Parking spaces designated for women only, a hotly disputed policy in South Korea, are to be eliminated, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Sunday. The revised bill states that the women-only parking spaces will be changed to "family friendly" spaces starting Tuesday. The new standards for using these spaces will extend to pregnant women, people with mobility difficulties such as seniors and drivers accompanying infants. Women who do not meet the new criteria will no longer be ab

South Korea's first lady was seen exiting renowned Lithuanian luxury clothing boutique "Du broliai" during President Yoon Suk Yeol's visit to Vilnius to attend the NATO summit, according to Lithuanian media reports. The local news report complimented the first lady for her refined style at various events, calling her a "50-year-old style icon." "Du broliai" is a high-end clothing boutique located in Vilnius, Lithuania, offering a range of luxury brands suc

In South Korea, the airline industry culture can be as strict as the military, or even more so. A recent post on Blind, an anonymous online forum for company employees, a person claiming to work for Korean Air has sparked a debate on workplace bullying, highlighting the irrational hierarchy among flight attendants. According to the post, a junior flight attendant was berated by a senior flight attendant for putting a blanket over her lap during a flight while on "standby," a position t

A new North Korean smartphone bearing a resemblance to Samsung smartphones called the Samtaesong 8 was recently featured on the North's state-run Korean Central Television. The phone made its first appearance in a program that promoted the proper and safe usage of smartphones. According to the North's Korean dictionary, "samtaesong" refers to the "three bright stars" - North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, his wife Kim Jong-suk and his son Kim Jong-il - of their alleged

A total of 8.6 billion won ($6.7 million) was returned to 7,015 people who wired money to the wrong accounts since July 2021, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Wednesday. The Misdirected Wire Transfers Recovery Support System, implemented in July 2021, is a system that returns money that was sent by mistake, which applies to those who wired amounts between 50,000 won and 50 million won. Requests for return need to be filed within a year of the date transfer was made. The average am

Three American women were taken into custody for illegal drug use after testing positive at a police station in Seoul on Tuesday. The suspects had initially been taken to the station after causing a disturbance in a taxi, allegedly kicking and screaming. According to the police, the suspects arrived at the police station dressed in swimsuits, and displayed abnormal behavior such as undressing and licking windows. The suspects also struggled with police officers who tried to cover them up, carryi

Jin of BTS announced on Weverse, a social platform the band uses to communicate with fans, that he was promoted to corporal two months earlier than scheduled after receiving the "elite soldier" title. In South Korea, all men deemed physically eligible between the ages of 18 and 35 are required to serve in the military. Jin is currently serving as an assistant instructor at a front-line infantry division boot camp in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, since last December. He was the first of

A woman contracted Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, a tick-borne disease, after coming into contact with a stray cat in Seogipo-si, Jeju, health authorities said on Monday. SFTS is an infectious disease that emerged from China with a mortality rate of up to 17 percent in Korea. The condition has no cure or vaccine as of now. The first local case was reported in 2013, and a total of 608 people have been infected with the disease in the last three years. Common symptoms include fever,

Twitter is threatening to take legal action against Meta, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets, following the launch of its new text-based app Threads. Twitter's legal team sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg alleging Meta of unlawfully obtaining Twitter's intellectual property to create a "copycat" app, a number of news outlets including CNN reported. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last year, tweeted, "Competition is fine, cheating is not," after rep

A ward at a facility for disabled people has been booked over allegedly stabbing 11 other wards, causing skin necrosis, the Anseong police said Thursday. According to the police, the 19-year-old suspect is accused of injuring 11 patients since the start of 2022, stabbing them with hypodermic needles, resulting in necrotizing fasciitis, a severe skin condition commonly known as flesh-eating disease. Relatives of two of the victims filed a police report, saying the victims, who had been stabbed mu

A man suspected of stealing money from drunk people by using their fingerprints to unlock their phones has been apprehended, police said Thursday. The suspect in his 30s is accused of luring inebriated people into secluded areas without surveillance cameras to extort a total of 55 million won ($42,184) in the Gangnam area. Over 11 instances of the crime were reported from July 2022 until last month. He is also suspected of blackmailing the victims who have no recollection of the event afterwards

Surveillance footage showing two elderly women allegedly stealing goods and electrical cords from moving boxes has set off a police investigation and online outrage. The footage, taken on Friday in Seoul, shows the two women rummanging through boxes temporarily placed outside a building during a move, while moving company employees were busy with other boxes. According to the online post from the victim, the boxes were temporarily placed outside a building in the process of moving to another bui

A man in his thirties was booked for allegedly filming his child's babysitter using a hidden camera in a bathroom at his home in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday, the police said. The man is accused of installing a 3-centimeter-long camera inside a body wash bottle, and then requesting his babysitter to take her clothes off when bathing his child because of what he claimed was the child's sensitive skin. After noticing that the bottle had been tampered with, the babysitter sou

A fire broke out at an apartment building in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province on Tuesday, causing 51 residents to be evacuated. No injuries were reported. The fire broke out at 7:52 p.m. from a kitchen on the 10th floor of a 12-story building when a woman in her 40s started deep-frying caterpillars. The fire department dispatched 54 firefighters and 25 fire trucks and was able to put out the fire within 19 minutes. The fire is estimated to have caused 320,000 won ($242) in property damage. The authori

A joint public-private discussion forum to promote animal welfare in chemical testing took place at the National Assembly on Tuesday. The forum was hosted by Reps. Nam In-soon, Han Jeoung-Ae and Jeon Yong-gi, organized by Humane Society International/Korea and Rep. Lee Soo-jin, with public officials and experts from chemical industries in attendance. At the forum, Nam stressed the need for constant investment in the development of animal replacement testing and the training of such experts. Acco

A 27-year-old man who was with the teenager who livestreamed her suicide may be charged with abetting suicide, local media reported Tuesday. Police have confirmed that she was with the man around the time she killed herself on Sunday, and that the two were active on an online community. Police have conducted digital forensics on her phone, and an autopsy will be carried out. Police believe she entered a suicide pact with the man through an online community. According to a blog post he uploaded M

A 13-year-old boy was apprehended for murdering his aunt, but released and sent for psychological evaluation. The suspect is alleged to have attacked his aunt when she would not let him play video games. The victim was taken to hospital and later died due to injuries caused by the suspect. The victim was discovered unconscious on the third floor of her home by her father. The victim and her father had been taking care of the suspect and the suspect's brother since their father -- the victim

A man in his 40s was sentenced to 18 months in prison for multiple counts of fraud, which he tried to get away with by faking his own death, Gwangju District Court said Tuesday. Some additional charges were dismissed because the statute of limitations has already passed, the court said. From 2008 to 2013, he swindled 375 million won ($287,000) out of five people under the pretense of finding them employment in the Yeosu Industrial Complex. As he faced lawsuits, he forged his death by tipping ove

“We’re having a June wedding, and he hasn’t proposed yet.” This oxymoronic statement is not that uncommon among Korean couples. Weirdly enough, a proposal, which usually involves someone on his or her knee nervously asking, “Will you marry me?” has little to do with asking for a hand in marriage in Korea. More often than not, Korean brides get proposed to after all the preparations are done, sometimes only days before the wedding. Unlike Western norms of marri

Finding a romantic partner is a task many struggle with, but a group of university students is looking to make the task easier with an algorithm designed to connect people. Two years ago, four Yonsei University undergraduates created Yeonpick, an online matchmaking service catering mainly to college students. One big difference for Yeonpick is that its design largely eliminates looks from the equation. Its algorithm matches the users based on their values, interests, and what they look for in th