Seoul police on Monday said that they have decided not to press criminal charges against those accused of violating the National Security Act by selling T-shirts bearing a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "The T-shirts (with Kim's smiling face) cannot be regarded as an expression that benefits the enemy, or that threatens the safety and existence of the state... We (the police) determined the distributors were merely selling them for profit," the Seoul Metropolitan Police

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2024

South Korean police said Monday it has requested an arrest warrant for 16 college students for attempting to enter the presidential office grounds while demanding a special investigation into allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee. The National Office of Investigation chief Woo Jong-soo told reporters that officials are conducting investigation on 20 college students on charges of breaking and entering and violating law on demonstration, seeking arrest warrants for 16 of them. He said warra

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2024

Over 90 percent of South Korean respondents said they would not eat dog meat, the results of a survey showed Monday, as the government seeks to pass a bill prohibiting dog meat consumption in the country. In a Dec.12-17 survey on 2,000 adults across the country conducted by local animal rights group Aware, 93.4 percent of respondents answered that they have no intention of eating dog meat in the future, up from 88.6 percent in a survey conducted by the same group the year before. The survey al

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2024

South Korean police on Monday confirmed that two people who drove the 67-year-old man charged with stabbing the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's leader Lee Jae-myung were unrelated to the attack. The suspect, surnamed Kim, arrived at the Busan island of Gadeokdo on Jan. 1, a day before he attacked the liberal politician. The police investigation discovered that in addition to public transportation, he rode in cars of two individuals while going to the island off the country'

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2024

Many of the women residing in Seoul whose careers have been interrupted by family-related issues tend to sustain a job for less than two years after returning to work, a report by a city-run foundation found Monday. The Seoul Foundation of Women & Family recently surveyed 1,200 women whose careers were interrupted between the ages of 25 and 54 currently living in South Korea's capital. A goal of the study was to figure out the average length of time women whose post-interruption caree

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2024

Korean-style fried chicken was selected as the favorite Korean food outside of Korea, according to the results of a government survey announced Thursday. In an international study involving some 9,000 people living in 18 major cities across the world, officials investigated the global perception of Korean food. The study excluded anyone of Korean descent and surveyed people in New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Beijing, Tokyo, Bangkok, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Rio de Janeiro. About

Food Jan. 6, 2024

The Seoul Bar Association on Friday revealed its annual list of the best- and worst-ranked judges in South Korea, based on an evaluation of its members. The list evaluated 1,402 judges across the country whom the SBA lawyers faced during their respective trials, selecting 109 judges with the highest marks and 20 who scored the lowest. Of some 22,000 members of the association, 2,341 lawyers participated in the assessment. Gang Gyeong-pyo, a judge of the Daejeon High Court, led all categories

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2024

South Korean police said Friday they are investigating two potential murder cases in northern Gyeonggi Province, both of which targeted elderly female owners of local coffee shops and occurred within the past week. Officials are considering the possibility that the same person may be behind the two killings. Earlier Friday, a woman in her 60s who ran a cafe in Yangju, some 29 kilometers north of Seoul, was found dead in what appeared to be murder. A cafe employee left the venue late the previous

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2024

North Korea's latest provocations on Friday have worsened tensions in the already-stressed inter-Korean relations, heightening worries for residents of the northwestern border islands. Residents of the islands of Baekryeong and Yeonpyeong were ordered to evacuate after North Korea on Friday morning fired some 200 artillery shells into the sea off its western coast. The shells fell in the maritime buffer zones just north of the de facto maritime border between the two nations, with no injuri

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2024

Liberal politician Lee Jae-myung is facing accusations of favoritism over his treatment after he was stabbed in the neck Tuesday in Busan, with the focal point being why he was transferred to Seoul for an emergency operation. Lee, the 60-year-old leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, was stabbed in the neck by a 67-year-old man who initially posed as a supporter. Lee is currently recovering at Seoul National University Hospital. The medical staff of Pusan National University H

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2024

The lawyer of Choi Won-jong, the 23-year-old South Korean man on trial for a fatal stabbing rampage last year near Seohyeon Station in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, claimed in court Thursday that his client had been suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the crime, citing a recent psychiatric evaluation. Suwon District Court revealed the results of the National Forensic Hospital's evaluation of Choi, in which the hospital suggested that "the defendant's ability to distinguish o

Social Affairs Jan. 5, 2024

A woman suspected of blackmailing the late Lee Sun-kyun was found to have had threatened a 29-year-old bar worker who also coerced money from the late actor, police said Thursday. Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency recently discovered the complicated relationship between the two suspects while investigating Lee's claims that he had been blackmailed by the two women. The bar host, who worked at a high-end bar in Gangnam, southern Seoul, that Lee frequently visited, reportedly received 300 mi

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2024

The percentage of single-person households in South Korea reached a new all-time high last year to account for 42 percent of all households in the country, government data showed Thursday. As of December 2023, the number of single-person households increased to 9.93 million from 9.72 million the year before, according to the resident registration service of the Ministry of Interior and Safety. In the span of just one year, the number of households consisting of one person jumped by 211,344. The

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2024

A female victim of dating violence recently requested to be added to a state service that notified victims of violence about when their assailant will be released after serving time, but the authorities only notified her after her perpetrator had already been freed, local media outlets reported Thursday. According to reports, the unnamed victim received a call from legal authorities on Dec. 1 that her ex-boyfriend had been released from prison. The culprit, surname Jeong, assaulted her in Octobe

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2024

In the months after the mistreatment of teachers and the protection of their rights became a major social issue in the wake of the suicides of several teachers here, the number of child abuse accusations filed against school staff drastically dropped from before, government data showed Thursday. According to the Ministry of Education on Thursday, there have been 150 cases in which teachers were accused of child abuse in the three months following Sept. 25. That was when the ministry mandated reg

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2024