[Photo News] Mt. Seorak welcomes first snow of the season

The first snow of the season fell on a portion of Mount Seorak in Gangwon Province Saturday, according to the Gangwon Regional Meteorological Administration. Flakes began falling at around 7 a.m. around Jungcheong Shelter, some 1,676 meters above sea level, the authorities said. It added that the temperature had plummeted to minus 5.6 C in the early morning.

Oct. 21, 2023

New study sheds light on S. Korea's high stomach cancer rate

Stomach cancer is especially common among Koreans, with data from the National Cancer Center of Korea identifying it as the most common type of cancer in the country from 1999 to 2018. Although Korea reports a lower overall cancer incidence rate compared to the US and UK, its rate of stomach cancer is nearly 10 times higher. Looking to find potential reasons why, a new study led by Dr. Choi Kui-son of the National Cancer Center of Korea has found a lack of exercise to be the most common risk fac

Oct. 21, 2023

S. Korea reports additional cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle

South Korea confirmed additional cases of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in cattle at three local farms on Saturday. The report comes one day after the country confirmed its first-ever case of LSD at a farm in Seosan, located some 98 kilometers southwest of Seoul. The second LSD case was confirmed at a farm in Pyeongtaek, located 60 kilometers south of Seoul, where samples were taken from a milk cow showing symptoms of LSD on Friday. Another case was confirmed at a cattle farm in Dangjin, just north o

Oct. 21, 2023

2 dead, 1 in cardiac arrest in bus-van crash inside tunnel in central region

BOEUN -- A tourist bus crashed with a van inside an expressway tunnel Saturday, leaving two people dead and another in cardiac arrest, officials said. The 15-seat van was traveling inside Suriti Tunnel along the Dangjin–Yeongdeok Expressway in Boeun, 135 kilometers southeast of Seoul, when the tourist bus rear-ended it at 8:55 a.m., police officials said. The accident left two of the van's 11 passengers dead and another in cardiac arrest. The injured person was sent to a hospital for

Oct. 21, 2023

S. Korea issues 'serious' alert following first outbreak of lumpy skin disease

South Korea issued a "serious" warning Friday after confirming the first-ever case of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in cows raised at a local farm, the agriculture ministry said. The owner of the cattle farm in the western city of Seosan detected four cows showing symptoms of the disease Thursday and in-depth checkups by the authorities confirmed their infection, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The disaster response headquarters held an emergency meeting wi

Oct. 21, 2023

Debt-related dispute ends in fatal stabbing in Ansan

The police have taken custody of a man who killed one person and injured another in a knife attack Wednesday. According to the police station in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, the suspect, a man in his 50s, confessed that he attacked the victims when they reprimanded him for not repaying his debts and told him to “stop borrowing money from people around him”. The initial altercation took place at a nearby billiard room. Subsequent CCTV footage captured the victims arriving at a bus stop i

Oct. 20, 2023

Nearly 6 in 10 Koreans associate blood type with personality

Almost 6 in 10 Koreans believe in the correlation of blood types -- A, B, O or AB -- and personalities, a survey showed Friday. In a Gallup Korea poll of 1,501 adults aged 19 and over, approximately 57 percent of respondents support the concept of the blood type personality theory, a pseudoscientific notion suggesting that blood types can predict one's personality and temperament. In terms of preferences for a certain blood type, 49 percent of the respondents favored type O blood, follo

Oct. 20, 2023

Civic group, Muslim association hold rally supporting Palestine

Protestors calling for the freedom of Palestine held rally in Seoul, Friday, urging Israel to stop bombing the Gaza strip and free the region. Progressive civic group Workers’ Solidarity and local Muslim group Kore de Islam denounced the Israeli attack on Gaza Strip. About 700 Civic group members, Palestinians and other supporters gathered around Itaewon Mosque and marched to Itaewon Station, chanting slogans "No to ground invasion," "Stop Israel bombing of Gaza," and &

Oct. 20, 2023

Top court widens spectrum of stalking

The South Korea Supreme Court has recently ruled that a stalker's actions that seemingly did not irritate the victim but were repeated should be considered as harassment if they came along with an instance of stalking. The ruling widened the spectrum of stalking by criminalizing the endangerment of stalking for the first time in Korea's judicial history. In the a September ruling, judgment of which was disclosed Friday, the Supreme Court handed down a 10-month prison sentence to a man on charges

Oct. 20, 2023

Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam win AKC pitching contest

An offline pitching contest for Southeast Asian startups, organized by the ASEAN-Korea Center to bolster early-stage startups in the region, came to an end Friday. Startups from Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and Vietnam were recognized as winners. Thirty startups from a variety of sectors including artificial intelligence, e-commerce platforms, fintech, education and tourism were nominated by the 10 embassies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Korea and the ASEAN Coordinating Commi

