The Korea Times

High school junior found dead after being accused of cheating

gettyimagesbankBy Yoon Ja-youngA high school junior has been found dead after pleading her innocence when a teacher accused her of cheating on an English assessment test.According to a report by the Hankook Ilbo, sister paper of The Korea Times, the student, who was attending an all-girls high school in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, was found dead by an apartment building near the school on June 10. She was taken to hospital immediately, but did not survive. She reportedly left the school at 9:40 a.m. when the second period of the day started. The student had taken an English assessment test during the first period of the day. The test required writing a review of an English pop song in three sentences. Assessment test scores accumulate and go towards students' total grades and overall academic records. While the students were taking the test, the teacher found a note in the girl's desk that had some English sentences on it. The teacher accused the student of cheating, which she denied.Nevertheless, the student was taken to the teachers' office and told to write a letter of apol

Jun 15, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

High school junior found dead after being accused of cheating

Economy

Where have all the 50,000 won bills gone?

Stacks of 50,000 won bills / YonhapBy Yoon Ja-youngFifty-thousand won bills, Korea's largest cash denomination, are disappearing. Many are believed to be held by individuals amid uncertainties over the economy.According to the Bank of Korea, 6.32 trillion won worth of 50,000 won ($45) notes were issued in the first quarter of this year. However, the 50,000 won bills that have been collected by the bank during the same period stood at a mere 1.29 trillion won, approximately 20 percent of the total supply. The first quarter figure fell further from the figure for the whole of last year, when only 6.99 trillion won out of 25.22 trillion came back, recording a 24-percent return rate. The central bank has been increasing issuance of the bills on growing demand, but it still seems to fall short. Those who try to withdraw 50,000 won notes from ATMs often end up receiving 10,000 won notes instead.The central bank estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic has pulled down the return rate.“Unlike during previous financial crises, the pandemic has decreased face-to-face transactions, such as in

Jun 15, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Where have all the 50,000 won bills gone?

North Korea

Kim Jong-un calls K-pop 'vicious cancer': report

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks with South Korean entertainers, including members of K-pop group Red Velvet, after their concert in Pyongyang, in this April 2018 file photo. YonhapBy Yoon Ja-youngA recent media report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un defined K-pop as a “vicious cancer” is shedding spotlight on the regime's culture war.The New York Times reported on June 11 that Kim called South Korean pop music a “vicious cancer” corrupting young North Koreans, declaring a war to stop it, with its state media warning that the South's entertainment business would eventually make North Korea “crumble like a damp wall.”The report reflects the far-reaching influence of South Korean pop music in North Korea. According to a 2018 survey on North Korean defectors by Seoul National University's Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, 41.4 percent said that they frequently consumed South Korean TV programs, films, dramas and songs, while 40.2 percent said that they had consumed those just once or twice. Only 18.4 percent said that they had no

Jun 14, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Kim Jong-un calls K-pop 'vicious cancer': report

Society

Homeowners fiercely protest housing supply policy

A huge banner opposing a government plan to increase the supply of apartments in the area is hung on the facade of a building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, in this file photo taken earlier this year. Korea Times photo by Lim Myoung-sooBy Yoon Ja-youngThe government's plan to build new apartments on state-owned land to stabilize housing prices is facing fierce opposition by homeowners nearby. Some of them are even trying to recall their mayors for “not doing enough to stop the plan.” As the government has succumbed to their pressure and scrapped hastily made plans, the situation is triggering fears that its creation of supply policy won't work ― and that the housing crisis in the capital will persist.The government and the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) recently scrapped a plan to build 4,000 housing units on government-owned land within a government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. According to the plan, announced Aug. 4, 2020, about half of the new homes there were to be public rental housing. As Gwacheon is close to Seoul and has good infrastruc

Jun 14, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Homeowners fiercely protest housing supply policy

Economy

Snowballing tax burden weighing on future generations

gettyimagesbankBy Yoon Ja-youngWhile Korean households are facing low economic growth and stagnant incomes as a new normal, their tax burden has been increasing steeply due to both extraordinary government spending on pandemic countermeasures and its overall expansion of social welfare policies. Economists warn that the tax burden will only snowball for future generations, even after the pandemic, as the country is going through an unprecedented aging of its population.According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, a think tank under the Federation of Korean Industries, Koreans are seeing the steepest rise in their taxes among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries. Total tax payments including social security contributions as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) recorded 27.4 percent in 2019, up 3.7 percentage points from 23.7 percent in 2015. The figure measures the overall tax burden on the people. The 23.7 percent tax-to-GDP ratio is still low compared to the OECD average of 33.8 percent. However, Korea's 3.7 percentage poin

Jun 12, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Snowballing tax burden weighing on future generations

