A woman in her 90s and her son in his 60s were found dead in their apartment in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, according to police on Saturday. Namyangju Bukbu Police Station received a report at around 4 p.m. on Friday from the woman’s older son that both his mother and younger brother were dead. Upon arriving at the scene, police found the elderly woman and her son deceased in separate rooms. The older son, who had lived with his now-deceased mother and brother for 12 years, told police t

Nearly 3,000 homes have been purchased by minors in the past five years in South Korea, government data showed Thursday. Between 2019 and 2023, the number of home purchases by people under the age of 19 came to 2,964, which amounted to 519.8 billion won ($379.41 million), according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport data submitted to Rep. Ahn Do-geol of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Considering the purchasers' young ages, it appears many of these homes we

An appeals court upheld a two-year and six-month prison term, suspended for four years, for a 48-year-old man convicted of illegally breaking into a woman’s apartment numerous times and installing a spy camera for sexual purposes. On Wednesday, the Gwangju District Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal against the lower court’s ruling last September, which handed down a suspended sentence for the defendant guilty of home invasion and installing hidden cameras. The appellate

A snake nearly 2 meters long was captured outside the Gyeonggi Provincial Government’s northern office in Uijeongbu on Wednesday. At around 11:55 a.m., the fire department received a call reporting a large snake on the road in front of the provincial office. Firefighters arrived at the scene, captured the snake and released it into a nearby forest. The authorities believe the snake came down from a nearby mountain. According to the Gyeonggi Northern Fire and Disaster Headquarters, 6,675

In the wake of the launch of weight loss drug Wegovy in South Korea, the government said it will crack down on illegal activities surrounding the much sought-after medicine. Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it plans to monitor closely the safety of GLP-1 type drugs like Wegovy, particularly focusing on its side effects and misuse, on Tuesday. The authorities also warned it will crack down on illegal online sales and advertisements. Wegovy, produced by Danish drugmaker Novo Nor

Reports of illegal online gambling in South Korea have nearly tripled over the past four years, according to government data on Wednesday. The figure comes amid growing public concern, especially following comedian Lee Jin-ho’s recent admission to illegal online gambling. According to data by the National Gambling Control Commission submitted to Rep. Min Hyung-bae of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, reported cases of illegal online gambling surged by threefold from 13,064 in

The number of patients dying while waiting for an organ transplant has soared, and average wait times are also rising, data showed Tuesday. According to data from the National Institute of Organ, Tissue and Blood Management provided to Rep. Park Hee-seung of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, the number of patients who died while on transplant waitlists increased by 1.4-fold, from 2,145 in 2019 to 2,907 last year. In the first half of this year, waitlist deaths had already reached 1,

RIAD Corporation, a South Korean travel startup specializing in B2B trade, has launched a new AI-powered trading platform called RIA, aimed at automating the coordination of group bookings between hotels and travel agents. The new platform allows business clients to save time when handling group bookings, streamlining the process from days of back-and-forth communication to just minutes. “Traditionally, the group booking process relied heavily on analogue methods such as emails, phone call

A woman in her 30s was found dead in a tent near a rest area in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, police said Tuesday. According to the Gunsan Police Station, the woman, 37, was discovered dead at around 5:10 p.m. by a man who was with her at the time, near the Geumgangho Service Area. The man immediately reported it to police upon finding her unresponsive. When the police arrived at the scene, the woman showed signs of rigor mortis – stiffening of the muscles which usually occurs three or fo

Some fake news on Han Kang has been circulating on the Korean internet, following the news of her becoming Korea's first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. In particular, one post falsely claims that Han decided to donate her prize money of 11 million Swedish krona ($1.05 million) to support peace initiatives for Dokdo, South Korea’s easternmost islets, at the center of a historical dispute with Japan. However, Han made no such statement regarding the use of the prize funds.

