From Mumbai to Beijing to Madrid, the global coronavirus pandemic has brought back clear skies and visibly cleaner air, as a sharp slowdown in human activity has allowed Mother Nature the much-needed time to heal some of her wounds. Seoul has been no exception. Spring skies were noticeably clearer, compared to those of past years when citizens were advised to wear high filtration masks due to toxic haze blanketing the country for days. “Weather was so nice this spring that I totally fo

A woman was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of child abuse after her stepson was found unconscious inside a suitcase. Police said Tuesday that they took into custody a stepmother in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, on suspicion of child abuse and are reviewing whether to seek an arrest warrant for her. The 43-year-old woman at her apartment in Cheonan called for emergency help around 7:25 p.m. Monday, saying her 9-year-old son was unconscious. The boy was under cardiac arrest inside a sui

Deposits for disposable cups will return in South Korea in 2022, as the government strives to cut back on single-use items and boost recycling. According to the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday, the plan was approved at a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day to require local businesses to charge extra for consumers buying beverage items in single-use plastic or paper cups in deposits to be claimed back with the return of those cups.    The deposit amount is yet to be determin

Raising the retirement age from the current 60 to 65 will require an additional 15.9 trillion won per year from employers, a private think tank said Monday, suggesting that extra measures are needed to lower the financial burden for companies. The Korea Economic Research Institute, under the country’s top business lobby Federation of Korean Industries, said in a report that wages will account for 14.4 trillion won while social insurance contributions would account for the remaining 1.5 tr

A local court confirmed a 5 1/2-year prison sentence for Yoon Jung-cheon, a construction contractor alluded in the sexual bribery scandal surrounding former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-ui. The Seoul High Court on Friday confirmed the lower court’s prison sentence for Yoon, 59, on charges of fraud and bribery. Yoon has been at the center of a corruption and bribery scandal involving Kim. The case gained attention after a video of a sex party surfaced. Kim, who retired from public servic

The South Korean government announced Friday it will work with packaging and delivery sectors to cut 20 percent of their plastic use. The Ministry of Environment said that it has signed an agreement with the Korea Plastic Packaging Container Association, Baedal Minjok (Baemin), Korea Franchise Association and the Korea Zero Waste Movement Network to work together to reduce the amount of plastic used in food and beverage item deliveries. By standardizing plastic containers used for deliveries

South Korea suffered the biggest on-year job losses in the business sector last month amid the coronavirus outbreak, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said Thursday. According to the ministry’s monthly labor force report, domestic business entities with more than one worker had 1.82 million employees in April, down 2 percent, or 365,000 employees, from the same month last year. It is the second time that the figure has fallen since data started being compiled in June 2009. The first d

South Korea on Wednesday started requiring all air travelers to wear face masks to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Following a mandate from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, as of Wednesday the government is requiring all travelers on domestic and international routes to wear masks. Those without masks will be denied boarding. The measure came as an increasing number of people were ignoring the government’s recommendations on masks amid warmer spr

The government plans to ensure that 90 percent of cars used in the public sector are eco-friendly models by 2030, a drastic increase from the current 12.7 percent, the Ministry of Environment announced Tuesday. Starting from next year, a total of 1,508 state-run or state-affiliated entities will be required to have electric, hydrogen or hybrid electric vehicles make up at least 80 percent of their new car purchases. Eventually, the ministry plans to require that all new car purchases be eco-fri

From the masks, gloves and gowns used on the front lines of the war against COVID-19 to food delivered in disposable plastic containers and coffee served in takeaway cups, single-use products are finding their way back into daily life in South Korea. In the face of an unprecedented health crisis, it may be understandable that the impact of disposables on the Earth becomes an afterthought. But eco-minded citizens and activists are worried that people may settle into new life patterns and undo h

The global coronavirus pandemic is threatening the future of plastic recycling in South Korea, as major recycling centers are incurring mounting losses amid a collapse in global demand. Many are being forced to cut costs, work hours and head counts just to stay afloat, but a quick turnaround appears unlikely, industry insiders and government officials said. “(Local) recycling centers are largely dependent on exports of collected recyclables, but trade is not happening these days,&rdquo

More than 92 percent of South Korean households have received their emergency disaster relief funds from the government, three weeks after the payouts began, the government said Monday.  According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, by Sunday the government had paid out 89.3 percent of the 14.24 trillion won ($11.46 billion) allocated for disaster relief to 92.8 percent of the 21.71 million households in Korea. The National Assembly approved the supplementary budget bill April 30, m

The number of Vietnamese entering South Korea surged last month, despite a sharp fall in the total number of foreign arrivals. According to data from the Ministry of Justice on Monday, the number of foreigners entering South Korea dropped 62 percent from a month earlier to 34,544 people in April. From a year earlier, the figure was 97.2 percent lower. Of the total, Vietnamese nationals accounted for 10,327, US nationals 6,830 and Chinese nationals 4,685. It was the first time that Vietnamese

LG Electronics’ Polish unit came under fire Sunday for running a video advertisement on social media that many claimed as inappropriate. In one of the videos posted on LG Poland’s official TikTok account, an old man uses LG Electronics’ V60 ThinQ dual screen smartphone to take photos of a young woman in front without her consent. Noticing the shutter sound, the woman turns around and grabs the phone only to find the old man’s selfies. She apologizes to the old man and

A top local court confirmed a five-year prison sentence for a cyber-university chairman who sold fake college diplomas to around 200 people. The Supreme Court on Sunday confirmed the lower courts’ five-year prison sentence for Kim Moon-kap on charges of fraud and violation of the Higher Education Act. Kim, 48, was sentenced to prison for issuing fake university degrees after establishing Templeton University as a cyber university and taking 1.38 billion won in tuition from around 200 stud

Lower middle-class households with children in high school saw private education expenditure grow faster than their income in the past 12 years, a study showed Sunday. The study by the Korean Educational Development Institute said household spending on after-school education increased for students of all ages from 2007 to 2018, largely due to higher income levels. But income elasticity, which indicates the connection between income and spending on private education, varied significantly, the

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Chairman Kim Myeong-hwan is meeting with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon this week to discuss the government’s plan to implement a universal employment insurance program. Kim and Park are on the same page in that they oppose the current administration’s step-by-step approach to providing employment insurance for all citizens. They both insist that a full-scale program be launched at once. Since paying out COVID-19 disaster relief as part of a universa

The government will prepare a road map for a countrywide employment insurance program by the end of this year, Labor Minister Lee Jae-kap said Thursday. Speaking at a press briefing, the minister said the goal is to close loopholes in the state-run job insurance program, which currently covers only half of the employed population.  “We will work with a will to pass a legislation that can provide employment insurance for worker in ‘special forms of employment,’” L

Rep. Park Byeong-seug, a veteran politician with close ties to President Moon Jae-in, has effectively been confirmed as the inaugural speaker of the National Assembly. Park, a six-term lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party and the longest-serving lawmaker in the 21st National Assembly, was the sole candidate for the post on Wednesday after his competitor Rep. Kim Jin-pyo from the same party announced he was dropping out in a social media post. “After contemplating for the past month,

Son Jong-woo, a South Korean national who operated the world’s largest child pornography website and is wanted by US authorities, demanded guarantees at his extradition hearing Tuesday that he will not face charges in the US for crimes he has been convicted of here.  The 24-year-old’s defense made the argument during a hearing on his extradition to the US at the Seoul High Court. The court is scheduled to reach a decision in the next two months on the US Justice Department&rsq