A majority of large companies in South Korea disadvantage applicants who craft their resumes using artificial intelligence services, such as ChatGPT, according to a survey released Sunday. The Labor Ministry and the Korea Employment Information Service unveiled a report on employment trends in the second half of 2023, which was based on a survey of human resource managers at the nation’s top 500 companies by sales. The survey was conducted from Nov. 20 to Dec. 22 last year, with 315 out of

Industry March 25, 2024

The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld a previous ruling that acquitted a man on charges of violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act, noting that the act did not apply in the case of this man, who secretly recorded his wife's conversation using a home camera and shared the contents of the recording with a third party. In February 2020, a man installed a home camera with a recording function in the living room of the apartment he shared with his wife in Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk. The c

Social Affairs March 25, 2024

In a swift, life-saving operation that was made public Wednesday, police in Seoul’s Seongbu District last week traced an emergency phone call in just 6 minutes and saved a girl from choking. The call lasted just 25 seconds, with only the sound of sobbing heard. On March 14, officers dispatched to a house in Anam-dong identified as the origin of the call found a 4-year-old girl lying unconscious after her neck became caught in the cord of a window blind. They performed CPR and after about

Social Affairs March 20, 2024

Huh Kyung-young, a cult leader, singer and fringe politician who has run in presidential elections multiple times, faces accusations of sexually harassing over 20 female followers. He has denied the allegations. The Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police said Tuesday that 22 members of “Sky Palace,”a cult group founded and led by Huh, filed complaints, asking the police to investigate the leader’s alleged misconduct. They claimed that at the cult’s headquarters in Yangju, Gye

Politics March 19, 2024

A South Korean man was arrested for breaking into a livestock lab in Jangsu County, North Jeolla Province, and stealing the semen of a Korean bull of high genetic significance, local police said Monday. According to the county police, the suspect, a meat industry insider in his 30s, is alleged to have broken into the laboratory around 8 p.m. on March 8 and committed the theft. He stored the stolen semen in a cryogenic nitrogen container which he had to preserve its condition. The suspect was i

Social Affairs March 18, 2024

“The groom provides the home, and the bride furnishes it" has been a long-standing custom in Korean marriages. But, with evolving perspectives on gender roles, and home prices virtually beyond reach for average Korean men of marrying age, the way couples manage the finances of their marriage is undergoing severe changes. Newlyweds, single men and single women interviewed by The Korea Herald generally envisioned an equal partnership founded on equal contributions -- be it financially,

Social Affairs March 16, 2024

Parents with higher levels of education spend more on their children’s private education, data showed on Friday. Parents holding master’s degrees spent an average of 600,000 won ($450) to 640,000 won per child per month on private education last year, according to Statistics Korea. This is 3.8 times more than the monthly average of 170,000 won to 200,000 won spent per child by parents with educational backgrounds below middle school. Mothers with a high school degree spent an avera

Social Affairs March 15, 2024

South Korea ranked last, at 29th out of 29 OECD countries, in the working environment for women for 12 consecutive years, according to UK-based The Economist on Thursday. Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, The Economist released the glass-ceiling index. This UK media outlet has published the index annually since 2013 for OECD member nations, assessing factors such as women’s labor participation rate, gender income disparity, the proportion of women in high-ranking posit

Social Affairs March 8, 2024

Lee Bok-ja vividly recalls the day, 47 years ago, when she learned that she had been admitted to high school, having secretly taking and passing the entrance exam. She remembers the tuition fee: 23,520 won, a sum she couldn't bear to ask her ailing father for. This amount was worth nearly half the monthly salary of a government employee of the lowest rank at that time. Lee never went to high school, working instead to earn money, often as a cleaner. But in her dreams, she would sometimes se

Hashtag Korea March 6, 2024

Nearly 70 percent of the entire global population of hooded cranes, an endangered migratory bird species, is thought to be resting in a South Korean bay, local experts said Wednesday. A joint on-spot survey of Cheonsu Bay, in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, reported the spotting of about 14,000 cranes in the area -- 11,000 at the eastern part of Ganwol-ho, an artificial lake in the bay, and another 3,000 at the western part. The research was conducted by Seosan Birdland, an ecotourism center

Social Affairs March 6, 2024

A Korean man in his 40s was sentenced to one year in prison for swindling hundreds of millions of won from another man by persuading the victim to invest in a program that the man said aids in winning the lottery, a court said Friday. According to a Daejeon court, the perpetrator met the victim through social media in 2019. The man presented fake receipts that showed he had won the first and second prizes in the lottery through a "lottery number forecast" program he claimed to have dev

Social Affairs March 1, 2024

A group of Aboriginal Australians called on South Korea to withhold its loan support to a major Korean company participating in the consortium for a massive offshore gas project in the Timor Sea. In a press conference held in Seoul on Tuesday, they called out for the Korean government’s help in preserving their cultural and spiritual heritage which they say are under threat from the Barossa gas field project. “For thousands of years, we have retained and maintained our spiritual conn

Social Affairs Feb. 29, 2024

Drug and substance addiction screenings have been added to the recruitment process of all school teachers in South Korea, including native English speakers on short-term contracts, education authorities said Tuesday. According to the Education Ministry, the new rule, effective from the start of this year, mandates that teachers will be disqualified if they fail to submit a “confirmation of drugs, cannabis and psychotropic substances addiction test results” within one year of their

Social Affairs Feb. 27, 2024

"Who has the face of a king?” In the 2013 hit film "The Face Reader," set in the 15th century during the Joseon era, Grand Prince Suyang sought the advice of the most renowned face reader of the day about his potential to become king. The physiognomist thought Suyang had the face of a cruel and ruthless traitor but refrained from voicing this belief out of fear. Some years later, Suyang ascended to the throne as the 7th king of Joseon, known as King Sejo, by dethroning Dan

Hashtag Korea Feb. 27, 2024

As public opinion toward doctors worsens over the medical vacuum caused by physicians’ collective action against a planned increase in medical school admissions, a planned medical drama seems to be suffering the fallout. “Wise Resident Life” is a spin-off of the 2020-2021 series Hospital Playlist, and depicts the lives and friendships of professors and doctors at the fictional Yulje University Hospital. It is scheduled for release on tvN in the first half of this year. Earl

Social Affairs Feb. 25, 2024