진행자: 간형우, Brolley Genster 1. Harvard professor urged to offer apology for 'comfort women' claims 요약: 논란 일으킨 하버드대 램지어 교수의 “위안부는 매춘부” 논문에 대한 철회를 요구하는 학계 [1] A controversy surrounding a Harvard professor who wrote a journal article depicting victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery as voluntary prostitutes continues to escalate, with scholars, politicians and students demanding apologies and a retraction. *prostitute: 매춘부 *escalate: 확대(증가/악화)되다 *retraction: 철회, 취소

The Seoul 50 Plus Foundation has launched a project to provide new job opportunities for people aged between 40 and 67. Under the title “50+ Dog Care Specialists Matching Support”, the project is designed to discover a new business model where middle-aged people can make use of their experience raising a pet. The Seoul 50 Plus Foundation said Tuesday that the project will be carried out in cooperation with local pet service company Pet People, which operates a platform called Pet

A team of researchers led by professor Kim Hyun-bum from Incheon National University have developed a human emotion detection system using fifth-generation networks and artificial intelligence. Researchers claim the virtual emotion detection system called 5G-I-VEmoSYS can recognize at least five kinds of emotion -- joy, pleasure, a neutral state, sadness and anger -- through body movements and other signals. “Emotions are a critical characteristic of human beings and separate humans fr

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders. According to the National Health Insurance Service, some 640,000 people visited hospitals due to insomnia in 2019. The number of such visits has steadily increased over the past five years. There might be hope. A recent study has found that electroacupuncture can help people suffering from insomnia. Used often in Korean traditional medicine, electroacupuncture involves administering small electric currents using thin needles inserted into

About 15 percent of vehicle passengers do not wear seat belts, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority said Wednesday. Despite amendments to the Road Traffic Act in September 2018, mandating that all occupants of a vehicle wear seat belts, the country’s seat belt use rate recorded just 84.8 percent last year, a slight decrease from the previous year, according to the 2020 Traffic Culture Index. The Korea Transportation Safety Authority said 86.1 percent of passengers in the front seat

The police will crack down on traffic violations during the Lunar New Year holiday – when the country’s traffic volume usually surges as people visit their hometowns for family gatherings. The National Police Agency (NPA) said Tuesday that the most frequent violations of traffic laws on highways during the Lunar New Year holiday over the past three years were driving on shoulders, the paved space on the side of the road for emergency use. It took up 41.8 percent of all reports, fol

The Ministry of Justice said Thursday that seven foreigners had been deported from South Korea for breaking the country’s quarantine rules since November. Fourteen others were fined. One of the deportees was an Indonesian sailor who arrived at Incheon Airport on Dec. 17 and was instructed to enter a government-designated quarantine facility. But the man went into an airport restroom to change clothes and escaped in a taxi, the ministry said. The police arrested him a week later. A tota

The chief of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee has apologized for making derogatory comments about women, but refuses to resign amid the ongoing controversy. “The Education Ministry has been very insistent about choosing female directors,” former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said Wednesday during a Japanese Olympic Committee board of directors meeting. “But a board meeting with plenty of women will make it drag on.” Describing women as having a “strong sen

The government will put efforts into improving the basic living infrastructure for foreigners and North Korean defectors, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said Wednesday.  The ministry plans to provide a total of 2 billion won ($1.8 million) for the project.  Local governments across the country can apply for the financial support with their individual plans to help foreigners and North Korean defectors in each region.  If selected, each applicant can receive up to 200

South Korea has topped the global list of the 60 most innovative countries, the Bloomberg Innovation Index, released Wednesday. Since the annual index was first published in 2013, Korea has made it to the top seven times. The Bloomberg Innovation Index analyzes a number of criteria with seven equally weighted categories, including research and development spending, manufacturing capabilities and the concentrated presence of companies with advanced technology. Korea scored 90.49 points on a

The Korea Forest Service will set up a three-dimensional prediction system in a bid to minimize damages from forest fires this year, after a devastating year that has ravaged forests nationwide. The new 3D forest fire spread forecast program, which recreates the shape of the mountains in digital form, utilizes advanced information and communication technology, the KFS said Monday. More precise extinguishing missions will be possible when the new 3D program replaces its two-dimensional predece

The outfits that the members of BTS wore in the music video for their chart-topping single “Dynamite” sold for $162,500 at a charity auction in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday. The septet’s pastel colored ensembles were purchased by Japanese art collector Yusaku Maezawa and YouTuber Hikakin. The outfits included the colorful T-shirts, hats, shirts, pants, shorts and sneakers that BTS wear during the beginning of the music video and the dance sequence at the end. The

The Voluntary Agency Network of Korea has launched a global campaign to build Korean War memorials in 67 countries that helped South Korea during the Korean War. To this end, the civic group started a petition Monday on the world’s biggest petition website, change.org. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs is currently working with the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation to build what has been called a Wall of Remembrance inside the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washingto

The South Korean government will expand the project to replace liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) hoses used in people’s houses with safe metal pipes nationwide, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Sunday. The central and local governments will spend 2.9 billion won ($2.6 million) this year for the replacement project that will cover 14,000 households across the country, according to the ministry. The project used to be carried out for low income households, including recipients o

BTS has been named one of the 10 best bands ever by US magazine Esquire. The popular men’s magazine, with an 87-year history, revealed its list over the weekend. “While K-pop as a genre has been around for decades, BTS is arguably one of the vanguard acts to pioneer K-pop’s immeasurable worldwide success,” Esquire said. “With a fan base that is aptly described as ‘ARMY,’ BTS’s beloved septet has rapidly redefined boy bands, fandoms, and pop m

Koreans have broken less traffic rules last year, but concerns still remain as an official report showed an increasing frequency of jaywalking and a growing number of drivers using smart devices on the road, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Wednesday. The Transport Culture Index, which measures driving and walking behaviors and the level of transport safety across 229 cities and counties, recorded a score of 78.94 last year, increasing by 2.30 points compared to 2019. A

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has found hundreds of advertisements falsely promoting certain cosmetics as the answer to skin troubles caused by wearing a face mask everywhere during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Altogether, 413 websites have been found to be in violation of the Cosmetics Act because of misleading or exaggerated advertisements, the Drug Ministry said Thursday. The pages have been shut down. According to the ministry, 318 of the sites advertised their cosmetics as if t

A group of researchers from the University of Nebraska and the National Strategic Research Institute have developed ultra-absorptive nanofiber swabs that could reduce the number of false negative tests for COVID-19. Currently, the most sensitive and widely used test for the coronavirus uses a method called PCR. A specimen of mucus is collected by putting a long swab deep inside a person’s nose. But if the viral load is low, which can happen early in the course of an infection, the swab

Young people in South Korea eat too much sugar from processed food, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Wednesday, citing the World Health Organization’s recommendations. Using data from a health and nutrition survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the Food Ministry looked into the daily sugar consumption patterns of some 7,000 Koreans in 2018. The daily sugar intake from processed food accounted for 10.1 percent of total calories for children aged 3

A man in his 30s surnamed Kwak signed up for an online subscription service that provides movies. Kwak tried to download videos from the webpage, but it never worked, even after multiple tries. So he contacted the service provider and asked for a refund. The service provider turned him down, saying that the error in Kwak’s case could not be identified. Amid the increasing demand for online subscription services, especially video or music streaming content, Kwak’s case is an exa