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  • Society

    Paichai High School baseball team suspended 6 months over 'Tank Day' chant against Gwangju school

    The Paichai High School baseball team has been suspended from national tournament play for six months after a chant evoked Starbucks Korea's controversial "Tank Day" promotion during a national tournament match against a school from Gwangju. The Korea Baseball Softball Association held a sports fair play committee meeting Wednesday to review the incident and imposed the suspension after determining the chant violated the spirit of sportsmanship and disrupted order on the field. During Monday's match against Gwangju Jeil High School at the 81st Cheongnonggi National High School Baseball Championship in Seoul's Mokdong Baseball Stadium, some Paichai players repeatedly chanted “Let's go, let's go, let's go to Starbucks” in unison. One student even shouted “Tank Day.” The chant was a direct reference to Starbucks Korea's "Tank Day" promotion launched on May 18 — the 46th anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising — which used the phrase in a reference widely condemned as denigrating the pro-democracy movement. The backlash at the time drew responses from consumers and politicians alike

    2 MIN READBy Park Ung
    Paichai High School baseball team suspended 6 months over 'Tank Day' chant against Gwangju school
  • Society

    Korean high school where 1 in 4 graduates heads straight to Samsung Electronics

    3 MIN READBy Hankookilbo
    Korean high school where 1 in 4 graduates heads straight to Samsung Electronics
  • Society

    New PM orders thorough measures with heavy rain forecast to hit southern region

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    New PM orders thorough measures with heavy rain forecast to hit southern region
  • Politics

    Presidential unification body adds over 2,000 advisers, plans overseas expansion

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Presidential unification body adds over 2,000 advisers, plans overseas expansion
  • Defense

    Navy chief to visit Hawaii this week for RIMPAC exercise

    1 MIN READBy Yonhap
    Navy chief to visit Hawaii this week for RIMPAC exercise
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Defense

US Indo-Pacific hosts workshop to strengthen civil-military crisis response on Korean Peninsula

Korean and U.S. service members attended a workshop this month to strengthen civilian-military coordination for crisis and disaster response on the Korean Peninsula, the United States Forces Korea (USFK) said Wednesday. The three-day workshop, which kicked off April 7, was hosted by the United States Indo-Pacific Command in Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, according to a release uploaded on the USFK website. The event was designed to train participants on civil-military and humanitarian assistance operations in response to natural disasters and complex emergencies on the Korean Peninsula. During the session, participants explored complex concepts and received training in best practices from various international organizations, such as the U.N. World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross. "These efforts ensure that U.S. and ROK forces, alongside international partners, remain ready to respond rapidly and effectively to future disasters on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific," it said, referring to Korea by its formal name, Republic of

Apr 22, 2026By Yonhap
US Indo-Pacific hosts workshop to strengthen civil-military crisis response on Korean Peninsula
Law & Crime

Police seek arrest warrant for truck driver for fatally striking rallygoers in Jinju

Police said Wednesday they have filed for an arrest warrant for the driver of a truck that ran into a group of rallygoers earlier this week, killing one and injuring two others. The 2.5-ton truck struck participants of a cargo worker rally under the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union on Monday near a CU convenience store logistics center in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province. Police have applied a murder charge against the driver, a non-union member in his 40s, after determining he had acted recklessly. They had taken custody of him at the scene on suspicion of causing bodily injury. A police official said the driver did not stop after striking the victims, including a union member in his 50s who was pronounced dead after being rushed to a hospital in a state of cardiac arrest. The driver reportedly told police that he did not intend to hurt anyone and only tried to quickly leave the area. Authorities believe the collision happened as rallygoers tried to block the vehicle from exiting the site. Union members have accused police of recklessly facilitating trucks to leave the

Apr 22, 2026By Yonhap
Police seek arrest warrant for truck driver for fatally striking rallygoers in Jinju
Defense

