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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Korea to remove charcoal briquettes from store shelves to prevent suicide attempts

The government and Korea’s retail industry agreed Wednesday to remove charcoal briquettes from open store displays in a move aimed at preventing suicide attempts. The measure comes as nearly one in four suicide deaths in the country involve charcoal briquettes. The Office for Government Policy Coordination said its Suicide Prevention Policy Office signed a memorandum of understanding with five retail industry groups at the Government Complex Seoul. The signatories included associations representing chain stores, convenience stores, supermarkets, online shopping platforms and campgrounds. Under the agreement, retailers will no longer keep charcoal briquettes on store shelves and will instead provide them only upon customer request. Product packaging will also carry stickers displaying the suicide prevention hotline number, 109. According to the office, 3,525 people died in 2024 from carbon monoxide poisoning involving charcoal briquettes, accounting for 23.7 percent of all suicide deaths that year. The government said the figure underscored the need to better manage access to the common

Mar 19, 2026By Hankookilbo
Korea to remove charcoal briquettes from store shelves to prevent suicide attempts

Number of marriages in Korea rises 8.1% to 7-year high in 2025

The number of marriages in Korea increased 8.1 percent from a year earlier in 2025 to post the highest figure in seven years, government data showed Thursday. A total of 240,300 marriages were reported last year, up from 222,400 cases in 2024 and marking the third consecutive year of increase, according to the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The 2025 tally was similar to the pre-pandemic level of 239,200 cases posted in 2019. The number of marriages hovered around the 200,000 threshold from 2020-2023, as many couples postponed the event during the pandemic, before the tally rebounded to 222,000 in 2024. The ministry attributed the recent rise in marriages to an increase in population in their early 30s and the concentration of marriages that had been delayed during the pandemic. Positive perception toward marriage has also been increasing among singles, it added. The average age of first marriage for men came to 33.9 in 2025, while the corresponding figure for women stood at 31.6. Ten years ago, men got married at an average age of 32.6 and women did so at 30. The number of divorces decrea

Mar 19, 2026By Yonhap
Number of marriages in Korea rises 8.1% to 7-year high in 2025

Warehouse-style drugstores in Korea fuel rise in teen overdoses

Lee, a 15‑year‑old middle school student in Ulsan, boarded a bus for an hour‑long trip not to meet friends or shop for clothes, but to buy sleep aids. At a warehouse drugstore, she said, no one asked why she was buying pills, or how many. Warehouse drugstores in Korea are enabling a growing teenage overdose problem by removing face‑to‑face medical oversight from over‑the‑counter drug sales, a retail model regulators have yet to meaningfully address. Teenagers refer to the practice as “OD,” short for overdose — taking excessive amounts of over‑the‑counter drugs to cause hallucinations. Health officials say the trend has spread rapidly, fueled by easy access to medication and social media posts that help spread the trend. At the center of the issue is the warehouse drugstore model, where customers select over‑the‑counter medications directly from open shelves with minimal pharmacist consultation. The format contrasts with neighborhood pharmacies, where pharmacists typically screen purchases and question minors about their symptoms. “Local pharmacies either ref

Mar 18, 2026By Hankookilbo
Warehouse-style drugstores in Korea fuel rise in teen overdoses

Say “That’s not my job” and you may be out: AI ushers in age of voluntary overwork

Nam Dong-deuk, 42, a 15-year veteran at his company, sat at his desk and turned on his computer. As his fingers moved across the keyboard and his eyes darted between the monitors, he looked as if he were casually chatting with a colleague. Ninety minutes later, he leaned back with a relaxed smile, like a student relieved to have finished his homework. In that time, he had created an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that could answer coworkers’ questions on the company’s internal messenger, from how to use vacation days to how to spend company reward points, using information drawn from internal manuals. Nam is not a seasoned developer fluent in code. A business administration major who has worked at both large corporations and startups, he is now an HR manager at an online commerce platform. The reason he was able to build the chatbot in under two hours, he said, was “vibe coding.” Nam described vibe coding as a way to create software simply by telling AI what function is needed, instead of learning complex programming languages. Employees in each department can build the pro

Mar 18, 2026By Hankookilbo
Say “That’s not my job” and you may be out: AI ushers in age of voluntary overwork

1 in 3 young Koreans who leave Seoul return within 2 years, report finds

About 1 in 3 young Koreans who move to regions outside the capital return to the Seoul metropolitan area in less than two years, underscoring the persistent struggle of regional cities to hold onto young residents. According to a report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade, released Wednesday, 34.9 percent of young people who moved away from the Seoul metropolitan area to regions outside the capital eventually returned, with an average stay outside the capital region of just 1.6 years. Of all young people who migrated between the two regions, 42.7 percent moved from non-capital areas to the Seoul metropolitan area and settled there — the highest share of any migration pattern. By contrast, only 21.3 percent made the reverse move and remained outside the capital region. The findings are based on data tracking the migration of about 1.45 million individuals aged 19 to 34 from 2016 to 2022. Economic opportunity was the primary pull factor. In a separate survey of 800 respondents last year, work or business ranked as the top reason for leaving their home regions, at 45 p

Mar 18, 2026By Park Ung
1 in 3 young Koreans who leave Seoul return within 2 years, report finds

