Lisa Jackson was bullied for her mixed-race background. Her mother gave her up for adoption, then spent years waiting for her daughter to return. Jackson’s story is one of six in "Relative Strangers," a documentary by Deann Borshay Liem. The film follows people of mixed heritage who were adopted overseas as children as they search for their original families and encounter fabricated records, racial discrimination and evidence of a system that kept international adoptions going at almost any cost

While South Korea limits smoking depicted on small and big screens, government data showed Friday that such scenes are mostly available for users of all ages on YouTube. Of the 300 YouTube shorts from last year surveyed, 271 (90.3 percent) had no age restrictions, according to Korea Health Promotion Institute data revealed by Rep. Han Zee-a of the main opposition People Power Party. Around 90 percent of shorts have not been age-restricted in recent years: 2,654 of 3,054 in 2023 (86.8 percent), a

Government data showed Friday that 223 establishments that received the government's seal of approval for sanitation last year violated the Food Sanitation Act. Violations have been on an upward trend, rising from 133 and 166 in 2021 and 2022, respectively, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety data released by Rep. Nam I-soon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The annual figure dipped to 58 in 2023, but rose again to 138 in 2024. The government awards the Food Hygiene Safety C

Vehicular passage on Jamsugyo, or Jamsu Bridge, will be permanently banned starting Oct. 26, as the low-level bridge across the Han River will be transitioned into a pedestrian-centered cultural area, Seoul metropolitan government said Thursday. City officials said a construction project to expand the pedestrian walkway and other structures for the bridge will commence later this month, as vehicle traffic on the bridge is blocked off. The project is expected to be completed by August 2027. Those

Subway passengers may come across various hurdles: you might miss your stop, you're carrying a lot of luggage and require an elevator, or you need priority seating. In many cases, the subway system has you covered. Here are some tips for taking advantage of services that could be helpful when using Korea's expansive subway networks. Major cities across the country have free transfer systems, as mentioned in a previous edition of this series, but many subway stations in the Seoul metropolitan are

South Korean police are investigating an allegation that a gambling website has used the Korean bank accounts of 60 foreign nationals here for illegal purposes, a local broadcaster reported Wednesday. According to KBS, a civic group in March filed a criminal complaint to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency concerning the Korean-run gambling site. It has been claimed that the website in question used the accounts of dozens of foreign residents to operate the site, as both operating and us

A 9-year-old boy recently notified the authorities of his father's abuse against his mother, by calling the police and placing an order for a bowl of jjajangmyeon noodles. Officials at the Ansan Sangnok Police Station received an emergency call at around 6:18 p.m. on Oct. 4 from a multi-residential building in Sangnok-gu district of Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The boy who called explained how many members his family had, and asked for jjajangmyeon. Police response team realized something was wrong

A nurse recently used CPR to resusitate a man in his 60s who fell unconscious inside a subway train, a Seoul-based hospital said Thursday. Nurse Seo Hye-won of the Catholic Univ. of Korea Seoul St. Mary's Hospital saw the man collapse inside a train of the Seoul subway Line No. 7, at around 6 p.m. on Oct. 1. She requested help from the 119 emergency service, while checking his condition and restraining other untrained citizens from performing emergency treatments on the man who was seizing. Seo

South Korean police are investigating the renewed online circulation of surveillance footage from hospitals and clinics, including images of patients receiving treatment and changing clothes, according to local media reports Wednesday. The footage has resurfaced despite the apprehension last year of four suspects accused of hacking cameras and selling the recordings online. The National Police Agency assigned the case to the Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency after receiving a request for an inve

South Korean police are searching for a man suspected of killing a couple in their 60s who were found dead with their bodies bound inside their home in Naju, authorities said Wednesday. Police received a report at around 7:49 p.m. Tuesday that two people had been found dead in a residential building in the southwestern city. Their bodies were bound with clothing, and investigators believe the killings occurred between late Monday and early Tuesday. A preliminary examination indicated that the hu

Foreign tourists’ card spending in Seoul rose nearly three times as fast as visitor numbers in the first eight months of the year, nearly matching the total spent throughout last year. Foreign tourists spent 7.78 trillion won ($5.79 billion) by card in the capital from January through August, up 59.9 percent from a year earlier, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday. That growth rate was about 2.8 times the 21.6 percent increase in visitors over the same period. The eight-month spending

Two-person households are projected to account for more than 30 percent of South Korean households for the first time next year, exceeding the combined share of three- and four-person households, government projections showed Tuesday. South Korea is expected to have 22.81 million households in 2027, up 0.9 percent from this year, according to household projections from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The number of households will continue to grow despite population decline, driven by increa

The story of a delivery worker who turned down payment for a food order from a resident of an impoverished part of Seoul has been circulating online. The delivery worker recently posted that he went to deliver pizza in Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul. The customer had requested for the food to be left on the doorstep, where payment was also to be picked up. The delivery worker found a clear zipper bag containing a few 1,000 won bills and a load of 100 won coins. A note inside read: "It's the exact 30,

South Koreans who are young, have low income, come from a relatively lower level of educational attainment, or live outside the greater Seoul area tend to view Korean society as unfair, a study showed Monday. The percentage of those who feel society is unfair has consistently increased in the past decade, according to a study published by the state-funded Korea Institute of Public Administration. This indicates that the general perception of Korean society being fair has decreased, according to

A fishing boat carrying 11 sailors capsized in the early hours of Monday near Jeju Island. Rescue authorities have since been searching for the captain and one of the sailors, who remain missing. The Jeju Coast Guard at 3:04 a.m. received a report that a 29-ton boat had capsized in waters off nearby Chagwido Island, a small island that is part of the provincial government of Jeju Island. Nine sailors of foreign nationality have been rescued, but the rescue workers have yet to locate the Korean c