Actor Yoo Ah-in showed up before police Tuesday for his second round of questioning over allegations of illegal drug use, five days after he canceled his scheduled appearance, citing the presence of too many reporters. The 37-year-old actor arrived at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency at 9 a.m. to undergo interrogation, with the inquiry expected to focus on the types and quantities of drugs he allegedly consumed, the source of the narcotics and the possible involvement of accomplices. The act

South Korea's new coronavirus cases rose to over 20,000 on Tuesday, as the country ended almost all antivirus restrictions to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic of the past three years. The country reported 23,680 cases, including 34 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,438,960, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Tuesday's tally was slightly higher than the 21,681 cases the country reported a week ago. The corresponding figure was 15,736 two weeks. It wa

The bereaved family members of a wartime forced labor victim have withdrawn their request for a court order to dispose of a Japanese company's assets after accepting the Seoul government's compensation plan, legal sources said Monday. The four family members of the late victim, Yeo Un-taek, on April 27 submitted a letter of withdrawal to the Supreme Court, which was reviewing the case, they said. Yeo was one of the four forced labor victims who initiated a compensation suit against Nip

CHEONGJU -- More than 250 cow farms in a local city where the first cases of foot-and-mouth disease had broken out in South Korea are subject to government-led quarantine inspections to prevent the further spread of the contagious animal disease, a government official said Monday. Last week, South Korea reported FMD infections at two beef cattle farms both located in the central city of Cheongju, 112 kilometers south of Seoul, for the first time in four years. The country last reported FDM cas

The National Human Rights Commission issued a recommendation to a prison warden to come up with new measures to respond to an LGBTQ prisoner’s request to be given an individual cell. Dismissing the request violates human rights of pursuing happiness, the commission said. The commission refused to provide details on the prisoner's gender or the way in which they were LGBTQ, citing confidentiality. According to the human rights watchdog, the inmate asked for an individual cell in 2021,

The members of the Herald Retirees’ Club, former Herald Corp. senior managers as well as current ones, met at Mt. Ansan in Seodaemun-gu on Saturday. About 40 members joined a 2-hour-long hike along the Ansan Jarak-gil, the mountain trail, while shooting the breeze. The hike catered to the seniors and offered the pleasure of hiking in the middle of Seoul. The gathering was attended by distinguished members including club Chair Park Haeng-hwan, Honorary Chair Yun Ik-han, former Herald Corp.

A man in his 30s was sentenced to seven years in prison for beating his mother to death because she refused to allow him to move out, according to legal professionals and media reports Sunday. The man assaulted his mother in January after she refused her son’s request to move out of the house. The mother reportedly suffered severe bodily injuries, sustaining broken ribs and a ruptured left kidney. She was sent to a nearby hospital and treated herself in emergency care, but later died from

A majority of Korean teachers said they wouldn’t choose to teach if they had the choice, as job satisfaction for the profession hit an all-time low, a survey showed Sunday. Some 80 percent of 6,751 teachers at kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools and university said in the poll they wouldn’t be teachers if they were born again, according to the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations. When asked if they were satisfied with pursuing a career in teaching, only

South Korea heightened its earthquake alert level by one notch from blue to yellow as a 4.5-magnitude quake was detected off the east coast Monday morning, affecting cities on the nation's eastern coast. The alert level is raised when at least three quakes are detected in a specific area within a short range of time, and calls for cooperation between several government bodies on the issue, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's office said in a statement. Han urged the Interior Ministry to insp

The number of rail passengers in South Korea shot up 44 percent on-year in the first quarter as the country returned to pre-pandemic normalcy, government data showed. Around 39.2 million people traveled on railways in the January-March period, rising sharply from 27.2 million tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The figure excludes subway passengers. The figure represents a 0.7 percent rise from the first quarter of 2019, befor

South Korea's new coronavirus cases dipped below 10,000 on Monday, as the country moved to end almost all COVID-19 restrictions and return to pre-pandemic normalcy. The country reported 7,178 cases, including 16 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,415,280, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Monday's tally was down from 8,164 cases a week ago but was higher than the 5,772 two weeks ago. The country added seven COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 3

President Yoon Suk Yeol thanked all teachers Monday for their love and dedication to children as he marked Teachers' Day. "On Teachers' Day, I deeply thank you for your love and dedication," he wrote in a Facebook message. "Raising a person is impossible without love. It is thanks to teachers' love and dedication that our children are able to grow brighter and healthier," he added. Yoon is scheduled to hold a luncheon with a group of teachers at his office la

The ruling People Power Party and the government decided Sunday to ask President Yoon Suk Yeol to veto the opposition-led nursing act amid strong protests from doctors and assistant nurses against it. The two sides made the decision after a high-level policy consultation meeting attended by People Power Party leader Kim Gi-hyeon, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong and presidential chief of staff Kim Dae-ki. The nur

On Dec. 23 last year, a group of South Korean tourists became stranded in Buffalo, New York, during a heavy blizzard on their way to Niagara Falls. Their van got stuck in the snow, so two of them knocked on the door of a nearby house to ask for shovels to dig the vehicle out of a ditch. That was the home of Alexander Campagna and his wife Andrea, who had planned for a quiet Christmas weekend indoors, with a stocked fridge to wait out the snowstorm. The couple invited the nine travelers plus the

Former US vice president warns failure to address climate crisis would increase geopolitical tensions