U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday gave a strong indication that he may decide to run for president of South Korea, saying he plans to contemplate his next step once his tenure ends.“I’m returning back as a Korean on Jan. 1 next year,” he said during a meeting with members of the Kwanhun Club, a Seoul-based association of senior journalists, on the sidelines of the Jeju Forum. “What I ought to do as a Korean citizen, I will think about that then (when I return) and make a decision a

About two years ago, Jeong Yu-jin faced an unexpected predicament. After having unprotected sex on Saturday night, she decided to get morning-after pills -- also known as emergency contraception pills -- to prevent unwanted pregnancy the day after. “And then I realized it was Sunday,” the 31-year-old told The Korea Herald. “I couldn’t find any gynecologist clinics that were open because it was the weekend. Most pharmacies in my town were closed, too.”Jeong ended up visiting a gynecologist on Mon

About five years ago, Kim Ji-eun was caught smoking at home by her older brother. She was 20 at the time, enrolled in her first-year at a university, and it was just a day before her final exam. 　“He started beating me for smoking at home,” Kim told The Korea Herald. “He first slapped me in the face, and I fell on the floor. Then he started violently stomping on my stomach and my head.”　The incident severely damaged Kim’s uterus, as her mother did not offer to pay for her required hospital treat

It looked like just another busy day in Gangnam, Seoul’s well-known affluent district, except on Wednesday evening there were piles of white flowers and post-it notes covering the walls near exit 10 of Gangnam Station. There were also people -- many of them young women -- looking visibly shocked and grief-stricken, with their eyes glued to the pastel-colored post-its filled with heartbreaking messages.“No one should die just because she is a woman,” read one of the messages. “I know I could’ve b

A Food and Drug Administration-approved HIV drug developed in the U.S. will be submitted for review in Korea to be used as a preventive medicine for people at high risk of infection, its developer Gilead Sciences said on Tuesday.The drug, named Truvada, is already being used in South Korea as part of treatment for patients with HIV here. The upcoming submission, which is scheduled to be made in the second half of this year, seeks to be recognized by the Korean Drug Ministry as “pre-exposure prop

South Korean medical doctors, including cosmetic surgeons, are once again in a public feud with the nation’s dentists over an ongoing trial involving a dental surgeon who has been accused of committing illegal practices by performing Botox for purely cosmetic purposes.The accused was charged after performing Botox treatments for two of his patients at his dental clinic back in 2011. The patients wanted the procedure for wrinkles in their foreheads, not for dental conditions, according to the pre

Earlier this year, local food columnist Hwang Gyo-ik made headlines by arguing that Korean cuisine culture was “uncivilized.” He said Koreans used too much sugar in almost every dish including kimchi, stir-fired anchovies and even the famous Korean barbecue.“It’s hard to find other countries that use sugar in almost every dish,” he said in a recent radio interview. “Sure, they have desserts, but they also have plenty of other dishes that do not contain sugar.” He argued that the “less civilized”

Controversy remains high over the effectiveness of the newly approved anticorruption law designed to better tackle graft among public officials, journalists and school teachers in South Korea, which is scheduled to take effect from Sept. 28.The nation’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission on Monday issued an advance notice of the legislation, announcing that receiving gifts worth more than 50,000 won ($42) will be banned for government officials and those who work in the fields of media

More than 75 percent of Koreans who received state allowance for insemination had unexplained infertility, a strikingly high figure that may indicate many of them are not being properly tested before receiving the procedure, a study showed Wednesday.The study, by researcher Hwang Na-mi from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, showed that the proportion of Koreans who received government allowances for infertility treatments in 2014, especially intrauterine insemination and externa

In 2013, Lee Eun-byeol, a nurse at Mokpo Jung-Ang Hospital in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, received a 15-year-old patient who weighed only 35 kilograms. The teenager had just been admitted to the hospital’s emergency unit after cutting her wrist in an attempt to end her own life.And it wasn’t the teen’s first attempt. She was reportedly suffering from depression after being constantly bullied by her classmates at school. Her mother also had mental health issues, while her father was physically

