South Korea

Face masks will no longer be required indoors starting Monday 30th Jan, except in high-risk places such as hospitals and on public transportation; schools, kindergartens, child care centers and department store will be mask-free

Hundreds of people had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in Guryong Village in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the only remaining slum area in Gangnam-gu

The annual bell-tolling ceremony to celebrate New Year's Eve will resume after two years of suspension due to COVID-19; hosted by the Seoul metropolitan government, it will take place at 11:30 pm at Bosingak Pavilion with about 100.000 people attending

Amid the demographic crisis affecting the country, a law will make its citizens one or two years younger on official documents, eliminating the traditional method of counting ages and adopting the international standard

Prosecutors on Friday demanded five years in prison and a fine of 12 million won ($9.225) for former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who stands accused of academic irregularities involving his children and interference with an inspection into a corruption case

"Talchum", the traditional Korean mask dance, was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list

Car exports jumped 28,5% on-year in October thank to a rise in demand for eco-friendly cars; the value of outbound shipments of automobiles came to $4,92 billion, the largest ever for any October

The country has entered a week of national mourning for the over 150 victims of Saturday night’s human stampede in Itaewon, the worst tragedy in a decade after the Sewol ferry disaster

The country has begun consultation with the EU on this year's draft resolution on North Korea's human rights abuses, breaking a 4-years silence towards NK’s violations; the resolution has been adopted for 20 consecutive years, unanimously since 2016

Concerns have been expressed by the President about eventual service failures of the nation's most popular message app KakaoTalk in an emergency such as war; the de facto key communication network has no countermeasures for its paralysis in an emergency

The South Korea government official who was shot dead by North Korean troops at sea on Sept. 22, 2020, was finally given a funeral yesterday, exactly two years later; the service was not open to the public