Category: Korea-General Topics

Just another example of Korea’s expanding cultural influence even within the Catholic religion:

A mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary dressed in the traditional Korean outfit of “hanbok” was unveiled in the Vatican Gardens on Friday, marking the first time a Korean artwork has been installed in the historic site.

The “Korean Virgin Mary of Peace” mosaic, measuring 100 by 150 centimeters, was installed as part of a collection of Virgin Mary mosaics from around the world on the “Bastione Maestro,” a wall that serves as the border of Vatican City. 

The mosaic, which shows the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus dressed in hanbok, is intended to symbolize a hope for peace and an end to war, according to artists Shim Soon-hwa and Yun Hae-young, who created the piece.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Who would have thought having a bunch of kids in the classroom who don’t speak Korean would lead to stress for the teachers trying to educate them? Yes I am being sarcastic:

More than half of teachers at schools with a high number of immigrant students face challenges communicating with pupils from multicultural backgrounds due to their limited Korean language skills, a recent study shows.

According to a report released on Sunday by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), a lack of policy support often exacerbates this problem, potentially increasing teachers’ workloads and undermining the quality of education they provide.

The report, which surveyed 342 teachers from 95 elementary and middle schools nationwide, revealed that 76.9 percent of respondents cited the increasing number of students from foreign families who do not speak Korean as the most challenging aspect of their work. Additionally, 59.1 percent reported heightened workloads and burnout due to the need to support these students, while 44.5 percent pointed to insufficient policy and institutional support as a significant issue.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Is this posturing or this a sign of breaking of will within the Yoon the administration against the striking Korean doctors:

Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong said Sunday that the government could revisit its medical school admission quota plan for 2026 if the medical community offers a rational alternative.

In an interview with KBS, Cho said, “For 2026, if the medical community presents a reasonable alternative, we can review the admissions numbers with a fresh perspective.”

“The government has proposed an increase of 2,000, but since the medical community has criticized this as unscientific and lacking evidence, we are asking what they believe would be a scientifically based and well-founded admission number,” Cho added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but at this point President Yoon might as well stick this out and make increasing the number of doctors in Korea part of his lasting legacy even though his poll numbers are getting burned by it now.

This is what the doctor strike in South Korea is causing, pregnant women stuck in ambulances for six hours trying to find a hospital that will take them:

It is known that the pregnant woman asked 119 for help, saying, “The amniotic fluid is leaking,” but she was treated after waiting for six hours in an ambulance without finding a hospital. Fire officials knocked on the doors of 75 hospitals but were rejected.

According to the Chungbuk and provincial fire departments on the 15th, a report came into 119 at 11:25 a.m. the previous day that “a 25-week-old pregnant woman’s amniotic fluid burst” in Cheongju.

The 119 paramedics decided that it was an emergency situation where the pregnant woman was bleeding, and began looking for hospitals to accept patients.

The fire authorities requested 75 large hospitals, starting with Chungcheongbuk-do, from Incheon to Incheon, Gyeonggi-do, Jeolla-do, Gyeongsang-do, and Jeju-do, but all refused to transfer due to “no obstetricians” and “lack of newborn hospital rooms.”

Maeil Business Newspaper

You can read more at the link, but fortunately the woman and baby end of being saved.

It looks like MCST got caught pushing out unverified reports as facts:

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) recently released a webtoon based on the “North Korea Human Rights Report” that included the claim, “30 North Korean middle school students were publicly executed for watching South Korean dramas.”

However, the Unification Ministry, which published the actual human rights report, stated that no such information is included, raising suspicions that the MCST might have fabricated the news.

According to Rep. Yoon Hu-duk of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who is also a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the MCST published a webtoon titled “Talking About the Lives of North Korean Residents Through the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report” on July 30. The webtoon appeared on the “Korea Policy Briefing,” the official government website that introduces government policies.

In the webtoon, characters claim that “North Korea publicly executed 30 middle school students for watching South Korean dramas on USBs carried by balloons,” and “Not only that, but just recently, 30 teenagers around the age of 17 were sentenced to life imprisonment and execution for similar reasons.”

However, the 2024 North Korea Human Rights Report, which the MCST cited as the basis for the webtoon, does not contain such information.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I guess being gay is not part of being Gangnam Style with complaints forcing the taking down of a gay app ad:

 A giant-screen advertisement showing homosexual people kissing and embracing each other was taken down four days after it began airing on the streets of Seoul’s southern district of Gangnam due to a series of complaints.

The matchmaking app for homosexual people first appeared on the giant screen set up along the streets of Gangnam’s Nonhyeon-dong on Aug. 26 under a contract that calls for the ad’s airing at least 100 times a day for one year.

The images showed gay and lesbian couples looking at each other, kissing and embracing.

But the ad was suspended Aug. 30 at the request of the Gangnam Ward government.

“Many complaints were received,” a Gangnam Ward official said, adding the office asked for the ad’s suspension under related law that bans advertisements that are feared to harm traditional customs with obscene content.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.