South Korea on Tuesday rolled out a comprehensive plan to offer mental health checkups every two years for young Koreans aged 20 to 34 and other counseling services tailored to all age groups, in the first-ever detailed state policy aimed at tackling the country’s consistently high suicide rates. Korea has recorded the highest suicide rate among member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for almost 20 years, with 25.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022, more

Social Affairs Dec. 5, 2023

For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of recovering drug users from South Korea and Japan gathered in Seoul on Saturday to support each others’ path to sobriety. The 19th edition of the workshop took place as a one-day event with the members of Narcotics Anonymous from the two countries. NA is a community organization made up of peers to support those in recovery from drug addiction using a non-professional approach. It aims to remove the stigma surrounding drug addict

Social Affairs Dec. 4, 2023

To tackle the hike in bedbug infestations in single-room residences, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday that it would increase inspections of such homes as nearly half of all bedbug reports came from there. The plan comes after 39 reports out of 89 came from “goshiwon,” a type of budget accommodation consisting of one small studio room with no separate kitchen or bathroom. The city government will assign personnel dedicated to overseeing goshiwon in each autonomous distric

Social Affairs Dec. 1, 2023

Following back-to-back incidents of public servants illegally going on livestreaming platforms to create sexual content, the government has rolled out a set of guidelines for public officials’ duties to prevent such incidents from happening, according to reports on Friday. On Monday, the Ministry of Personnel Management reportedly distributed a document to all ministries on the ethical conduct of national public service officials and specified guidelines for public officials’ persona

Social Affairs Dec. 1, 2023

Korean American singer Steve Yoo, known here as Yoo Seung-jun, won the final trial that overturned the initial denial of his visa and passport issuance, according to legal professionals on Thursday. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the disgraced K-pop singer in his case against the South Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles, which turned down his request for an F-4 visa issuance, upholding an appellate court’s ruling. The Seoul High Court ruled in favor of Yoo in July. The court judg

Social Affairs Nov. 30, 2023

City Oil Field, a Korean company that develops and commercializes technologies for converting waste plastic into quality oil, has set forth to recycle plastic and vinyl in the most environmentally friendly way. The company, officially certified by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, aims to provide both plastic manufacturers and users with safety nets and eco-friendly solutions. Its technology, dubbed “Regenerated Green Oil,” is a groundbreaking innovation capable of signific

Social Affairs Nov. 29, 2023

To tackle problems with conventional plastic, Eco Creation converts waste into renewable energy with its pyrolysis system capable of extracting oil without pre-treatment. Through its plastic waste pyrolysis system installed in its factory in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, Korea’s leading pyrolysis plant operator has succesfully commercialized renewable energy. The system fuels diesel engine generators with pyrolysis oil to produce electricity. Eco Creation is the first among its industry pe

Social Affairs Nov. 29, 2023

SangJinARP is an industry leader in producing environmentally friendly prefabricated products. The Korean company boasts some 250 types of such products, including boxes, shelves, bogies (a wheeled framework) and racks for various industries and at home. Responding to the surging demands for eco-friendly products and growing concerns over packaging waste, the company has come up with sustainable solutions. The company has developed its own prefabricated method that does not generate waste throug

Social Affairs Nov. 29, 2023

Robots powered by artificial intelligence will aid English education in five elementary and middle schools in Seoul starting in March 2024, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Wednesday. The English tutoring robots will aid students in brushing up their English language knowledge, conversation skills and pronunciation. For students struggling academically, the robots will provide a customized education service, enabling them to learn the language at their own pace. The education offi

Social Affairs Nov. 29, 2023

The Seoul Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that the response rate of school violence among students has dropped sharply from 14.2 percent in 2012 to two percent in 2022. Touting the role of school police officers, who assist school administrators maintain a safe and secure environment, the police said that the number of students arrested for school violence also declined from 3,257 to 2,014, down 38.2 percent. In addition, the number of youth arrested for crimes also fell by nearly 50 percent

Social Affairs Nov. 28, 2023

South Korean high school senior students spent some 4 million won ($3,060) on average last year to receive tutoring on the college entrance essay test to learn how to write a good composition, government data showed Monday. They also paid more than 1 million won annually for college admissions counseling. According to data released by the Education Ministry and Statistics Korea on students’ private education spending in 2022, the average monthly expenditure for 12th graders who engaged in

Social Affairs Nov. 27, 2023

A man in his 60s who was convicted of setting his neighbor on fire, eventually killing him, after losing a game has been handed a 35-year prison term, the district court in Gwangju said Friday. The Gwangju District Court convicted the man on charges of murder and breaching the Special Act on Prevention of Insurance Fraud. The man, whose identity has been withheld, was accused of killing the victim -- also in his 60s -- after the two had been playing the traditional Korean game yutnori for money

Social Affairs Nov. 24, 2023

Illicit sales of drug test kits from overseas are on the rise via social media, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Friday. They are being marketed to potential drug users looking to evade testing by police, the ministry said. The test kits, which are equivalent to the rapid tests used by police here, produce results within a few minutes, allowing drug users to take measures to prevent getting a positive result in later police testing. To alter results of the typically more reli

Social Affairs Nov. 24, 2023

The chicken is in the deep fryer, vegetable fried rice is being cooked in a pan and beef stew is being heated up in a stock pot as lunchtime approaches at Soonggok Middle School in Seongbuk-gu, northern Seoul. But the meal preparation for some 660 students is all done at the hands of cooking robots. The middle school is the first in the country to adopt cooking robots designed to perform culinary tasks, such as stir-frying, boiling and frying ingredients. It is part of a trial starting the secon

Social Affairs Nov. 23, 2023

A teacher on a fixed-term contract at a middle school in Seoul has come under fire for using school property to take photos of scantily clad former students for his social media account, as well as selling them as photo books. The teacher, whose identity has been withheld, has been running the social media account since 2017, where he uploaded some 1,600 photographs of women posing suggestively for nearly 87,000 followers, his now-closed Instagram account showed. Apart from running and posting s

Social Affairs Nov. 23, 2023