Children shave their heads and participate in five precept ceremonies Tuesday before entering a 21-day training experience at the Buddhist Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul. In the ceremonies, the children train as monks by swearing to follow the lessons of Buddha and renouncing themselves of worldly possessions by cutting their hair. The temple headquarters of South Korea’s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, holds a religious education camp for children between the ages of 5 and 6 ever

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

A Siberian tiger cub has died from feline panleukopenia at Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday, and two other cubs and three mature tigers are being treated for the disease. The cub, named Parang, was born at the zoo and had reached one year old just 10 days ago. Feline panleukopenia is an infectious disease that causes a fatal decrease in white blood cells in cats. The disease has a 50 to 59 percent fatality rate, and is easily transmitted through contact with infected a

Social Affairs May 9, 2023

South Korea began expanding preventative vaccinations against mpox to members of unspecified vulnerable groups on Monday, while the total number of cases of infection reached 60 as of 12 a.m. that day. Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is offering preventive shots of the two-dose Jynneos vaccine to groups considered more susceptible to mpox infection on a reservation basis. The government has secured 5,000 doses of the vaccine and plans to secure more, the agency announced Monday. The

Social Affairs May 8, 2023

Two teenage girls, aged 15 and 17, were stopped from attempting to take their own lives while livestreaming the event by the police on Friday. The teens are said to be members of the online forum, "Depression Gallery," a teenage member of which livestreamed the taking of her own life last month. According to reports, the police were alerted to the two teens' attempt by their friend at 3:55 a.m. on Friday, after they had climbed over the railing on the northern end of Hannam Bridge

Social Affairs May 8, 2023

Nam Chang-dong was 8 years old when he was spellbound by jultagi tightrope walking. “The jultagi player looked like a hero in a fantasy film for me," he said. Now 22 and a professional “rope clown,” he is the custodian of jultagi, the tightrope walking art that is officially recognized as part of South Korea’s intangible cultural heritage. It might be compared to tightrope walking, but in jultagi the performers dance, sing and tell stories while walking, standing and

weekender May 6, 2023

Four general hospitals in Daegu are to be penalized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for refusing to accept a severely injured teenager on March 19, which led to the girl’s death after two hours of driving from hospital to hospital in an ambulance. The ministry determined that the hospitals -- Daegu Fatima Hospital, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Kyungpook National University Hospital and Daegu Catholic University Medical Center -- unreasonably refused to treat an emergency p

Social Affairs May 4, 2023

The police caught 12 suspects, five men in their 20s, and two males and five females in their teens, for allegedly extorting 220 million won ($165,000) from men they lured into sexual contact with minors. Ansan Sangrok Police Station apprehended the suspects on April 23 for extorting money from 11 men they baited into drinking and having sexual contact with female minors. The victims of the extortion claim that they did not know they were minors, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said on T

Social Affairs May 3, 2023

In three days, hundreds of residents raised 10.7 million won ($8,000) to pay for the hospital bills for a beloved Gwangju street cat that was injured in a hit-and-run. The fundraising campaign was launched on April 26 through Instagram for Jullyang-i, the unofficial mascot for Seoyoung University in Gwangju, after it was left critically injured after being hit by a bus a day before. About 700 people participated in the campaign that ran from April 26 to 28, according to a post on Monday on the c

Social Affairs May 3, 2023

An unidentified wild animal was spotted on Mount Palgong, Daegu, causing a widespread online debate about its identity, despite the local environmental authority's announcement that it was a badger. A photo taken by a hiker on a trail at 6 a.m. on April 24 in Daegu shows a wild animal with dark fur, four legs, small ears and a long snout. The hiker reported the animal as a bear cub, because the black fur covering its whole body made it look like a bear, the Palgongsan Natural Park Managemen

Social Affairs May 2, 2023

A historic "Baduk" or Go battle between two siblings, Lee Se-dol, 17, and Lee Sang-hun, 25, which took place in 2000 will be sold as Non-Fungible Tokens by the Kyrgyzstan-based virtual assets producer C-cash. The South Korean retail and finance company TGS Group, operator of C-cash, announced on Monday that it successfully converted the Go match manual into NFTs and planned to sell the virtual asset from May 10. C-cash’s NFT game manual introduces interactive NFT functions and al

People April 25, 2023

“I am working on ‘eopgyeongdae.' Buddhist myths say that every person faces this mirror after death, before they are brought to the King of Hell,” said Kwon Da-eun, a student at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage majoring in traditional arts and crafts. “When a deceased person confesses the wrongdoings committed during his or her life, the mirror shows how the person lived. This story is what inspired me to carve the eopgyeongdae,” she added. Wo

Culture April 22, 2023

Portraits of 12 Korean and American heroes who fought during the Korean War (1950-1953) will be on public display Thursday in New York's Times Square, marking the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement. Samsung and LG will play a video dedicated to the Korean War veterans, made by the South Korea Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, starting from 12 a.m. on Monday. The video contains the portraits of 12 heroes including General Douglas MacArthur, who led the successful Ope

Defense April 20, 2023

A dolphin with a severely damaged beak and fin was spotted on Monday off the southwestern shore of Jeju Island, raising concerns over dolphin tourism. Photos of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin and its herd taken by local media show that large parts of its beak and fin have been severed. The injuries appear quite recent, with what appears to be blood still visible around the affected areas. Jeju-based dolphin advocacy groups have argued that fishing boats and ferries severely harm dolphins by

Social Affairs April 19, 2023

The bereaved family of one of the victims of the Daejeon school zone drunk driving accident called for the heaviest punishment for the suspect, as well as for other drunk drivers, after the funeral held Tuesday. “There should never be another child sacrificed like Seung-ah again,” victim Bae Seung-ah's older brother said in an interview with local media after the nine-year-old girl's funeral in Daejeon. He insisted that far stricter punishments must be given to those who en

Social Affairs April 11, 2023

Police are seeking a suspect believed to have cut the brake lines of at least six motorbikes in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province. Police received six reports beginning April 5 that brake lines had been intentionally cut in the Sugok-dong and Bunpyeong-dong neighborhoods, Cheongju Sangdang Police Station told local media on Monday. Someone claiming to be one of the victims posted purported security camera footage of the crime in an online community on Saturday, asking for help finding the sus

Social Affairs April 11, 2023