Prosecutors have raided the house of the Orion Group chief in expanding their investigation into allegations that he spearheaded the formation of the group's slush fund, officials said Monday. According to the officials, Orion Chairman Tam Chul-gon and his wife are suspected of ordering the formation of a slush fund and exploiting the money for personal uses. Last week, prosecutors indicted a k...

Rival regions rage, claim decision was made on political motivation The nation’s multi-trillion won science belt project took its first step on Monday with Daejeon selected as the host city. A government-private committee said Monday that Daejeon, some 164 kilometers south of Seoul, will have the National Basic Science Institute and a particle accelerator that will be completed in the region ov...

A Spanish diplomatic vehicle was involved in a two-kilometer, multiple-hit-and-run rampage in Itaewon, Seoul, injuring three police officers, police said Sunday. According to the National Police Agency, the husband of a Spanish Embassy official was driving a black Veracruz, a private vehicle registered under the embassy, when he hit a guard post, a patrol car and five civilian vehicles. The man...

Seoul Global Center will start consultations on industrial accidents for foreign residents from Tuesday. The weekly service, offered every Tuesday from 2-5 p.m. at the support center for expatriates, will be provided in seven languages including English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese. With the number of foreign workers here surging recently, many have complained of difficulty finding proper ...

Police will dismantle the controversial tri-color arrow traffic lights at 53 intersections nationwide, including 11 locations in central Seoul. Since the installment nearly a month ago, the red-yellow-green alternating arrow has been the cause of multiple accidents throughout the city. “We will halt the expansion of the three-color traffic light system, and subject it to further review,” said N...

A Seoul court has ruled against an online shopping company in a trademark infringement suit filed by Adidas Korea in November. The company, disclosed to the media as “F,” used Adidas’ signature 3-line design, which the German sportswear firm has used since 1982. It was ordered to cease production and sales of its sportswear with the design and destroy articles in storage, officials at the Seoul...

Should acupuncture be exclusive to Oriental medicine or a general practice for Western medics too? The medical field is in uproar over the Supreme Court’s ruling that Western medical doctors’ practice of acupuncture-related IMS violates Medical Law. While some Western doctors claim that IMS is a legitimate Westernized form of acupuncture popular throughout the world, Oriental doctors are seeking...

Irregular workers are paid half the wage of regular workers for the same amount of labor. They were also “discriminated” against when it came to joining labor unions and subscribing to the national pension scheme, a governmental report suggested Sunday. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, a regular worker was paid an average of 14,388 won ($13.20) per hour as of June last year, co...

The number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea topped the 21,000 mark in April in the five months since November last year, government officials said Saturday. According to the Unification Ministry, the number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea came to 21,165 as of April 17. The number of North Korean defectors in South Korea breached the 20,000 mark for the first time in Nov...

The Ministry of Justice will join the European convention on extradition in October to expand international cooperation in arresting and extraditing criminals who flee to European countries. The ministry said that it will sign the Council of Europe’s Convention on Extradition no later than July. Korea’s entry into the convention is expected within 90 days of signing. By joining the convention,...

The number of children diagnosed with early puberty has increased by more than 400 percent in four years. Changes in diet and exposure to environmental hormones were blamed for the sudden increase in the disorder. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of children diagnosed with precocious puberty was 28,000 in 2010, about 4.4 times 6,400 in 2006. The number...

SANTIAGO, (AFP) - A 10-year-old Bolivian boy who hid on a truck in an effort to visit his mother who had just been released from prison ended up in Chile after an unexpected 500-kilometer (300-mile) trek through the Andes mountains, officials said. The boy, identified as Franklin Vilca, ended up Saturday in the Chilean city of Iquique, some 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) north of Santiago, after...