Mar 28, 2020

PM urges youth to stop clubbing

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun urged young people to join the country’s fight against the novel coronavirus by avoiding social gatherings, saying individual efforts are as essential as government measures. “For the youth, especially, it is essential that people stay away from places like clubs,” Chung said during the daily virus response meeting. He also directed related agencies to keep a close tab on how clubs and other entertainment businesses were enforcing vi

Mar 28, 2020

146 newly confirmed with virus in S. Korea; Recovery rate tops 50%

South Korea reported 147 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the total to 9,478. Daegu, the southern city hardest by the virus, accounted for nearly half of the new cases with 71, while 24 were identified during the infection screening process of international arrivals. Gyeonggi Province counted 18 new cases, followed by capital Seoul with 18 and Incheon 5. The number of people discharged from hospital after full recoveries exceeded those receiving treatment Saturday

Mar 28, 2020

Seoul to turn off lights for 'Earth Hour' campaign

Seoul, the South Korean capital, will join the global lights-out campaign Earth Hour in turning off its lights for an hour Saturday, the municipal government said. Seoul landmarks including Lotte World Tower, N Seoul Tower, the 63 Building and bridges over the Han River will go dark from 8:30 p.m., according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. But the lights in Seoul City Hall, where the city's situation room is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak, will remain on, it added. Launched by th

Mar 28, 2020

Popular Seoul park to close on virus fears

A park in southeastern Seoul, famous for its picturesque cherry blossom trees, will close until mid-April as part of precautionary measures to contain the new coronavirus. Seokchon Lake Park in Songpa Ward will close from Saturday to April 12, according to a Facebook post written by ward chief Park Sung-soo. The ward will open four gates to the park from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. every day for residents who pass through the park for their commute, according to the post. The closure comes in line

Mar 27, 2020

[Newsmaker] Ex-FT Island singer additionally convicted for filming rape victims

The 31-year-old Choi was additionally indicted later on charges of filming and photographing his rape victims, sharing the footage and photos with friends in mobile chat rooms and offering 2 million won ($1,650) to a police officer after being caught driving under the influence in February 2016. The same Seoul court handed out the suspended jail sentence to Choi after finding him guilty of the additional allegations. It also ordered Choi to undergo 80 hours of sex offender treatment and barred

Mar 27, 2020

Govt. set to decide on school opening date next week

South Korea is expected to announce early next week whether to open schools in early April or postpone it further as new cases of the coronavirus show no signs of abating. "(The government) plans to announce on Monday or Tuesday whether school closures will end on April 6 or whether they will be further extended," Lee Sang-soo, a senior official at the Ministry of Education, said in an online briefing Friday. "If the closure is extended, then classes may be held remotely,"

Mar 27, 2020

S. Korea-bound passengers with high fever to be banned from boarding flights

Any passenger with a body temperature of higher than 37.5 C will be banned from boarding flights to South Korea starting next week, South Korea's health authorities said Friday, as they seek to contain new coronavirus cases involving people coming from overseas. Beginning Monday, people who are flying to South Korea will be required to get fever checks by airlines at airports, they said. For passengers who are banned from boarding flights to South Korea, each airline will return their fares to

Mar 27, 2020

62 mass infection cases reported at hospital in Daegu

A new cluster of novel coronavirus infections emerged Friday in Daegu, the city at the heart of Korea’s novel coronavirus outbreak, with 62 people at a mental health hospital confirmed to be infected with the virus. As of noon Friday, 62 people -- 61 inpatients and 1 staff member -- had tested positive for the virus from the mental health hospital, with the number of infections feared to rise, according to the Daegu Metropolitan Government. The mental health hospital, which houses 286

Mar 27, 2020

Ruling party chief declares war on digital sex crimes

The Democratic Party has submitted three revision bills for the Criminal Law, the Sexual Violence Crime Act and the Information and Communication Network Act to the Assembly, calling for stricter punishment of blackmailing with videos of a sexual nature. Lee said his party will push to pass the three revision bills, all related to chat room sex abuse, at the parliament in May, stressing the war against digital sex crimes will be fought like the ongoing war on the coronavirus outbreak. "Di

Mar 27, 2020

PM says hard to ban overseas arrivals

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Friday that it was difficult to ban arrivals from Europe and the US to contain the novel coronavirus, as 90 percent of imported cases were Korean nationals. “The number of newly confirmed cases in the country has gone down to a stable level, but the share of imported cases are rising. Managing risks from overseas has become more important,” Chung said at the beginning of a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters. &

Mar 27, 2020

Restructuring looms large at virus-hit companies

Companies hit by the coronavirus look set to restructure their businesses and reduce their workforces if the outbreak of the respiratory illness extends beyond the second quarter, analysts said Friday. The COVID-19 virus, which first emerged in China late last year and has claimed more than 24,000 lives and infected over 531,000 people around the world, has had an impact on a wide range of industries in recent months. In particular, airlines and tourism companies have been hit hardest by the n

Mar 27, 2020

Seoul observes record early cherry blooming

The first cherry blooming in Seoul this spring was observed Friday, the earliest in record due to warmer weather, the state weather agency said. It was seven days earlier than last year's April 3 and 14 days earlier than the average date of April 10 between 1981 and 2010, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). This year's blooming was also the earliest since the nation began to record data in 1922. The first bloom is declared when at least three blossoms of a KMA-design

Mar 27, 2020

New infections again skid, clusters, imported cases still concerns

South Korea saw a slight decline in new coronavirus cases on Friday, but cluster infections continued to emerge amid a rise in cases involving arrivals from overseas. The 91 new cases, which were detected Thursday and down from 104 new cases on Wednesday, marked the 16th consecutive day that there were around 100 or fewer additional cases, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). There were 9,332 confirmed cases in total and the death toll rose by eight to 13

Mar 26, 2020

Seoul City launches English webpage on COVID-19

The Seoul City government said Thursday that it had launched an English webpage to make it easier for foreign residents in the capital to access key information on the novel coronavirus.  The webpage (http://english.seoul.go.kr) provides updates on the tally of novel coronavirus cases by district, a travel log of confirmed patients, the locations of virus testing facilities, behavioral rules and the government’s quarantine measures for foreign residents, among other information.&nbs