Yoon levels up criticism, calling out police action to be ‘breach against state discipline’

Humanity has less than 7 years left until the “point of no return” in the climate crisis, according to the Climate Clock in Seoul. The digital clock, which is set up on the roof of Herald Corp. headquarters building in Yongsan, central Seoul, stands at six years, 361 days, nine hours and 59 minutes, as of 3 p.m. Tuesday. According to the clock’s operators in New York, the estimated time left be...

The Ministry of Justice will open a bureau to facilitate immigration as South Korea struggles to cope with falling birth rates and an aging population. After briefing President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon told reporters that the plans for a central bureau overseeing policies relating to immigration will begin to take shape over the remaining year. Since taki...

Sniff walks keep neighborhood clean and safe

A police officer called Tuesday for a general meeting of all 140,000 police personnel to protest the planned establishment of an interior ministry bureau overseeing the law enforcement agency, upping the ante in the escalating standoff with the government. Kim Seong-jong, senior inspector at Seoul Gwangjin Police Station, said in a post on the police intranet, that the meeting had originally bee...

A female high school teacher in the southeastern city of Daegu has been under investigation on suspicion of having an inappropriate relationship with one of her students, police said Tuesday. The unnamed teacher in her 30s, who has taught at a Daegu high school on a term contract, is suspected of having sex with a male student of the same school in late June in violation of the Child Welfare Act...

Drug trafficking caught by South Korea's customs agency grew 11.2 percent on-year in the first half of this year, data showed Tuesday. The Korea Customs Service said it confiscated a total of 238 kilograms of drugs in the January-June period, compared with 214 kg a year earlier. The number of cases that the agency discovered came to 372, down 43.8 percent on-year. But the average amount of drug...

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases bounced back to nearly 100,000 on Tuesday as an omicron subvariant has spread fast amid a new wave of the virus resurgence. The country reported 99,327 new COVID-19 infections, including 353 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,346,764, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Tuesday's count is more than double the previous day's ...

South Korea will keep the current level of response against monkeypox, public health officials said Monday. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and the Ministry of Health and Welfare called an emergency meeting over monkeypox on Monday, and decided not to tighten rules based on their assessment of risk to the South Korean population. The emergency meeting follows the World Health Or...

President Yoon Suk-yeol requested the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to develop a roadmap for abolition soon. “(Yoon) has requested that (the Gender Minister) come up with a roadmap for abolition after figuring out the overall duties of the ministry,” spokesperson Kang In-sun said at a briefing held Monday after Gender Minister made her first report to the president. Gender Minister Kim...

Lee Sang-min attacks meeting of police chiefs, compares to coup d’etat

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 infections continued to post a week-on-week increase on Sunday amid the recent COVID-19 wave fueled by the highly contagious omicron strain BA.5, government data showed Monday. Amid the ongoing spread of the new omicron strain, some antivirus measures at international airports and senior care hospitals have also been reinstated. Starting on Monday, international arr...

With the end of the rainy season approaching, the state weather agency on Monday issued a heat wave advisory for Seoul and almost all parts of the country, excluding Jeju Island and inland mountain areas. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the heat wave advisory takes effect in Seoul, Busan and all major cities nationwide as of 11 a.m. Such an advisory is issued when the maximum...

PCR tests made less reliable by Drug Ministry’s new guidance, says lab expert

A South Korean man believed to be one of the biggest drug traffickers in the country was expatriated from Vietnam last week, after a three-year international joint operation that zeroed in on a major drug smuggling ring based in Southeast Asia. The 47-year-old suspect, identified only by the surname Kim, known by the alias “Sara(salagim)” in the underground market, is believed to be the pinnacle...