For the first time in a decade, Seoul citizens will witness a large-scale military parade, with tanks and armed forces marching across the city center Tuesday amid escalating tensions with North Korea. Major thoroughfares will be closed throughout the day for the event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Korean Armed Forces' founding, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on Sept. 20. The march will commence at the Seoul Air Base at 1:30 p.m. following a memorial ceremony. From

Suncheonman International Garden Expo open for Chuseok holidays

Roh Gwan-gyu was elected mayor of Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, in June 2022 -- just 10 months before the Suncheonman International Garden Expo. While there was limited time, Roh made sure everything was being prepared smoothly by assuming the position as the Chairman of Suncheonman International Garden Expo’s organizing committee. “Since I took office on July 1 (2022), I was always present on site to help the organizing committee make quick decisions and supplement them,” s

A man in his 40s has been sentenced to prison for producing child pornography using an artificial intelligence image generator for the first time in Korea, local media reported Monday. According to reports, the man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth. The accused created a total of 360 sexually explicit images on an image-generating AI program installed on a laptop in April with commands including "10 years old," "nu

Nearly 7,300 South Korean nationals were victims of accidents or crimes in other countries during the first half of this year, with 19 of them murdered, data showed Monday. Data released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reveals that a total of 7,294 Korean nationals were victims of accidents or crimes while overseas during the 6-month period from January to June this year, marking an approximate 44 percent on-year increase. This rise comes as Korea saw a more than sevenfold on-year increas

Ethnic Korean legal service professionals gather to honor Koreans who stood up against discrimination overseas

The number of adolescents receiving growth hormone therapy is increasing rapidly, with the number for the first half of the year already surpassing that of last year. According to data released by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service on Sept. 22, 25,900 adolescents received growth hormone therapy in the first half of this year. This figure was 25,300 last year, which was about double the number recorded in 2020. Growth hormone therapy is prescribed following precise diagnoses throu

The number of deaths caused by serious industrial accidents at workplaces in the first half of the year dropped nearly 10 percent from a year ago, a government report said. A total of 289 workers died from January to June, marking a drop of 9.1 percent, or 29 people, from 318 on-duty deaths of workers in the previous year, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor. The number of industrial accident cases also declined 5.6 percent, or 17 cases, compared to a year ago, recording 284 cases

South Korea's official data on parental spending for their children's education has long faced criticism for overlooking two significant aspects: expenditures prior to the commencement of public education and those occurring after its completion. To address these concerns and better assess the financial burden on parents, the Ministry of Education plans to look into the cost of “private education” of preschool children and high school graduates who are studying to retake th

S. Korea's Education Ministry takes lead in overall Hangeul textbook development, but more efforts needed, experts say

Korea's parental leave benefits average at 44.6 percent of actual wages, placing it near the bottom of the list among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member nations, data revealed Sunday. Although the country offers an extended parental leave period, the actual utilization rate remains low, with especially adverse impacts on low-income workers, the data showed. In Korea, workers insured for more than 180 days can take up to a year of parental leave to care for ch

Nearly two million individuals in Korea have formally declined life-extending medical interventions, choosing instead to prioritize their right to die with dignity when suffering from a terminal condition, data showed Sunday. Data from the National Agency for Management of Life-Sustaining Treatment reveals that as of the end of August, 1,941,231 people have filed an advance health care directive to abstain from life-saving medical assistance since the system's inception in February 2018. Wo

The Gangwon Forestry Exhibition 2023 kicked off on Friday around Gangwon Province's Seoraksan National Park, including the areas of Sokcho, Yangyang, Goseong and Inje. Under the theme of “Seeking the Future of the World and Mankind in the Forest,” the exposition showcases the strong connections between the forest and humanity. The GFE 2023 is the first forestry exposition in Korea. It includes diverse exhibitions, performances and academic conferences related to forestry. The

Hospitals will be required to install surveillance cameras in operating rooms and record surgery procedures at the request of patients starting next week, the health ministry said Friday. The revised Medical Service Act, set to take effect Monday, also calls for storing recorded videos for at least 30 days, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Under the revision, medical clinics must install cameras in all operating rooms that handle surgeries where patients are anesthetized or unc

More than 1,800 breaches of the country’s Youth Protection Act were found during a nationwide government inspection of downtown areas to examine whether operations met requirements. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Friday it had detected 1,802 violations of the act, and that it had asked the local governments responsible to investigate 65 of those cases and issued corrective orders for the rest. The inspection was conducted from July 17 until Aug. 18 at places such as beache