South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 90,000 for the second consecutive day Friday but were sharply up from a week ago, in an upward trend in the curve amid a resurgence in the virus. The country added 85,320 new COVID-19 infections, including 439 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,620,517, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Friday's tally is slightly down from the previous day's 88,384 but about a 20 percent jump from a week earlier

South Korea recorded its first-ever decline in total population last year, data showed Thursday, with fewer births, an aging society, and falling numbers of foreigners entering the country due to effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the census data released by Statistics Korea on Thursday, 51.74 million people were living in Korea in 2021, about 91,000 less than the year before. It is the first time Korea’s population shrank since the records began in 1949. Annual population

News of heinous crimes spark calls for end to ‘lenient’ punishment of criminals, but some experts warn against ‘punishment populism’

An appeals commission upheld the cancellation of a driver’s license for drunken use of an electric scooter Thursday. An office worker’s license was revoked after they were caught using an electric scooter while drunk in April. The worker’s blood alcohol level was above 0.08 percent, the threshold at which drivers lose their licenses. The person requested an administrative trial to the Central Administrative Judgment Commission of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commissio

Nearly 1.4 million people have visited the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae since it opened to the public on May 10, data showed Thursday. A total of 1,396,859 people, including 5,055 foreigners, visited the complex in central Seoul through Wednesday since its public opening, according to data from the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) submitted to Rep. Kim Seung-su of the ruling People Power Party. The figure is far bigger than the number of visitors to the Gyeongbok and Chang

Gov. hints at reforming police university, whose graduates seen to lead collective backlash against new bureau

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases passed the 100,000 mark for the first time since late April due to the spread of BA.5, a new, more contagious version of omicron, the government said Wednesday. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country added 100,285 new COVID-19 infections during the 24 hours of Tuesday. Kim Sung-ho, vice minister for disaster and safety management, said during a COVID-19 response meeting on Wednesday that the daily tally was the highe

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases surpassed the 100,000 mark for the first time in more than three months on Wednesday as the new wave of an omicron subvariant is spreading fast. The country added 100,285 new COVID-19 infections, including 532 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,446,946, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Wednesday's number is the largest since 111,291 reported on April 20 and up from Tuesday's 99,327. The daily infection case

Mayor plans to invest W12tr to transform 493,000 square-meter area into Asian Silicon Valley

More than half of foreigners who came to Korea last year as seasonal farm workers had left their workplaces in violation of contracts, according to a media report Tuesday. Of 559 people who entered the country as seasonal workers last year, 56 percent, or 316, have disappeared without any notice, a KBS report said. The public broadcaster said that nearly 100 of the foreign workers who arrived here in the first six months of this year to work in rural villages in Gangwon Province had disapp

Yoon levels up criticism, calling out police action to be ‘breach against state discipline’

Humanity has less than 7 years left until the “point of no return” in the climate crisis, according to the Climate Clock in Seoul. The digital clock, which is set up on the roof of Herald Corp. headquarters building in Yongsan, central Seoul, stands at six years, 361 days, nine hours and 59 minutes, as of 3 p.m. Tuesday. According to the clock’s operators in New York, the estimated time left before the average global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-i

The Ministry of Justice will open a bureau to facilitate immigration as South Korea struggles to cope with falling birth rates and an aging population. After briefing President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon told reporters that the plans for a central bureau overseeing policies relating to immigration will begin to take shape over the remaining year. Since taking office in May, Han has said that during his term, he would make it his mission to institute an

Sniff walks keep neighborhood clean and safe

A police officer called Tuesday for a general meeting of all 140,000 police personnel to protest the planned establishment of an interior ministry bureau overseeing the law enforcement agency, upping the ante in the escalating standoff with the government. Kim Seong-jong, senior inspector at Seoul Gwangjin Police Station, said in a post on the police intranet, that the meeting had originally been planned to involve senior inspector- and inspector-level officers but has now been expanded to inclu