Seoul education office’s push to protect LGBT students and eradicate discrimination at schools is facing opposition after the office released its 2021-23 draft plan to protect the human rights of students. In the draft plan, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education included its plan to support and protect minority pupils –- from multicultural to LGBT students -- to make sure schools are free from hatred and discrimination for their safety and welfare. The education of

Religious facilities were the biggest source of COVID-19 group infections in South Korea for the past year, with one in three confirmed patients being in their 40s and 50s, according to health authorities’ analysis.  According to the analysis by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on COVID-19 cases from Jan. 20 last year to Jan. 19 this year, 45.4 percent of all coronavirus cases in Korea were classified as “mass infections.” A mass infection is a group of

The Seoul city government released a list of restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the country’s capital offering vegetarian or vegan options, making it easy for users to search for one in their own neighborhood. A total of 948 restaurants -- 368 independent restaurants and 580 franchise chains -- were introduced, including vegetarian-only restaurants as well as others with vegetarian options. A click on a district on the map of Seoul will bring up a list of places in the district serving

All residents of Gyeonggi Province, including registered foreigners, will receive 100,000 won ($90.90) in emergency cash payouts to cope with the COVID-19 economic fallout regardless of their income, age or occupation, with the exact timing to be decided soon. Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung said Wednesday at an online press conference that it is appropriate to dole out the second round of cash relief and to do so rapidly, given the devastating economic situation, the slowing coronavirus infe

Women in Seoul spent almost four times longer than men on household chores and were paid less in 2019, highlighting the persistent gender disparity in the country’s capital, according to a report by the Seoul city government. Girls and women aged 15 or older spent about two hours and 26 minutes on housework in 2019, about 3.6 times longer than men who devoted 41 minutes, according to the 2020 Seoul gender statistics report on residents’ work-life balance. In double-income househo

A victim of sexual harassment by former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday urged a ruling party lawmaker to resign and apologize over the suspected leakage of information about her complaint against the mayor. “I am horrified by the fact that the complaint against Park could be revealed to him even before I filed the complaint with the police,” the victim and her family said in a statement. Rep. Nam In-soon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea is under investigation over su

South Korean webtoon artist Yoon Seo-in was mired in controversy after writing a post that appeared to hail pro-Japanese collaborators and insult Korean independence fighters on his Facebook. The controversial cartoonist faces a lawsuit from an association of the independence fighters who fought against Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, after describing them as “people who have lived lazily.” “While descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators lived th

Three more coronavirus cases were reported in connection with a US Army base in Seoul, US Forces Korea said Monday. Two American civilian employees at the US Army base in Seoul and the spouse of another American employee, who had tested positive last week, were confirmed to be infected with the virus, according to the US military. The civilians, who work at the Yongsan base, contracted the virus after coming into direct contact with other confirmed patients from the base, according to USFK.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung came out on top in the latest poll of support for presidential candidates released Friday, while previous front-runner Lee Nak-yon plummeted. In a survey by Gallup Korea conducted with 1,000 adults over the age of 18 from Tuesday to Thursday, 23 percent of respondents picked Lee as their most favored presidential candidate, up 3 percentage points from the poll a month earlier. Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl came in second with 13 percent support, unch

Coronavirus patients in South Korea experienced side effects such as hair loss, fatigue and decreased breathing capacity months after they recovered from the infection, according to a survey of health authorities. Three months after they recovered from COVID-19, the most common side effects survivors had was hair loss and shortness of breath during exercise, according to a survey on 40 recovered coronavirus patients by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Six months after the reco

A local court acknowledged that former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who was found dead in July in an apparent suicide, had sexually harassed his former secretary in a separate trial involving the victim and a former city employee. The Seoul Central District Court said the victim suffered considerable mental distress due to Park’s unwanted sexual advances while handing down a ruling in a case where another employee of the Seoul city government was accused of sexually assaulting the same vic

South Korea’s refugee approval reached an all-time low over a 10-month period last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, dipping below 1 percent, government data showed Thursday. The number of asylum-seekers granted refugee status here was 44 from January to October last year, putting the proportion of refugee claims accepted during the period at 0.8 percent, according to statistics from the Justice Ministry. This marks the lowest figure since the country began to compile relevant data in 19

Only 3 out of 10 South Koreans said they plan to get vaccinated for COVID- 19 as soon as possible, while the rest said they want to take a wait-and-see approach, a survey showed Thursday. According to a survey of 1,094 adults from Jan. 8-10 by the Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, 67.7 percent of the respondents said they will wait and see how the coronavirus vaccine is working for others before getting the shots themselves. Only 28.6 percent said they want to get va

The recent controversy triggered by artificial intelligence chat bot Lee Luda, which became the subject of sexual abuse among some users, is fueling debates spanning from the sexualization of celebrities to AI technologies used for cybercrimes. A day after a presidential petition called for punishment for fan fiction sexualizing underage male K-pop idols, another presidential petition shed light on female celebrities falling victim to nonconsensual pornography produced using deepfake technolog

A presidential petition calling for stern punishment for those creating fan fiction called “real person slash”  sexualizing underage male idols began garnering support Wednesday, triggering questions as to whether it can be seen as a form of idol culture or if it constitutes a digital sex crime. “Real person slash is a culture of sexual crime, which features real male idols and describes pervert-like sexual intercourse and rape in an unspeakably explicit manner, and cou

South Korea’s state health insurance agency said Wednesday it plans to seek reimbursement from an evangelical church that became a new hotbed of COVID-19 infections, accusing it of hampering authorities’ epidemiological efforts. The National Health Insurance Service is filing for the reimbursement of costs for COVID-19 testing, self-quarantines and medical treatment linked to the BTJ Center for All Nations in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province. The health insurance agency, which c

The Seoul Metropolitan Library added 15,000 Korean and foreign books in the digital format and 3,000 audiobooks to its catalog, making them available for free for registered users. Any registered user can log on to the library’s website or mobile app, browse through available e-books and click on the “borrow” button. One can borrow up to five e-books at the same time and download them or read them from a web browser for up to 14 days. The newly added books are subscription

Public outrage is growing in South Korea over a group of people shown brutally killing and torturing stray cats in videos and then encouraging such acts in a mobile chat room, leading the police to launch an investigation into the case Monday. In an open online chat room named “Gore Professionals” on the country’s top messenger app, KakaoTalk, anonymous users reportedly shared pictures and videos that showed stray cats being brutally killed and tortured. They also reportedly

Among those in their 20s and 30s in South Korea, those who have a permanent job or own a real estate are more likely to pursue a romantic relationship, a study revealed, showing economic power is a key factor influencing one’s dating and marriage prospects. A study by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs polled 3,002 people aged between 25 and 39 from Aug. 31-Sept. 13 in 2018. The chances of dating for those who own a property increased by 27.9 percentage points compared t

South Korea’s top court confirmed on Monday a suspended jail term for a Korean lawyer, who was charged with helping Chinese citizens file fraudulent refugee applications. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that had sentenced the lawyer one year in prison, suspended for two years, on charges of violating the Immigration Control Act. The law firm where the lawyer belongs was slapped with a fine of 5 million won. Upon a request from a refugee broker, the lawyer, only