Police to set up crowd control zone for 100,000 people during BTS concert

Police said Wednesday they will set up a crowd control zone with a capacity of 100,000 people around the stage where K-pop group BTS will perform in central Seoul this weekend. The zone will be set up so that no more than one person occupies every square meter, as safety is of paramount importance during the concert set to begin at 8 p.m. Saturday at Gwanghwamun Square, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Police told reporters. Police expect around 260,000 people to gather in the area stretching from the square to Sungnye Gate, the largest number since the 2002 World Cup, when up to 250,000 people cheered in the streets. Random checkpoints will be conducted on the day, with 72 teams of riot police and 35 teams of detectives deployed to the area. Audience members entering the crowd control zone will be required to walk through metal detectors and undergo searches for hazardous materials. "We decided to create the safest conditions possible given the nature of the event that can be attended by anyone in an open downtown area, and memories of the Itaewon tragedy," the official said, referr

Mar 18, 2026By Yonhap
Police to set up crowd control zone for 100,000 people during BTS concert

BTS' world tour projected to unleash economic boom surpassing Taylor Swift's impact

K-pop supergroup BTS is returning from a nearly four-year hiatus with an 82-show world tour that analysts project will generate massive economic activity, establishing an economic engine expected to surpass the financial impact of Taylor Swift's recent global tour. The Korea Culture and Tourism Institute estimates the upcoming 34-city tour will yield 1.2 trillion won ($840 million) per show. The Guardian reported that economists anticipate the North American leg alone will generate tens of trillions of won, significantly exceeding Taylor Swift's 60-date North American tour, which generated about 7 trillion won. Global media outlets are actively reporting on the comeback. The New York Times covered Korean fans rushing to internet cafes for tickets, while CNN broadcast its crew's attempts to book seats. "BTS is not just a regular K-pop group. They are really the engine of the industry itself," Berklee College of Music professor Ray Seol told CNN. The local economy is already feeling the "BTSnomics" effect ahead of Friday's release of the group's fifth studio album, "Arirang." Five-star ho

Mar 18, 2026By Hankookilbo
BTS' world tour projected to unleash economic boom surpassing Taylor Swift's impact

Korea raises terror alert near BTS Gwanghwamun show venue as 260,000 fans expected

Korea will raise the terror alert level in parts of central Seoul ahead of BTS’ free comeback concert at Gwanghwamun Square this Saturday, where more than 260,000 people are expected to gather. The prime minister's office announced Wednesday that the alert level will be elevated from the lowest “attention” to second-tier “caution,” out of a four-tier scale, in Jongno District and Jung District in central Seoul from the beginning of Thursday to midnight on Saturday as part of a preemptive move to prevent potential terror attacks. “Given the uncertainties driven by international affairs, the government concluded that it is hard to rule out the possibility of a potential terror threat to the event like BTS concert where a large crowd would flock and will take a preemptive move to ensure the people’s safety as a priority,” the office said in a press release. This comes amid rising tensions caused by the U.S-Israel war on Iran and the influx of tourists coming to Seoul for the historic concert event. The alert is issued when there is a possibility of a terrorist attack and an

Mar 18, 2026By Park Ji-won
Korea raises terror alert near BTS Gwanghwamun show venue as 260,000 fans expected

BTS returns, merchants near comeback show venue brace for boom — or just another day

When Moon Sang-ki, 50, manager of JH Texas Bar next to Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul, heard that BTS would perform just around the corner from his bar as a full group for the first time in nearly four years, he knew he had to do something. “Both my staff and I are ARMY (BTS’ fandom). When we heard BTS would perform just outside our restaurant, we decided to turn the bar into a gathering spot for fans from around the world,” Moon told The Korea Times in an interview Monday. “We usually close at 1 a.m., but that day we will stay open for 24 hours and play BTS songs.” Decorating his bar with a BTS theme, Moon will run the restaurant with a full staff on March 21, the day of the concert, with 10 staff members providing hall service and four in the kitchen, all wearing purple — the color associated with the group. “We are receiving reservations from ARMY around the world, including China, Indonesia, Japan and the United States,” Moon said. “Foreigners usually make up about one-third of our customers, but since decorating the place like this, the share has risen to about

Mar 18, 2026By Park Ung
BTS returns, merchants near comeback show venue brace for boom — or just another day

Seoul capsule hotel blaze exposes fire safety blind spots ahead of BTS show

A Saturday fire that injured 10 people at a Seoul capsule hotel has exposed a critical weakness in Korea's fire safety laws, revealing how regulatory gaps leave hundreds of foreign tourists in sleeping pods vulnerable to fire — a hidden crisis that has prompted citywide emergency inspections ahead of an upcoming BTS concert. With safety concerns mounting ahead of the K-pop group's comeback performance on Saturday, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced it will conduct emergency safety inspections of 5,481 accommodation facilities by Thursday. The targeted sweep includes 4,904 urban bed-and-breakfasts, 381 traditional hanok guesthouses and 151 lodging facilities in the Jongno and Jung districts. The recent blaze at the Sogong-dong facility underscored the extreme danger of the city's self-registration system. The hotel operated on the third and sixth floors of a seven-story building, registering only seven rooms with the government. However, reservations for the day of the fire reached 124 people — 65 on the third floor and 59 on the sixth floor. Capsule hotels surged in Seoul f

Mar 17, 2026By Hankookilbo
Seoul capsule hotel blaze exposes fire safety blind spots ahead of BTS show
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