Drivers of emergency vehicles such as police cars, fire trucks and ambulances will not be punished for running traffic lights or crossing the median when carrying out their official duties, according to the revised Road Traffic Act. The new act became effective Tuesday, the National Fire Agency and the National Police Agency said in a joint press release. The law was revised to ensure that emergencies are handled promptly -- meaning, for example, that fire trucks arrive within five minutes a

The World Health Organization has warned that herd immunity for COVID-19 will not be achieved this year despite the vaccines already being rolled out in a number of countries. “We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Monday during a video press conference. “Even if it happens in a couple of pockets in a few countries, it’s not going to protect people across the world.” H

Steroids should not be used to build stronger muscles or improve sports performance, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said in a press release on Sunday. The ministry said steroids, including anabolic steroids, should be used strictly for treating osteoporosis or poor growth under a doctor’s care. But there have been reports of illegal uses of steroids to maximize the effects of exercise in a short time. The ministry warned that if steroids are misused or abused, men can suffer side

The Overseas Koreans Foundation has launched a support program to help South Korean adoptees living in foreign countries. The program is for Korean adoptees under the age of 45 living outside Korea, and their children and grandchildren, the Overseas Koreans Foundation said Tuesday in an announcement on its website. The purpose of the program is to promote the rights of Koreans adopted overseas and help them settle down in the countries where they live by offering legal support and advice for

K-pop girl group aespa’s “Black Mamba” has become the fastest debut music video by a K-pop act to reach 100 million views on YouTube, according to S.M. Entertainment. The band’s agency said Friday that the video, released Nov. 17, achieved the feat at around 5:31 a.m. Friday. It took 51 days. The previous record was held by ITZY, whose debut music video, “Dalla Dalla,” obtained 100 million views on YouTube within 57 days of its release in February 2019. A

Korean-style fried chicken has been selected as the most popular Korean dish by foreign consumers, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs’ online survey of 8,000 local residents in 16 major cities across the globe. The survey found that 13.3 percent of the respondents who had tried Korean food picked Korean-style fried chicken as their most-preferred Korean dish, followed by kimchi at 11.9 percent and bibimbap at 10.3 percent. The respondents picked the same th

Police have launched an investigation after 14.5 billion won ($13.4 million) disappeared from the foreigners-only Landing Casino on Jeju Island. Hong Kong-based Landing International Development, which owns the casino, reportedly discovered the cash was missing on Monday and informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The casino staffer who was in charge of the money is unreachable after failing to return from a year-end vacation without giving notice, a casino employee who wished to rem

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Thursday launched a mobile web service for its toxicity information service system, Tox-info. The simplified layout is tailored for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the ministry said in a press release. Information from the website is now easier to share on social media. Previously, the website was optimized for desktop use and this made it difficult for mobile users to search for information. Tox-info (nifds.go.kr/toxinfo) offers infor

The government’s joint inspection team for checking social distancing measures caught a karaoke bar in Gyeonggi Province that received customers through an online prebooking system on Dec. 22. The bar had turned off its outside signboards and closed the doors. The inspection team went undercover near the bar and spotted customers walking out at around 11 p.m. This was one of 54 cases of violation of quarantine measures identified so far. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Tuesd

South Korea’s Gangwon Province usually attracts millions of visitors during the winter season each year with its various winter festivals under the theme of ice fishing and sledding. This winter, however, is not the same, as the prolonged coronavirus pandemic has canceled most of the northeastern province’s famous winter festivals, including the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival. The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, established in 2003 and featuring trout ice fishing, had brought

South Korea will invest 1.5 trillion won ($1.4 billion) in helping startups this year. It increased by 66.2 billion won on-year to record the largest amount ever, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The ministry said in a press release Monday that the budget related to startups has been on the steady increase as it is important to creating jobs and nurturing companies that specialize in contactless technology. Fifteen ministries plan to support 1.4 trillion won for 90 projects,

The death of a 16-month-old girl has caused public outrage in South Korea.  The girl reportedly died from violent child abuse that took place over nine months by her adoptive parents. When the girl died in the emergency room at a hospital in western Seoul on Oct. 13, she had fractures across her body and her organs had suffered severe damage, including extensive damage to the pancreas and internal bleeding. The adoptive parents are set to face trial on Jan. 13. The prosecution has indi

Cold waves swept across South Korea, with temperatures falling below 0 degrees Celsius for most parts of the country on Monday. Morning lows ranged from minus 3 C to minus 18 C in the central, northern and western regions. Temperatures dipped to around minus 20 C in some mountainous and seaside areas in the northeast. The Korea Meteorological Administration issued cold wave alerts for parts of Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province as of 11 a.m. Monday. Wind chills will be lower than the a

Moon Seon-woong, a junior at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, began his winter semester on December 23 by opening his laptop at home instead of going to campus. “It is nothing new,” Moon told the Korea Herald in a phone interview. “I have been taking classes online all year since the beginning of the spring semester.” “As the coronavirus outbreak became worse, all lectures suddenly turned into online classes and I did not know what to do at first,” he said.

Two K-pop powerhouses -- Big Hit Entertainment and SM Entertainment -- will celebrate New Year’s Eve and Day with online concerts. Under the title 2021 New Year’s Eve Live, Big Hit Entertainment will begin streaming its first joint concert with Big Hit Label through the agency’s community platform Weverse at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. The paid online concert will feature live and prerecorded performances by BTS, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN, GFriend and NU’EST. The concer