Lights dimmed across the city of Seoul on Saturday in celebration of Earth Hour, a one-hour event that involves switching off unnecessary electricity to conserve energy and take action against climate change.This year’s Earth Hour was at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. From 5 p.m. on the day, people gathered at Seoul’s Cheonggye Plaza to sign a petition board set up by the Worldwide Fund for Nature in celebration of a movement to connect to the Earth. Messages crammed the board, such as “Fine dust, I wan

Yongma Land, a closed down theme park in the northern corner of Seoul, has lately seen an influx of visitors coming around to take photos with the battered vintage amusement rides in the background.The place can be eerie on first impression, with deserted rides standing still as if frozen in time. But since the park began to appear in K-pop videos and dramas, it has gained popularity even among foreign travelers. Perhaps the biggest boost the park received was through K-pop group Crayon Pop’s mu

The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Paralympics wrapped up Sunday, passing on the baton to Beijing, the next host city for 2022. The event in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, set a new record for a Winter Paralympics event with the participation of a total of 567 athletes from 49 countries. In the previous Winter Paralympics held 2014 in Sochi, Russia, a total of 547 athletes from 45 countries had taken part. In addition, North Korea, Georgia and Tajikistan made their Winter Paralympic debuts this year.So

The McDonald’s outlet at exit 3 of Sinchon Station in Seoul will close for good next month. The specific move out date has yet to be decided, but the company said the closure was confirmed.“The decision is final. There will be no taking it back,” a McDonald’s representative familiar with the matter told The Korea Herald.The Sinchon branch served as a landmark meeting spot in the area. In the 20 years of the shop’s history since opening doors in 1998, it wouldn’t be an understatement to claim tha

Domestic Korean travelers took out the biggest portion of Airbnb users in Korea in 2017, followed by tourists from the US and Singapore.According to Airbnb on Wednesday, over 1.8 million travelers made use of some 37,000 Airbnb listings last year. Of the figure, 66 percent were Korean tourists traveling domestically. As for the foreign visitors, those from the US and Singapore were the most comfortable using the home-sharing service, respectively taking out 18 percent and 13 percent of the local

More than 320,000 tickets have been sold four days into the 10-day Paralympics in PyeongChang, overtaking the total sales of the 2014 Sochi Paralympics, which sold around 316,000 tickets in total. Lee Hee-beom, the president of the Organizing Committee for the international sports event, said Wednesday that the sales surpassed the initially anticipated goal by 146 percent. Lee accredited the encouraging sales streak to the people’s increased interest for athletes who have overcome their physical

Jeonju Hanok Village received more than 20 million visitors in the past two years, according to the city government Tuesday.About 10.9 million people were found to have visited the cluster of traditional Korean houses in Jeongju, North Jeolla Province, in 2017. The figure was 10.5 million in the previous year. The data was compiled based on telecommunication records and credit and debit card usage in the village. Jeonju Hanok Village (Yonhap)The age group that made up the most number of visitors

Korean is the 11th most studied language at US universities, according to the latest report from the Modern Language Association, released Tuesday.More than 13,900 students across 2,669 universities in the US were found to have taken Korean language classes in 2016.The most popular foreign language that students signed up for was Spanish, with over 712,000 students enrolled. Spanish was separated by a large margin from No. 2 French at 175,000.American Sign Language, German, Japanese, Italian, Ch

Students from Seoul Chungmu Elementary School wrote encouraging messages to Uganda on Tuesday as part of the 10th annual fundraising event of nonprofit organization Good Neighbors.The Hope Letter Campaign began in 2009. This year’s event runs from March 2 through May 31 for students in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. The students are invited to watch a video on a 10-year-old Ugandan boy named Simon, who works at a dust-filled quarry to make ends meet. Simon’s father, who had also

Firefighters in Gyeonggi Province will no longer have to respond to calls from people locked out of their homes, becoming the first group of firefighters to do so here. Gyeonggi-do Fire Services made the announcement Monday, sparking online reactions that included those who said that this action should have been taken long ago. “Those who have mobilized fire fighters as if they were errand runners should be sorry,” wrote one online user.  Fire fighters (Yonhap)“If you lock yourself out of your h

A veterinary clinic in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, was caught passing off abandoned dogs to dog meat farms. According to officials in the local city and nonprofit organization Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth, the clinic was reported Monday by a passerby while handing off five stray dogs to a dog meat farm.It is unclear whether there had been monetary transaction in the process.When city officials arrived at the scene, the five dogs had just been tied up and transferred to a cage in a

