South Korean court said on Sunday it has rejected the request made by a former member of the Air Force to reverse his dismissal, saying the military's decision is justified. The Chuncheon branch of the Seoul High Court upheld the earlier court ruling that ruled in favor of the Air Force dismissing the senior non-commissioned officer, who had the rank of "wonsa" which is roughly equivalent to chief master sergeant in the US Air Force. He was removed from the post in May 2022 after

Social Affairs March 10, 2024

About 1 in 5 teenagers in South Korea have been subject to online abuse, a recent survey by state-run think-tank found Sunday. The National Youth Policy Institute conducted the study in November on 1,038 teens here, comprising of 508 middle school students, 507 high school students and 23 teens not attending schools. Some 20.1 percent of the respondents said they had been insulted, generally hurt online in the past six months, while 3 percent said they have been subject to cyberbullying over 10

Social Affairs March 10, 2024

Private education institutes across South Korea have been expanding the number of classes for students preparing for medical school, with some promoting night classes for office workers wishing to become doctors. Mega Study, a major private education institute, held an information session earlier this week about a night class for medical school hopefuls which will open on March 18. According to the institute, the majority of the inquiries were made by those in their early to mid-30s who were gra

Social Affairs March 9, 2024

The majority of men who have taken parental leave think taking a leave of absence for childcare is still difficult in South Korean society, with their leading concern being parental leave putting them at a disadvantage for promotion, a recent survey by a think-tank indicated. The KCTU Research Center, affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, surveyed 1,720 of its members who took paternity leave at least once to find how they felt about the system. In the survey conducted throug

Social Affairs March 9, 2024

South Korea's consumer rights watchdog said Thursday that it found 473 faulty products which had been recalled from overseas markets were being sold here in 2023. The Korea Consumer Agency, affiliate of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, said it has pulled the faulty products from the distribution. Nearly a quarter of the products, 113, were food and beverages, 106 were electronic devices, 70 were products for children, while 61 were sports-related items. Some 69.9 percent of the recalls for

Social Affairs March 7, 2024

South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday asked the court to hand down a one-year prison term to the former head of a state-run day care center who is accused of illegally acquiring the content of conversations among teachers at the center last year. The defendant, surnamed Kim, formerly head of the day care center in Sejong City, became the subject of nationwide criticism last year when the center's teachers resigned en mass after raising corruption allegations over textbooks and meals. This i

Social Affairs March 7, 2024

South Korea's Labor Ministry said Wednesday that it found 281 cases of hiring process violations in October and November of last year, among the most common of which involved asking job applicants questions that had been deemed inappropriate. The ministry said it reviewed employments conducted via the state-run job search website Worknet in the two months by 627 business establishments, and found that 151 of the establishments committed violations of varying degrees in hiring employees. Acc

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

A person claiming to be a sales representative of a local pharmaceutical company recently alleged in an online post that they had been pressured into running all sorts of personal errands by and for doctors. The person uploaded screenshots of the mobile messenger app Kakao Talk which show a 2018-2019 conversation thread between the pharmaceutical representative and a private practitioner who was the client of their drug company. In the conversation, the doctor is seen instructing the sales rep t

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

An employee of the Gimpo City Government was found dead Tuesday in what appears to be a suicide, according to South Korean media reports Wednesday. The employee had reportedly been the victim of bullying from an unspecified group of people online. Kyungin Ilbo reported that the employee's body was found inside a car at a parking lot in Seogu, Incheon, at around noon on Tuesday. The employee did not appear to have left a suicide note. The government worker had received complaints from citiz

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

A 20-something worker at a local convenience store took cash from the store's cashier and fled the scene, just 20 minutes into his first day of work, local media outlets reported Wednesday. According to the reports, the suspect had been hired as a part-time worker at a convenience store in Jongno-gu, central Seoul. However, just 20 minutes after he started his first shift, the worker took 800,000 won ($600) in cash from the register and a carton of cigarettes and walked out the door. The ma

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

A van operated by a private taekwondo academy crashed into a commercial building in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Tuesday afternoon, injuring five children and three adults, local rescue authorities said Wednesday. The accident occurred at around 4:35 p.m. in a residential area in Paldal-gu, Suwon, when the van collided with a sedan at an intersection, according to the Gyeonggi Province Fire Services. The impact caused the van to crash into a mobile phone store in an adjacent commercial building.

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

South Korean police on Tuesday said it is investigating a claim that a man in his twenties had threatened to kill his former girlfriend's dog, after being dumped by the woman. Gimpo Police Station in Gyeonggi Province received a report from woman on Saturday that her dog has gone missing. According to the victim, she had recently ended her romantic relationship with a man, who had also threatened to kill her dog, a female Maltese by the name of Jenny. The suspect sent her a photo of a garba

Social Affairs March 5, 2024

The state-run financial watchdog said Tuesday that 2023 saw 13,751 citizen reports of damages caused by financial crimes, up 26 percent from 10,913 recorded the year before. The overwhelming majority of the cases, 12,844, were related to illegal private loans, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. The figure also marked a 24.5 percent increase from 10,350 reported the year before. Others included reports related to the illegal seizure of property of the debtor, which also jumped from 1

Social Affairs March 5, 2024

As the South Korean government mulls easing a ban on consanguineous marriages, a local authority on the country's traditional rites on Tuesday voiced its strong opposition against what they say is "an act of destroying the concept of family." The Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association, which provides guidelines for the country's traditional rituals, said it commenced one-person protests against the move outside of the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday.

Social Affairs March 5, 2024

South Korean police on Tuesday said they were seeking charges against a driver who drunkenly called police and mocked them by saying he "won't get caught because my car is a sports car." Yuseong Police Station in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul, said it was had filed for charges of obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means, driving under the influence of alcohol, and driving without a license. According to officials, the suspected called the 112 emergency serv

Social Affairs March 5, 2024