The police said on Monday they have decided to clear a former 1st Division Commander Lim Seong-geun of negligent homicide charges related to the death of a Marine conscript during a search operation in a stream following torrential rains last summer. Concluding its year-long investigation, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency forwarded six others to the prosecution for indictment, saying that Lim was excluded because he had not been in a position to issue a direct "underwater search order

Social Affairs July 8, 2024

  An international study claims that one in five women in South Korea has faced threats of intimate images of them being released, the highest share among the 10 countries surveyed. According to recently released research conducted by RMIT University based in Melbourne, Australia in partnership with Google, which surveyed 16,693 adults across 10 countries, including 1,641 from S. Korea, 19.1 percent of South Korean women reported being victims of sexual extortion. The study defined sexual e

Social Affairs July 7, 2024

The Seoul Safety Income Project, initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will set an example for South Korea's welfare policy in the future, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Thursday, marking the project's second anniversary. The initiative launched as a pilot project by the city government in 2022, is an income guarantee model that partially compensates the household income gap for families earning less than 85 percent of the median income. A key feature of this initiative is that

Social Affairs July 4, 2024

Seoul's first K-pop specialized performance venue, Seoul Arena cultural complex, in Chang-dong in Dobong District, northern Seoul, officially commenced construction on Tuesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at the construction site in Chang-dong on Tuesday afternoon. Key attendees included Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a, First Vice Minister of Culture Chun Byong-geuk, Dobong-gu District Head Oh Un-Seok, Nowon-gu District

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

The Jongno-gu district office said Tuesday it would limit tourist access to Bukchon Hanok Village in the evening starting in October, to relieve stress for local residents and protect the historic infrastructure there. Tourist entry to residential areas in the village will be prohibited from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m., aimed at reducing noise and ensuring residents' privacy during these hours. The restricted area, designated as Red Zones, includes Bukchon-ro 11-gil, where residential hanoks are dens

Social Affairs July 2, 2024

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon vowed to keep Seoul's lead in addressing the population issue and climate crises, and to implement viable solutions that even the central government could learn from. Speaking at a press conference at Seoul City Hall on Monday to mark the second anniversary of his most recent term, Oh reaffirmed his commitment to addressing challenges like climate change and South Korea's low birth rate, highlighting successful initiatives such as the Climate Companion Card, city

Social Affairs July 1, 2024

Aricell, a lithium battery plant that recently experienced a fatal fire resulting in 23 deaths, had not undergone any government industrial safety inspections in the past five years, despite the hazardous nature of the materials it was using, according to the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Data obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hae-cheol from the Ministry of Labor and Employment confirms that no government industrial safety inspections or supervision had been conducted at Aricell in

Social Affairs June 28, 2024

The Constitutional Court on Thursday struck down the “special exception" in the Criminal Law for relatives, which exempts property crimes committed by family members from punishment, citing that it infringes upon victims' rights to seek justice. National institutions such as the courts and prosecution can no longer apply Clause 1 under Article 328 of the Criminal Act starting Thursday. Clause 1 states that property crimes committed against immediate family members, including pare

Social Affairs June 28, 2024

In South Korean online communities and social networking sites, the word "helper" has taken on a troubling connotation. The term is often hashtagged alongside others such as "gachul" (runaway from home), "jatei" (high school dropouts), and "yeoja" (girls). This combination of hashtags serves as an emergency code, typically used by runaway teenage girls seeking a place to sleep and eat. But this distress signal also attracts predators looking to take advant

Social Affairs June 24, 2024

Exports are vital for South Korea to generate national wealth, and boosting them requires a collaborative effort between the government and businesses, First Vice Industry Minister Kang Kyung-sung said at the Global Business Forum in Seoul on Wednesday. “As Korea remains one of the world's most export-dependent industrialized nations, more exports mean more people living well. Therefore, the raison d'etre of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy is to increase exports,"

Social Affairs June 20, 2024

The city of Anyang, located in the heart of Gyeonggi Province, has now set a new course in aiming to become a globally recognized smart city through innovative development, the mayor says. Due to its proximity to Seoul, Anyang was once regarded primarily as a commuter city. However, it now wants to position itself as a self-sufficient city. "Anyang aims to enhance its competitiveness by swiftly incorporating the 'fourth industrial revolution' technologies. This will ensure the saf

Social Affairs June 19, 2024

Choi Jung-hwa, a woman in her 30s, discovered a notice of service suspension Tuesday at the internal medicine clinic she regularly visited in Nowon-gu, northern Seoul, for heartburn treatment. Although she was aware of the ongoing monthslong confrontation between the government and doctors over expanding medical school quotas, she had not anticipated it would disrupt her access to medical care. "I didn't expect that even this local clinic where I have been treated would be closed,"

Social Affairs June 18, 2024

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday it has appointed Kim Byung-min, a former member of the ruling People Power Party's Supreme Council, as its deputy mayor for political affairs. The 42-year-old will be Seoul's third vice mayor, alongside the first and the second administrative deputy mayors. Kim's main task will be to assist Mayor Oh Se-hoon in overseeing public relations affairs and serving as a mediator between the city administration and media, city council, and nat

Social Affairs June 18, 2024

South Korea is poised to chair the executive body of the International Labor Organization for the first time in 21 years, a move that has drawn criticism from the country's labor unions, which question its qualifications for the role. Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jung-sik, serving as the head delegate for the Korean government at the 112th Session of the International Labor Conference, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that South Korea has been recommended as the sole candidate fo

Social Affairs June 14, 2024

The Korean tripartite Minimum Wage Commission with representatives from businesses, labor and the general public has decided not to expand application of the minimum wage to include gig workers for the coming year, despite calls from labor unions to do so. The 27-member Minimum Wage Commission, comprising nine representatives from each of the three sectors, convened its fourth full session on Thursday in Sejong to discuss the 2025 hourly minimum wage. After hours of discussion, the committee dec

Social Affairs June 14, 2024