Avian influenza was found in a dog on a farm in South Gyeongsang Province amid growing concerns that the disease could spread to other animals, officials said Monday. The dog ― one of three at a duck farm in Goseong-gun, South Gyeongsang Province ― had antigens for the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of bird flu, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said. The farm was affected by the disease on Jan. 23. This is the first time bird flu has been found in a dog in Korea through the det

An elderly Korean woman forced into sexual servitude by Japan’s World War II military has died, an advocacy group said Monday, the second death of a former sex slave in less than a week.The victim died of a chronic illness at an undisclosed hospital on Jan. 31, the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan said.“We cannot disclose any information, including her name and age, because she and her family never wanted to make public that she was a victim,” the group said.

Former leftist lawmakers said Monday that they will request the Constitutional Court to review its decision to dissolve their political party embroiled in a pro-North Korean plot, arguing that the decision was “wrong.”In December, the Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the minor opposition Unified Progressive Party, leading to the party’s immediate demise. All five sitting lawmakers of the party also lost their parliamentary seats.The ruling came after the justice ministry filed a p

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said Thursday that it was pushing for a five-year animal welfare project, under which pets would have to receive microchip implants starting next year in a bid to reduce the number of abandoned animals. Information about the pets and their owners will be contained in microchips, which will help the owners find their pets more easily if they get lost, the ministry said. Animal hospitals will also be required to record pets’ identifying informati

A former Navy rear admiral under investigation over his alleged involvement in a defense industry graft case jumped off a bridge in a Seoul suburb on Wednesday, police said.The Gyeonggi Goyang Police Station said an unidentified person called at 8:10 a.m. to say the 61-year-old man, identified only by his surname Ham, plunged off the bridge over the Han River that flows through Seoul into the Yellow Sea.Ham, also a former executive member of a defense firm, was scheduled to face questioning this

South Korea said Wednesday it will resume a program to support North Korean medical doctors’ training in Germany.The move, the first of its kind in seven years, is in line with the Park Geun-hye administration’s push for expanding humanitarian aid for the impoverished neighbor.The unification ministry plans to provide a North Korea-Germany group with 90 million won ($83,000) from the inter-Korean cooperation fund. It will be delivered through the (South) Korea Foundation for International Health

The prosecution said Monday that it questioned a main opposition party lawmaker over alleged illegal fund-raising in return for political favors. Rep. Shin Hak-yong of New Politics Alliance of Democracy is suspected of creating a slush fund of around 100 million won ($92,000) with the money he pocketed from salaries of his three aides between 2007 and last year. Investigators believe that the 63-year-old three-term lawmaker took the money in exchange for helping them get party nominations for lo

A South Korean court on Sunday ordered a sea captain to compensate bereaved family members of a North Korean defector who had died in an accident here, an unprecedented ruling in favor of residents of North Korea. The Ulsan District Court ruled that the sea captain must pay 110 million won ($102,000) to three family members of the defector, who worked for him as a diver, for not taking efficient safety measures to protect his life. The diver, who fled to Seoul in 2011, died of carbon monoxide po

Investigators sought an arrest warrant for another day care teacher accused of child abuse, police said Thursday, amid a growing public uproar over a series of such cases. The 25-year-old day care worker in Incheon was suspected of having hit a dozen 4-year-old children habitually and verbally abused them for not following the curriculum. This is the second arrest warrant sought for a day care employee in the city this year. A 33-year-old teacher was arrested last week for striking a 4-year-old

The Seoul city government said Wednesday that it would take preventive measures against foot-and-mouth disease amid escalating concerns over its spread. As of Wednesday, more than 63,000 livestock at 63 farms nationwide had been culled, mostly in Gyeonggi Province and North Chungcheong Province, since the first reported outbreak on Dec. 5. The capital will conduct antibody tests on all livestock in national parks in the city and vaccinate all animals that have not yet been immunized, officials s