More than 7,000 people volunteered to become one of 24 life-size Bandabi mascots at the opening ceremony of the upcoming Winter Paralympics, the PyeongChang Organizing Committee said Wednesday. Bandabi is the mascot for the Paralympic Games set to begin Friday. Forty-eight volunteers were chosen for the 24 mascots. They signed up in pairs, with one person to don a life-size costume, and the other to accompany the mascot.Among those selected were a person rehabilitating from a former disability a

On Wednesday, the day before International Women’s Day, protesters gathered in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul with 30 photos of ordinary women’s faces merged with the image of the comfort woman statue. The images were called “Uncomfort Women.”The 30 photos represented the number of the remaining 30 comfort women in Korea. The rest have passed away due to age.“This is a campaign to let the world know that these women are here, the women who were called comfort women but were driven to the

USA Today, a major daily paper in the US, is planning to launch a special section dedicated to South Korea, starting from April. The section, called Korea Today, will feature Korean businesses and products encompassing K-pop and K-beauty, as well as cultural content and popular tourism destinations in Korea. Test versions of Korea Today (JScom.)From April to June, Korea Today will publish on the third Thursday each month in 10 states, including Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles. Starting i

A man was arrested Tuesday morning for vandalizing a window of South Chungcheong Gov. An Hee-jung’s official residence, reportedly “out of anger after hearing the news of An raping his secretary.”The man in his 30s threw a baseball bat at Gov. An’s residence at Hongseong-gun in South Chungcheong Province at around 8:20 a.m. He was arrested at the scene by private security personnel guarding the residence.Police confirmed the man to be a party member of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, where

Chinese student Wang Ping became the first international student to graduate with top honors at Korea University on Saturday.And Mango Jane Angar did the same at her college, becoming the first foreign student to graduate from Sookmyung Women’s University at the top of her class.Wang had been a fan of Korean dramas since an early age. She came to Korea to study in 2012, took language courses at Dongguk University and entered Korea University in 2014. Although her academic passion was strong, Wan

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, chairman of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, was seen jumping in line ahead of President Moon Jae-in while giving out customary handshakes with participants at the March 1 Independence movement ceremony on Thursday.　Hong was photographed at the head of the long line of politicians sharing handshakes. The front of the line is usually reserved for the person with the highest position -- President Moon Jae-in. (Yonhap)Moon, just behind Hong in the line, appeared to have

Foreign residents with an F5 visa in South Korea will be required to renew their alien registration cards every 10 years, as the revision bill to the Immigration Control Act passed the National Assembly on Wednesday. In addition, local authorities will be able to place a faster travel ban on foreign criminal suspects involved with serious charges under the revised immigration act, which will go into effect six months after proclamation.The new rules require permanent foreign residents with an F5

육군 중령이 부하 여군을 성추행했다는 혐의로 보직 해임됐다. 군 당국은 즉각 진상 조사에 나섰다.　　28일 육군 모 사단에 따르면 전날 이 부대 영관장교인 A 중령이 부서 회식 자리에서 부하 여군을 추행한 혐의로 상급부대 수사기관의 조사를 받고 있다.　　사건을 인지한 해당 사단은 A 중령을 보직 해임하는 한편 피해자와 분리 조치 차원 에서 부하 여군을 상급부대로 대기 발령했다고 밝혔다.　　군 관계자는 “이번 사안이 갖는 엄중함을 명확히 인식하고 법과 규정에 따라 엄정하게 처리할 것이다”며, “특히 피해자 보호 및 재발방지를 위해 필요한 모든 조치를 취할 것이다”고 발표했다.　　피해자는 양성평등상담관과의 상담 과정에서 본인의 신상정보가 외부에 노출되는 것을 전혀 원하지 않음을 밝혔으며, 육군은 개인의 신상정보를 철통 보호하고 있다.　　(khnews@heraldcorp.com)　

South Korea set its own record for the 2018 Winter Olympics with 17 medals in total: five gold, eight silver and four bronze. It was the only Asian nation to rank in the top 10. For Korean spectators, the best part of the games in the past two weeks were the unexpected wins in previously little-known disciplines, such as the gold in men’s skeleton and the silver in women’s curling. This was the first Winter Games in which Korea scored medals in disciplines other than ice skating. The country als