The number of female local government employees surpassed that of their male counterparts for the first time ever in 2023, data showed Tuesday, but higher-ranked civil servants were still mostly men. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety released data on those working in the government bodies of metropolitan and provincial regions or districts, which showed that 157,935 civil servants were women as of late 2023. This figure accounts for 50.4 percent of the total 313,296 workers in local govern

Social Affairs June 4, 2024

South Korean police on Tuesday said that a young unmarried couple have been arrested on suspicion of illegal adoption of a child, neglect leading to the death of the child and burial without proper procedures. Dongbu Police Station in Daegu requested the indictment of a male suspect in his 20s and a female suspect in her 30s on charges of child abuse resulting in death and abandonment of a dead body. Abusing a child to death, even with no intent to kill, is punishable between five years and a li

Social Affairs June 4, 2024

Around 20 cows escaped from a farm in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province in the middle of the night, wandering around on a nearby road for over an hour, before rescue authorities captured and returned them to the farm's owner early Tuesday. According to the Gyeongsang Fire Service Headquarters, the cows broke out of their barn at around 1:20 a.m. Tuesday. Several eyewitnesses filmed the animals walking around the road in a herd. Authorities said no accidents were reported as a result of th

Social Affairs June 4, 2024

The South Korean police on Monday said it has recommended two members of a church choir to be indicted for their alleged part in last month's death of a 17-year-old girl. The two suspects, the 52-year-old leader of the choir in an Incheon church and a 41-year-old member, are being accused of child abuse resulting in death, stipulated in the Article 4 of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, Etc. of Child Abuse Crimes. The crime is punishable by at least five years in prison, u

Social Affairs June 3, 2024

A 37-year-old man has been indicted for attempted murder of two foreign residents in Incheon, local prosecutors said Monday. The suspect is believed to have stabbed the victims in their 40s in the town of Hambak Maeul in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, at around 4:40 a.m. on May 19, according to the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office. He also had attempted to stab two other foreigners who he met earlier, but they managed to escape. The stabbing victims received medical treatment and reportedly did no

Social Affairs June 3, 2024

A Seoul-based North Korean defectors' group on Monday said it would send more leaflets and digital copies of popular South Korean songs across the border in a growing cross-border tit-for-tat that most recently saw Pyongyang send balloons loaded with waste to the South. North Korea sent hundreds of balloons last week, threatening to send more if balloons carrying South Korean leaflets entered its territory again. The civic group Fighters for a Free North Korea revealed its plans to respon

North Korea June 3, 2024

Two South Korean police officers have been suspended after a civilian they had been interrogating suffered a major spinal injury, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, local police officials said Monday. The victim, in his 50s, had been undergoing questioning at Asan Police Station in South Chungcheong Province at 1:30 a.m. on May 11, when he suddenly stood up from his seat and leaned his upper body forward. One of the police officers grabbed him from behind and pulled him back, and the vic

Social Affairs June 3, 2024

South Korean government on Monday authorized drilling off the country's southeastern coast for oil and natural gas reserves a recent study by a foreign seismic research company indicated would be equivalent to about 14 billion barrels of oil. The resources are believed to be in the in the shores off the Yeongil Bay near Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a briefing at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul. If confirmed, he said the reserve would

Politics June 3, 2024

New users for mobile messenger application Line in South Korea have surpassed that of KakaoTalk for the third straight week this month, another implication that KakaoTalk's once-overwhelming dominance in the market is diminishing. According to the report by the mobile data analysis firm IGA Works, the Line application was newly installed 61,640 times across the country between May 20 and May 26, edging out 56,771 new installations of KakaoTalk to lead all messenger service for messenger, ph

Social Affairs June 1, 2024

The South Korean police said Thursday that they were searching for a man in his 30s who is believed to have swindled around 100 million won ($73,000) from his former girlfriend while pretending to be a close friend of soccer superstar Son Heung-min. The suspect, a former professional soccer player, is believed to have extorted the money from the victim in 2021. He borrowed money from her on 19 occasions between May and December of that year, saying that he needed money for an "entertainment

Social Affairs June 1, 2024

The number of homes owned by foreign nationals came to 91,453 in December 2023, with 55 percent of them belonging to Chinese nationals, government data showed Friday. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport released a report on foreign-owned real estate assets, which showed that 0.48 percent of all homes in the country are owned by non-South Koreans. The number of foreign-owned homes rose 4.8 percent compared to the previous report released six months ago, with 4,230 additional homes

Economy May 31, 2024

With the South Korean Army in the hot seat over a recent trainee soldier's death during a pack drill, a number of online users here have recently been accusing a website affiliated with the military of deleting or hiding posts that are openly critical toward the military concerning the controversial death. As of Friday morning, multiple posts criticizing the Army for the supposed censoring have been uploaded in the Free Talk section of The Camp, a communication platform with the cooperation

Social Affairs May 31, 2024

The South Korean police on Thursday said it has recently recommended an indictment against a local politician on charges of unlawfully detaining people he accused of immigration violations despite having no evidence. The politician, who lost his bid to become a lawmaker in April's parliamentary election, is also facing potential charges for using violence against his victims during the unlawful arrests that he conducted in February and March of this year. Nine of his accomplices are also be

Social Affairs May 31, 2024

A 65-year-old man suspected of murdering his former girlfriend and her daughter was caught by local police Friday morning, according to officials. Officers at Bangbae Police Station located the suspect at around 7:45 a.m. near Namtaeryeong Station in Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu, and apprehended the suspect. The police tracked down the suspect based on surveillance footage. The suspect is believed to have stabbed the woman in her 60s and her daughter to death at a commercial-residential complex in Da

Social Affairs May 31, 2024

A man in his 20s has been sentenced to a year and six months in prison for attacking a police officer with a knife, for what he thought was "insincere response" from investigators. The defendant was found guilty by the Seoul Northern District Court of both obstruction of official duties and special obstruction of public duty, which is applied when the crime involves the use of a dangerous weapon. "This crime is very dangerous in both its means and the results, and the defendant ha

Social Affairs May 30, 2024