Seoul Metropolitan Government is handing out 100,000 face masks free of charge to foreigners who have been largely sidelined in the country‘s public mask rationing system, the city said Tuesday. Each person will be given one cotton mask and five replacement filters at designated places. “This measure is for international students and foreign workers who had difficulty buying masks and for the safety of Seoul citizens,” said Kim Hak-jin, deputy mayor for Safety Management at

South Korea’s Ministry of Education has stocked up about 3 million small medical masks for kindergarteners and first and second grade students ahead of the planned reopening of schools next week, the ministry said Monday. Some 2.2 million masks have been secured on top of 764,000 that the government previously had on hand for immediate distribution by school in case a student shows symptoms of the novel coronavirus or tests positive, according to the Education Ministry. It has also sepa

Amid the rising number of imported cases of COVID-19 infections, a Polish national who tested positive reportedly carried out outdoor activities while in quarantine, sparking concerns of a community spread, local reports said Monday. The Yongsan District in Seoul posted online last week that a Polish man in his 40s had contracted the virus after coming into contact with a previously confirmed virus patient and that he had completed the two-week mandatory quarantine. Multiple Yongsan residents

South Koreans stranded in Peru are to arrive home over the weekend via a repatriation flight, as the Latin American country has suspended commercial flights to and from the country to contain the novel coronavirus, the Korean Embassy in Peru said Friday. A total 198 Koreans, including tourists and volunteer workers with the Korea International Cooperation Agency, departed from a military airport in Peru’s capital Lima on Thursday afternoon, local time, on a chartered flight arranged by t

The suspect who was arrested for selling videos of sex acts involving minors via Telegram chat rooms was a volunteer at an orphanage and managing editor of a college newspaper, who once wrote on how schools should respond to sex crimes, it was revealed Tuesday. The identity of 24-year-old Cho Ju-bin, the main suspect who ignited a public uproar here, was made public by police. On the encrypted messaging app Telegram, he went by the nickname “doctor.” The National Policy Agency, i

Amid public fury over a sexual abuse ring operating on Telegram, South Korea’s police chief on Monday vowed a thorough investigation of the case, as well as any similar crimes connected with the encrypted messaging platform. “We will conduct a rigorous investigation by cooperating closely with law enforcement agencies overseas,” said Min Gap-ryong, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, in a statement. “We are looking into the distribution of illeg

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea saw a slight uptick in the polls with some 42 percent support, while President Moon Jae-in flagged his highest approval rating this year, a poll showed Monday. Support for the liberal party inched up 0.6 percentage point from last week and stood at 42.1 percent, followed by the main opposition United Future Party 33.6 percent, up 1.5 percentage points, and the People’s Party on 4 percent, according to local pollster Realmeter. The survey was conducte

A COVID-19 patient in her 90s returned home over the weekend after making a full recovery and became the oldest person in South Korea to have recovered from the deadly virus, a government official said Monday. The woman, 93, is the oldest among approximately 3,100 people here who had been declared clear of the virus as of Monday at 12:01 a.m. The patient returned home Saturday, after 13 days of treatment at a medical facility in Seoul. “She is the eldest patient to have recovered from

A woman in her 40s and her two children in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, were admitted to a hospital showing symptoms of intoxication after the woman used a methanol-based substance to disinfect her home against COVID-19, a government agency said Sunday. According to the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, earlier this month the woman sprayed a 9:1 solution of methanol to water on furniture, blankets and other items in her home about 10 times. The woman later showed signs of acute i

Public anger has exploded over a recently busted Telegram sexual abuse ring, prompting millions to sign petitions for the disclosure of the full identities of the operators as well as their tens of thousands of clients. A petition filed with Cheong Wa Dae calling for the disclosure of the main suspect, arrested last week, quickly garnered a record number of signatures: 1.85 million as of 4 p.m. Sunday. A separate petition calling for the disclosure of some 260,000 users of Telegram chat roo

The novel coronavirus outbreak has heightened anxiety in South Korea and around the globe in a period unlike any the modern society has experienced before. Despite continued uncertainty and bad apples with xenophobic behavior, good Samaritans in Korea are going an extra mile to look out for those most vulnerable to contracting the disease with medical staff combating the virus on the front lines. Lee Jun-ah, 22, a senior at Seoul Women’s College of Nursing, is volunteering from home, ma

South Korea’s national fencing team reported that a third athlete on the team had been confirmed to have the novel coronavirus, health officials said Thursday. The 36-year-old athlete tested positive Wednesday. She had returned home from an international competition in Budapest, Hungary, over the weekend, according to South Chungcheong Province health authorities. She was tested for the virus at a test center in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, earlier this week after a teammate was

The US Embassy in South Korea suspended routine visa services as part of efforts to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, the embassy said Thursday. According to the embassy, the measure is in line with the US State Department’s decision to halt nonimmigrant and immigrant services in countries with level 2, 3 or 4 travel advisories. The State Department has issued a level 4 travel advisory for virus-hit Daegu, with the rest of South Korea at level 3.  The suspension, however, does not af

Minster of Oceans and Fisheries Moon Seong-hyeok is working remotely in self-quarantine after coming into contact with a COVID-19 patient, the ministry said Tuesday. Moon started working from home Monday and will do so for 14 days. He is the first Cabinet member to go into self-quarantine. “Minister Moon was notified of the self-isolation from health authorities. He plans to work remotely from his residence until March 24,” said a ministry official. Though Moon tested negative f

UNICEF said a fund of $840,000 is required to help North Korea respond to the coronavirus pandemic, the UN agency said in a report. North Korea has not yet reported a confirmed case of the virus nor a death associated with the disease, which many watchers outside have cast doubt on. The reclusive communist state has banned entry of travelers, tightened borders against imported goods and ramped up disinfection measure. According to the report out of $840,312 North Korea needs to navigate the

A nursing home in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province has been put into cohort isolation after a nurse’s aide tested positive for the new coronavirus, city officials said Friday. The 142 residents of the staff at Bucheon Hanna Nursing Home and 22 of its staff were put on lockdown as of Friday over concerns of the facility becoming a cluster of infection. The remainder of the nursing home’s roughly 90 staff were put into self-isolation or directed not to come to work. “The city wil

A 23-year-old South Korean student was punched in the face for not wearing a face mask in New York, in what appears to be a hate crime against Asians amid virus fears, reports said Friday. According to the reports, the student was entering a building in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning when she was grabbed by the hair and punched in the face. The alleged attacker reportedly attends an institution located in the same building as the victim’s language school. The attacker assaulted th

Robots are helping doctors treat coronavirus patients at the Seoul Medical Center, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday. There are three types of robots at the hospital: One conducts temperature checks on visitors, one sterilizes negative pressure rooms and the other transports clothes and other goods to a disposal site after use by medical staff and patients. Two robots of each model are deployed at the state-run facility, which has been designated as a COVID-19 treatment center, sa

North London Collegiate School Jeju said Thursday that it is offering online classes to ensure students can continue their studies amid the spread of COVID-19. NLCS Jeju, located in the Global Education City, is a British institution attended by over 1,300 students. In keeping with the Ministry of Education’s advice, the school has been closed to day students since late last month. “As soon as COVID-19 began to affect South Korea we started thinking about how best to safeguard t

Seoul’s election body acknowledged adult wards’ right to vote, paving the way for voters under full guardianship to cast their ballot for the first time in the April 15 parliamentary elections, the Seoul city government said Wednesday. Seoul Social Welfare Public Interest Law Center, a city-affiliated institution, said it received the Seoul City Election Commission’s authoritative interpretation of the relevant law, recognizing voting rights of some 15,000 people under legal