Police on Tuesday sought an arrest warrant for the motorcycle owner who is suspected of having triggered a deadly fire in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, earlier this month. Four were killed and 126 injured in a blaze that engulfed three residential buildings on Jan. 10. The city police confirmed from surveillance camera footage that the fire had started from a spark from a motorcycle in a ground-floor parking lot. The motorbike owner, identified by his surname Kim, was booked on charges of accide

President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating hit a record low this week amid a spiraling influence-peddling scandal involving her former and incumbent aides, and escalating tension between her office and the ruling party.According to local pollster Gallup Korea, Park’s approval rating plunged to 35 percent, the lowest level since she entered office in early 2013. The poll also showed that 50 percent of respondents in their 50s disapproved of her performance, surpassing the percentage of respondents

The mother of a victim of the Ansan hostage case had requested urgent help from the police days before her daughters were attacked by their stepfather, the authorities said Friday, with the police being criticized for missing signs of the incident. Kim Sang-hun, 47, was arrested Tuesday for killing his wife’s ex-husband and his stepdaughter while holding the four hostage in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. Kim demanded that his wife come to see him during the five-hour standoff. The suspect committed t

Incheon police said Thursday that they would seek an arrest warrant against a day care giver who is alleged to have physically abused a child for not finishing a meal. The 33-year-old day care provider, identified only by her surname Yang, was accused of striking a 4-year-old female child’s face in Incheon last week. Doubts mounted over the state’s monitoring system after it was found that Yang had received a first-grade day care teacher certificate and that the facility where the incident took

The arrested hostage-taker in Monday’s siege in Ansan, south of Seoul, stabbed a knife into the neck of his stepdaughter, one of the four hostages, and then strangled her to death before the five-hour standoff with police began, investigators said Wednesday.The 47-year-old man, identified only by his surname Kim, was nabbed Tuesday after killing his wife’s ex-husband and the 16-year-old stepdaughter while taking the four hostages. The other two hostages were rescued unharmed. The authorities sai

South Korea is seeking to operate a special express train this year that would pass major cities in Eurasia nations as part of efforts to advance President Park Geun-hye’s vision for a united Eurasia, officials said Tuesday.In October 2013, Park unveiled her Eurasia initiative that calls for, among other things, infrastructure development and freer trade among Eurasian nations by linking their railways. South Korea hopes to eventually link its rail network to Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway via

The Public Safety Ministry said Monday that it would tighten safety regulations amid escalating concerns over lax construction rules that let to the deadly apartment fire north of Seoul over the weekend.On Saturday, the blaze, which started on the first floor of an apartment building, quickly spread to two adjacent residential buildings, killing four and wounding 126 people in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province. Eleven residents were seriously injured, officials said. While a probe is underway into th

The police on Sunday launched a probe into the apartment fire that left four people dead and over 100 residents injured in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul.The blaze that engulfed three buildings claimed four lives and wounded 124 residents on Saturday. Of the injured, 11 are in critical condition, officials said.The fire broke out from a motorcycle spark at a parking lot on the first floor of the apartment, the Uijeongbu Police said after analyzing the building’s surveillance camera

The South Korean Navy will set up a submarine command next month as part of efforts to boost the country‘s underwater capabilities, a naval officer said Sunday.“The submarine command will be established on Feb. 1 in the southern port city of Jinhae after extending the current 9th submarine flotilla,” the naval officer said, requesting anonymity.The new command will be in charge of the naval underwater capabilities under the leadership of a two-star general, he added.“It will operate nine 1,200-t

Korean quarantine authorities vowed Thursday to beef up their preventive measures against foot-and-mouth disease amid concerns over the government’s quarantine management. In an emergency meeting of the Agriculture Ministry and the ruling Saenuri Party, the ministry said it would raise the vaccination rate from 70 percent to 100 percent for all livestock and toughen the monitoring system in municipalities. The government also suggested that it would create an early alert system as part of the ef