President Yoon Suk Yeol and OpenAI Chief Sam Altman engaged in an hour-long conversation at the presidential office in Seoul on Friday, discussing various aspects of artificial intelligence, including the trajectory of AI development, potential risks, solutions, and collaboration opportunities between the US firm and Korean startups. "ChatGPT fever is spreading worldwide,” Yoon told Altman during the meeting, according to the written statement by Yoon’s office. "I tested

Police raided the office of Korea's major construction workers union on Friday, accusing them of staging an illegal protest last month, amid the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's ongoing crackdown on labor unions. According to police, investigators from the Seoul Namdaemun Police Station were dispatched to the office of the Korean Construction Workers Union, known as the more militant of the nation's two largest labor unions, in Yeongdeungpo-gu, southern Seoul, to carry out an earl

Over 10 people were injured on Thursday when an escalator at Sunae Station on the Bundang Line suddenly began operating in reverse. The incident was reported to the South Korean Fire Service at around 8:20 a.m., with multiple injuries caused by the malfunctioning escalator at Exit No. 2 of the station. According to the fire department, three individ­uals who sustained serious injuries were hospitalized, while 11 others who suffered minor injuries were sent home after receiving medical treatm

Green Korea United, a local environmental group, staged a protest in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul on Wednesday, condemning Japan's plan to discharge approximately 1.32 million tonnes of wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean. The activists displayed a water purifier attached to a mock barrel of contaminated Fukushima wastewater, provided by Jeski Social Campaign, a research group that creates public service campaigns. They criticized the

The wording of an advertisement for an apartment complex in southern Seoul sparked criticism on Wednesday for inciting classism. The ad for a residential complex called The Palace 73 read: “We've built this for those who've always dreamt of an unequal world." The builder said the apartment aspires to be South Korea’s own version of Central Park in New York, establishing a new standard for luxurious living space for centuries to come. As the ad came under attack online,

South Korea's top court ruled in favor of two parents' life insurance claim after their son, the policyholder, died by suicide due to chronic depression, recognizing that the man was unable to make decisions of his own free will. The Supreme Court dismissed a lower court's decision on Tuesday to exempt the insurance company from paying out after the parents of the deceased had filed a lawsuit against the insurance company. The lower court had argued that the suicide did not appe

A man in his 20s has been indicted on charges of committing sexual abuse against teenagers through online platforms including YouTube, according to the prosecution on Monday. According to the Seoul Northern District Prosecutor's Office on Monday, the suspect enticed minors by posting messages seeking a "slave" on various online platforms, including YouTube, between January 2022 and March of this year. He allegedly demanded the teenagers who responded to his message to send explici

An appellate court on Friday ordered prosecutors to obtain a psychological test for a defendant accused of committing animal cruelty, in order to consider the appropriate sentence. The Daejeon District Court stated, “While there already exists a series of tests for sexual crimes, there are none for animal cruelty.” “The prosecutors should submit the results of a psychological test to evaluate the possibility of repetition of the crime,” the court added. In response, the p

The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency on Thursday revealed the identity of a 23-year-old woman held on suspicion of murdering and dismembering the body of another woman in her 20s. Police said they decided to make the suspect’s identity public after convening a committee to contemplate the disclosure. According to police, the suspect is 23-year-old Jeong Yu-jeong. South Korean law allows police to reveal the identity of a suspect only under certain conditions, where the crime is considered

A murder suspect fleeing from South Korean and Philippines' authorities has been apprehended in the Philippines capital Manila, South Korean police said Tuesday. According to the South Korean police agency, the suspect was spotted at a condo in Manilla on Monday. The suspect is a South Korean male in his 30s who fled to the Philippines after allegedly murdering his wife, a national of the Philippines, earlier this year. Police believe the suspect murdered his wife and disposed of the body a

A woman in her 20s was apprehended Monday on suspicion of murdering another woman, also in her 20s, whom the suspect met online through an app, where she pretended to look for a private tutor for her child. According to the police, the woman is suspected of murdering the victim on Friday in Geumjeong-gu, Busan. The police said they appeared to have met up through an app specialized in matching private tutors with students and parents. According to reports, the app allows users to look for tutors

A man in his 20s was apprehended by police on Thursday on suspicion of murdering his girlfriend. Police, currently investigating the homicide case, stated that the individual is suspected of killing his girlfriend at a condo in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. The suspect, who attempted to flee, is reported to have called the fire service two hours after the murder is thought to have taken place. It's reported that he told the fire station, "I had a fight with a friend but (the friend) just s

Drug crimes are rising in Gangwon Province, with those allegedly committed by teenagers and foreign nationals each showing marked increases. According to data released by Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office, cases of drug crimes involving teenagers in the province amounted to 103 last year, up from 27 in 2018, in the province with a population of over 1.5 million. As for the number of foreign nationals, the figure came to 85 in 2022, up from nine in 2018. Thai nationals accounted for the

Barley could help weight control in dogs, the Rural Development Administration reported Thursday. According to the government agency, pet foods containing sprouted barley were found to be conducive to controlling obesity in dogs.​ In the study where the researchers fed obese dogs on a diet containing 2.75 percent sprouted barley for four months, the dogs lost an average 6.45 percent of their body weight. In particular, the level of blood leptin, an indication of obesity, and the density of fat

Three middle school students have been given jail terms for stealing and driving a vehicle without a license, as well as for assaulting police officers. On Wednesday, the Jeju District Court handed down jail terms ranging between 8 and 18 months. Under South Korean law, minors can be given short and long sentences, with the short term incarceration dependent on behavior during the period of detention. The teens were indicted on charges of violating the Road Traffic Act. They were accused of taki

On Saturday evening, two people of foreign nationality collided with a truck while riding skateboards down Gyeongnidan-gil in Itaewon-dong, Seoul. A video clip recorded by their friend and uploaded online shows the two skateboarding the opposite way down a sloped one-way street marked "no entry," and crashing into a truck approaching from the other side. "Neither the skateboarders nor the truck driver suffered serious injuries," stated police who were called to the scene. &qu

A woman in her 20s has been booked on counterfeiting charges for exchanging fake $100 bills at a bank in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, police said Monday. The suspect exchanged 30 $100 bills at a bank in Gimpo on Friday, according to Gimpo police. The bank reported the woman to the police after realizing that the notes were counterfeit. The suspect is reported to have told police that the counterfeit notes were movie props her family had bought, and that she had taken them to the bank by mistake. Po

Heavy rain, accompanied by strong gusts of wind, is being forecast across the nation for Friday, which is likely to dampen parents’ plans to take kids out to festivals and outdoor events for Children’s Day. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration on Wednesday, there is a high probability that some regions will see heavy downpour alerts issued. The weather agency did not provide the exact amounts of precipitation expected. Rain is expected to start from the southern islan

Those affected by recent wildfires can postpone their military service, the Military Manpower Administration announced Friday. The option is open to residents of areas designated as special disaster zones due to the fires, and individuals who suffered losses or those with families affected by wildfires. The special disaster zones include Hongseong-gun, Geumsan-gun, Dangjin-si, Boryeong-si, and Buyeo-gun in South Chungcheong Province, Seo-gu in Daejeon, Okcheon-gun in North Chungcheong Province