Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Friday was acquitted by an appellate court of charges that he violated the Political Funds Act ahead of the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election, overturning a lower court's guilty verdict. The appellate ruling cancels Oh's conviction by the lower court, which had imposed a 10 million won ($7,500) fine that could have cost him his mayoral post if finalized. The Seoul High Court found insufficient evidence to establish that Oh had asked self-proclaimed political broker Myung T

A nationwide court network outage disrupted access to the judicial case management system for about two hours on Thursday, but services were restored by 6 p.m., the National Court Administration said. The administration said the outage began at around 3:50 p.m., affecting the national case management system, online case searches that provide updates on court proceedings, and other judicial information systems, including those used to process arrest warrants. The administration said the outage wa

The Ministry of Justice said Thursday it would reform the E-7-4 skilled worker visa system, which allows eligible E-9 nonprofessional workers and E-10 seafarers to switch to a visa permitting a longer stay. The system assesses applicants’ Korean proficiency, income and employment or residency duration. After the quota rose from 2,000 to 35,000 in September 2023, the number of E-7-4 visa holders reached 52,648 as of September this year. A June survey of 470 businesses and 316 foreign workers iden

The Constitutional Court on Thursday upheld a law imposing harsher penalties for murdering a parent or other direct ascendant than for ordinary murder. The court ruled 8-1 that Article 250, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Act, which prescribes aggravated punishment for killing one’s own or one’s spouse’s direct ascendant, is constitutional. Under the provision, those convicted face the death penalty, life imprisonment or a prison term of at least seven years. Ordinary murder, by comparison, carries

The South Korean government and Seoul won a lawsuit Thursday against US private equity firm Lone Star Funds over 168.2 billion won ($127 million) in tax refunds, after the Seoul High Court rejected Lone Star’s claims in a retrial ordered by the Supreme Court. The case involved nine Lone Star-affiliated entities, including Lone Star Funds, seeking the return of taxes imposed on their investments in Korea. The ruling dismissed claims for refunds that lower courts had previously ordered the central

Three recent killings, one in Songpa-gu in Seoul, another on Jeju Island, and third in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, have raised questions about the effectiveness of South Korea’s anti-stalking law and its victim-protection system. In each case, police had received prior reports about the suspect. “We cannot protect victims without taking measures against perpetrators,” Song Ran-hee, a representative of the Korea Women’s Hotline, said at a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday marking five yea

Law Firm YK seeks to use its nationwide network as a base for overseas growth, pairing its domestic reach with local legal expertise to support Korean companies entering unfamiliar markets. The firm, which ranked seventh among Korean law firms by revenue in 2025, plans to expand its overseas network from three offices to 30 within three years. It currently operates offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. “When expanding a business abroad, people n

Jung Myung-seok, the 81-year-old leader of the controversial religious group Christian Gospel Mission, widely known as JMS, was sentenced to an additional 33 years in prison Monday for sexually assaulting 16 female followers by exploiting his religious authority. The Daejeon District Court found Jung guilty of charges including quasi-rape, which applies to cases of rape in which the victim is unable to resist, ruling that he repeatedly sexually abused female followers by exploiting his absolute

Arthur John Patterson, who was convicted of the “Itaewon Burger King murder,” has been punished for secretly exchanging food and other items with United States Forces Korea inmates, according to a local media report. Patterson, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence at Cheonan Correctional Institution in South Chungcheong Province, was caught in August exchanging food by tying a cord to a bag and lowering it out the window, according to a report published Thursday by legal news outlet The Sisa

Proposed Bill: Special Act on Fostering New Security Innovative Enterprises Proposed by Rep. Oh Sae-hee (Democratic Party of Korea) Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Special Act on the Promotion of Growth and the Strengthening of Competitiveness of Middle-Standing Enterprises Proposed by Rep. Kim Sung-won (People Power Party) Pending Bill: Partial Amendment to the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act Proposed by Rep. Oh Gi-hyoung (Democratic Party of Korea) Promulgated Bil

About 95 percent of prisoners serving life sentences who were paroled in South Korea over the past decade had been convicted of murder-related offenses, Justice Ministry data obtained by Rep. Seo Young-kyo of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea showed. The figures come amid renewed debate over life imprisonment without parole. Current law allows those sentenced to life imprisonment to be considered for parole after 20 years, but authorities do not separately track reoffending among those releas

A Thai man who changed his name to evade a permanent ban on entering South Korea has received a suspended prison sentence, a court said Friday. The Busan District Court sentenced the man, in his 40s, to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the Immigration Act. He had been deported in April for overstaying his permitted period of stay and permanently barred from reentering Korea. About three months later, he changed his name, obtained a passport under the new name and retu

A man who fatally stabbed a colleague during an argument at their company dormitory in Daejeon has received a final sentence of 20 years in prison. The Supreme Court recently rejected the 41-year-old’s appeal against his murder sentence, according to local media reports Friday. The man was convicted of killing his colleague, then 36, in Yuseong-gu in the early hours of Dec. 1 last year. Both men were Philippine nationals. The two had argued after the victim said he suspected the defendant of rep

A court has upheld a two-month suspension imposed on an Army officer for repeatedly leaving his post without permission, verbally abusing soldiers and delaying approval of their leave. The Busan District Court said Thursday it has dismissed the officer’s lawsuit against his unit commander seeking to overturn the disciplinary action. Gate records showed the officer drove off the base 64 times during weekday working hours over 10 months without requesting leave or reporting his departures to a com

A man in his 60s was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for seriously injuring a Thai worker at his factory by firing a compressed-air gun into the worker's lower body. The Suwon District Court found the man guilty of inserting the nozzle of a compressed-air gun into the worker's anus and discharging air for approximately seven seconds on Feb. 20 at his metal coating facility in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. The worker had been bent over at his workstation at the time. The victim, in his