People make “patjuk,” or red bean porridge, at the Korean Folk Village in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, the day of winter solstice. It is Korean tradition to eat the porridge at this time of the year, and people in the past believed the red color of the bean drove out evil spirits from their homes. / Yonhap
Firefighters gather in front of a motel in Gwangju, Sunday, after putting out a fire that killed one person and injured 28 others. YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunTwo people were killed and 31 injured in a fire at a motel in Gwangju, Sunday, after one of the guests set fire to his room.The police detained the arson suspect, surnamed Kim, 39, and are questioning him.The fire broke out at 5:45 a.m. when most of the guests were asleep. Over 200 firefighters and rescue workers came with 20 fire trucks to put out the blaze in about 30 minutes.When the rescue team entered the five-story building to search for victims, the smoke had already filled the top three floors.Among some 50 guests, about 20 escaped but the rest were trapped on the fourth and fifth floors and later rescued by firefighters. They were immediately transported to eight hospitals nearby, but two of them died and 13 of the remaining 31 are in critical condition with respiratory difficulty and severe burns. Many inhaled toxic gas from the blaze before and during the rescue, local firefighters said.One woman jumped from a window o
By Kim Jae-heunConcerns are growing over teenagers' exposure to sexual discrimination and violent content in YouTube commercials, which are not legally regulated here. Other than the platform's premium users who pay a 7,900 won ($7) fee every month, ordinary users encounter commercials that run for up to 20 seconds before being able to watch the desired video. According to the Seoul YWCA, which monitored YouTube ads from Oct. 1 to 31, 31 out of 524 commercials showed sexist content.The group said one of the commercials showed a woman with food on her breasts while somebody points at the food with their chopsticks. Another commercial contained an advertising phrase that read “Game of Real Beautiful Woman.”Some featured bikini-clad women.Such suggestive commercials are restricted from being aired on television channels. However, there is no law regulating them from playing on online platforms like YouTube. TV commercials are reviewed by both the Korean Broadcasters Association and the Korean Cable Television Association before they are aired. The Korea Communications
Civic groups and environmental activists protest against the government's plan of constructing second airport on Jeju Island at Sejongno Park in Seoul, Nov. 1. / YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunInternational scholars and activists have joined a campaign against the construction of the second airport on Jeju Island, urging the government to scrap the plan.An emergency committee, comprised of 111 Jeju-based civic groups and 39 nationwide environmental groups, created an online petition protesting the new airport plan from Dec. 9 to 15 with a total of 507 signees.The signees include Noam Chomsky, an American progressive scholar and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), renowned American feminist Gloria Steinem and British activist and 2012 Nobel nominee Angie Zelter, according to the committee. The committee said an increasing influx of tourists to the resort island has pushed it beyond its environmental capacity.“They said the whole island of Jeju is a UNESCO-designated biosphere zone and it is visited by 1.5 million tourists annually, which has already surpassed its max
The number of annual passengers using Jeju International Airport exceeded 30 million for the first time this year, an airport operator said, Wednesday. / Korea Times fileBy Kim Jae-heunThe number of annual passengers using Jeju International Airport exceeded 30 million for the first time this year, an airport operator said, Wednesday.According to the Korea Airports Corp. (KAC), 30,057,300 people have traveled in and out of the southern resort island this year as of Monday.Jeju International Airport has become the first local airport other than Incheon International Airport to top the 30 million mark for its annual number of passengers. The number of passengers using the domestic terminal at Jeju International Airport has been steadily increasing by an average of 7.3 percent annually. The number of passengers who used the airport stood at 20.9 million in 2014, followed by 24.2 million in 2015, 26.9 million in 2016 and 28.3 million in 2017. Last year, 27.5 million people used it.However, the number of passengers flying in and out of Korea fluctuated during the same period, with 2.25 mi
