The South Korean police said Tuesday that it has arrested a 37-year-old man for murdering another man with a Japanese-style sword at an apartment complex in Seoul. The suspect is believed to have attacked the victim in his 40s at around 11:30 p.m. on Monday near the entrance of the complex's parking lot in Eunpyeong-gu, northwestern Seoul. He and the victim were both residents of the complex and were acquainted, but not particularly close. It was reported that the suspect picked a fight wit

Social Affairs July 30, 2024

A man in his 50s is being investigated for allegedly torturing and killing a wild duck in Seoul, local police said Tuesday. Officials of Seoul Dobong Police Station are questioning the suspect, identified only as a Vietnamese national, for his actions on 11:20 a.m. last Friday at a stream in Dobong-gu, northeastern Seoul. He is believed to have thrown stones at a eastern spot-billed duck living in the stream to knock it out, after which he tortured and killed the animal. His reasons for killi

Social Affairs July 30, 2024

South Koreans with relatives in North Korea have not been in contact with their kin across the border for over a year, government data showed Tuesday, highlighting the increasingly worsening relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. According to the Ministry of Unification, there has been no contact between the separated families of the Koreas at the civilian level since February of last year. This refers to individuals connecting with their relatives through a non-government broker, which must b

North Korea July 30, 2024

South Korea on Monday notched its third-straight gold medal in the Olympic men’s team event, defeating host nation France and completing a sweep of the women's and men's team events at this year's Paris Olympics. Kim Woo-jin, Kim Je-deok and Lee Woo-seok hoisted the national flag after securing the 5-1 victory in the French capital. Since their more dominant female compatriots won the country’s 10th-straight gold in the women's team event on Sunday, Koreans have

More Sports July 30, 2024

Traffic between Seoul and Gangwon Province is expected to surge considerably during the summer vacation season, with trips from Seoul to the eastern coast taking as long as five hours and 50 minutes. According to the Gangwon Provincial headquarters of the Korea Expressway Corporation, an estimated 433,000 cars a day were expected to be on the expressways of the province between July 25 and Aug.11, the peak of the vacation season in South Korea. This is up 11.6 percent from the daily 386,000 ca

Travel July 27, 2024

A high school girl who recently died at a church had been subjected to severe abuse by church members including sleep deprivation and physical labor, a bill of indictment provided by the South Korean prosecution showed. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum of the ruling People Power Party on Wednesday revealed the content of the document he received from the prosecutors, which showed details of their investigation related to the girl's death on May 15. Three members of the Incheon church are currently on tr

Social Affairs July 27, 2024

The Constitutional Court of Korea recently ruled in favor of the legal clause that effectively requires suitors in civil cases to check the e-documents related to their litigation within the week of the information being made available to them. In the ruling, Article 11-4 of the Act on the Use of Electronic Documents in Civil Litigations was unanimously ruled constitutional. The article concerns electronic documents related to the civil cases, which are registered to the court system and made av

Social Affairs July 26, 2024

South Korean police have kicked off an investigation into the death of a man in his 40s whose body was found in a local reservoir Thursday, believing him to be responsible for a drunk driving accident a day earlier. The man's body was found at 2:48 p.m. Thursday floating in the Yongjeong Reservoir in Goesan-gun, North Chungcheong Province. The initial probe showed no signs of foul play and no indications that the deceased took his own life. Surveillance footage of the surrounding area showe

Social Affairs July 26, 2024

A 30-year-old man has filed a criminal complaint against actor Yoo Ah-in for sexually attacking him, Seoul police said Friday, with investigators considering the possibility that Yoo had been under the influence of drugs when it occurred. Officials at the Seoul Yongsan Police Station are investigating the imitative rape case involving the 37-year-old actor, with plans to summon him for questioning soon. Imitative rape, stipulated by Article 297-2 of the Criminal Act, refers to rape via non-genit

Social Affairs July 26, 2024

A 25-year-old man currently serving a prison term for patricide will be released next Tuesday on parole, a Daegu-based civic group said Thursday. In a highly publicized case in 2021, the man was convicted after he stopped providing food and medication for his terminally ill father due to financial difficulties. The victim had been bedridden since suffering a brain hemorrhage in September 2020, not being able to eat or relieve himself on his own. But his son, who had been on his mandatory mili

Social Affairs July 25, 2024

A Seoul court recently sentenced a former hagwon teacher to a three-year jail term for selling TOEIC test answers to multiple test-takers for money. The Seoul Eastern District Court found the defendant surnamed Hong guilty of obstruction of business as stipulated in Article 314 of the Criminal Act. In addition to the jail term, the court also ordered the seizure of 76.6 million won ($55,000) in assets. Investigators found that the 27-year-old defendant had committed the crimes to fund internet

Social Affairs July 25, 2024

Roughly 4 out of 10 students who were victims of school violence said they had felt the urge to either inflict injury on oneself or commit suicide, a survey by an NGO showed Wednesday. The Blue Tree Foundation, a group dedicated to preventing school violence and help victims, said in a press conference that 3.5 percent of the respondents in their recent survey said they had been subject to violence at school, of which 39.9 percent said they felt the urge to hurt or kill themselves. The foundat

Social Affairs July 25, 2024

An analysis of 81 conglomerates categorized as "middle market enterprises" showed Wednesday that the second generation of owner families owns a total of 33.5 percent of company shares. Corporate tracker CEO Score analyzed the shareholding structure of companies with 2 trillion won ($1.44 billion) or more in assets, and found that the combined value of shares held by owner families' second generations came to 13.39 trillion won as of July 15. The second generation in the report r

Companies July 24, 2024

A local police station recently shut down an open message board on its website after a barrage of complaints concerning allegations of an officer's coercive investigation into a wrongly accused man. As of Wednesday, the page that had previously functioned as a general forum accessible to anyone has disappeared from the website of the Hwaseong Dongtan Police Station that serves the city of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. Users are referred to a government-run website for placing police complain

Social Affairs July 24, 2024

A rape case that could have remained unresolved due to a lack of evidence has instead led to the indictment of the suspect, after investigators found that the sexual attack had been reflected in the lid of a washing machine. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently commended five cases for their outstanding use of forensic investigation in the second quarter of this year. Among the five were a Gangneung prosecutor's indictment of a rape suspect accused of six sexual attacks on his fo

Social Affairs July 24, 2024