Victims attempt to get rid of emotional baggage via public punishment online, experts say

The South Korean professional volleyball league announced Tuesday the ongoing men's season will be suspended for two weeks, effective immediately, after a player tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO), which operates the V-League, reached the decision a few hours after Park Jin-u of the KB Insurance Stars tested positive for COVID-19 late Monday. The suspension will wipe out Tuesday evening's match between the Hyundai Capital Skywalkers and the Kepco

South Korean lawmakers on Monday called for a restoration of democracy in Myanmar and raised concerns about atrocities against ethnic minorities, after the military junta took control in a coup. 　 Myanmar’s military on Feb. 1 overthrew the country’s democratically elected government and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. A state of emergency was declared, rolling back efforts to end more than 50 years of military dictatorship and establish a democratic government through the

The US stood Sunday at the brink of a once-unthinkable tally: 500,000 people lost to the coronavirus. A year into the pandemic, the running total of lives lost was about 498,000 -- roughly the population of Kansas City, Missouri, and just shy of the size of Atlanta. The figure compiled by Johns Hopkins University surpasses the number of people who died in 2019 of chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumonia combined. “It’s nothing like we ha

Wildfires have reduced huge swaths of forests in the southeastern cities of Andong and Yecheon to ash, fire authorities said Monday. The fires that broke out Sunday engulfed the mountain areas of Andong and Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province, and burned around 255 hectares of land, equivalent to 357 football fields. The cities' governments resumed containment operations early Monday, deploying around 2,000 public servants and scores of fire equipment, and put out the remaining flames by around

Four North Korean defectors in South Korea are filing a criminal defamation complaint against Unification Minister Lee In-young over remarks he made earlier this month questioning the reliability of defectors’ statements about human rights issues in the North. Mulmangcho, a Seoul-based nongovernmental group that supports North Korean defectors, said Sunday that four defectors would file a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday afternoon over comments

MANDALAY (AP) -- Two anti-coup protesters were shot dead by riot police who fired live rounds Saturday in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, local media reported. One of the victims was shot in the head and died at the scene, according to Frontier Myanmar, a news and business magazine based in Yangon, the country’s largest city. Another was shot in the chest and died en route to the hospital. Several other serious injuries were also reported. The shootings occurred near

Korean startup SmartStudy co-founder and CFO Lee Seung-gyu on Thursday shared the secrets behind its character Baby Shark’s global success during an event held by Corea Image Communication Institute at the residence of the New Zealand ambassador. SmartStudy is known for its popular animated characters Pinkfong and Baby Shark. Its YouTube channel has more than 8.92 million subscribers. On Nov 2 last year, the Korean startup’s English version of the “Baby Shark Dance” vi

A funeral ceremony took place early Friday for activist Paek Ki-wan, who devoted his life to the reunification of the two Koreas and many labor and social issues. Paek died at Seoul National University Hospital on Monday at age 88. He had battled complications of pneumonia for a year. Hundreds of mourners had been waiting outside the hospital, holding signs with the lyrics of "March for the Beloved," a famous pro-democracy movement anthem Paek wrote. They watched the vehicle carryin

The US Justice Department indicted three North Koreans in December on charges related to cyberattacks to steal over $1.3 billion in crypto and traditional currencies from banks and companies. The indictment, filed in December and disclosed Wednesday, alleges that the three -- Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36 -- were members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a North Korean military intelligence agency that engages in criminal hacking. Wednesday’s indictment builds

A grandson of a renowned Korean independence fighter said Thursday that he had sent a letter to Harvard University's president to end any discussions about donating his historical archives due to a professor's article depicting Japan's wartime sexual slavery as voluntary prostitution. In an email and phone interview with Yonhap News Agency, Philip Ahn Cuddy, the grandson of Ahn Chang-ho who fiercely fought against Japan's 1910-45 colonization, revealed that he wrote the letter to President Lawr

A North Korean who was taken into custody Tuesday is believed to have swum across the eastern maritime border, the military said Wednesday. The military failed to capture him until it spotted him walking along the road on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. The man, who was captured after a six-hour chase on Tuesday morning, reportedly wore a wet suit and flippers, which the military found on the eastern shore in the northernmost region of Gangwon Province.

A new five-star hotel on Jeju Island is under fire for saying its sauna windows were mirror coated when they weren’t. Naked guests in the shower booths and bathrooms in the sauna on the second floor could be seen from the first floor at Grand Josun Jeju, which opened last month in Seogwipo. According to a complaint posted on a portal site Tuesday, a man who stayed at the hotel on his honeymoon said his wife had used the sauna several times because she was told the windows were mirror c

A North Korean man, who was captured after crossing into South Korea, appears to have crossed the border via the sea while wearing a hard-hat diving suit and a set of fins, the military said Wednesday. On Tuesday, the man was spotted moving south in the early hours inside a restricted area north of the Civilian Control Line in the eastern border town of Goseong before being captured following a three-hour manhunt. Defense Minister Suh Wook apologized for the security failure and vowed to take

An opposition lawmaker refuses to let up on President Moon Jae-in’s son, artist Moon Joon-yong, demanding that a Seoul City foundation disclose why it decided to fund him as part of its program to support artists suffering due to COVID-19. In a Facebook post on Monday, Rep. Kwak Sang-do of the People Power Party called on the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture to explain in detail how it selected the artists it sponsored under the program. In response to news reports in favor of Kwak