Author: Jae young

September 19, 2025SEOUL – At Seoul’s Yeouido Hangang Park, the mecca for the city’s running crews, four new taboos are shifting the vibe of the jogging trail.A banner, posted along the walkway, outlines the four guidelines which prohibit: 1) shirtless running, 2) clapping or cheering, 3) running in large groups and 4) shouting “make way” at other pedestrians.It also features messages urging group joggers to be mindful of others, with messages like “Run safely in two lines” and “This park is for everyone.”A banner listing the four rules for runners set up along a path in Yeouido Hangang Park. PHOTO:…

September 18, 2025SEOUL – South Korean authorities said Wednesday that a hacking attack on Lotte Card may have exposed the personal data of millions of customers, with the scale of the breach appearing far larger than initially reported.The incident, first disclosed early this month by the nation’s fifth-largest card issuer, is now under investigation, as regulators work to determine the full extent of the damage.Authorities believe the personal information of millions of Lotte Card’s 9.6 million customers may have been stolen. Early reports suggested 1.7 gigabytes of data had been leaked, but the actual figure is expected to be much…

September 18, 2025SEOUL – When the presidential office recently announced the appointment of J.Y. Park, chief creative officer and founder of JYP Entertainment, as co-chair of the Presidential Committee on Popular Culture Exchange, it raised eyebrows.The position carries minister-level authority, and many in the industry were surprised to see Park chosen over other heavyweight producers who built Korea’s “big four” K-pop agencies.At first glance, figures like Bang Si-hyuk of Hybe, Yang Hyun-suk of YG Entertainment and SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man might have seemed more likely candidates, given their influence and the global success of their artists. But a closer…

September 18, 2025SEOUL – Chief Justice Jo Hee-de denied Wednesday that he had colluded with ex-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to render President Lee Jae Myung ineligible to run for president, with a guilty verdict that nearly stripped him of his candidacy to run for president in the June election.The statement, delivered through the Supreme Court, was the first released by the judicial branch since the liberal ruling bloc ramped up pressure for Jo’s resignation.“The political circles have raised speculations that Jo had met with former Prime Minister Han and discussed ways to handle (Lee’s) case concerning his (violation) of the…

September 18, 2025SEOUL – A virtual idol group has won a civil case against a commenter who depreciated their looks online, in one of the first such cases related to the rights of celebrities exclusively using digitally created images to represent themselves.The Goyang branch of the Uijeongbu District Court in Gyeonggi Province recently ruled in favor of the five members of the group, who accused the defendant of harming their reputation in the form of insult and requested compensation of 6.5 million won ($4,700) per person. While the defendant’s derogatory comment, posted on X in July 2024, targeted the virtual…

September 17, 2025SEOUL – In October 2024, Bishal B.K., a 28-year-old Nepali, arrived in Korea with two goals: To earn money and to gain skills to support his family back home.For seven months before his departure, he attended a language academy in Nepal to study Korean, hoping the investment would ease his transition to living and working here.But the reality was far harsher than he had expected. Under the conditions of his visa, he was assigned to work at a metal company, where he was given plating work. The job required repeatedly lifting and carrying heavy metal parts, which eventually…

September 17, 2025SEOUL – The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday held the first preparatory hearing in the criminal trial of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who faces six key charges, including abetting the imposition of martial law, forging public documents, circulating forged public documents, destroying public documents and violating the Act on the Management of Presidential Archives.The preparatory hearing was held to discuss how the trial will proceed, to confirm the positions of both the defendant and the prosecution regarding the charges and to arrange the schedule for the examination of evidence. It is not mandatory for defendants to…

September 17, 2025SEOUL – In September 1996, German film programmer Erika Gregor let out a shriek in a darkened theater. A rat had just bitten her foot. For weeks later, filmgoers in Busan watched movies to the soundtrack of meowing — legend has it that the organizers had released cats to hunt down the rats.That this scrappy latecomer would become Asia’s premier film event seemed about as likely as Korea winning an Oscar. Both would become reality.Two years before the rodent incident, a handful of film professionals and academics —Lee Yong-kwan from Gyeongseong University, the late Kim Ji-seok from Busan…

September 17, 2025SEOUL – When Shin Dong-hwa, a senior researcher at LG Energy Solution, began classes at LG AI Research’s new graduate school, his focus was not on an abstract thesis but on a stubborn challenge from his lab: how to use artificial intelligence to accelerate cathode material design at the atomic level.“In the workplace, I rarely had the chance to study theory and mostly focused on applying pre-built models,” said Shin, who graduated from the program this February. “Through the master’s program, I was finally able to study AI theory and state-of-the-art model structures in depth, gaining knowledge and…

September 17, 2025SEOUL – The proportion of students reporting they were victims of school violence has climbed to the highest level since the government began tracking the problem in 2013, with elementary school students bearing the brunt of the increase.According to the Education Ministry’s survey on school violence for the first half of 2025, released Tuesday, 2.5 percent of students said they had suffered violence in the past semester, up from 2.1 percent a year earlier. The figure is the highest since the ministry began its nationwide survey 12 years ago, when the rate stood at 2.2 percent. After falling…