Park Bom, formerly of the now-disbanded 2NE1, is reportedly set to return to the K-pop scene in March. According to a report from the Star News on Friday, Park will release her new song in March, and is working on a new album. (Park Bom`s Instagram)Park’s upcoming release would be her first in eight years, following her digital single “Don’t Cry” released in April 2011. She debuted as a solo artist with the hit solo album “You and I” in 2009.Park Bom left YG Entertainment after 2NE1 disbanded in

Black box footage of an accident in Incheon, in which a taxi driver in his 70s died due to a coin thrown by a drunk passenger in his 30s in an apartment parking lot, was released Wednesday. “JTBC Newsroom” secured and reported on the footage of the incident that took place at an apartment parking lot in Guwol-dong, Incheon, at 3 a.m. on Dec. 8 last year. (Yonhap)In the recording, a drunk passenger verbally abuses the taxi driver as he arrives at the parking lot of his apartment. When he continue

A 22-year-old Indonesian man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly setting up and operating a virtual money mining program on dozens of college computers. (Yonhap)The man is suspected of having set up HoneyMiner, a program used to mine Bitcoin and Monero, on 27 computers in the common computer room of a college at the end of January, and of operating it for several days.Song Young-seung, chief prosecuting attorney of the Ulsan District Court, issued an arrest warrant for the suspect as he was a fli

A fire broke out Tuesday at 5:44 a.m. at a paint shop in Singi-dong, Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The fire was extinguished within about an hour and 20 minutes and no casualties were reported. (Yeosu Fire Station/Yonhap)Three people at the paint shop were evacuated. Then a container of paint exploded, causing the fire to get bigger, and another 15 other people had to be quickly evacuated from nearby buildings. About 300 people gathered at the scene, where firefighters from the Yeosu Fire Statio

Three men, including a man surnamed Kim, 57, who ate pufferfish in Jeju City, have been hospitalized for poisoning.　The three reported symptoms of swellfish poisoning at 2:53 p.m. Sunday. They were taken to a hospital in Jeju City by ambulance.  (Yonhap)Currently, two people, including Kim, are in intensive care in critical condition, while the third person is reportedly not in a life-threatening condition.The three men complained about nausea and dizziness after eating swellfish that they thems

Korea International School announced that it invited students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to hold an MIT Science & Technology Seminar for one week, from Jan. 7 to 11, at its Pangyo campus in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.  (Korea International School holds a seminar with MIT students. KIS)At the seminar, KIS students took the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge technology. Following the seminar, MIT students attended various classes at KIS for a month and held collaboration clas

Ultrafine dust, smaller than 2.5 micrometer in diameter, may increase emergency hospitalization for mental illness, analysis showed Monday. There is a correlation between exposure to ultrafine dust and depression and schizophrenia, according to a joint study of 86,634 cases in Seoul from 2003 to 2013 by the Graduate School of Public Health and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. (Yonhap)When the concentration of ultrafine dust reaches 10 micrograms per cubic meter on average for two cons

 Memorial services for 24-year-old Kim Yong-gyun, a contract worker who died in an industrial accident Dec. 11 while inspecting a coal-fired power station in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, will be held for three days from Feb. 7 to 9.  (Yonhap) A wake, popularly called the “Democratic Society Funeral,” will take place at Seoul National University Hospital’s funeral home. The wake is open to the public.

Yoon Ji-sung, formerly of now-disbanded Wanna One, revealed Friday the events leading up to the release of his first solo album “Aside” on Feb. 20.His agency LM Entertainment unveiled the schedule on social media and the singer’s fan site.  (LM Entertainment)Yoon will hold his first fan meetings, titled “2019 Yoon Ji-sung 1st Fan Meeting: Aside in Seoul,” on Feb. 23 and 24 at Interpark IPark as part of the first leg of his tour. The tour will then head to Macau on March 2 before moving on to sev

Actor Lee Myoung-haeng was sentenced to 8 months in prison for sexual assault of a female performance staff member on Friday.The Incheon District Court found Lee guilty of indecent act by compulsion and ordered him to be taken into custody immediately. It also ordered Lee to complete 40 hours of a sexual violence treatment program, and banned him from working at institutions related to children and adolescents for the next three years. (Yonhap)The court decided the sentence on the grounds that i

