Admission delays at emergency rooms were reported across South Korea amid a walkout by trainee doctors, while a cardiac arrest patient in her 80s died in an ambulance in Daejeon while emergency workers tried to find an ER that would admit her. According to local media reports on Monday, the patient suffered heart failure on Friday and was taken away by an ambulance. The emergency workers were turned away by seven hospitals, who told them that they did not have medical staff or hospital beds to t

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2024

South Korean police on Monday said it has launched an investigation into a satirical edited video featuring President Yoon Suk Yeol, which shows him delivering a speech disparaging himself, which went viral last week. Cho Ji-ho, the chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Station Agency, said in a press briefing that the police had acquired the ID of the person who appears to have uploaded the original video and begun an investigation on the person. The ruling People Power Party filed a complaint

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2024

A state-run committee recently issued a warning against broadcaster SBS after a panelist on one of its shows referred to first lady Kim Keon Hee without an honorific, a decision that sparked a dispute about the freedom of the press across the country. The South Korean Committee on Election Broadcasting, organized and operated by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, held a meeting last week and decided to issue a warning against the local TV broadcaster's daily "Newsbriefing.&

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2024

South Korean police on Sunday said a high school student who recently confessed to stealing a bicycle did so in order to support his brothers and sisters, who he has been taking care of due to his mother's illness. Police said that various state organizations have decided to provide financial aid to the boy's family, who they said had been in the blind spot of the country's welfare system. According to the Osan Police Station in Gyeonggi Province, a report about a stolen bicycle w

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2024

A wheel broke off of a semi-trailer and hit an express bus at around 4:09 p.m. Sunday, leading to an accident that left two dead and 12 injured. According to local police, the accident occurred on the Gyeongbu Expressway near Anseong City, Gyeonggi Province. The wheel that came off the truck, which was headed in the direction of Busan, crossed over to the other side of the expressway and collided with the bus. The wheel went through the glass of the bus, inflicting fatal injuries upon the 60-som

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024

The number of South Korean nationals taking parental leave dipped by 3.9 percent in 2023 compared to the year before, though an increasing number of parents are using the state-backed reduced work hours system, according to a recent Ministry of Employment and Labor report. A total of 126,008 people took maternal or paternal leave last year, down 5,076 from the year before, the report showed. Parents taking leave or using the reduced work hours system receive a portion of their salary during the

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024

The bereaved family of a woman killed during last year's subway stabbing rampage has sent a letter of gratitude for the police officers in charge of the case, Suwon Nambu Police Station said Saturday. Kim Hye-bin, who was a 20-year-old college student at the time, was one of two victims fatally injured by then-22-year-old Choi Won-jong near Seohyeon Station in Seongnam city, Gyeonggi Province on Aug. 3, 2023. Family members of Kim and 65-year-old Lee Hoi-nam, who also lost her life in the r

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024

South Korean court on Saturday said it has decided on a 10-month prison term for a 36-year-old woman, who blackmailed and physically assaulted a South Korean celebrity after dating them for just 10 days. The defendant, who dated the 30-something victim briefly in August 2022, refused the victim's request to end their romantic relationship and demanded that he pay her 5 million won ($3,750). The defendant threatened to post malicious comments about the victim if he did not comply, taking adv

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024

A recent government report showed substantial income disparity among South Korean doctors, with the annual incomes of physicians in fields like ophthalmology, neurosurgery and dermatology being more than double that of pediatricians. An average ophthalmologist made 389 million won ($290,000) annually as of 2020, the highest out of all medical fields in the country, according to the annual report by the state-run Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. The next highest on the list was neur

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024

A young couple who recently welcomed their seventh child became the first family in Seoul to receive a 10-million-won ($7,500) subsidy for bearing multiple children, the district office of Jung-gu in central Seoul said Thursday. Jung-gu Office said it had delivered Jeon Hye-hee and her husband Jo Yong-seok, both 28 years old, the cash incentive for couples who've had at least five children. The district office last year increased the incentives for couples who have five children or more fro

Social Affairs Feb. 24, 2024

South Korea's soccer governing body said it was "overjoyed" over recent news that Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in of the national team have buried the hatchet after their highly-publicized quarrel during the Asian Cup 2023, seemingly putting an end to what the public and the local media dubbed "ping pong gate." "After hearing the news (of Son-Lee's reconciliation), I was as happy and excited as if (the team) won in a tournament. ... As for whether the two players

Soccer Feb. 22, 2024

A retaining wall at an apartment complex in Taean-gun, South Chungcheong Province, collapsed at around 3:20 a.m. Thursday, with no deaths or injuries reported. According to local emergency services, structural damage to the 20-meter wall caused blocks of concrete to fall and destroy nine cars in the parking lot of the apartment complex. A resident of the apartment wrote in an online posting that the building's management personnel notified the residents to remove their cars from the parking

Social Affairs Feb. 22, 2024

South Korean police said Wednesday it is investigating a 32-year-old man on suspicion of robbing a 70-something woman living in a rural home, some 65 kilometers away from the city of Daegu where the suspect was living. According to Changnyeong Police Station, the suspect rode on a bicycle for seven hours from his home to invade the victim's home in Daehap-myeon, South Gyeongsang Province, at around 9 p.m. last Thursday. Police said he threatened her with a weapon and took a little over 3 mi

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2024

South Korean public broadcaster KBS' recent decision to pull a documentary about the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry has been sparking criticism from within the company's ranks. Eight KBS producers issued a joint statement urging that the episode of the channel's weekly documentary series "Docu Insight" on the tragedy should be aired as scheduled. The episode was slated to feature the tragedy and the post-traumatic stress survivors still suffer from, but KBS decided not

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2024

A state-run commission on Wednesday officially recommended that the South Korean government apologize to a 68-year-old man named Lee Sang-chul, who was falsely accused of being the culprit of a 1980 kidnap and murder case and tortured into a false confession. "We have verified the fact that police had imprisoned Lee without proper legal procedures, such as having an arrest warrant issued, and tortured him," the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Republic of Korea said, pointing out t

Social Affairs Feb. 21, 2024