The Ansan Immigration Office said Thursday it has transferred to the prosecution 12 South Korean men for their suspected involvement in the illegal smuggling of 106 foreign women into the country to work as bar hostesses, disguising them as singers and models. The suspects include a 46-year-old broker and the 47-year-old owner of the business establishment that hired the women, along with the 52-year-old head of a local talent agency who sent out invitations to the women, according to the Justic

Social Affairs Sept. 7, 2023

Find the answer at the bottom of the page. As in many other languages, the Korean language has slang terms involving various animals. For a person to be likened to a fox in Korean, it means that person is sly and cunning. While “foxy” in the English language also has such a meaning, it is more commonly used to refer to an attractive woman. The opposite of a fox in Korea would be a bear, which refers to a person who is slow-witted and not skilled in reading the room. Fox and bea

Hashtag Korea Sept. 6, 2023

"Less-lethal" guns to be distributed to law enforcement. More security cameras to be installed in parks, streets and public spaces. More frequent police patrols. These are just some of the measures South Korea has recently announced, as it scrambles for solutions to respond to a spate of apparently unprovoked attacks on members of the public. “In order to deal with ‘don’t-ask-why crimes’ on the fundamental level, (the government) will restructure police (forces)

Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2023

Recent news of a Turkish airline adopting a child-free zone in its airplanes has sparked a conversation in South Korea, a country the airline doesn't even fly to. Korea is a country that continuously smashes the world’s record for the lowest birth rate, and the no-kids policy has become a topic of national debate. According to reports, Corendon Airline will start offering "adults-only" seats from November, reserving some of its seats for passengers aged 16 or up on its rout

Social Affairs Aug. 31, 2023

The New Year's Day edition of The Korea Herald in 1998 depicted the somber image of a nation grappling with a financial crisis, teetering on the edge of uncertainty and reliant on a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. While delivering the dim outlook for the year ahead, the paper also published a 74-word article at the bottom of page 3 with the headline, “23 death-row inmates executed.” The story told of how, two days earlier on Dec. 30, 1997, the government ha

Hashtag Korea Aug. 30, 2023

Rain is expected nationwide until Wednesday, Korea's weather authorities said Monday, as three typhoons are on course to pass waters near Japan and China. The Korea Meteorological Administration said it expects precipitation across the country and localized heavy rain. Heavy rainstorms, winds and thunderclouds are expected in the Greater Seoul area, starting Tuesday afternoon. About 30-80 millimeters of rain is expected in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province, with northern Gyeongg

Social Affairs Aug. 28, 2023

A popular Seoul-based bagel shop recently became a lightning rod when a photo from the shop went viral online. Sitting next to the cash register was a tip jar -- a sight that touched the nerves of many Koreans who feel store owners are shifting the burden of rising operating costs to consumers by attempting to introduce gratuities. Tipping is not expected or practiced by customers in South Korea, but over the years, a few local businesses have started asking for tips. The bagel place in question

Social Affairs Aug. 27, 2023

Last week, the Busan High Court recommended a settlement in a legal dispute over a deceased sailor's inheritance that broke out between his mother and older sister. The mother, however, refused the court order to hand over 42 percent of his son's insurance money to the sister, despite leaving her children at a young age and being out of touch for 54 years. The news sparked outrage across the country and reignited talks for the legislative change to exclude parents that abandoned thei

Social Affairs Aug. 25, 2023

An 11-year-old who earned nationwide fame as a child prodigy recently dropped out of high school, with his father alleging he had been subject to bullying from his much-older classmates. Baek Gang-hyeon’s father on Sunday afternoon posted to the child’s YouTube channel that bullying against his son at school directly affected Baek’s decision to leave Seoul Science High School, one of South Korea's elite science academies, which the boy had entered this year. Earlier in the

Social Affairs Aug. 21, 2023

A recent poll of part-time workers across the country showed that 68.3 percent have been subject to “gapjil” -- which refers to abusing of one’s position to make unreasonable and unfair demands of someone in a lower position -- by customers while on the job. Employees who work face-to-face with customers are more than twice as likely to experience gapjil than those who do not -- 74.1 percent versus 31.1 percent, according to the survey by Alba Cheonguk, a part-time job search w

Social Affairs Aug. 18, 2023

The recent online threat of a mass stabbing at a K-pop group’s concert turned out to be a prank by an 11-year-old girl, local police said Friday. The child, whose identity has been withheld, posted an online threat Tuesday that claimed that she would stab fans gathered at a concert held at the Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul. Seoul Guro Police Station dispatched 39 officials to conduct an extensive search of the venue until after the concert was over at midnight that day. Officials track

Social Affairs Aug. 18, 2023

Educational Broadcasting System recently announced that its “Ding Dong Dang Kindergarten” will welcome its first autistic character in its upcoming episode, marking the first time a local children’s show will feature a character with autistic spectrum disorder. The new character “Byeori” will make her debut on the Friday episode of the show, aired every weekday at 8 a.m. The show describes the child character as perceiving sound, smell and color more strongly than o

Television Aug. 17, 2023

South Korea in recent years has seen a significant rise in both the number of days with midday temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius and above, and the number of "tropical nights," where temperatures remain at or above 25 C throughout the night. To avoid any confusion, the climate of the Korean Peninsula is categorized as temperate, not tropical. Nevertheless, meteorological authorities and people in South Korea and Japan tend to label their sweltering summer nights as "tropical.

Hashtag Korea Aug. 15, 2023

Marking its 70 years, The Korea Herald has played a unique role of being a window between South Korea and the outside world. The Herald was established in 1953, when South Korea’s first President Syngman Rhee commissioned the creation of an English newspaper that would function as the voice of the new-born republic for an international audience. It led the government-funded Korean Information Service to found a four-page tabloid called The Korean Republic. The name was suggested by the KIS

70th anniversary Aug. 13, 2023

A local colonial-era newspaper showing that Japan had commandeered teenage Korean girls for wartime labor during World War II has been discovered, a lawmaker of the main opposition party said Sunday. Rep. Heo Jong-sik of the Democratic Party of Korea revealed the pages of the July 4, 1944 edition of the now-defunct Maeil Shinbo, which showed that 13 girls who had just graduated from an elementary school in Incheon had been dispatched as members of the wartime labor force. Following imperial Japa

Social Affairs Aug. 13, 2023