Last week, a number of South Korean newspapers published articles featuring the visit of Sister Marianne Stoger, an Austrian nun who spent more than 40 years caring for Korean patients with Hansen’s disease in the nation’s remote island of Sorokdo from the 1960s to the mid-2000s.She had left Sorokdo and returned to Austria back in 2005 in secret, just leaving a hand-written letter to the staff and her patients. Featuring her first visit to the island in 10 years, many papers here described Stoge

OKINAWA, Japan -- When Dr. Klaus Hambrecht was in his early 20s, he suffered a shoulder condition that caused him pain. It was only when he was treated by an Oriental medicine expert who performed acupuncture that his condition significantly improved. “I was very impressed,” the German physician told The Korea Herald during the International Congress of Oriental Medicine in Okinawa, Japan, earlier this month. “Now I’ve been practicing Chinese medicine and acupuncture (in Germany) for the last 20

When her daughter turned 18 months a few years ago, Lee Ji-seon faced a totally unexpected situation. Her daughter only wanted to spend time outdoors -- all day, every day. She’d sit on her stroller and cry nonstop until Lee would take her outside, even if it was two o’clock in the morning.“So I’d take her on a stroller walk at 2 a.m., and just walk around the neighborhood until she fell asleep,” said Lee, a former teacher who now raises two children. “And I’d very carefully take her back to her

South Korea’s health authorities confirmed the nation’s second Zika virus case on Wednesday night, identifying the patient as a 20-year-old man who lives in Nowon-gu, Seoul. According to the Health Ministry, the patient visited the Philippines from April 10-14, where infected mosquitoes bit him. He was asymptomatic until April 20, when he developed mild, cold-like symptoms including fever. He visited a local clinic in Seoul that day, but his doctor did not see him as a potential Zika virus patie

More than 50 years after her American solider father left South Korea, Jang Yeon-hee still longs to meet the parent who she has never known. “Whenever I take the subway I see a lot of foreign tourists en route to Incheon International Airport,” Jang said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “When I see such visitors I’d break down in tears. There are so many people coming in and out of this country, and yet the person who gave me my life left before I was even born and never bothered to visit

When Kim Eun-hyung arrived in South Korea from China in 2008, at age 14, he didn’t speak a word of Korean. Prior to his arrival, he had been living alone with his maternal grandfather in China’s Fushun, Liaoning province, as his mother had moved to Korea by herself upon her marriage to a South Korean national.“My biological father died about five months after I was born,” the 22-year-old said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “My mother and I moved a lot while living in China. As a result I

About five years ago, Jessica Wood, a British expat living in South Korea, learned that her then 1-year-old daughter had cerebral palsy. Wood had been living in Korea for four years prior to having her child here. But even to this day, her daughter cannot be legally recognized as a disabled person in the country because she is not a South Korean national. 123rfWithout recognition of her daughter’s status, Wood and her husband -- who is also a British national -- cannot get a parking permit, even

About 25 percent of children born to South Korean nationals and their foreign-born spouses do not identify themselves as Korean in spite of their South Korean citizenship, a study showed Thursday.The report, released by the National Youth Policy Institute, surveyed 1,334 children of “multicultural” households -- families that consist of South Korean nationals, their foreign-born spouses and their children -- from 2011 to 2015. The children were all fourth graders in 2011 and were attending middl

A United Arab Emirates woman who was suspected to have been infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome has tested negative for the virus in South Korea on Wednesday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. According to the KCDC, the woman arrived in Korea on April 8, and visited the emergency unit of the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in central Seoul on Wednesday at 2 a.m. after experiencing high fever. The medical staff reported the patient to the KCDC as a suspected case of M

When Kim Eun-ji was a child, her favorite part of the day was to have her mother read her “Gyeonwu and Jiknyeo,” a Korean folk tale about two lovers who were forced to live on opposite sides of the Milky Way. Their love had angered the heavenly king, as Jiknyeo, whose job was to weave clothes, and Gyeonwu, a cowherd, only wanted to spend time with each other and neglected their duties. “But of course, they were allowed to reunite once a year,” the 28-year-old office worker said. “A flock of magp