Korea's military academy merger plan sparks debate

A government push to integrate Korea’s Army, Navy and Air Force academies is gaining traction, but so is the backlash. What began as a proposal to modernize officer training has evolved into a broader debate about the structure of the military and the type of officers it needs to produce. While the Ministry of National Defense argues that reform is essential to prepare for future warfare, critics warn that the plan could undermine service-specific expertise and weaken the foundations of officer development. Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back has made it clear that he intends to proceed with the plan. Speaking at a recent press briefing, Ahn described the integration of the three academies as a long-standing issue that has resurfaced across administrations. “This has been a recurring topic regardless of political orientation,” he said. “Now is the time to respond proactively.” Ahn presented the proposal as a response to structural changes in both the military and society. He pointed to a decline in the competitiveness of applicants, noting that fewer top-tier students are choosing milit

Apr 22, 2026By Bahk Eun-ji
Korea's military academy merger plan sparks debate
Policy & Trends

Korea’s higher education push stalls as foreign faculty numbers decline

Student enrollment at Korean universities is becoming more internationally diverse than ever before. Yet in contrast, the number of foreign instructors continues to decline, exposing structural limits in the country's globalization drive. Various factors, from low pay and rigid employment rules to visa constraints and housing costs, are undermining universities' efforts to attract and retain global faculty members. At the same time, universities face a delicate balancing act — easing barriers to bring in more foreign faculty while ensuring they are not hired merely to boost rankings, but can make meaningful contributions to research and teaching. Pay gap widens under tuition freeze Data from the Korean Educational Development Institute showed that the number of full-time foreign instructors surged from 1,671 in 2005 to a peak of 5,358 in 2013, before dropping below 5,000 in 2017 and declining further to 4,013 as of 2025. The trajectory tracks the budgetary strain universities began feeling after a tuition freeze. The freeze has its roots in the early 2000s, when criticism over steep tui

Apr 22, 2026By Jung Da-hyun
Korea’s higher education push stalls as foreign faculty numbers decline
Environment & Animals

How Seoul turned its biggest garbage dump into beloved park

On a sunny afternoon last week, Park Ju-young, 28, brought her lunch up to Haneul Park in Mapo District, one of Seoul's most beloved green spaces, unaware she was sitting atop a mountain of buried garbage. “Both my home and office are nearby, so I come here often for a run after work,” Park told The Korea Times. “But I had no idea this place used to be a landfill.” Oh, a 90-year-old daily visitor who moved to the neighborhood four years ago, remembers the site differently. Before it became Haneul Park, it was Nanjido, Seoul's main landfill. "Back then, everyone knew it as a dirty, smelly garbage dump," she said. The park is now one of the city's most dramatic environmental turnarounds — and a fitting symbol for Earth Day, which falls on Wednesday. Starting in 1978, Nanjido served as Seoul's landfill for 15 years, absorbing more than 92 million tons of waste, enough to form two garbage mountains rising 98 meters high. The area was thick with foul odors and dust, while methane gas and leachate from decomposing waste triggered serious environmental damage. The Seoul Metropolitan Go

Apr 22, 2026By Park Ung
How Seoul turned its biggest garbage dump into beloved park
Politics

Why Korean Gen Z is cooling on President Lee

President Lee Jae Myung has a 66 percent approval rating overall, yet his support among voters in their 20s has stagnated at 48 percent, a gap that threatens the Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) hopes for a sweeping win in the June 3 local elections. Experts say many young voters are disillusioned by a complex mix of economic and political frustrations. Young voters face a sluggish job market exacerbated by artificial intelligence replacing entry-level roles, a perceived absence of targeted youth policies and a ruling party focused on prosecution reforms that many view as disconnected from their everyday concerns. According to a Gallup Korea poll released March 20, Lee’s overall approval rating remained in the high 60-percent range for the third consecutive month this year. However, his 48 percent approval among respondents aged 18 to 29 lags significantly behind voters in their 40s and 50s, who registered 78 percent and 77 percent, respectively. It also trails the 60 percent approval from voters in their 70s and older, a demographic that traditionally leans conservative. This marks

