A recent surge in reports of assaults on teachers and the suicide of an elementary school teacher have sparked a nationwide debate over teachers' rights and child discipline in South Korea. Some critics are blaming renowned child psychiatrist Oh Eun-young, whose popular television program, "My Golden Kids," promotes a "no punishment" approach to raising children. An anonymous individual posted a message Thursday on Blind, an anonymous online community, saying that "

Korea Post to halt importing similar type of packages as reports continue nationwide

  The Office for Government Policy Coordination has requested prosecutors to investigate six police officers linked to the flooding of Osong's underground tunnel, a disaster that resulted in numerous casualties. The Office for Government Policy Coordination is a government agency consisting of the Prime Minister's Office and Prime Minister's Secretariat. The office issued a statement on Friday revealing it had uncovered "criminal charges" concerning the officers during an inspecti

Of the nearly 18,000 people who evacuated their homes due to torrential rains that caused landslides and flash floods from last week, some 2,200 remained in temporary shelters like community halls, schools and senior centers or with relatives, as of Friday morning. Out of the nationwide total of 11,691 households that have evacuated, 1,426 were yet to return to their homes, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said Friday. The death toll from the floods and landslides sto

An appellate court on Thursday upheld a 20-year prison sentence for a university freshman on charges of causing a female schoolmate to fall from a school building to her death while attempting to rape her last year. The former student of Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, is accused of attempting to rape the inebriated victim and causing her to fall to her death from the five-story campus building on July 15, 2022. A passerby later found her lying on the ground and had her sent to a hosp

South Korean police recently released video footage of a jewelry thief who was arrested after a bizarre daylong chase in which the suspect attempted to disguise himself several times. The footage was made public via the National Police Agency’s official YouTube channel, where the police have been actively uploading content about their work ranging from investigation videos to web dramas. The suspect reportedly changed disguises three times and took six taxis to avoid being detected by poli

South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the fixed book price system, which bans book price discounts of more than 10 percent, is constitutional. The article in the Publishing Industry Promotion Act on the fixed book price system states that the price of a book is determined by publishers and that online retailers are allowed to give a maximum 10 percent discount on all books published 12 months ago or more. It also stipulates that no more than 5 percent in bonus benefits such as membe

The Marine Corps came under fire Thursday after it was found that the troops conducted search and rescue operations for missing people without personnel wearing life vests. A young Marine was found dead Wednesday evening, 12 hours after being swept away during a search operation for missing people in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. Marines were deployed to search for five missing people in the Yecheon-gun area after the region was hit by a landslide on July 15. During the operation, Lance Cp

Teacher’s suicide spotlights declining status of profession

A one-room studio flat in an officetel that was transformed into a dump by its tenant is causing a stir online. A post in online community Bobaedream by a landlord who rents out studio flats in Busan titled, “The reason why (being) a building owner takes work,” is making headlines. According to the post, the landlord recently received a call that his building smelled like a corpse was rotting in it somewhere, and when he entered the studio in question, he was met with a room filled w

South Korea's weekly new COVID-19 cases rose to over 180,000 through Wednesday, amid the summer holiday season, data showed Thursday. The country reported 186,953 new COVID-19 infections for the week of July 9-15, up 22.2 percent from the previous week, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. During this period, the average number of new COVID-19 cases per day was 26,708, up nearly 5,000 from the previous week. The average daily number of new cases per week has been rising fas

Top-down system limits officials' action on field; lack of awareness about severity of disasters, they say

Launch of real-time missile warning sharing system between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington comes in focus

Heavy downpours that battered the nation last week have left a total of 2,278 public and private properties damaged across nation, including swept-away roads and river embankments, and flooded houses, officials said Thursday. The downpours had damaged 1,169 public facilities and 1,109 private properties as of 6 a.m., according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters. As of Thursday morning, 1,332 cases of the reported damage, or 58 percent of the total, had been recovered

Rescue workers on Wednesday found the body of a marine who went missing after being swept away by a torrent in a southeastern county while participating in search and rescue operations after heavy monsoon rains and landslides in the area. The marine corporal, serving with the 1st Marine Infantry Division, disappeared into the Naeseong stream rapids in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang Province, 161 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at about 9:10 a.m. during SAR operations, ROK Marine Corps officials