Teachers and parents at a middle school in Gwangju have strongly protested a lack of action by school officials, who failed to report to authorities a recent violent outburst by a student wielding a knife. According to the Gwangju branch of the Korean Teachers and Educational Worker's Union, 25 of the 27 teachers of the school submitted a petition to the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education on Tuesday calling for its principal and vice principal to be replaced. "The principal did n

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

A high school student boy has stabbed his female classmate and jumped out of a high-rise apartment building while on the run -- the latter suspected to be a suicide attempt. The girl sustained a serious injury and is currently recovering from surgery. Meanwhile, the boy remains in a serious condition as of Tuesday. According to Ansan Danwon Police Station in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, the suspect launched the attack on the victim at around 3:40 p.m. on Monday, in the bathroom at a hagwon they bot

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

The deadly car accident that left nine people dead in Seoul Monday night has rekindled debate over whether the government should revisit a conditional driver's license system for older driver, which it shelved in May amid public backlash over potential infringement of the human right to mobility for older people. As of now, it is unclear how a car driven by a 68-year-old man came to plow into pedestrians near Seoul City Hall. The driver claimed the vehicle suddenly accelerated not due to hi

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

The South Korean police said Tuesday they had commenced a nationwide clampdown against groups of reckless drivers and motorcyclists across the country, which will continue until Aug. 31. Groups of people riding motorcycles or driving cars aggressively without obeying the traffic law are known locally as pokjujok. Although they are not motorcycle gangs or other organized crime groups, the dangerous driving in itself has sparked concern. In a recent case on June 25 in Cheonan, South Chungcheong

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

Officers at a police station in Gyeonggi Province said Monday it is investigating a teenager on possible violation of the Road Traffic Act, after unlicensed driving by the adolescent led to a collision with four cars. The teenage suspect, whose identity was withheld, took a Hyundai Sonata around 11:10 p.m. Sunday and drove it around Dongan-gu, Anyang, 18 kilometers south of Seoul. He told police that he had done so because he had an argument with his mother. The boy, who did not have a driver&

Social Affairs July 1, 2024

A local branch of the South Korean police is facing public scrutiny over its alleged coercive investigation of a man who was wrongfully accused of threatening a woman with sexual molestation. The Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province recently posted a notice on its homepage telling the public that internet users have wrongly identified multiple police officers as responsible for the controversial handling of the recent case. But people responded by chastising the police

Social Affairs July 1, 2024

The amount of overdue business loans taken by self-employed business owners in South Korea surpassed 10 trillion won ($7.2 billion) for the first time ever in the first quarter of this year, marking the highest figure ever since the government started tallying the figure in 2009. Overdue business loans of self-employed business owners were an accumulated 10.8 trillion won as of late March, according to a report the Bank of Korea submitted to Rep. Yang Bu-nam of the main opposition Democratic Par

Economy July 1, 2024

Members of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday continued to lambast President Yoon Suk Yeol over a claim in a high-level politician's recently published memoir that Yoon had said he "cannot rule out the possibility that this accident (the deadly Itaewon crowd crush) may have been induced and manipulated by a certain force," in December 2022. Rep. Park Hong-geun of the Democratic Party railed against Yoon's alleged comment in an interview on MBC Radio, de

Politics July 1, 2024

A local credit card company's analysis showed Sunday that bindaetteok and sujebi, two dishes many South Koreans associate with rainy days, actually show substantial jumps in sales when the rain pours. KB Kookmin Card analyzed public data and data it compiled from its consumers between June and August of last year, and found that bindaetteok sales on days with at least 10 millimeters of rainfall were 35 percent higher compared to other days. Bindaetteok is made of dough from ground beans wit

Food June 30, 2024

From 2018 to 2023, there had been 22 cases in which a heat-related death were officially recognized as workplace deaths, a report by a state-run agency showed Sunday. The Korea Workers Compensation and Welfare Service recently submitted statistics on industrial hazards related to diseases caused by high temperature, such as heat exhaustion. The report showed that there had been 147 of such cases in the past six years, 35 in 2018, 26 in 2019, 13 in 2020, 19 in 2021, 23 in 2022, and 31 in 2023.

Social Affairs June 30, 2024

Last week, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo alluded to details about plans to honor controversial former President Park Chung-hee in the city, saying the metropolitan government will build a 3-meter statue in the Dongdaegu Station Plaza and another 6-meter one at the Representative Library of Daegu. "I personally believe it should be smaller than statue of Adm. Yi Sun-sin in Seoul Gwanghwamun Plaza," the conservative mayor said in a press conference, referring to the 6.5-meter statue of the

Social Affairs June 30, 2024

An owner of a family-run pub suspected of providing illegal gambling has been arrested, police said Thursday, with 110 people suspected of operating the business or gambling there also being placed under investigation. The Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency recently raided one of the poker-themed bars -- locally called a "hold 'em pub" -- in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, which is suspected of running a secret gambling business. The owner has been placed under arrest for possible

Social Affairs June 29, 2024

South Korean matchmaking company Duo recently released a report on the men and women who got married through its services, including the average heights, incomes, academic backgrounds and other conditions of its members. The company analyzed the data of the 1,887 couples who got married between June 2022 and May 2024 after using its services, and compiled what it called "the standard model of men and women who succeeded in marriage." The couples got married on average of 14.8 months af

Social Affairs June 29, 2024

About 83.2 percent of the bank services in South Korea involving withdrawals and deposits of bank accounts took place online in the first quarter of this year. According to the Economic Statistics System of the Bank of Korea, the percentage of online banking among the total number of financial transfers between accounts went up each quarter from 79.8 percent in the Q1 of 2023. It marked the highest figure ever. Online banking refers to the services available through a bank's homepage or mob

Social Affairs June 29, 2024

South Korean figure skater Lee Hae-in on Thursday spoke out on the recent allegations about her harassing a younger male skater during last month's training camp, saying the supposed victim and she had been in a romantic relationship at the time. The Korea Skating Union last week suspended Lee for three years for allegedly sexually harassing a male underage skater and drinking alcohol during last month's training camp of the national team conducted in Italy. Another unidentified fema

Social Affairs June 27, 2024