Apr 21, 2026By Hankookilbo
Why Korean Gen Z is cooling on President Lee
Politics

Yoon's constitutional complaint over special counsel probe referred for formal review

A constitutional complaint filed by former President Yoon Suk Yeol over a law mandating a special counsel probe into his insurrection charges was referred Tuesday for formal review at the Constitutional Court, officials said. The Constitutional Court made the decision to refer the case to its full nine-member bench for review, court officials said. Yoon filed the complaint last month against the law mandating a special counsel probe into the insurrection charges he faces for declaring martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The law was enacted in June last year, followed by the launch the same month of a special counsel investigation into Yoon's insurrection charges. In his petition, Yoon challenges provisions of the law governing the appointment of the special counsel, as well as the scope of his investigative powers. In a district court in February, Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment on insurrection charges brought by the special counsel investigation.

Apr 21, 2026By Yonhap
Yoon's constitutional complaint over special counsel probe referred for formal review
Law & Crime

Special counsel seeks 4-year prison term for Rep. Kweon in bribery appeal

A special counsel team on Tuesday sought a four-year prison term for Rep. Kweon Seong-dong of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) in his appellate trial on charges of receiving illegal political funds from the Unification Church. Special counsel Min Joong-ki's team requested the sentence during the final trial hearing at the Seoul High Court, matching the recommendation it made during a lower court trial. Kweon was sentenced in the initial trial to two years in prison for accepting 100 million won ($68,000) in illegal political funds from a church official in January 2022, along with requests for favors from the former administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol. "(Kweon) received a large amount of illegal political funds worth 100 million won in collusion with the Unification Church, and furthermore bridged the church and the president," a special counsel team member said. "Even so, from the investigation to the courtroom, he has not shown any remorse." The five-term lawmaker was known to be one of ousted former President Yoon's close confidants and served as the PPP's floor leade

Apr 21, 2026By Yonhap
Special counsel seeks 4-year prison term for Rep. Kweon in bribery appeal
Campus

Sungkyunkwan University charts surge in advanced solar cell research

A solar technology pioneered in Korea has emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas in global energy research, according to new analysis released by Sungkyunkwan University. The report, co-authored by the university’s chemical engineering department and the analytics firm Clarivate, traces the rise of perovskite solar cells since a pivotal breakthrough in 2012. That year, a team led by professor Park Nam-gyu demonstrated the first solid-state perovskite cell, helping to redirect photovoltaic research by showing the materials could be both stable and efficient. Perovskite materials have long been seen as a leading successor to silicon, which still dominates the global market. Unlike silicon, which requires energy-intensive, high-temperature processing, perovskites can be manufactured at relatively low temperatures. Their crystalline structure also allows them to be applied to thin, flexible surfaces, opening the way for solar integration into windows, clothing and curved building facades. The report finds that performance gains have accelerated at a pace rarely seen in materials scie

Apr 21, 2026By Lee Kyung-min
Sungkyunkwan University charts surge in advanced solar cell research
South Korea

Korea, Peru partner to protect Machu Picchu from climate threats

Korea has launched a formal initiative to assist in the preservation of Machu Picchu, the 15th century Incan citadel in Peru, as the UNESCO World Heritage site faces intensifying pressure from climate change and mass tourism. The Korea Heritage Service announced that its affiliate, the Korea Heritage Agency, signed a detailed agreement with Peru’s Ministry of Culture last Friday (local time) in Lima. The document establishes the framework for a five-year international development project scheduled to run from 2026 through 2030. The Machu Picchu Preservation and Management Capacity Building initiative marks a significant expansion of Korea’s cultural diplomacy in South America. The project’s scope includes technical assistance for structural stabilization, the implementation of advanced monitoring systems to track environmental degradation, and a coordinated strategy for sustainable tourism management. The partnership stems from a preliminary memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in April 2025. Following a year of working-level negotiations to finalize the bu

Apr 21, 2026By Lee Kyung-min
Korea, Peru partner to protect Machu Picchu from climate threats
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