The South Korean government announced that a recent revision of the Youth Protection Act related to poker-themed businesses, which stipulates that teenagers shall be banned from entering or working at such establishments, will take effect Friday, "Hold 'em pubs" and "hold 'em cafes" refer to establishments that allow users to engage in games categorized by the law as casino-type games, including the poker variant Texas hold 'em, which gave such enterprises thei

A woman in her 20s has fallen to her death from an acquaintance's home, Incheon police said Friday, after displaying what officials have described to be abnormal behavior. The Incheon Namdong Police Station received a report at around 7 p.m. Thursday about a young woman hanging from a balcony of the 12th-floor unit of a residential building in Namdong-gu, Incheon. Officers dispatched to the scene were installing an air mattress below her when she fell. An investigation found that the unit f

A rift opened up Friday between supporters of the new National Assembly speaker candidate and Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Woo Won-shik and those close to main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. The “pro-Lee” faction of the opposition party took issue with a party vote held the previous day, in which Woo was elected the sole candidate for the next Assembly speaker. In the process, Woo, who is known to have relatively moderate political views, defeated Rep. Choo Mi-ae, a six-term lawm

Government set to finalize procedures for next year's college admissions, but stalemate with medics remains a major issue

Police raided popular trot singer Kim Ho-joong's house in Seoul on Thursday night over allegations regarding a hit-and-run accident, officials said. According to Seoul Gangnam Police Station, investigators searched Kim's house and the home and office of Lee Kwang-deuk, the head of Kim's agency, Think Entertainment, to figure out the whereabouts of Kim and his manager following the incident. Kim is suspected of hitting a taxi on the opposite side of the road and fleeing the scene w

South Korea’s human rights commission on Friday called for Koreans and the government to raise awareness of LGBTQ rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBTQ rights. Song Doo-hwan, chair of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, issued a statement Friday to mark the 2024 International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia & Transphobia. Celebrated annually on May 17, the day marks the anniversary of the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declass

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Friday, the South Korean military said, a day after South Korea and the United States staged combined aerial drills involving advanced stealth jets. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected what are presumed to be short-range missiles fired off the eastern coastal city of Wonsan at 3:10 p.m. toward the East Sea. "The North Korean missiles flew about 300 kilometers and landed in the East Sea," the JCS said

Sports and e-sports reporter Gwak Min-seon is reportedly suffering from impaired vision after being exposed to on-stage pyrotechnics at a gaming event on Sunday, officials from Gwak's agency said Friday. According to an official announcement from Gwak’s agency, Starit Entertainment, Gwak sustained physical damage to her face due to sparks set off during the celebration of the champion team of the 2024 Battleground Mobile Pro Series at an e-sports stadium in Daejeon on Sunday. She wa

Officials of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration expressed expectations for greater space cooperation with South Korea on Thursday, as the two countries are widening the scope of their alliance beyond its longstanding security focus. Mark Clampin, NASA's astrophysics division director, and John Wisniewski, a NASA scientist for the SPHEREx, a future space observatory, attended an event on bilateral space cooperation at the South Korean Embassy in Washington. The event took p

South Korea added more than 200,000 jobs in April on the back of the marked increase in manufacturing jobs on export growth, data showed Friday. But the number of people who remained unemployed and sought a job surged by the most in more than three years amid demographic changes, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of employed people came to 28.69 million last month, up 261,000 from a year earlier. The country added more than 300,000 new jobs in both January and Februa

North Korea on Friday denounced a plan by South Korea and the United States to stage their joint annual military drills in August, warning that they could face a "catastrophic aftermath" if they carry out the exercise. The Ulchi Freedom Shield by Seoul and Washington is a "nuclear attack exercise" against Pyongyang that will involve state-of-the-art military equipment, including nuclear strategic assets, according to the Korean Central News Agency. In December 2023, South Kor

Former President Donald Trump may like to "solve" North Korea's nuclear quandary if reelected, a former US official during Trump's presidency said Thursday, noting how to address the issue is "unpredictable." Allison Hooker, former senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, made the remarks, underscoring that leader-level diplomacy with North Korea is the "right " approach given that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is the "top decision

A survey by South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism revealed that around 6 out of 10 Korean adults did not read a single book in the past year. According to the survey, only 43 percent of Korean adults read at least one book in 2023. This was a 4.5 percent decrease from the results of the previous survey in 2021, and the lowest it has ever been since periodic surveys on reading began back in 1994. The decrease in book reading was especially pronounced among people aged 60 a

Police raided famous popera singer Kim Ho-joong's house in Seoul on Thursday over suspicions that he caused a hit-and-run accident while drunk driving last week, officials said. Investigators from Seoul Gangnam Police Station searched Kim's house as well as the home and office of the head of Think Entertainment, an agency representing Kim, to figure out the whereabouts of Kim and his manager following the incident. Kim is suspected of fleeing after hitting a taxi while drunk driving in

The leaders of Russia and China issued a joint statement opposing what they call "acts of military intimidation" against North Korea by the United States and its allies, a Russian news report said Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping issued the statement following a bilateral summit in Beijing, according to Russian news agency TASS. "The parties oppose the acts of military intimidation by the US and its allies that escalate confrontation with