Two workers were killed and two were injured while performing maintenance on the tracks at Guro Station on Seoul Metro Line No. 1 before dawn Friday, according to fire authorities and Korea Railroad Corporation. The three Korail workers were on a mobile elevating work platform, doing overhead wire maintenance at a height of 5 to 6 meters, when a track inspection train on an adjacent track collided with it at around 2:21 a.m. local time. The collision caused the workers to fall, resulting in the

The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 has grown sharply in South Korea recently amid a virus resurgence in summertime nationwide, health authorities said Friday. The number of people admitted to 220 hospitals nationwide for COVID-19 came to 861 in the first week of August, the highest level since early February, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The figure has grown rapidly from 148 in the second week of July to 226 in the third week and 475 the following w

An undocumented immigrant from Kazakhstan fled from an immigration office in Suwon while in handcuffs, police said Friday. The Kazakh national in his 20s pushed away immigration officers and ran away right after he was escorted out of a car upon arrival at the Suwon Immigration Office at 8:40 p.m. Thursday, according to police. Immigration officials had earlier taken over his custody from the Suwon District Prosecutors Office after he was apprehended by police for failing to pay fines. Police ar

Experts call for stronger regulations and management of electric scooters, motorized bikes

Kim Beom-su, the founder of Kakao Corp. has been indicted with detention Thursday on charges of stock price manipulation tied to the South Korean tech giant’s takeover of SM Entertainment last year. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office charged Kim with violating the Capital Markets Act, accusing him of inflating SM Entertainment’s share price in a bid to acquire a controlling stake in the K-pop agency during a competitive bidding war against Hybe. Hybe is the parent c

The South Korean government has turned a blind eye towards a joint request by a group of a hundred children and teens here calling for the elimination of restaurants and cafes banning the entrance of children, a local news report revealed Thursday. A joint resolution calling for the riddance of so-called "no-kids zones," drafted last year by a hundred students aged 10 to 17 from across the country -- elected by their peers to represent them at a government-organized 20th National Child

The South Korean government has embarked on a task to bring about a major overhaul of the nation’s minimum wage system, launching an in-depth study into how key economies determine their minimum wages, officials said Thursday. The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced Thursday that it has recently commissioned a study titled "International Comparative Analysis of Minimum Wage Determination Systems." The move aims to address long-standing criticisms of South Korea’s min

The number of insomnia patients in South Korea continued its upward trend, nearing 800,000 last year, recent health data showed Thursday. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 782,381 patients visited hospitals for insomnia treatment last year, a 3.4 percent increase from the previous year’s figure of 756,635. Over the past decade, the number of insomnia patients has surged over 70 percent, rising from 448,000 recorded cases in 2013. The number of sleep-deprived

Government data showed Thursday that 4,394 domestic airline passengers could not reach their destination in the first half of this year, due to forced turnarounds caused by inaccurate weather forecasts. Of all the cases of planes returning to their departure airports due to bad weather between January and June of this year, the forecast was wrong on 20 occasions and did not require the turnaround. This was revealed by Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who cite

The government is considering requiring electric vehicle manufacturers to disclose information on car batteries amid an EV scare following a massive fire caused by a Mercedes-Benz vehicle last week, according to sources Thursday. According to the sources, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is reviewing the measures for car manufacturers to include EV battery manufacturer details in vehicle specifications. Currently, EV manufacturers are required to provide information on vehicle

The incidence of heat-related illnesses from midnight to 10 a.m. has skyrocketed by more than 900 percent over the past decade, outpacing the growth rate of daytime cases. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s annual report released Tuesday, the number of patients recorded between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. soared by 1,225 percent, from 20 cases in 2011 — the first year of the monitoring system — to 265 cases last year. The number of patients between midnight

Migrant rights organizations on Wednesday urged South Korea's government to implement measures to protect the rights of the 100 Filipina caregivers who arrived yesterday to undergo a month of training before being assigned to families in Seoul. The Migrant Workers' Equality Coalition, a coalition of civic groups, emphasized that the lack of clarity in the caregivers' job responsibilities might lead to significant conflicts and potential exploitation, citing the ongoing ambiguities

Seoul Cyber University, South Korea's first online university, is recruiting new students for the second half of the 2024 academic year in 43 majors across 11 colleges. Providing education tailored to social demands and trends by establishing and reorganizing departments and majors for the 2024 academic year, the university has created an artificial intelligence convergence college that includes majors such as AI service marketing, AI real estate big data, AI smart farm, AI creators and o

Daytime lows in July noted as second highest on record

Parent-child wealth transfers spark renewed debate on elite privilege