Articles by Yoon Min-sik
Yoon Min-sik
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com-
27 years later, reformed boy thief leaves 'I'm sorry' note at temple
A Buddhist monk's tolerance toward a boy who stole from a temple led the boy to become a better person, a man who had stolen from a temple's offering box 27 years ago wrote in a letter of gratitude he sent to the temple recently. Tongdosa, a temple of the Jogye Order, has revealed that its monks recently found a letter with 2 million won ($1,490) inside the temple's offering box. The letter writer identified himself as having stolen money from the temple 27 years earlier, but
People Sept. 10, 2024
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Young Koreans with bad credit surge
The number of young South Koreans with delinquent loans has rapidly increased in the past three years, data by the state-run financial watchdog showed Monday. As of July, 65,887 people in their 20s have been registered at the Korea Credit Information Services as "delinquent borrowers," referring to people who are disadvantaged in financial transactions due to long-standing credit card or bank debt. This figure marked a 25.3 percent increase from the 52,580 delinquent borrowers in the s
Economy Sept. 9, 2024
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S. Korea sees spike in confiscation of illegal drugs
South Korean customs officials confiscated 769 kilograms of illegal drugs being smuggled into the country last year, 18 percent more than the year before, data from state-run bodies showed Monday. The confiscated drugs are reportedly worth about 61.3 billion won ($45.7 million), according to the data compiled by the Incheon International Airport Corp. and the Korea Customs Service, submitted to Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. The amount of drugs seized by auth
Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2024
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Gangnam-gu's removal of LGBTQ+ dating app ad draws fire
A backlash from the LGBTQ+ community has been mounting over Gangnam-gu office's decision to take down after four days what it called an "indecent" digital advertisement, which featured same-sex couples facing each other, hugging and kissing. Yang Sun-woo, chair of the Seoul Queer Culture Festival organizing committee, told local media that the decision was based on discrimination against LGBTQ+ members of society. "Many advertisements in Korea depict the affection between dif
Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2024
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NewJeans video director accuses Ador of lying about content removal
Another controversy surrounding NewJeans is rising, this time over pages run by production company Dolphiners Films. Shin Woo-seok, best known to the public for directing four NewJeans music videos, demanded a public apology from the group's label Ador through his Instagram page, accusing the label of lying about details behind the removal of videos. All NewJeans-related content on Dolphiners Films' social media pages and its nonprofit YouTube channel Ban Heesoo has been removed. Ban
Social Affairs Sept. 9, 2024
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Over 1 million train fare evasions since 2019: data
An annual average of 190,926 cases of fare evasions at major train services like KTX occurred here between 2019 and July of this year, data from state-run railway operators showed Friday. Over the last five years, officials caught an average of 4.12 billion won ($3 million) worth of illegal train rides a year, according to Korail data submitted to Rep. Yoon Jong-kun of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. The railway operator currently runs the high-speed KTX trains as well as the Sa
Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2024
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'Trust me and jump': Police catches child escaping burning factory
A police officer managed to catch an elementary school student who had to jump out of a second-floor window of a burning building, local police said Friday. According to the Pyeongtaek Police Station, a fire broke out on the third floor of a factory building in Poseung-eup, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province at 3:58 p.m on Thursday. Police officers evacuated the area but belatedly found the young boy crying for help, stranded on the second floor of the building. Unable to enter the building already i
Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2024
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9 out of 10 Seoul five-star hotels use ‘drip pricing’ in promotion
Most of the five-star hotels in Seoul are omitting mandatory additional fees from the room charges displayed on their homepages, the Seoul city government said Friday. Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted a survey of 27 hotels rated five stars by the Tourism Promotion Act and found that only three of them show room charges complete with taxes and additional fees to customers. The rest use "drip pricing," a technique where only a part of an item is advertised and the final amount is
Social Affairs Sept. 6, 2024
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1 out of 3 households in Gyeonggi live alone
A full 31.2 percent of the 5.5 million total households in Gyeonggi Province consist of just one person as of last November, a report by the regional government showed Wednesday. As of November 2023, there were a total of 1.71 million single-person households in the province, up from 1.63 million the previous year. A full 21.9 percent of all single-person households nationwide are in Gyeonggi. South Korea's most populous province, Gyeonggi has a population of 13.67 million as of August 2024
Social Affairs Sept. 4, 2024
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First responders' request to locate ERs doubles amid medical strike
As South Korea suffers from the prolonged disruption of medical services across the country, government data showed Wednesday that rescue workers' requests for ERs have more than doubled this year compared to the same period last year. From February to June 25, 119 emergency control centers have selected hospitals for emergency patients on 1,196 occasions, according to the National Fire Agency. This marks an increase of 131 percent compared to 519 such cases in the same period last year.
Social Affairs Sept. 4, 2024
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Mother of abuse victim thanks perpetrators, urges no punishment
The mother of a 17-year-old girl who died from severe abuse by church members said she was "thankful" to the perpetrators, reiterating that she did not want them to be punished. The 52-year-old woman testified in a court hearing held at Incheon District Court on Monday and stated that there was no coercion from the defendants for the child to be sent to the church. A 52-year-old leader of an Incheon church choir and two other members are currently being tried on allegations of child
Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2024
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Bus drivers urge passengers to give up seats for pregnant women
Stories of bus drivers encouraging passengers to give up seats for pregnant women have been circulating online, most recently with a woman's compliment posted on the Seoul Bus Labor Union website on Monday. A woman who identified herself as 12 weeks pregnant said she got on a Seoul bus No. 440 at around 6 p.m. on Monday with no real hopes of getting a seat during rush hour. But when the driver saw her pregnancy badge, he asked the passengers sitting in the priority zones to give up their se
Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2024
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Incheon airport to prevent 'excessive private security' for celebrities
Incheon Airport will introduce a new manual on dealing with private security personnel employed by celebrities, in light of the recent controversy surrounding what was alleged to be excessive security measures for actor Byeon Woo-seok. The manual will detail proper responses for when the terminals get crowded due to high-profile personnel leaving or arriving at the airport, according to the Incheon International Airport Corp. report submitted to Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democrati
Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2024
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Only 5.5% of online sex crime suspects detained
Over 7,000 people were investigated for online sex crimes between 2021 and 2023, but only 5.5 percent of them were detained, police data showed Tuesday. A total of 9,864 such crimes occurred in that period, according to National Police Agency data submitted to Democratic Party Rep. Hwang Jung-a. A total of 3,295 of them were related to child pornography -- accounting for 43.8 percent -- followed by 2,415 cases involving illegally filmed content and 1,563 cases involving other illegal porn
Social Affairs Sept. 3, 2024
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Take the high road: Suspect on drugs drives to police station
South Korean police said Monday that a man in his 30s is being investigated for suspected drug use after he parked his car at a police station while apparently still under the influence of illegal drugs. The suspect was taken into custody by officers at Ilsan Dongbu Police Station in Gyeonggi Province on Saturday, after he parked his car in the handicapped zone of the station at around 5 p.m. He told the police official who approached him that he came to visit the traffic investigation unit, b
Social Affairs Sept. 2, 2024
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