A South Korean court sided with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s decision to punish a police officer for repeatedly ordering subordinates to run personal errands and denying them vacation leave. Judges in the Seoul Administrative Court on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the officer, who sought to overturn a disciplinary action imposed by the police agency in December 2022. The police agency handed down a punishment of a two-month pay reduction, after the officer was found to have

The number of Lyme disease cases has increased in South Korea, raising concerns that the tick that carries the virus might have already become endemic. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Monday said there were 45 reported cases of Lyme disease in the country last year, including 36 cases in which people were infected domestically, eight cases in which people were infected overseas and one with an unknown transmission route. Lyme disease, an illness caused by borrelia bacteria, is

A woman in her 40s was sentenced to 15 years in prison for killing her 11-month-old nephew by throwing him from a 24th floor apartment. The Daegu District Court’s western branch on Thursday found the woman guilty of murdering the baby and ordered the 15-year sentence as well as five years of probation. Delivering the verdict, the court said “the victim died in pain, unable to express himself and the mother will live in pain with emotional scars.” She was convicted of killing

A warehouse manager in his 40s was arrested for allegedly stealing 6.8 billion won ($5.04 million) in cash from a storage facility he oversaw, police said Friday. The Songpa Police said it handed the case over to the prosecution, with the man facing charges, including theft, obstruction of business and property damage. The suspect exited the police station at 7:37 a.m. Friday, wearing a gray hat and mask, repeatedly saying “I am sorry.” According to police, the man stole the cash fro

More than 110,000 users attempted to book a table at the restaurant of the winner of Netflix’s hit reality cooking show, "Culinary Class Wars," temporarily crashing a reservation app on Thursday. Reservations for the Italian restaurant Via Toledo Pasta Bar, run by Chef Kwon Seong-jun, also known by his nickname "Napoli Mafia," opened on the restaurant booking app Catch Table at 10 a.m. on Thursday. As fans rushed to secure a table, the app became unresponsive and was do

South Korea’s financial sector, including banks, brokerage houses and insurers, spent a staggering 2.4 trillion won ($1.78 billion) on entertaining clients over the past five years, data showed Tuesday. From 2019 through the first half of this year, banks, brokerages and insurance companies spent 957.8 billion won, 1.13 trillion won and 308.5 billion won, respectively, on entertainment expenses, according to Financial Supervisory Service data submitted to Rep. Kim Hyun-jung of the main opp

The chief of a military think tank in South Korea has sparked controversy after suggesting that conscripting women into the military could boost marriage and fertility rates. Kim Hyung-chul, president of the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, a nonprofit public interest foundation under the Ministry of National Defense, talked about whether women should go to the military in an interview on the local YouTube channel, “Pen and Mike” on Sept. 23. “We have reached a point whe

A hunter in his 40s was shot and killed after being mistaken for a boar by another hunter in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, police said Monday. According to Yeoncheon Police, at 11:35 p.m. on Sunday, a man, who is also in his 40s, fired a rifle at what he thought was a wild boar. But the bullet struck the head of a fellow hunter, who was assisting as a spotter at the time. The victim was critically injured and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The two were part of a three-man huntin

Over the past five years, 20 minors have earned more than 100 million won ($74,119) a year as CEOs in South Korea, including a child under the age of five, government data showed Monday, highlighting concerns over possible inheritance tax loopholes. According to data from the National Health Insurance Service submitted to Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the main opposition Democratic Party Korea, there are 360 business owners that are under the age of 19 as of August 2024. The data covers only those registe

One person was killed and three others were injured in a multi-vehicle collision caused by a driver going the wrong way on the Gyeongin Expressway early Monday morning. According to the Incheon Metropolitan Police and Incheon Fire Department, the crash occurred at 5:20 a.m. at the Bupyeong Interchange in Incheon, when a Chinese woman in her 40s drove her compact car onto the exit ramp in the wrong direction and collided with a van while attempting to merge onto the main highway. The collision ca