Korea Times Politics & City Reporter
Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
At around 8:10 p.m. on Wednesday, an ambulance was parked just outside the emergency room of Gangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul. A woman inside the ambulance was waiting for other patients to be discharged so she could secure a bed for treatment.
The government is seeking to gradually increase the pension premium rate from the current 9 percent of income to 13 percent and the pension's income replacement rate from 40 percent to 42 percent through a major reform designed to restore public trust in the fund’s sustainability, particularly among young people.
For Christians, having children is supposed to be felt as an invaluable gift from God. But that is not the case for many young people in today’s world in which children are often perceived as obstacles to professional ambitions or material success.
A simple calculation highlights the severity of Korea's demographic crisis. Last year, around 230,000 babies were born in the country. To sustain its current population, approximately 760,000 births are needed annually.
Starting this year, the government will pour more than 10 trillion won ($7.5 billion) into vital health care services such as emergency care and neurosurgery over the next five years as a means of attracting doctors to unpopular-yet-necessary fields.
A protest by doctors is intensifying as nurses are set to be allowed to practice medicine under a new law, amid a prolonged walkout by trainee physicians.
More than 96 percent of people who take their own lives had shown some types of warning signs before their deaths, according to an in-depth analysis released on Tuesday.
Opposition lawmakers attacked Kim Moon-soo, the labor minister nominee, for being “anti-labor” over his past remarks during a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly.
Nearly 72 percent of Koreans aged 65 or older are expected to receive the latest COVID-19 vaccine shots, according to an official.
A planned walkout by nearly 30,000 nurses and other medical workers this week is expected to exacerbate Korea’s medical crisis as hospitals across the nation are already struggling with labor shortages due to a prolonged strike by doctors.