affairs Dec. 27, 2022

Residents of Daehyeon-dong in Daegu in opposition to the construction of a mosque in the neighborhood on Thursday cooked a whole pig near the construction site, stepping up the ongoing clash with Muslim residents of the city. On the same day, the Daegu anti-mosque committee, which was formed to stop the construction, held a press conference at the west gate of Kyungpook National University, announcing the assault by a Pakistani international student. “The Pakistani student was charged with

Social Affairs Dec. 16, 2022

A Changwon City Council member is facing public outcry over a social media post accusing families of the Itaewon crowd crush victims of using the deaths. On her Facebook account on Sunday, Kim Mi-na, a member of the People Power Party on Changwon City Council, accused the bereaved families of “killing twice the innocent souls of their kids who died young in their prime” and “doing business with their kids’ deaths.” She also asked whether the victims “(died) sa

Social Affairs Dec. 13, 2022

The South Korean government on Thursday issued an interagency advisory to caution local tech companies about North Korean IT workers allegedly seeking employment under assumed nationalities. This follows reports that North Korea is using these workers as a source of foreign currency earnings that are being channeled into the North’s nuclear and missile development. In the advisory, the Foreign, Unification and ICT ministries called for stronger background checks in hiring IT workers at hom

North Korea Dec. 8, 2022