Cho Doo-soon, one of Korea’s most notorious child rapists, and his wife applied for basic livelihood grants and pension for senior citizens, according to local news reports. Cho, 68, who was released from prison on Dec. 12 after serving a reduced sentence of just over a decade for kidnapping, beating and raping a young girl, now lives with his wife in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and is unemployed. After news surfaced that Cho is seeking welfare benefits, posts were made on the presidenti

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2021

Collective exhaustion with coronavirus restrictions is mounting in South Korea amid a prolonged fight against the pandemic, with nine in 10 Koreans saying they feel “tired.” According to a poll of 837 adults from Jan. 6-7 by a job search engine Incruit, 94.1 percent of the respondents said their fatigue had accumulated due to the protracted pandemic. The biggest reasons they felt fatigued about the pandemic was that they had to refrain from meeting their families and friends (12.2

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2021

The government’s decision to deny a naturalization application of a foreign national who was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol was legitimate, according to a local court’s ruling. The Nepalese man, who married a Korean woman in 2014, applied for naturalization in May 2018. He was convicted of drunk driving and given a fine in November 2019 while his application was being reviewed. The Justice Ministry denied the application in February 2020, citing his failure t

Social Affairs Jan. 8, 2021

Foreigners arriving at South Korean airports are required to present negative coronavirus test results to be allowed into the country, starting Friday, as the country seeks to contain the influx of new variants of the coronavirus reported in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Foreign nationals must now show the results of a polymerase chain reaction coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of their departure for Korea, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Foreigners a

Social Affairs Jan. 7, 2021

The Seoul city government came under fire after it published sexist and gender-stereotyped guidelines on its website for pregnant women suggesting household chores and child care are women’s responsibility. According to the guidelines, a pregnant woman needs to prepare food, clothes and daily necessities for her family so that they are not inconvenienced by her absence while she is in hospital to give birth. The guidelines also suggested a woman should take care of her appearance during

Social Affairs Jan. 7, 2021

COVID-19 dominated headlines in 2020, and journalism is in demand again. A significant rise in news consumption triggered by the coronavirus crisis offered a rare chance for journalism to justify its existence as more people stayed home for social distancing purposes and relied on news to stay up to date. In retrospect, however, it remains questionable how much the South Korean press contributed to the fight against the health crisis. Despite the media’s positive role in the early sta

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2021

Half of students in grades 4 to 12 in South Korea felt that the financial situation for their family has worsened due to the coronavirus outbreak and felt depressed, a survey showed. According to a survey by ChildFund Korea conducted with 500 upper-grade elementary, middle and high school students, 50.8 percent said their financial situation got worse as parents could not get them what they wanted (27.2 percent), sales at their parents’ shops and restaurants dropped (10.2 percent) and th

Social Affairs Jan. 2, 2021

Cigarette smoking among men in South Korea hit a record low last year, while excessive drinking among them increased, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed. According to the annual Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, cigarette smoking among Korean men last year reached a low of 35.7 percent – the lowest prevalence recorded since 1998. Use of tobacco products among Korean men has been on a decline for the past two decades -- from 66.3 percen

Social Affairs Jan. 1, 2021

Despite the recent surge in coronavirus infections, South Korea had the second-lowest number of cases relative to its population among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, government data showed. According to the data, revealed in a daily briefing report by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Korea was 111.26, which placed the country 36th out of the 37 OECD countries as of Monday. K

Social Affairs Jan. 1, 2021

Seoul, the capital of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, may seem like a busy metropolis with the country’s most overworked people, but it was actually the best city for work-life balance in South Korea last year. Seoul was the highest-ranked city by earning 58.8 out of 100 points in terms of work-life balance among 17 cities and provinces in the country, a government index showed Wednesday. Jeju Island came in second with 56.7 points, followed by Busan with 56.2 points, South Jeolla

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2020

South Koreans had more spare time than before, but many spent it alone this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, government data showed, with more people taking walks and enjoying mobile content. According to a report on Koreans’ pastimes and cultural activities by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, they spent about 3.7 hours on leisure activities during the week and 5.6 hours on weekends this year, up 12 minutes from the previous

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2020

South Koreans were more positive about receiving COVID-19 vaccination than people in most other countries, with nearly 9 out of 10 people expressing willingness to get vaccinated, a survey showed. According to a survey by Gallup Korea on 1,500 Koreans last month, 32 percent of the respondents said they were “certain” and 55 percent said they were “likely” -- for a combined 87 percent -- to get vaccinated when the vaccines become available. This was higher than the ave

Social Affairs Dec. 30, 2020

South Korea came in 13th out of 52 countries in this year’s international migrant integration policy index on the level of social integration of migrants. Korea was tied at 13th with the United Kingdom, Iceland and France after receiving 56 out of 100 points on the level of social integration of migrants, higher than the MIPEX average of 50, with the report saying immigrants in Korea facing slightly more opportunities than obstacles for societal integration. Sweden topped the list wit

Social Affairs Dec. 29, 2020

 Stepping into the modern Seoul Station, South Korea’s central train station, one might wonder how far back the history of Korean trains and railroads goes.  Only one hour from Seoul Station by subway, the Railroad Museum in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, offers a glimpse into more than 100 years of history of Korean trains and railroads. The museum is run by national railway operator Korail. In the two-story museum, which was moved to its current location in 1988, models of Kore

Travel Dec. 25, 2020

A migrant farm worker from Cambodia was found dead on a subzero day earlier this week inside a vinyl greenhouse she had been living, leading the police to open an investigation and shedding light on appalling living conditions faced by farm workers here. A Cambodian woman, 30, was not breathing when her colleagues tried to wake her up inside a vinyl greenhouse at a farm in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday afternoon when the temperature dropped as low as to minus 20 degrees Celsius in the

Social Affairs Dec. 25, 2020