South Korean health authorities are searching for some 50 foreign nationals who may have been in contact with the recently confirmed Middle East respiratory syndrome patient, including those who arrived in Incheon from Dubai on the same flight Friday. 　　The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was difficult to track the individuals down, as foreign travelers in Korea usually do not have local phone numbers. 　　Authorities are going through public surveillance camera footage, a

Social Affairs Sept. 11, 2018

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday called for additional and thorough epidemiological investigation into South Korea’s first case in three years of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, confirmed Saturday. Park said it was possible that the patient may have been aware of his condition before diagnosis and withheld information from authorities. According to the Health Ministry, the 61-year-old man was officially diagnosed Saturday, a day after he returned from a trip to Kuwait via a connecting fligh

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2018

More than 50 percent of all foreign-born women who work in Korean farms, whose accommodation in the country is provided by their Korean employers live in either containers or vinyl greenhouses often without any  locks, making them vulnerable to sexual harassment and other forms of violence, a report showed on Monday.　　The report, released by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, showed that there were about 324,000 foreign-born migrant women who were working in Korea as of 2016. They ac

Social Affairs Sept. 10, 2018

The first queer festival held in the South Korean port city of Incheon was severely delayed throughout Saturday, as some 1,000 Christians staged an anti-gay protests on the scene, which led to physical attacks and verbal abuse against LGBT individuals. 　In spite of the violent clashes and subsequent delays, the participants of the festival carried on with the event. While many planned events were canceled, the LGBT community persisted with and completed the queer parade, the last program of the

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2018

A total of 22 people, including four medical professionals and a cab driver, have been quarantined at home after the country’s first Middle East respiratory syndrome case in three years was reported, health authorities said. Some 440 people who had indirect contact with the patient will be monitored, they added. 　The patient, 61, was diagnosed with the infectious disease after returning from a business trip to Kuwait from Aug. 16 to Sept. 6. He took two flights to get home from Kuwait to arrive

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2018

Last month, Kim Byung-guk attended his own funeral. The 85-year-old, who was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer last year, asked the attendees not to wear black. “I want to have this service while I’m still alive,” Kim wrote in his invitation to his friends. “Please dress in bright colors. Hope we can sing and dance together.”　Kim’s funeral ceremony, held on Aug. 14 in a hospice facility in Seoul, was indeed quite different from what one normally sees at Korean funerals. No one was sobbing.

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2018

Authorities on Sunday began demolishing a collapsing kindergarten in southern Seoul, a property that has been causing a public uproar over a lack of safety measures for young children.　The three-story building, where some 120 preschoolers went to kindergarten, started leaning nearly 20 degrees on Thursday after a retaining wall in a nearby construction site collapsed. The wall’s collapse is reported to have been caused by heavy rain earlier this month.  A kindergarten in Seoul`s Dongjak district

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2018

A Seoul court upheld the Korea Immigration Service’s decision to permanently ban a Chinese businessman, who has a history of sexually harassing two Korean women employed by his company, from entering Korea.The man who was investigated by the Korean prosecution in 2016 after two Korean female employees filed a complaint against him, claiming he sexually harassed them. The women worked as his secretary and a flight attendant on his private jet. South Korea`s Incheon International Airport (Yonhap)　

Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2018

Generational conflict is severe in South Korea, especially between the elderly and the younger generation, with almost 90 percent of young and middle-aged adults saying they cannot “communicate well” with elderly Koreans, a newly released report showed.  　The report, authored by Jeong Sang-hwan from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, was submitted to the third ASEM Conference on Global Ageing and Human Rights of Older Persons, which was held from Sept. 5-6 in central Seoul this year.

Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2018

South Korea's food safety agency on Thursday banned Pulmuone Foodmerce, a major food distribution firm, from distributing chocolate cakes that are believed to have caused some 460 school children nationwide to come down with food poisoning. A school cafeteria in North Jeolla Province is closed during lunchtime, Thursday, after food poisoning was reported in 13 schools nationwide. (Yonhap)The decision was made after food poisoning was reported at 13 schools across the country, including those in

Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2018

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon indefinitely postponed the unveiling of his master plan for the next four years, saying making the announcement at this point could worsen the continued escalation of real estate prices.　　“We will postpone the announcement of the plans until Seoul’s real estate market is stabilized,” an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Government said. 　　Park was scheduled to unveil the plan on Sept. 13, including a major project to build a public park, the biggest in Seoul, in Mago

Politics Sept. 5, 2018

Former National Police Agency Commissioner-General Cho Hyun-oh was questioned by police Wednesday on allegations that he masterminded an online opinion-rigging operation carried out by police during the Lee Myung-bak administration. 　Cho denied the allegations upon his arrival at the central police headquarters in Seoul at 9 a.m. 　“I’ve never ordered anyone (within the police force) to interfere with politics,” Cho told reporters. “I don’t understand why I have to be here (at the police headquar

Social Affairs Sept. 5, 2018

Corneille Nangaa, the head of the electoral commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said in Seoul on Tuesday that “very few” in his country are against the idea of using the much-disputed South Korean-made voting machines for the African nation’s long-delayed presidential election set for Dec. 23, just a day after Congolese police violently dispersed a protest against the machines in Kinshasa. Congo will not cancel the deal with the Korean supplier in spite of pressure from the internati

Social Affairs Sept. 4, 2018

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s latest pledge -- to spend a day in a wheelchair to experience the difficulties disabled people face in using public transportation -- is raising eyebrows among the people with disabilities in Seoul. 　Park’s latest pledge announced on Sunday is the mayor’s second attempt to “understand” the lives of socially vulnerable, following a monthlong stay in a rooftop apartment in an impoverished Seoul neighborhood.  Even his first attempt was criticized by some, who viewed Par

Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2018

Ex-President Park Geun-hye ordered the Blue House staff to deliberately delay the Supreme Court’s ruling on a lawsuit filed by Koreans subjected to forced labor during Japan’s colonial rule, according to a local news report, which states that the ex-president gave the order after signing the controversial 2015 Seoul-Tokyo agreement on the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women. 　　A UN anti-discrimination body recently said the 2015 deal -- in which Japanese Prime Minister Sh

Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2018