On Dec. 4, a fire broke out at a home in a residential-commercial complex in Jungnang-gu, eastern Seoul, killing a poodle that was home alone at the time. Fire authorities provisionally concluded that the fire was caused by the dog, who is thought to have inadvertently turned on the electric stove. The incident was the second fire in a week thought to be caused by a pet left home alone. The first fire was reportedly caused by a cat that accidentally turned on an electric stove in Geumcheon-gu,

A South Korean man in his 30s was fined 2 million won ($1,500) for throwing a pomeranian out of the second floor of a building, local court said Sunday. The dog in question survived the fall, but sustained severe injuries to its spine and nervous system, including paralysis of its hind legs. The Seoul Northern District Court recently handed the sentence to the defendant for violating the Animal Protection Act, which states that those inflicting pain on an animal without just cause shall be punis

The National Pension Service said Friday that 1,035 retired couples across South Korea are receiving 3 million won ($2,300) or more through their combined pension plans, marking the first time the number of such couples has exceeded 1,000. The figure is significant as it means those in retirement are making close to what a couple would make on average while working. According to a Statistics Korea December 2022 report, the average nationwide income per person was 22.2 million won, roughly 1.85 m

Young South Korean couples without children cited intense competition among students and financial issues as why they decide to go childless, in a meeting with government officials held Thursday evening. The Ministry of Health and Welfare hosted six young couples who do not plan to have children at the meeting hosted in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, in a bid to acquire ideas for policies that will help tackle the issue of the faltering birth rate in South Korea. Several of the participants raised c

Singer Nam Tae-hyun recently joined the growing list of South Korean celebrities facing drug charges. The prosecution on Thursday requested a two-year prison term for the former member of the boy band Winner, while seeking 1 year and six months for reality show star Seo Min-jae on charges of alleged drug use. It is unclear what the future holds for the 29-year-old K-pop star, but his career had been mostly on hold since the array of controversies surrounding him. After being caught drunk driving

At around noon on a Friday, hundreds of students filed through the cafeteria at Changdeok Girls’ Middle School in Jung-gu, central Seoul, as they took a school canteen food tray, spoon and chopsticks, quickly scanning the day’s lunch menu offerings. One at a time, the students loaded their trays with fish cake soup, bibimbap, chocolate breadsticks and a mango popsicle for dessert. These school lunches resembled delicious-looking home-cooked meals. “It’s not mass-produced,

A recent court victory for South Korean victims of wartime sexual slavery by Japan was confirmed Saturday after Japan decided not to appeal the earlier ruling, sources said. On Nov. 23, the Seoul High Court overturned a lower court's rejection of a damages suit filed by "comfort women" and ordered Japan to pay 200 million won ($151,780) in compensation to each of the 16 victims. Japan had two weeks to file an appeal but chose not to do so, according to the sources. The victims fil

A sister-in-law of football player Hwang Ui-jo was indicted Friday on charges of exposing his intimate videos online and threatening to make more revelations, officials said. The wife of Hwang's elder brother is accused of sharing intimate photos and videos of him spending time with women on Instagram in June, pretending to be a former lover of Hwang. She also claimed the South Korea forward had slept with several women and inflicted damage on them, threatening Hwang through text message to

The Korean delegation at COP28, consisting of representatives from groups Greenfund and Jeski Social Campaign along with climate and environmental activists and experts, said Friday that they held a performance at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, calling for opposition to war and solutions to the climate crisis. (Jeski Social Campaign)

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday approved his nomination of Cho Hee-dae as the new chief justice of South Korea's top court, ending the rare, monthslong judiciary leadership vacuum. Yoon's approval came hours after the National Assembly voted 264-18 for the nomination of Cho, who was formerly a Supreme Court justice until his retirement in 2020. Cho passed the parliament's confirmation hearing earlier this week. Cho, 66, will take office on Monday. A chief justice normally serves six years in a

Cho Min, daughter of ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk, on Friday attended the first hearing for her trial on forgery charges in a college admissions scandal. Cho told reporters she would "faithfully engage in her trial" and declined to comment further, as she appeared at the Seoul Central District Court. The 32-year-old, who was trained as a physician, is accused of fabricating her own credentials when she applied for an undergraduate degree at Korea University and another at Pusan National

The Seoul city government named 15 foreign nationals from 13 countries as honorary citizens on Friday for their contribution to the city's development. Rahil Ahmadova, a honorary citizen from Azerbaijan, was recognized for her efforts as a lecturer to spread awareness about multiculturalism and for her efforts to help other foreign nationals adjust to living in Seoul. Daniel Chukwunonso Nwagbala, another recipient from Nigeria, was recognized for his fundraising efforts for people with deve

A South Korean court on Friday handed a 12-year prison term to a 30-year-old Turkish woman, who stabbed her boyfriend to death after being repeatedly assaulted by him. The defendant has been charged with murder after she killed her boyfriend in Daegu in August. The crime had been spontaneous, as the victim physically assaulted her multiple times in the past and had been beating her up at the time of the crime. "The court took into account that the defendant had been physically assaulted by

Daegu prosecutors on Friday said that they have indicted a woman in her 30s, on the charge of falsely accusing men of rape after meeting them on a dating application. According to the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office, the accused met six men on the app from October to December of last year and had consensual sexual relations with them. She then filed charges for rape or sexual assault against them. Officials found that she filed multiple charges of sex crimes to police in other regions, a

Whether you have a pessimistic or optimistic attitude in life might affect your risk of dementia, new research shows. In a study published by the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, researchers at the University of California, Davis investigated the link between personality traits and the prevalence of Alzheimer’s diagnoses based on 44,531 participants. Results of the study suggest that specific personality traits such as sociability, goal-oriented behavior and positive emotional

South Korea’s birth rate reached an all-time low in the January to October period this year, setting off further alarm about the nation’s demographic trends. According to Statistics Korea on Friday, the accumulated number of babies born in the first three quarters stood at 177,000, the lowest figure recorded since the government began collecting data in 1981. The birth rate, which stood at 657,000 during the first three quarters of 1981, plunged to around 300,000 in 2002 and further

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) concluded Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDS did not violate any patents over outdoor electronics displays in a patent infringement case filed by a US company, industry sources said Thursday. The ITC reached the decision last month after its investigation into the case following a complaint filed by Manufacturing Resources International (MRI) in August last year. MRI, an Atlanta-based manufacturer of outdoor and semi-outdoor digital liquid-crystal dis

Test-takers of South Korea’s national college entrance exam, known as the Suneung, are set to receive their test results Friday, amid lingering controversy over whether this year's test succeeded in completely scrapping the highly difficult “killer questions.” Results and analysis of over 440,000 examinees released by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation on Thursday suggested that exams in all subjects, including Korean language, mathematics and English, were

Adolescents using smartphones for more than four hours a day are at a higher risk of suffering from mental health issues, a South Korean study found Thursday. The study by researchers at Hanyang University Medical Center analyzed the data of 54,809 teenagers across the country to find the correlation between daily smart phone usage time and adverse outcomes such as stress, depression, suicide, substance use and smartphone overdependence. They used the data from the state-conducted Korea Youth Ri

Cases regarding school violence will now be in the purview of specialized investigators employed by education offices around South Korea, along with an increase in the number of police officers deployed at schools, starting from March 2024. In a joint press conference Thursday, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Interior and Safety and the Korean National Police Agency said the measures were devised to lessen the burden on teachers handling rising school violence cases among students. &l