Oct. 20, 2023

Relaxing ‘bulmeong’ fireplace video prompts emergency calls

A fad of watching fireplace videos to relax has sparked a fire scare in Seoul, prompting 119 emergency calls from apartment residents and evacuation just after midnight. At around 12:03 a.m. on Thursday, Seoul Yeongdeungpo Fire Department received a call that a fire seemed to have broken out at an apartment in Dangsan-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. The building was evacuated, but when the 61 firefighters dispatched to the scene arrived at the supposed site of the blaze, they found a video of a ca

Oct. 20, 2023

UNDP, Korean police to assist world with war against tech-facilitated gender-based violence

The Korean National Police Agency has agreed to work with the United Nations Development Program to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence, the UNDP said Thursday. The two signed the agreement during a bilateral meeting in Seoul, held at the margins of the International Police Summit 2023 hosted by the KNPA. Under the agreement, Korean police will share their experiences and expertise in addressing such crimes, according to the UNDP. The agreement aims to create a global policy env

Oct. 20, 2023

Crowd control measures planned for Halloween events

The government will focus its efforts on crowd control during the upcoming Halloween weekend, working together with local governments, police and fire departments and dispatching situation managers to densely populated areas, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Thursday. The Ministry of Interior and Safety held a joint meeting the same day with officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the National Police Agency, the National Fire Agency and 17 district governments including Yongsa

Oct. 19, 2023

Bedbugs invade Daegu dorm

Panic spread across Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea, following the discovery of bedbugs in a student dormitory, prompting evacuation and extensive disinfection procedures. The issue first came to light in mid-September when a student reported being bitten by bedbugs. The student, residing in the university's newly renovated dormitory, claimed to have suffered severe symptoms requiring medical treatment including high fever and itchiness. The initial complaint, shared on an anonymo

Oct. 19, 2023

King crab price drop excites S. Korean seafood lovers

South Korean seafood lovers are finding a silver lining amid the soaring food and grocery prices: dinner-plate-sized red king crabs, traditionally a luxury, are now available at surprisingly cheaper prices. On Thursday, E-mart, a leading South Korean retailer, announced a price drop in Russian-imported red king crabs, offering a two-day special price event this weekend. The retail giant is offering Russia-imported king crabs for 5,980 won ($4.40) per 100 grams, nearly half of last month’s

Oct. 19, 2023

Charity launches campaign to make registration of foreign babies mandatory

Save the Children, an international children's rights non-governmental organization, launched a campaign urging South Korean politicians to require the birth registration of babies born to foreign nationals here. The campaign, titled “Here I Am: The Right to Be Registered, The Right to Exist,” is designed to raise awareness on the current status of foreign children who have not been formally registered in South Korea and the problems they face, according to the organization. Sin

Oct. 19, 2023

[Herald Interview] AI could make education fairer, but won’t ease competition: Princeton Review co-founder

Artificial intelligence in education can offer equitable learning opportunities for less-advantaged students, but it may not alleviate the intense competition among elite students striving to gain admission to prestigious colleges, according to a US education technology pioneer. “AI appears to be most useful to people who aren’t really good. If you’re a great writer, using AI to write your article (wouldn’t be helpful). But AI can help the bottom of the class and, arguabl

Oct. 19, 2023

More than half of Korean men in 30s 'overweight'

Nearly 1 in 3 Korean adults is classified as "obese," with over half of Korean men in their 30s falling within that range, data showed Thursday. According to nationwide data released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the percentage of adults with a body mass index higher than 25 -- the cutoff for obesity in Korea -- reached 32.5 percent last year, marking an increase of 0.3 percentage point from 2021. The obsesity rate, based on BMI, a measure of body mass divided b

Oct. 19, 2023

Yoon vows to bridge health equity gap by backing regional university hospitals

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday vowed to address a health care service shortage in remote areas by empowering state-funded university hospitals outside of Seoul to improve the health care delivery system. While addressing the need to increase the number of doctors, the presidential office, however, did not announce a plan to increase the medical school quota amid opposition from doctors' advocacy groups. The government's rationale for expanding the medical school quota is that the

Oct. 19, 2023

Teacher faces police probe after rallies disrupt classes

A Seoul teacher is facing a police probe in connection with last month's massive rallies by elementary school teachers to mourn the suicide of a fellow teacher allegedly distressed by disgruntled parents, a lawmaker said Thursday. The Seoul Jongno Police Station has recently notified the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education of its launch of an investigation into the teacher, whose identity is withheld, on charges of violating the public service law by instigating participation in the Sept

Oct. 19, 2023