Taemin of boy band SHINee will unveil his second solo EP at a showcase this month. According to S.M. Entertainment, “Taemin Showcase – Want” will take place at the Gyedang Hall of the Sangmyung Art Center in Seoul on Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. It will be aired on V Live in real time. (S.M. Entertainment)Taemin will perform the EP’s lead track “Want” at the event for the first time. He will also share stories related to the making of the record, along with updates on what he has been up to recently.The al

All members of NU’EST have renewed their contracts with Pledis Entertainment, which has managed the group for the past seven years, the agency announced Friday.The extension allowed the five-piece band -- consisting of JR, Aron, Baekho, Ren and Minhyun -- to remain intact. Most K-pop groups have an average lifespan of seven years.  (Yonhap)NU’EST made the announcement directly on its official fan cafe, saying “We united our minds to show our growth as NU’EST with Pledis Entertainment. We will do

On Dec. 3, Park Jun-kyung, 37, a tenant in the Ahyeon-dong 2 reconstruction area in Mapo-gu, Seoul, was found dead in the Han River. His belongings and a note were found at a pavilion at Hangang Park in the Mangwon area.The note described how he had spent the last three days on the streets with nowhere to go after being forcibly evicted three times. He also asked that his mother be given rental housing so she would not suffer as he had.The late Park had moved to Ahyeon-dong, near Sinchon, known

A new guideline for delaying elementary and middle school admission for reasons such as studying abroad will come into force in Seoul starting next year.The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education announced Sunday that it has prepared a revised guideline on encouraging school attendance for children who are subjected to mandatory education, which will be implemented from January 2019. (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education website)The revised guideline requires parents or guardians to visit scho

An underground hot water pipe in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, leaked Tuesday, cutting off hot water and heat to more than 1,800 households for 17 hours. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Energy Corporation, 1,882 housing units had no heat or hot water after the pipe leaked near an apartment complex in the Mok-dong neighborhood at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.  (Yonhap)A resident reported seeing steam rising from a flower bed in front of an apartment building at around 8:50 a.m.Hea

 Around 4,500 households in the Marine City area of Busan had no heat or gas services for three to four hours on Monday after a construction crew damaged gas lines in the city’s Haeundae district. According to Busan City Gas and police sources, the accident occurred at 4:49 p.m. when an excavator operated by a road construction crew damaged the underground gas pipes between Marine City and Dongbaek intersection. Marine City (Yonhap)Emergency restoration work began around 5 p.m. and the gas suppl

Public day care centers should be set up and operate in new apartment complexes of more than 5,000 households, and day care centers must check whether infants are vaccinated each year, as decreed in a newly revised law. The revised Infant Care Act, proposed by Rep. Kwon Mi-hyuk, will come into effect in the next three to six months, after it passed the National Assembly on Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.  (The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea)The government had

 The three-day cold spell that eased Monday caused 160 water meters to freeze and burst in Seoul, the local government said. According to the Office of Waterworks Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday, a total of 58 cases of frozen water meters had been reported over the weekend as of Monday morning. (Yonhap)Temperatures fell as low as minus 11 degrees Celsius on Friday and minus 11.4 degrees Celsius on Saturday, triggering a warning to be issued for freezing water meters.After temperatures ea

A man surnamed Park, who is accused of killing 22-year-old soldier Yoon Chang-ho while driving under the influence, admitted to the charges against him at his trial Friday. In the first inquests into the death, presided over by Justice Kim Dong-wook at the Busan District Court, prosecutors said Park was indicted on charges of killing Yoon in front of a crosswalk in Haeundae, Busan, while driving a BMW with blood alcohol content of 0.181 percent on Sept. 25.Park briefly said, “I agree,” when the

With strong winds and cold wave warnings in effect in some parts of Incheon on Friday, all passenger ferry services linking Incheon to islands have been canceled. On Friday, a strong-wind warning was issued for most parts of the eastern and western coasts of Korea.According to the Incheon Weather Station, the temperature in Incheon dropped to minus 7.7 degrees C at 9 a.m. Friday, with the wind chill temperature at minus 14.5 C.Strong winds at speeds of 14 to 20 meters per second were blowing Fri