President Yoon Suk Yeol has invited the Korean rescue team who returned from the earthquake site in Turkey to a Cheong Wa Dae luncheon to convey his gratitude, officials said on Tuesday. He thanked the 135-member team on behalf of the public and acknowledged the challenging conditions they faced with aftershocks and cold weather. “Your solidarity shown at the Turkey relief site reminds us once again that Korea and Turkey are true friends who help each other in difficult times,” he sa

2 Korean relief workers tell of tragedy, miracles in quake-hit site; call for intensive support to Turks in dire situation

Monthly spending on English was highest, followed by math and Korean language

The South Korean government has eased travel advisories for six countries, including Spain and Tunisia, to the lowest level in line with its latest COVID-19 guidelines, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday. The level 2 alert, which also affected Mauritius, Andorra, Jordan and Namibia, was lowered one notch to level 1, according to the ministry. It also eased travel advisories for Peru, Papua New Guinea and four other countries down a notch to level 2. The ministry said it decided to ke

Over half of young women in South Korea said they are willing to give birth, a government survey showed Tuesday, as the nation is struggling to boost the world's lowest fertility rate. According to the survey of 15,000 young people aged 19 to 34, 55.3 percent of female respondents said they intend to have children, the Office for Government Policy Coordination said in a statement. In comparison, 70.5 percent of male respondents said they are willing to have children. The survey was reported

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases rebounded to over 12,000 on Tuesday amid eased COVID-19 virus curbs, with health authorities considering further easing antivirus measures in the coming months. The country reported 12,284 new COVID-19 infections, including 19 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,581,499, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Tuesday's tally nearly tripled from 4,300 cases a day earlier and climbed more than 1,400 from a week ag

After Environment Ministry's conditional agreement, plan faces final assessment by Jeju Island Office

WANJU, North Jeolla Province -- Jossa Gomez Lobo, a 29-year-old from the Philippines came to Korea last month for a six-month seasonal working program at a strawberry farm in Wanju, North Jeolla Province. "I came here to earn money. I can only earn 450 Philippine pesos ($8.22) per day as a daily wage in the Philippines, but in Korea, I can earn the same amount of money in an hour. That's why I came to Korea,” she said while picking strawberries. Her wish to make money matched wel

Platform provides a voice and the courage for them to speak out, but beware the risks of publicity, warn experts

A group of cats relocated from the southernmost island of Marado are being temporarily housed at a provisional shelter at the Jeju World Natural Heritage Center in Jocheon-eup, northern Jeju Island on Monday. The 42 cats, caught on Wednesday and Thursday, were found to be healthy in a brief check-up by a medical team from Jeju National University's Wildlife Rescue Center following their move to Jeju Island on Friday. Jeju Special Self-Governing Province on Thursday announced that it would r

Over a thousand dead dogs were found on the grounds of a house in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, and police are investigating a man in his 60s on charges of violating animal protection law. The man said he collected abandoned dogs and starved them to death, but animal rights activists allege that he was paid by dog breeders to get rid of dogs who couldn’t get pregnant anymore or whose commercial value had dipped. A representative of animal rights group Care told cable news channel MBN that

South Korean legal service firm Law-Win has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Tax-Ro, its peer specializing in tax practice and consulting, the company said Sunday. Under the agreement, the two companies would be able to address legal services demands of one another, which, for example, will allow Tax-Ro to handle tax practices for Law-Win clients on behalf of Law-Win, and vice versa. In Korea, many small-sized law firms are not capable of covering what is beyond their own pract

South Korea’s suicide rate increased in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Monday, with higher rates seen for people in their 20s and those aged 70 and above. The number of suicides for every 100,000 South Koreans was 26.0 in 2021, up 0.3 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The rate among males aged 70 and above came to 81.8 in 2021, up from 79.5 recorded the previous year. As for females, the rate for the same age group came to 25.7, also u

The former Seoul branch chief of Lone Star, who had led the US equity fund's acquisition of a local bank, has been arrested in the United States, South Korea's justice ministry said Sunday. Steven Lee, a Korean American who headed the branch office between 1998 and 2005, was caught in New Jersey, 17 years after the South Korean government had asked the US authorities to extradite him in 2006, according to the Ministry of Justice. Texas-based Lone Star took over the Korea Exchange Bank

Students who experienced bullying during their school years are more likely to report high levels of suicide-related behavior, research showed Sunday. A joint research team led by Professor Park Ae-ri at Sunchon National University and Professor Kim Yu-na’s research team at Yuhan University showed that college students who had experienced school violence were 2.6 times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers who hadn't been involved in such incidents. The finding came to light