Saturday’s anti-President Park Geun-hye rally in Seoul is likely to be the largest candlelight vigil ever to be held in South Korean history, police said Thursday, exceeding that of the 2008 anti-US beef uproar. Organizers -- a union of some 1,500 civic organizations and labor groups -- expect at least 500,000 participants, while police anticipate 160,000. Even by police projections, the upcomi...

South Korean office workers spend twice as much on alcohol than on books, a poll showed Wednesday. According to the survey released by a life education company, Huenet, a poll of 805 office workers showed they spend an average of 30,000 won ($26) per month on books and 62,000 won on alcohol. Some 43.9 percent read one book per month, while 7.6 percent do not read any. Those reading two to four ...

South Korea’s three biggest opposition parties said Wednesday they will participate in the upcoming anti-government rally scheduled for Saturday, upping the ante against the beleaguered President Park Geun-hye. They also decided to nix the conservative leader’s proposal a day earlier that the National Assembly field a prime minister candidate that she would appoint, whoever it was. Meeting at t...

Over 98 percent of job application forms from public institutions and private enterprises contain problematic questions that may lead to discrimination in employment, a South Korean human rights group said Monday. According to a report released by the National Human Rights Commission, 98.5 percent of the 3,567 curriculum vitae forms analyzed for the study ask the age of job seekers, requiring th...

A bus carrying 46 people flipped on its side on a highway in Daejeon early Sunday, killing four people and injuring 22 people including the driver, the police said. The number of casualties may increase, the police said, as eight of them are seriously injured. “The bus suddenly moved in a zig-zag pattern and turned over,” Lee, one of the survivors, said. The 70-year-old added, “It was chaotic, ...

In a veiled criticism of President Park Geun-hye, Kim Young-ran, the former top judge who initiated the influential anti-graft law drive in 2011, said leaders who take advantage of their law-breaking subordinates should be held responsible. “Looking at the events in society nowadays, I think the law may require some radical thinking,” she said at the International Bar Association’s regional anti...

The funeral for activist farmer Baek Nam-gi will be held Saturday, 37 days after he died following a long coma after being struck by a police water cannon in an anti-government rally last year. According to Baek’s family and supporters on Wednesday, a funeral is planned for Baek at Seoul National University Hospital, where he died Sept. 25. A memorial ceremony is scheduled for Friday night. The...

The temperature in Seoul is set to drop below zero on Tuesday, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. Affected by the continental anticyclone from China, the sky will be clear in most of the country, while the central area and some parts of southern peninsula will face a cold morning with the temperature dipping below zero. The morning will see lows of minus 7 degrees Celsius in parts of...

The Justice Ministry plans to outfit criminals with “intelligent” electronic anklets to monitor them in real time and deter future crimes as part of a pilot program beginning in 2018, it said Tuesday. The Intelligent Electronic Monitoring System will track wearers and collect more data about them, which ministry officials said will be used to anticipate and deter repeat crimes. South Korea requ...

Koreans in their 50s are the least satisfied with life, a survey found, while men in general are more discontent than their female counterparts. According to the survey, conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, happiness peaks in your 20s, with 82.6 percent of 20-somethings saying that they are satisfied with life. However, as people get older their lust for life begins t...

Antibiotics ointments are prescribed three times more often in South Korea than in the United States, research showed Monday, amid rising worries over overuse of antibiotics in the country. According to professor Kim Eun-young and her team at Chungang University’s Pharmaceutical College, Korea had over 3.5 times more prescriptions of Mupirocin, an antibiotics ointment, with 46.07 cases per 1,000...

The average age at which women give birth has risen significantly over the past decade, with more than a quarter of mothers now aged 35 or more, while the number of women of childbearing age dropped, a study showed. According to data released by National Health Insurance Service, the average age of delivery stood at 32.2 as of 2015, up 1.9 years from 2006. Also, the proportion of mothers who we...

After hesitating for a long time, Choi Hyeong-tae, a 64-year-old retiree in Seoul, finally made up his mind to live in the countryside for the rest of his life. Then he faced the next question, “Where and how?” Instead of hurrying to a real estate agency to buy a rural home as many do, he visited one of the nation’s support centers for people looking to move to rural areas, where systemized dir...

Amid lingering confusion and doubts over a new anti-graft law, a member of the public who gave rice cakes worth 45,000 won ($40) to a police officer has become the first to face trial for a violation. According to Chuncheon District Court and local reports, the accused, identified only by surname Cho, sent a box of rice cakes to thank the officer for adjusting his or her summons on the first day...

The Health Ministry said Tuesday it will reconsider its plan to toughen punishment on illegal abortions after strong condemnation from women and doctors. “After the preannouncement of the revised rule (about the penalty on illegal abortions), various sectors in society have given their opinions. We decided to consider possibly nullifying the tougher punishment plan,” a ministry official said. A...