The number of South Koreans smoking every day has dropped significantly over the past 10 years, with government statistics showing Thursday that 15.4 percent of the population aged 15 or over were daily smokers as of 2021. The joint study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines daily smokers as people aged at least 15 years who smoke every day, and have smoked at least 100 cigarettes (five packs) throughout his or her life. The la

Social Affairs Jan. 4, 2024

The biggest factor influencing South Korea's families in deciding whether or not to have children is the cost of housing, a state research institute-issued report published Wednesday shows, in an analysis of various economic and labor factors. Researchers at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements analyzed the country's birth rate patterns, using data from Statistics Korea, and concluded that declines have been particularly profound during housing cost spikes. They noted tha

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2024

South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they recently discovered that an official of a maintenance company had placed a blood-covered safety helmet at the site of an industrial accident in a bid to hide the fact that an employee of the company had been working without proper safety gear. The suspect, a midlevel manager of the company charged with management of an apartment complex in Gyeonggi Province, had been accused of death by negligence in the incident that took place in July of 2022. The e

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2024

A local civic group on Wednesday filed a complaint of child abuse against the alleged blackmailer of late actor Lee Sun-kyun, saying that the suspect had mistreated an infant by taking the baby to court. The suspect, recently arrested for extorting 50 million ($38,000) from the world-renowned actor, was seen carrying an unidentified baby when she arrived at Incheon District Court on Dec. 28 for her warrant hearing. "While appearing in court, (the suspect) brought along a child who had no re

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2024

Conspiracy theories suggesting that Tuesday's stabbing of Korea's main opposition party leader, Lee Jae-myung, was orchestrated by the victim himself have been spreading on the internet here, sparking outrage from the public and those in political circles in both the liberal and conservative camps. The 59-year-old leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea was stabbed in the left side of the neck by a 67-year-old man in Busan during a visit to the southernmost port city, s

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2024

South Korean police said Wednesday that a man in his 40s has been arrested for threatening to murder Han Dong-hoon, the chairman of the emergency leadership committee of the ruling People Power Party. The suspect wrote the online post at around 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday, vowing to attack the ruling party's interim leader during his visit to Gwangju, according to Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station. Han is slated to visit the southwestern city on Thursday. The suspect was arrested without a warrant a

Social Affairs Jan. 3, 2024

A law on releasing the identities of criminal suspects will take effect on Jan. 25, allowing police to release a recent photo, the name and age of individuals charged with a range of crimes, such as sexual violence against minors, certain drug crimes, arson, armed revolt and being part of an organized crime ring. In October 2023, the National Assembly passed the so-called "mug shot law," which provides legal grounds for authorities to release to the public the identities of criminal su

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2024

South Korean actor Lee Na-eun, who was formerly part of girl group April, denied rumors that she is in a romantic relationship with soccer player Lee Kang-in on Tuesday. Lee's agency, Namoo Actors, said that she and the Paris Saint-Germain player "just know each other," responding to earlier reports the two are dating. The agency said that the two had had a meeting, but it was merely for the actor to receive tickets to a game. Lee Kang-in's representatives did not comment. Ea

People Jan. 2, 2024

Tuesday's stabbing of Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, showed that South Korea's politicians remain vulnerable to physical attacks despite several high-profile cases in the recent past. Lee, 59, had been visiting the site of the new airport in Busan and was speaking to members of the media when an unidentified man approached him asking for an autograph before lunging to stab him in the neck, undetected and undeterred by anyone. Lee is one of t

Politics Jan. 2, 2024

South Korean police on Tuesday said they have apprehended a US national in his 40s on suspicion of using a knife to injure a local man. The suspect, whose identity was withheld, is believed to have attacked the victim in his 20s in an alley in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, western Seoul at 7:22 p.m. on Monday. He approached the victim's car and knocked on the window, and attacked the victim when he came out. The victim sustained non-critical injuries, and was treated at a nearby hospital. The polic

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2024

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, was attacked by an unidentified person Tuesday during his visit to Busan. He had been visiting the site of a new airport in Gadeok-do, an island off the coast of the port city, when the attack occurred. The attacker was apprehended at the scene. Lee sustained an injury to his neck and has received emergency treatment, but the severity of the injury remains unclear. More to follow.

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2024

Young South Koreans generally tend to be less happy the longer they work, a report published by a state-run organization showed Monday. The amount of labor that employees aged 34 or younger are most satisfied with is between 15 and 40 hours a week, according to the report published in the journal of the Korea Labor Institute. Researcher Park Ju-sang, of the Korea Labour & Society Institute took the data from the Korean Employment Information Service and categorized South Korean employees age

Social Affairs Jan. 1, 2024

The first South Korean officially born in the New Year is a healthy, 3.15-kilogram boy, born to a couple who struggled to conceive for over a decade. Cha Gangnam Medical Center in Seoul said Monday that the baby boy was born exactly at midnight of the year 2024, making him the first person to be born in the country in the new year. The boy was conceived through in vitro fertilization to 44-year-old Lee Ju-hong and 38-year-old Im A-yeon. "(Our baby's birth) is even more special becaus

People Jan. 1, 2024

As South Korea's school age population continues to drop, 31.3 percent of recently built schools are suffering from a student shortage, a state-issued report showed Monday. The Korea Educational Development Institute conducted a survey on the number of students attending 214 elementary, middle and high schools across the country that had been built between 2018 and 2020, based on annual reports by the Ministry of Education. The schools with student numbers below 70 percent of the figure i

Social Affairs Jan. 1, 2024

Roughly 80 percent of major dating app users in South Korea are men, but women use the services for nearly twice as long as their male counterpart, a report showed Sunday. The most popular dating app here was Tinder, where 84.2 percent of the users were men, according to local consumer data analysis service Wise App. Among other popular applications, Wippy users were 78.8 percent men, Glam was 86.1 percent men, and 90.3 percent of the people on Yangting were male. Tinder had the most number of u

Social Affairs Jan. 1, 2024