Nearly 160,000 people gathered in the Seoul party districts of Itaewon and Hongdae over Halloween weekend, with no major safety incidents reported as of Sunday morning. Halloween falling on a weekend this year prompted safety authorities to heighten their alert, as larger crowds were expected to gather than in previous years. The occasion came four years after a crowd crush in Itaewon on Oct. 29, 2022, which killed 159 people. According to Seoul Real-time City Data, an estimated 120,000-125,000

For some marriage migrants in Korea, President Lee Jae Myung’s recent warnings about excessive benefits for multicultural families bear little resemblance to the lives they have led. Lee has posted several messages on X since Wednesday questioning whether certain benefits for such families go too far. Members of such families and their advocates say the debate risks obscuring the difficulties they continue to face while fueling hostility toward migrants. “Even after raising my children until the

For Rashed Rashed, Seoul is a place associated with a tragedy he said “never should have happened.” His daughter, Grace Rashed, was killed in the Itaewon crowd crush on Oct. 29, 2022. The 23-year-old Australian was among the 160 people killed in the disaster. She had been traveling in Korea with friends on the Saturday night before Halloween. “Even after four years, nothing has gotten better. It still feels hard and painful,” Rashed told The Korea Herald. “It’s still very hard. It’s sleepless, a

A lawmaker on Tuesday called for continued oversight of all countries that send workers to Korea to ensure foreign nationals are not unfairly penalized by their native countries while working in Korea. The move follows Uzbekistan and Bangladesh pledging to end practices that financially penalized their nationals for changing jobs without home-country approval. During a parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Rep. Shin Jeong-hoon of the Democratic Party of Korea urged the gov

A delay faced by Rep. Jung Chung-rae in receiving a US visa became the subject of a parliamentary dispute Tuesday, with the former ruling party leader criticizing Washington’s handling of his application. Opposition lawmakers, however, questioned whether the case reflected problems in Seoul-Washington relations. Jung, a former leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, had planned to visit Washington for a parliamentary audit of the South Korean Embassy on Oct. 12. He was unable to attend b

A former employee of the company behind popular children’s YouTube channel Hey Jini has accused it of imposing excessive workloads and disputing her occupational injury claim after she developed panic disorder. The woman, identified by the pseudonym Kim Min-hee, said she had worked long hours producing and managing the company’s Chinese-language channel. She said the Korea Workers’ Compensation and Welfare Service had recognized her condition as work-related. The Hey Jini channel, created by Kan

The proportion of South Korean applicants denied US visitor visas surged to nearly 25 percent last year, exceeding refusal rates for applicants from several other major countries. Foreign Ministry officials suggested that tighter screening amid heightened political debate over immigration in the US may have contributed to the increase. Rep. Kim Dai-sik of the opposition People Power Party questioned whether bilateral relations had also played a role. According to ministry data released by Kim on

The government continues to expand support for children with disabilities, but there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of teachers needed to educate them, a lawmaker said Friday. According to Rep. Kang Kyung-sook of the Rebuilding Korea Party, the Ministry of Education provided disability screenings and assessments to 7,097 children aged 0 to 5 last year, under a pilot program to expand special education support to daycare centers. The ministry also provided care and support se

A middle school student in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, was assaulted by fellow students for creating and distributing sexually explicit deepfake images of female classmates, police said Thursday. According to Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station, the student allegedly created the deepfake content using photos of female students taken without their consent. His actions came to light on Oct. 16, when one of the victims discovered the images. Police also found indications that the student ha

Gyeonggi Province’s plan to abolish its dedicated Immigrant Society Bureau has alarmed experts and civic groups, who warn the move could set back migrant integration efforts as the number of residents with migrant backgrounds in the province approaches 1 million. Under a restructuring plan announced Wednesday, Gyeonggi Province would eliminate five bureaus, including its Immigrant Society Bureau, amid Gov. Choo Mi-ae’s drive to cut spending. Established in July 2024, the bureau was South Korea’s

A prostitution ring operating in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu district is suspected of earning at least 574 million won ($434,000) through more than 2,800 arrangements over 44 days, police said Tuesday. Gangnam Police Station referred eight people to prosecutors without detention: three business operators, a manager, two women and two men suspected of involvement in prostitution. The three operators are suspected of arranging prostitution for commercial gain, an offense punishable by up to seven years in

The number of foreign nationals granted South Korea’s visa for care workers has fallen far short of the annual quota, limiting the program’s intended role in easing labor shortages at elderly care facilities, a lawmaker said. The limited uptake comes as the government prepares for a surge in demand for long-term care as the population ages and more older people require professional assistance with daily activities. As the government explores other ways to recruit and retain care workers, experts

Law Firm YK seeks to use its nationwide network as a base for overseas growth, pairing its domestic reach with local legal expertise to support Korean companies entering unfamiliar markets. The firm, which ranked seventh among Korean law firms by revenue in 2025, plans to expand its overseas network from three offices to 30 within three years. It currently operates offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, and in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. “When expanding a business abroad, people naturally worry ab

On Tuesday morning, Lee Soon-hee, 56, broke down outside the Supreme Court after it upheld the prison sentence for Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan over a deadly factory fire in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. “The victims were all so young. How can they be so cold-blooded?” Lee shouted, leaning on a labor activist. “Are we being treated unfairly because we are foreign nationals? It is so frustrating that my daughter died this way.” The fire on June 24, 2024, killed 23 workers, including 18 foreign natio

The safety of a Seoul overpass has come under scrutiny after another severed tendon was found inside the structure shortly after a safety inspection found no significant defects, a lawmaker said Monday. Seoul plans to replace 35 tendons by June 2027, including those previously identified as damaged but not yet replaced, acknowledging limitations in its inspection methods. Tendons are steel cables that help a bridge withstand the weight of passing vehicles. According to Rep. Hwang Hee of the Demo