When 34-year-old Lee Min-ho tested positive for COVID-19, the most immediate concern for his young family was getting food and supplies. Instead of calling up his parents, Lee opted to use what is called an “errand app” on his phone. “I just needed a few items from the local store, and I didn’t want to bother other people. So I requested (an errand runner) to pick up the groceries and leave them...

Amid nationwide concern about the rising juvenile crimes, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol and his transition team have been studying ways to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12. The Ministry of Justice officials met with the presidential transition committee chief last week, vowing to support the process of changing the legal definition of a “criminal minor,” referring ...

In the aftermath of Yoon Suk-yeol winning the closest presidential race in history, disdain from the female population toward him has left many suspecting that his victory has exacerbated the country’s gender conflict, particularly among the younger population. The National Police Agency on Monday ordered the Seoul cyber police to investigate a series of postings at an online community, discussi...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol suggested Wednesday that President Moon Jae-in should keep his local breed Pungsan dogs, which were gifted to him by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The dogs, named Gomi and Songang, were given by Kim during the Inter-Korean Summit of 2018 as a symbol of peace in the peninsula. The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae confirmed hours earlier that the dogs belong to th...

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...