North Korea

South Korea refrains from commenting on Kim Jong-un's apparent weight loss

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears in a news report by North Korea's KCTV on June 5. YonhapBy Yoon Ja-youngThe Ministry of Unification has refrained from commenting on a recent media report that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears to have lost weight ― news that sparked speculation about his health.According to Yonhap News Agency in Seoul, a ministry official told reporters Thursday that it analyzes Kim's photos every time new ones appear in North Korea's state media. But the official said the ministry's analysis of Kim's health is not something it would make public.The comment comes following a recent report by NK News, an English-language news site specializing on North Korea, which said June 8 that Kim Jong-un looked thinner based on an image released by North Korea's Korean Central Television (KCTV), in which he is presiding over a June 4 politburo meeting.The report focused on his wrist, on which he was wearing what seemed to be a Portofino Automatic watch by Swiss company IWC Schaffhausen. It noted that the length of the strap past the buckle appeared longer than in pr

Jun 11, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

South Korea refrains from commenting on Kim Jong-un's apparent weight loss

'Heartbroken to see him looking thinner': North Korean resident concerned over Kim's weight loss

Health

Number of children with myopia increasing steeply

gettyimagesbankBy Yoon Ja-youngThe number of children experiencing myopia, or nearsightedness, is increasing steeply in Korea, where the majority of the population already experience vision problems. Doctors say that it seems to be related to the rise of online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.According to a survey at Kim's Eye Hospital, 74.9 percent of the young patients below the age of 15, who visited the clinic during the one-year period between April 2020 and March 2021, were myopia patients. That figure is up 6.6 percentage points from the figure for the same period a year ago. April 2020 was when schools across the country started offering online classes due to the pandemic.Doctors say that it can be assumed that the increase in young myopia patients is related to the rise of online classes, involving more frequent use of digital display devices.“After the implementation of online classes, the number of children visiting the clinic due to myopia increased. Though we would not jump to the conclusion that the two are directly related, it does seem that one is affecting

Jun 8, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Number of children with myopia increasing steeply

Society

Seoul Arts Center discovers employee's crypto mining setup in basement

Cryptocurrency mining equipment found in the basement of Seoul Arts Center / Courtesy of Rep. Jeon Yong-giBy Yoon Ja-youngAn employee of Seoul Arts Center has been caught mining cryptocurrency at work.According to a Seoul Arts Center (SAC) report submitted to Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, an employee at the country's top arts and cultural facility in southern Seoul was found to have installed cryptocurrency mining equipment in a basement room of Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum, one of the buildings within the SAC complex. Employees found the equipment engaged in mining work while patrolling the facility. They found two sets of digital currency mining equipment ― each comprising computer hardware and a graphics card, as well as a circulator ― all set up by the employee, a member of the facility management team.Cryptocurrency mining equipment found in the basement of Seoul Arts Center / Courtesy of Rep. Jeon Yong-giWhen the SAC requested the worker to report in detail what was going on, he confessed that he had brought two among a number of Ethereum mining com

Jun 8, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Seoul Arts Center discovers employee's crypto mining setup in basement

Economy

Household debt woes deepen with looming interest rate hike

gettyimagesbankOECD cites household debt as major downside riskBy Yoon Ja-youngWith the central bank signaling an earlier-than-expected key interest rate hike, the country's record-high household debt is emerging as a major downside risk to an economic recovery, prompting economists to call for a cautious approach in policymaking to ensure a soft landing. The country's key rate has been maintained at 0.5 percent for a year, but Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol recently hinted at a shift in monetary policy toward credit tightening in the months to come. He did not rule out the possibility of moving ahead of the U.S. Fed, which is expected to come out with a rise in the latter half of next year at the earliest.Some foreign investment banks expect a key rate hike could come within this year based on Lee's signals, and there have already been signs in the market that interest rates are on an upward spiral. The yield on 10-year Korean treasury bonds rose for four consecutive days to 2.202 percent June 2, surpassing the 2.2 percent mark for the first time since November 2018. According t

Jun 5, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Household debt woes deepen with looming interest rate hike

Society

Proportion of students struggling with math soars amid pandemic

Students sit for a test at a high school in Daegu in this 2020 November file photo. YonhapBy Yoon Ja-youngThe proportion of students who are failing to solve even basic math problems steeply increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed. According to the Ministry of Education, the proportion of students who perform below the basic level expanded in last year's educational achievement research, where 3 percent of the country's high school eleventh-graders and middle school ninth-graders were evaluated for their Korean language, math and English skills. The evaluation is made each year. The research confirmed for the first time, that learning deficits have been produced during the pandemic, although there already have been many testimonies from parents and teachers regarding such problems.Among the middle school ninth-graders, 13.4 percent failed to solve basic math problems, compared with 11.8 percent before the pandemic. The figure more than doubled when it came to English skills, with 7.1 percent performing below the basic level, while only 3.3 percent did so according to the

Jun 3, 2021By Yoon Ja-young

Yoon Ja-young

Read more

High school junior found dead after being accused of cheating

Where have all the 50,000 won bills gone?

Kim Jong-un calls K-pop 'vicious cancer': report

Homeowners fiercely protest housing supply policy

Snowballing tax burden weighing on future generations

South Korea refrains from commenting on Kim Jong-un's apparent weight loss

Number of children with myopia increasing steeply

Seoul Arts Center discovers employee's crypto mining setup in basement

Household debt woes deepen with looming interest rate hike

Proportion of students struggling with math soars amid pandemic

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