Investigators leave the Prime Minister's Office in Seoul, Wednesday, after searching and confiscating documents related to Cheong Wa Dae's alleged intervention in last year's local elections. An official of the office, surnamed Moon who was a former Cheong Wa Dae staffer, is known to have compiled documents on bribery allegations of former Ulsan Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon's confidants in October 2017 based on tips from former Ulsan Vice Mayor of Economic Affairs Song Byung-gi. / Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in, center, poses with heads of ASEAN member states during the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit at BEXCO in Busan, Nov. 26. / Korea Times photo by Ryu Hyo-jinBy Kim Jae-heunDespite government efforts to form strategic partnerships with ASEAN member nations and India, Korean education about these nations was found to be inaccurate and insufficient, a report showed, Wednesday.The Korean Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (KISEAS) reviewed middle and high school history textbooks upon the request of the Ministry of Education.The study has come amid the Moon Jae-in government's New Southern Policy, which seeks economic cooperation between Korea and Southeast Asia and India. Under the initiative, exchanges between Korea and ASEAN countries in various sectors have grown, and Korea held the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit in Busan last month.However, local scholars with KISEAS pointed out that Korea's education system has failed to improve the public's biased perceptions of those emerging economic partners.They said that in Korea most Southeast Asian countr
Prosecutors enter the office of Kim Soo-young, head of Yangcheon-gu Office in southwestern Seoul, Nov. 26, to search and seize evidence regarding the allegation that she received a bribe from a businessman through her husband in 2014. / Korea TimesBy Kim Jae-heunLee Je-hak, former chief of Yangcheon-gu Office and husband of the current district head Kim Soo-young, was arrested, Monday, for allegedly receiving an illegal political donation from a businessman after his wife was elected to the position of district head in 2014.The Seoul Southern District Court issued an arrest warrant for Lee, saying he was likely to destroy evidence related to the charge and flee. The arrest came about two weeks after prosecutors searched Kim's office to seize relevant evidence.The investigation followed a complaint filed by a civic group, the Public Welfare Committee (PWC), last October. In the complaint, the group claimed Lee received 30 million won ($25,142) from a businessman under the pretext of offering him “congratulatory money” after his wife succeeded in local elections in June 201
By Kim Jae-heunFemale workers at Seoul City-affiliated public organizations are being paid up to 46 percent less than male workers, the city government admitted Monday. The gender wage gap was wider when the ratio of female workers was low or that of technicians was high.The admission came after the Seoul Metropolitan Government disclosed the gender wage disparity for 22,361 workers, and regular and non-regular workers, at 22 city-affiliated entities as of 2018.According to a 2017 OECD report, the average wage for women in Korea was 34.6 percent lower than the average for men.The city-affiliated organizations showed a gender salary gap, but the gap was relatively smaller than the national average. But the ratios at the Seoul Institute, Seoul Business Agency and Seoul Energy were larger at 46.42 percent, 37.35 percent and 40.99 percent, respectively.“At the Seoul Institute and Seoul Business Agency, many female workers were non-regular workers, whose salary is low, so this increased the gender wage gap. But many of them obtained regular status between 2017 and 2018,” the c
Marijuana products including edibles and an e-cigarette cartridge in the customs office at Incheon International Airport. Illegal drugs have become more accessible to people here. / YonhapInternet helps drug dealers prosperBy Kim Jae-heunWith the image surrounding illegal drugs in Korea becoming slightly more relaxed, and an increasing number of young Koreans encounter them abroad, domestic demand for such substances has increased. As the supply has increased to meet demand, and with the internet making it easier to trade illegal substances, drugs have become more accessible to a wider range of people. Many young Koreans say they had their first experience of illegal drugs when studying overseas. In particular, Korean students staying in the United States say they have easy access to drugs that are illegal here on their university campuses. “My first experience was taking marijuana in America,” a 31-year-old businessman told The Korea Times, asking to be identified only as Kim. “I was a freshman and it was really easy to get marijuana there. At first, you try edible