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Search for missing Koreans continues in Nepal

Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff leave Incheon International Airport for Nepal, Sunday. /YonhapBy Bahk Eun-jiAn additional emergency team has been sent to assist Nepalese government efforts to find four Korean teachers and two Nepalese missing in the Annapurna region after an avalanche, the government said Sunday.According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a Nepalese land and air search has failed to find anyone.The missing people are believed to be buried under at least four meters of snow. The search has also been hampered by plunging temperatures and heavy snow, amid fears of another avalanche. The search team will stay at the Deurali Lodge, near the site of the accident.The avalanche happened at about 10.30 a.m. to 11a.m.at about 3,230 meters close to the base camp for Annapurna, one of the highest peak in the Himalayas following heavy snowfall Friday. The missing teachers, two women in their 30s and 50s and two men in their 50s, were visiting Nepal for volunteer work.They were part of an 11-member team. The South Chungcheong Province Office of Education said 11 teachers from

Jan 19, 2020By Bahk Eun-ji

Search for missing Koreans continues in Nepal

Heavy snowfall hinders search efforts for 4 missing Korean trekkers in Himalayas

No. of African swine fever-positive wild boars in Korea rises to 86

Workers in protective suits are seen at a checkpoint on a road leading to a village near a farm where African swine fever was detected, in Fangshan district of Beijing, Nov. 23, 2018. ReutersThree more wild boars found dead near the border with North Korea have tested positive for African swine fever (ASF), authorities here said Saturday, bringing the number of such cases to 86 in South Korea.The confirmation came days after the wild boar carcasses were found in Paju, just north of Seoul, according to the National Institute of Environmental Research, which is affiliated with the environment ministry.The carcasses were buried later and the area where they were found was sterilized to prevent spread of the disease.Of the 86 confirmed ASF cases from wild boars, 31 were from Paju, a town near the border with North Korea. In May, North Korea confirmed its first outbreak of African swine fever on a pig farm near its border with China. South Korea has reported 14 cases of pigs infected with the disease on farms since September.South Korea has not reported additional ASF cases on local farms

Jan 18, 2020

No. of African swine fever-positive wild boars in Korea rises to 86

Why young Koreans shun Lunar New Year family gatherings

Korea Times fileBy Lee Suh-yoonKim Jeong-myeong, a 23-year-old university student in Seoul, is not thrilled about the Lunar New Year family gathering next week.“The elder relatives are starting to ask about my future career plans, which just adds to my existing job-related stress. And my parents are already telling me to get married at some point,” Kim said. “I'm hoping this year will be more bearable because I can use my upcoming military conscription as an excuse to evade such questions.” Young Koreans like Kim are increasingly shunning the extended family gatherings that have traditionally been the center of the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays. According to a joint survey by job portal sites Job Korea and Albamon, six in 10 Koreans said they wanted to skip the family gatherings and spend the Lunar New Year holiday alone. The numbers are hardly surprising. From a young adult's perspective, the annual interactions with relatives are rarely pleasant. The generation gap between members is acute. Prying questions about one's career ― or search for one ― are

Jan 17, 2020

Why young Koreans shun Lunar New Year family gatherings

Professors urge Ajou medical center chief to quit

By Bahk Eun-jiA group of professors at Ajou University College of Medicine have demanded the resignation of its director Yoo Hee-seok, Thursday, who is under fire for his abusive remarks against Lee Kuk-jong, the head of the regional trauma center at the university hospital. Lee Kuk-jong /Yonhap The professors released statement and said “What Yoo did to Lee was clear verbal abuse, which is a typical example of bullying in the workplace. No one should carry out such abusive behavior regardless of their position, and motivation of the conflict.”In the statement, the group also urged Yoo to step down immediately from his post as director and apologize for damaging the hospital's reputation. “No one can deny that Lee has contributed greatly to the hospital's reputation by leading the trauma center together with the whole faculty of the hospital,” the group said in a statement. Yoo came under fire when a recording of the conversation with Lee was reported by the local tel

Jan 16, 2020By Bahk Eun-ji

Professors urge Ajou medical center chief to quit

Gov't faces backlash over 'pet tax'

A young girl holds her pet dog while watching the sunrise at Mount Nam on Jan. 1, 2018. / Korea Times fileBy Jun Ji-hye, Lee Suh-yoonThe government is facing growing backlash from pet owners over its plan to introduce a tax on possessing pets. Pet owners claim they already spend a lot of money to care for their animals.A plan to introduce the “pet tax” was included in sweeping measures announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), Tuesday, aimed at more effectively curbing animal abuse, protecting abandoned pets and improving animal welfare.A ministry official told The Korea Times Friday that the MAFRA will review a variety of issues involving the pet tax before pushing to revise the Animal Protection Law and other relevant regulations. “If introduced, the pet tax would be used to construct and operate shelters for abandoned animals and other professional facilities to protect them,” the official said. The measure was drawn up amid the rapidly increasing number of abandoned dogs here, and the increasing costs incurred by local gover

