Busan police on Thursday presented a certificate of appreciation to a bank employee who prevented a voice phishing scam against an elderly woman. According to the Bukbu Police Station in Busan, the employee of the north Busan branch of Nonghyup Bank received a request from a woman in her 70s to withdraw 8 million won ($5,750) from her account, at around 3:50 p.m. on Oct. 14. She had told the employee that she needed cash to buy home appliances, but the employee grew suspicious and checked to f

Social Affairs Oct. 25, 2024

A man is being considered for commendation after intervening in an assault against a convenience store clerk, local media outlets reported Thursday. According to the local broadcaster YTN, the attack occurred at a convenience store in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The suspect, identified only as a foreign national in his 20s, attempted to buy a bottle of soju but the store clerk in his 60s repeatedly refused to sell it, citing that the suspect needed an ID to

Social Affairs Oct. 24, 2024

Han Kang's historic win of the Nobel Prize in literature appears to have sparked a reading boom across South Korea, with data showing that locals have bought substantially more books following the Oct. 10 announcement. BC Card, one of the biggest credit card companies here, analyzed online and offline sales at major book outlets in recent weeks. It found that book sales of BC Card users for the period of Oct. 10-16 jumped by 39.2 percent compared to the previous week. Book sales in that sev

Books Oct. 24, 2024

A young man on the run for allegedly dodging his mandatory military service survived a fall from a building while trying to evade prosecutors, officials said Thursday. The suspect, in his late 20s and wanted for violating the Military Service Act, was visited at his home in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province by officials from the Namyangju Branch of the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office at around 12:40 p.m. on Monday. One investigator knocked on the door while the other was standing by outsi

Social Affairs Oct. 24, 2024

Controversy over tattoos is brewing again, following reports about several five-star hotels in Seoul banning customers with "excessive tattoos" from using some facilities. One hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, reportedly has a clause allowing it to restrict gym and swimming pool access to customers with "an excessive amount of tattoos, to the extent of causing anxiety or discomfort to others." Another hotel in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, was reported to ban pool use for those with tatto

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2024

South Korea is planning to allow those taking tests for driver's licenses to do so with electric vehicles, the National Police Agency said Wednesday. According to the NPA, the revision of the Road Traffic Act allowing battery-powered cars to be used at state-run driver's test centers was passed at the Korean National Police Committee meeting on Wednesday. The revision is expected to come into effect as early as this year, in which case test-takers will be able to use EVs next year. Und

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2024

Incheon Airport said Wednesday it will allow celebrities to use the security lane that had previously been reserved for flight crew, in a bid to prevent fans from overcrowding the gates. The Incheon International Airport Corp. recently sent guidelines for a process that will allow celebrities to use exclusive security lane at the terminal during departure. This is a bid to minimize the crowd-gathering near the entrance, and is expected to be implemented on Oct. 28. "Celebrities tend to at

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2024

The South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they recently requested a two-year prison term for a man in his 30s for giving up his baby for adoption to someone he met online. In a hearing at the Daejeon District Court, the prosecution sought a jail term and a five-year restriction on the suspect's employment at any institutes related to children. They charged the suspect with violating Article 17 of the Child Welfare Act, which prohibits abandoning or neglecting a child. Last year, the suspe

Social Affairs Oct. 23, 2024

Government data showed Tuesday that of all the South Korean workers in the month of September, the largest portion of them were age 60 and over. According to Statistics Korea and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the country had 6.75 million workers in the 60-and-over age group as of September. The figured marked an all-time high for workers in this age group, with an increase of 272,000 compared to the previous month. September also marked the first time ever that the number of workers aged 60

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2024

In the past five years, nearly 700 cases of bullying in the workplace have been classified by the government as industrial accidents entitling the victims to compensation, including 16 cases that resulted in the victim committing suicide, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 675 cases of workplace bullying were recognized by the authorities as industrial accidents, defined as death, injury or disease caused by factors related to a job, according to Article 2 of the Occupational Safety and

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2024

A South Korean civic group on Monday said it has filed a complaint against a local writer alleging she has defamed Han Kang, the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. The group, Citizens' Solidarity for the Eradication of Deeply-rooted Corruption, accused Kim Gyu-na of a "politically-motivated and personal attack against an individual that not only exceeds the limits of freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution, but also goes beyond bound

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2024

A South Korean court said Tuesday it handed down a sentence of five years in jail to a man for the attempted murder of another man living next door, who had asked him not to smoke inside the home. The defendant, in his 20s, was found guilty of attempted murder by the Daejeon District Court. On June 20 of last year the convicted man had been smoking inside his home in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, when his 40-year-old neighbor -- with whom he shared a wall -- reportedly said, "Excuse m

Social Affairs Oct. 22, 2024

The South Korean government said Thursday that it has decided to administer a regular mental health checkup for those aged between 20 and 34, starting next year as part of the state-run national health examination program. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, state health examination committee members conducted a meeting and agreed to expand the mental health checkup program. As part of the national health checkup program run by the National Health Insurance Service, the current pr

Social Affairs Oct. 19, 2024

A 63-year-old welfare worker who applied a form of corporal punishment on a 11-year-old child with A brain disorder was cleared by the Supreme Court of criminal charges, after it ruled the actions were a form of discipline and not abuse. South Korea's top court upheld a lower court ruling that said the defendant was not to be punished for child abuse. The appellate court had said while the defendant's actions could be said to be excessive, it appeared to be in the interest of the child

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2024

A civic group of Koreans living in Germany said Thursday they had filed for a court injunction against a Berlin district's recent decision to remove the Statue of Peace, erected to honor victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery. Korea Verband said it submitted the papers to reverse the recent decision made by the officials of Berlin's Mitte district last month. The district had provided notification of an order to remove the statue by the end of this month, citing the road laws

Social Affairs Oct. 18, 2024