More than half of South Koreans aged between 40 and 64 held debt last year as more people took out loans to buy homes amid skyrocketing housing prices, data showed Tuesday. The data by Statistics Korea showed that 56.5 percent of people in the age group borrowed money from banks or other financial institutes last year, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous year. The amount of their median debt reached 52 million won ($43,600) last year, up 7.1 percent from a year earlier. Median debt is a

The number of South Korean workers who took time off to take care of their children rose 3.7 percent in 2020 from a year earlier amid more government support for parental leave, government data showed Tuesday. A total of 169,345 workers took parental leave to take care of their children last year, up 6,089 from the previous year, according to the preliminary data from Statistics Korea. Last year's figure was approximately 2.3 times the number 10 years earlier. Women accounted for 77.3 percent

The Sunfull Foundation has held a ceremony to present an award in collaboration with the National Assembly to 61 lawmakers who make positive remarks, the organization said Thursday. The Sunfull Foundation is a non-governmental organization founded by English educator Min Byung-chul in 2007 to counter cyberbullying, hate speech, and human rights violations on the internet. The recipients were chosen by 300 high school and college students, the organization said. The students selected 30

A total of 2,109 students in Seoul have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, before the partial reintroduction of remote school classes against the fast spread of infections, officials said Monday. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, elementary school virus cases in the capital from Dec. 13 to Sunday stood at 1,248, followed by those in middle schools and kindergartens at 406 and 169, respectively. The rate of in-class infections was recorded at 24.6 percent, up

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has allocated 1.1 million Swiss francs ($1.2 million) to help North Korea combat the COVID-19 pandemic from January last year to June next year, its interim financial report showed. According to the COVID-19 Outbreak 20-Month Update, the organization had spent around 699,000 Swiss francs as of September, with the largest portion of 296,000 Swiss francs spent on health-related operations. Another 157,000 Swiss francs wa

South Korea's new coronavirus cases were below 6,000 for the second day in a row Tuesday, but the number of new critically ill patients exceeded 1,000 again. The country added 5,202 more COVID-19 cases, including 5,144 local infections, bringing the cumulative total to 575,615, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The number of critically ill patients came to 1,022, after 1,016 on Saturday, an all-time high of 1,025 on Sunday and 997 on Monday, the authorities said. Th

    South Korea has confirmed an additional case of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the southeastern part of the country, the agriculture ministry said Monday.    The latest case was reported at a farm where around 12,000 ducks are being raised in Yeongam, 384 kilometers south of Seoul, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.    Health authorities have cordoned off the site and are culling ducks there to prevent the spread of t

Korea needs to reinforce its COVID-19 testing capacity if the country is to keep tabs on the omicron variant, Dr. Hong Kiho, a laboratory medicine professor at Severance Hospital in Seoul, said in a phone interview. Hong called for enhancing testing, as clinics continue to deal with the surge propelled by the Nov. 1 return to normal. Some sites in the Seoul area have reported a wait time of an hour to several hours for a test. The spike in testing demand is mainly attributable to the overall

Group steps up protest action; calls for better access to public transportation

President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered the government to secure additional COVID-19 hospital beds, health care workers and testing centers to counter the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases. “The government will take extraordinary measures to secure enough medical capacity” to counter the resurgence of cases, Moon said in a statement released by Cheong Wa Dae. Moon also ordered concerned government agencies to designate additional public hospitals for exclusive care of COVID-19 pati

South Korea's state intelligence agency on Monday warned of possible terrorist attacks during the upcoming year-end holiday season, stressing that terrorism is increasingly becoming an "actually existing threat" in the country. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said anti-vaccine protests in Europe and other countries could turn violent or become a target for a terrorist attack, and South Korea is no longer free from such threats. A total of 489 materials instigating or propagan

Slightly over 70 percent of South Koreans approve of toughened social distancing measures to stem the resurgence of COVID-19, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 1,000 adults nationwide organized by multiple civic groups, 71.3 percent supported the government's decision to halt the "living with COVID-19" scheme this past Saturday for two weeks and restore stricter social distancing measures. Under the new policy, the maximum number of people at private gatherings was reduced to four

Former President Park Geun-hye, currently serving a 22-year prison term for corruption, will stay in hospital until February for multiple illnesses, the justice ministry said Monday. When admitted to a hospital in southern Seoul on Nov. 22, Park had planned to stay there for about a month, but doctors now say that she needs at least six more weeks for treatment of back, shoulder and other ailments, according to the ministry. This year, the 69-year-old Park was hospitalized three times due to

Police are investigating the death of an infant found inside a clothing donation bin in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday night. The baby was found by the bin’s operator at around 11:30 p.m. Naked, the infant was wrapped with a towel, with the umbilical cord unclamped. “It appears the baby had been just born,” a police officer investigating the case was quoted as saying by local media. The police are looking into surveillance footage installed nearby in order to identify

INCHEON -- Two equestrian horses that had escaped from their stable in Incheon were caught on a nearby overpass Monday after being on the loose apparently for hours, police said. Police said they received a sighting report of the two horses roaming free on the overpass in Namdong Ward of Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, at around 5:30 a.m. apparently headed toward a nearby highway. Authorities closed off part of the overpass and captured the horses after about two hours. The horses report