Jan 16, 2020

Korea to strengthen regulations for better animal welfare

The definition of cruelty will cover a wider range of abuse, with any mistreatment leading to the death of an animal receiving a maximum three-year prison term. GettyimagesbankSouth Korea said Tuesday it plans to adopt tougher regulations to prevent animal cruelty and to provide animals with a better living environment as part of efforts to improve animal welfare in the country.The set of strenghtened policies, which runs through 2024, will focus on enhancing the public's awareness of animal welfare and on improving living conditions for not only pets but also laboratory animals and livestock, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.Compared to the previous five-year plan, which ran through 2019, the new blueprint will provide more details on protecting the rights of pets, in line with the rising number of South Koreans adopting them, the ministry said.More than a quarter of South Korean households had a pet as of 2019, compared with 17.4 percent of homes in 2010, according to the ministry. The country's market for pets and related business is estimated to re

Jan 14, 2020

Korea to strengthen regulations for better animal welfare

Thailand reports case of coronavirus from China

GettyimagesbankA Chinese visitor to Thailand has been confirmed to be infected with a new strain of coronavirus that has been linked to a pneumonia outbreak in central China, health officials said Monday.The U.N.'s World Health Organization said Thai officials have reported that a traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan has been hospitalized in Thailand with the virus.The outbreak of the virus has been traced to Wuhan, where it affected several dozen people who had been to a major meat and seafood market.Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said it appears to be the first confirmed case of the virus found outside China, the Bangkok Post newspaper and other Thai media reported.He identified the infected tourist as a 61-year-old woman whose symptoms were detected on arrival at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport last Wednesday. Her coronavirus was confirmed Sunday by a laboratory test, Anutin said.She has been treated at an isolation ward at a state health facility outside of Bangkok, and no longer has any fever or respiratory symptoms, he said.Eight other people with possible sy

Jan 14, 2020

Thailand reports case of coronavirus from China

Record 73,000 elderly drivers give up licenses in 2019

GettyimagesbankA record 73,000 elderly drivers voluntarily gave up their licenses last year in accordance with the government's campaign to reduce traffic accidents caused by older adults, police data showed Monday.According to the National Police Agency (NPA), a total of 73,221 drivers aged 65 or older voluntarily returned their licenses, marking a 6.1-fold surge over 11,913 such licenses surrendered in the previous year.People aged 75 and above accounted for 71.5 percent, or 52,377, of the elderly drivers who gave up their licenses last year, the NPA noted.Behind the steep increase in the number of senior drivers giving up their licenses was the introduction of a support program for senior citizens surrendering their driver's licenses by local governments.Forty municipal governments, including Seoul, Daegu and Incheon, have implemented an incentive program that provides 100,000 won (around US$83) a month in a transportation allowance to senior drivers who voluntarily return their licenses.The NPA plans to provide 1.39 billion won out of its annual budget to local governments this y

Jan 13, 2020

Record 73,000 elderly drivers give up licenses in 2019

Winter gives rise to heart disease

Cold weather is also associated with a higher risk of severe myocardial infarction. According to data from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average number of patients died from heart attack in January was 13,378 over the last 10 years since 2009. /GettyimagesbankBy Bahk Eun-jiLower temperatures, cold winds, and only few hours of sunlight could bring trouble for some people suffering heart ailments. Health authorities and doctors have warned that patients showing signs of myocardial infarction should never wait to seek help. Myocardial infarction is the medical name for a heart attack. A heart attack is a life-threatening condition that happens when blood flow to the heart muscle is blocked, causing tissue damage. What is heart attack?The heart has four main arteries, two of them large, branching arteries delivering oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. If one of the arteries or branches becomes blocked abruptly, a portion of heart lacks of oxygen, and this condition called cardiac ischemia. When the cardiac ischemia lasts too long, the heart tissue with short

Jan 12, 2020By Bahk Eun-ji

South Korea's 'pneumonia-like' illness case unrelated to China outbreaks: Korean authority

In this Jan. 4, 2020, file photo, a health surveillance officer monitors passengers arriving at the Hong Kong International airport in Hong Kong. AP-YonhapThe public safety and health agency said Saturday that it had confirmed a single "pneumonia-like" illness case reported earlier in the week was not related to an outbreak in China. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said it carried out a pan-coronavirus test on the patient under quarantine and confirmed the illness was not caused by a new strain of the coronavirus that has made people sick in Wuhan, Hubei Province.The 36-year-old Chinese woman, who visited the city in central China last month, started showing symptoms including coughing and inflammation of the throat. She visited a local hospital early last week and was initially diagnosed with pneumonia."She tested negative for the new type of the coronavirus," the KCDC said, adding that while it still needs to determine why she got sick, the agency was sure it was not because of the illness that has spread through parts of China. Chinese authorities who h

Jan 11, 2020

South Korea's 'pneumonia-like' illness case unrelated to China outbreaks: Korean authority

'Mystery pneumonia' patient remains stable

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