South Korea’s medical professors join protests, reduce hours in practice
Seoul, South Korea Reuters Medical professors in South Korea said they will cut back on the hours they spend in practice starting on Monday to support trainee doctors on strike for more than a month over a government plan to boost medical school admissions. “It is clear that increasing medical school admissions will not only […]
South Korea’s Yoon warns of tech threat to democracy at summit
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday called fake news and disinformation based on AI and digital technology threats to democracy, as his country hosted a gathering of senior global officials including from Britain, the EU and the United States. Speaking at the opening of the Summit for Democracy, Yoon […]
South Korea opens hotline to support doctors defying walkout
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea’s government opened a hotline for doctors on Tuesday that the health minister said was intended to support physicians who faced harassment or peer pressure if they chose not to join a mass walkout over healthcare reform plans. Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong defended the reforms, which include boosting the number […]
South Korea deploys military, public doctors to strike-hit hospitals
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea will start deploying military physicians and doctors from public health centres to strike-hit hospitals on Monday to help care for patients affected by the walkout of nearly 12,000 trainee doctors from 100 hospitals over government reform plans. Twenty military surgeons along with 138 public health doctors will be assigned […]
Overworked and unheard, South Korean doctors on mass walkout say
Seoul, South Korea Reuters Ryu Ok Hada always wanted to help people, but now the South Korean trainee doctor has walked off the job and stands outside the hospital where he worked, holding his medical gown in his hand. Park Dan, who recently realised his childhood dream of being an emergency physician, is also one […]
South Korea health alert raised to ‘severe’ over doctors walkout
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea will maximise the use of public hospitals to respond to growing strains on the medical system after a mass walkout by trainee doctors, the prime minister said on Friday, as the public health alert was elevated to the highest level. The protests by almost two-thirds of the country’s young […]
Seoul police chief indicted over Halloween crush
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korean prosecutors have indicted the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, charging him with contributing through negligence to the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul in 2022 that killed nearly 160 people, according to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors Office. The indictment of Seoul police chief Kim Kwang-ho came more […]
South Korean night-life district mourns dead a year after Halloween crush
Seoul, South KoreaReuters A year after 159 Halloween revellers were killed in a crowd crush in South Korea, the capital’s night-life district of Itaewon was quiet on Saturday, the area’s usual festivities replaced by mourning for those died. In the days before Halloween, seasonal decorations normally adorn the alleys that house the district’s hottest nightclubs […]
A year after deadly South Korean crush, families fight for accountability
Seoul, South KoreaReuters One year after Park Young-soo lost her only son in a Halloween weekend crowd crush that killed 159 people in the South Korean capital, she still can’t bring herself to open the door to his room. She says she may not be able to move on with her life until she sees […]
Seoul tests crowd safety plan ahead of anniversary of deadly Halloween crush
Seoul, South KoreaReuters A knot of people jostled and shoved each other on Wednesday in a narrow alleyway in Seoul, before filing patiently past a barricade of police officers in a crowd control drill held ahead of the one-year anniversary of a deadly Halloween crush. The exercise, showcasing an AI-backed network of nearly 1,000 closed-circuit […]