K-pop phenomenon BTS surpassed other global megastars like Taylor Swift and Elton John in terms of fan loyalty, a survey showed Sunday. BTS’ global fandom, known as Army, scored 88.4 points out of 100 in a survey conducted by the US-based travel company Upgraded Points on 3,192 American fans of 10 artists -- BTS, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Queen, Lana Del Ray, Beyonce, Eminem and Harry Styles. They survey measured how loyal they are to their beloved music artists

South Korea attracted a record number of 82,000 foreign national patients in 2022, mainly for plastic surgery and dermatological treatments, according to a report on Sunday. According to the Korea Health Industry Development Institute's "Foreign Patients Attraction Performance Report," only 13.8 percent of the 64,464 foreign national patients in 2009 sought plastic surgery or dermatology. However, by 2022, the figure had more than doubled. Out of 293,350 patients of foreign na

The South Korean national police said Sunday they will begin offering real-time interpretation services on their emergency hotline for foreign nationals this week. The National Police Agency said they will place two English interpreters and two Chinese interpreters in the 112 situation room in Seoul beginning Monday, tasking them with handling calls from foreigners. The police are hoping to better serve foreign nationals residing in South Korea in light of the fatal crowd crush in the internatio

Typhoons and heavy rains have left 122 dead or missing and caused some 3 trillion won ($2.3 billion) worth of property damage over the last decade in South Korea, government data showed Sunday. Of the total casualties, 76 lives were lost in 2020 and 2022, when massive typhoons and heavy rains pounded the country, including last year's Typhoon Hinnamnor that killed 28 and left two missing, according to statistics from the interior ministry. Property damage also reached 575.2 billion won last

Despite counter protests, Seoul’s Queer Festival continues to advocate for inclusivity, equality in South Korea

A mom was taken into custody Saturday on suspicion of abusing her baby to death and abandoning his body, police said. The suspect, in her 50s, allegedly abandoned the baby's body after he died suddenly due to an illness in 2015, according to the Gwacheon Police Agency. She told police that the baby had Down syndrome, and she buried his body at a family gravesite. Police launched the probe into the case upon receiving a report from the municipal government of Gwacheon, just south of Seoul,

Former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Park Jie-won was questioned by police Saturday over charges he had illegally meddled in the organization's hiring decisions. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it summoned Park to question his allegedly illicit role in hiring people close to him for a NIS-affiliated agency. Last month, another ex-NIS chief, Suh Hoon, was interrogated by police over the same charges. Suh served as NIS director from 2017-20, and Park from 2020-22, bo

The first heat wave warning of the year was issued for central and inland regions in South Korea, and the government heightened the heat wave alert level nationwide to beef up monitoring and countermeasures. The season's first heat wave warning took effect for seven regions, including the cities of Icheon and Yeoju in Gyeonggi Province, Chuncheon in Gangwon Province, and the central countries of Buyeo and Uiseong, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). A heat wave warni

South Korea’s lower court on Friday ordered the Korean government and Seoul City to repay US private equity firm Lone Star Funds 168.2 billion won ($127.6 million), which the firm had paid as corporate tax levied on the sale of its now-defunct Korea Exchange Bank stake. The Seoul Central District Court said the central government should pay 153 billion won and Seoul city government 15.2 billion won, respectively. The ruling applied an annual interest rate of 5 percent for delayed damages,

Nearly one-third of South Korea's internet cafes, known locally as “PC bang,” could be illicit gambling operations, warned a police administration academic at a regulation forum on Thursday. Disguised as "PC Bang" only in name and exterior, these establishments run offline gambling operations for the general public, most commonly by installing unclassified games and converting gains obtained through these games into cash. At a forum attended by lawmakers and gaming ind

A man in his 60s was nabbed by the police for shooting and killing a cat for standing in his way in Jeju. The police were investigating the man for violating laws on gun safety and animal protection, Jeju Seogwipo Police Station said on Thursday. The suspect allegedly shot and killed the cat at 7 a.m. on June 19 on a road in Seogwipo, southern Jeju Island. A bullet from a five-millimeter air rifle was found in the cat’s neck. After the shooting, he fled the scene but was caught by police w

A new subway line connecting areas in the western part of the Seoul metropolitan area will start service on Saturday, with many hoping it will reduce commutes for office workers residing northwest, west and southwest of Seoul. The Daegok-Sosa double-track subway line will bridge Goyang, just northwest of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, to Bucheon, southwest of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, via Gimpo Airport in western Seoul. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the new subw

A nationwide crackdown on unregistered babies has discovered another nameless newborn, dead and buried in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province. The local police are currently conducting a search of a mountain where the child’s parents, currently under arrest, claimed to have buried the infant boy’s body. According to the investigators Friday, the boy was born at a hospital on Sept. 5 last year. His parents claimed to have found him dead at home on Sept. 9, put his body in a plastic bag a

A man in his thirties was booked for allegedly filming his child's babysitter using a hidden camera in a bathroom at his home in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday, the police said. The man is accused of installing a 3-centimeter-long camera inside a body wash bottle, and then requesting his babysitter to take her clothes off when bathing his child because of what he claimed was the child's sensitive skin. After noticing that the bottle had been tampered with, the babysitter sou

Jeong Ah-young, an infant who had been comatose as a result of abuse, died Wednesday at the age of 3. Her organs were donated to four other infants. She died from a sudden cardiac arrest after having been on a respirator for over three years. Jeong had been in a coma after sustaining a head trauma in October 2019 at a newborn nursery in Dongrae-gu, eastern Busan. Jeong was a victim of serial infant abuse by a nurse in her 30s, who is alleged to have abused 14 babies for 15 days since Oct. 5, 201