A woman who killed her husband’s dog after blaming it for premature birth of her child was sentenced to a 3 million won ($2,470) fine on violation of the Animal Protection Act at a district court on Wednesday. The accused, whose identity has been withheld by authorities, had been under trial for throwing her husband’s poodle out the window of their 11th floor apartment in Ulsan, last March. Aft...

Delivery kingdom come In 2021, Korea’s dining service industry generated 101.49 trillion won ($82.4 billion) in sales, with that coming from delivery apps accounting for 15.3 percent, according to a joint report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. It was a mark of how COVID-19 had affected everyday life, as the pre-pandemic figur...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s strategy of practically alienating the female population in pursuit of male voters nearly cost him the election, and local women’s groups are urging him to be aware of this before carrying out his “anti-feminist” pledges. On the coattails of Wednesday’s presidential election, the Korea Women’s Associations United released a statement criticizing Yoon’s campaign, i...

It is unclear exactly how big of a factor Ahn was in Yoon’s campaign, but People Power Party camp officials were optimistic as the nation went to polls, predicting an easy victory with as high a margin as 10 percentage points. Close call The optimistic expectations of Yoon’s camp were shattered when the exit polls jointly conducted by major broadcasting stations KBS, MBC and SBS projected an ex...

South Korea’s Public Official Act states that no one shall take a photo of a ballot inside a voting booth, a violation of which can lead to up to 2 years in prison or a 4 million won ($3,237) fine. But taking a photo of oneself outside the polling station with a thumbs up or a victory sign is OK, and can be shared on social media. Singer and TV personality Kim Hee-chul posted a photo of himself...

North Korea may resume nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing before the year’s end, a US government report said Tuesday. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) also said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un believes his nuclear weapons are the “ultimate guarantor” of his regime and that North Korea will eventually be accepted as a nuclear power over time. ...

Polls opened across South Korea at 6 a.m. Wednesday in a presidential election that many voters described as a contest of who’s the least worst. Average voter turnout for 9 a.m was reported to be 8.1 percent nationwide, slightly lower than the 9.4 percent at the same time in the previous presidential election in 2017. Lee Jae-myung of the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea is vying agains...

Ordinary Koreans are also joining in on donating to help Ukrainians affected by the invasion. But with news of fake charity websites swindling people’s donations, people were advised to take caution when sharing information while making contributions online. A user named zXie on the IT information community Giggle Hardware recently posted a screengrab of his donation to the Ukrainian Red Cross, ...

South Korea’s new financial welfare program for the younger generation is designed to disregard the nationality of the recipient. Anyone here who meets the income and age criteria -- Korean or not -- can sign up for a state-backed savings product that pays around 10 percent in yearly interest, tax breaks and saving incentives. Some call it unfair. “Why should (the government) give money to fore...

Watching Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it seems many South Koreans cannot help but worry about their own country’s future, which is still locked in a Cold War division. From the social media sphere to presidential campaign trails, people voiced their opposition to war and denounced the aggressor, while some raised “what ifs” over Korea’s own precarious geopolitical situation vis-a-vis a belliger...

Tattoo and regulation The aforementioned survey said 74.6 percent of respondents had some level of fear regarding infection from an unhygienic procedure, which is a legitimate concern. “The Risk of Bacterial Infection After Tattooing” in 2016 by German researchers, performed a systematic review on cases between 1984 and 2015, and found reports of both local skin infections and systematic infect...

It is unclear how Seoul Station became the country’s homeless mecca, although many suspect the economic crisis of the late 1990s played a large part. In early 1998, Jeong Won-oh, professor of social welfare at Sungkonghoe University, released a study that showed the number of homeless people in Seoul Station increased to around 500, up drastically from 20 to 30 the year before. It also showed th...

In 2014, The Korea Herald asked, “Will Korea ever have ‘Linsanity’?” in an article highlighting the inherent limitations of Korea‘s student athlete system, which enforces all sport and no study. Eight years later, Lee Hyung-jung of NCAA’s Davidson College may have given us the answer. Lee is one of the key contributors to the Davidson Wildcats‘ conference-leading 21-4 record and, equally importa...

Starting Tuesday, government-distributed self-test kits for COVID-19 have been made available at convenience stores and pharmacies across the country at a fixed price of 6,000 won ($5) a piece. Each individual can buy up to five kits at a time. The government’s price control will stay in effect through March 5, with the possibility of changes in the unit price depending on supply conditions. Al...

Legal limitations Korea currently has an Animal Protection Act that bans cruelty against animals. Cruelty is specified as inflicting unnecessary and avoidable physical and psychological distress, or neglect that exposes animals to hunger and illness. But there is no article or clause that dictates what should happen during filming with animals, meaning what is defined as “unnecessary and avoidab...