Police on Wednesday said that they were investigating the case of a dead Algerian-Korean couple whose bodies were found in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, Tuesday. The dominant presumption at the moment is homicide and suicide by the husband, but the possibility of murder by another person has not been ruled out, according to the police.  (Yonhap)An investigation from the National Forensic Service found that the Algerian wife, 32, had been strangled to death. Based on this, Gangwon Yeongwol

Prosecutors on Wednesday asked for seven years in prison for a woman charged with raping her husband. Shim, 41, is being tried in Seoul Central District Court for confining her husband for 29 hours in a flat in Jongno-gu, Seoul, in May 2015. She is also accused of duct-taping the victim’s limbs and raping him. The verdict is due Sept. 9.The two were reportedly going through a divorce suit.  (Yonhap)The victim was allegedly pressured to speak into a voice recorder that the reason he was seeking d

South Korea and Hawaii have signed a pact to recognize the validity of noncommercial driver's licenses issued by each other, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Under the agreement, which went into force Wednesday in the US state after being signed, holders of driver's licenses issued by their own authorities are eligible for a driving permit in the counterpart region without additional training or tests, ministry officials said.  (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)Hawaii, home to 4,631 South Koreans

The top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan began their trilateral meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss ways to expand cooperation and check pending issues of mutual concern.The talks, which started earlier in the day, marked the first time that foreign ministers of the three countries got together following the last such event held in Seoul back in March of 2015.Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese and Chinese counterparts, Fumio Kishida and Wang Yi, attended the gathering.T

A 47-year-old woman and a man thought to be her lover are being held responsible for the death of her late husband, police in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, said Monday.The victim, 53, was found dead on April 22, two months in to his first marriage. (Yonhap)Autopsy revealed he had died of a nicotine overdose. Sleep-inducing zolpidem was also found in his system.In the following investigations, the police learned that the first action the deceased man’s wife took upon discovery of his abrupt death

Samsung Electronics Co. signed a business pact with the tourism board of Mexico's Yucatan state to implement a project that will utilize the South Korean electronics giant's virtual reality technologies to help develop the Mexican state's tourism industry, the Mexican unit of Samsung said Monday.It marks the first time for the Yucatan state government to use VR technologies to promote the tourism of the region, home to the Mayan civilization.Under the pact, Samsung plans to link the tourism proj

A 19-year-old is being charged for fatally stabbing his mother and aunt in Daejeon on Sunday.The Daejeon Yuseong Police revealed Monday that the teenager’s father, who holds US citizenship, had testified to his son’s drug abuse. (Yonhap)According to the father, the accused had spoken of taking illegal substances with his friends. On Sunday at around 4:30 p.m., the accused returned home and allegedly used a kitchen knife to stab his mother and aunt to death. The father, who had also been inside t

The boyfriend of a mysteriously dead woman, who went missing around the time of her death, was found hanged in a nondescript mountain in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday, deepening the riddle of the case.The police presume the man, surnamed Kim, died about a month ago on July 25, which is the day he disappeared in the same clothes he was found dead in. No suicide note was found. (Yonhap)The Sujeong Police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province said that Kim, 60, had been the prime suspect behind t

A man who beat his great-aunt to death is being pressed for detention, the Gochang Police said Monday. The 58-year-old surnamed Kim is being accused of stomping on his 85-year-old great-aunt’s head and neck which resulted in her death on Sunday around 2 p.m. (Yonhap)Kim, who lived by himself in the same village as the victim, occasionally visited her for home-cooked meals. Kim told the police that on the day of the crime however, the victim had declined to prepare a table, and that he was infuri

A 37-year-old man was arrested under charges of stealing around 1,400 female underwear, the Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Police said Monday.The alleged thief, surnamed Kim, was caught after taking pieces of underwear worth 120,000 won ($106) from some laundry that was drying in the yard of a house in Pyeongtaek on Aug 7 at around 4 p.m.1,156 pieces of underwear (Yonhap)The police confiscated nearly 1,400 stolen pieces of underwear, which were reportedly neatly organized according to color and design, at

The police on Monday brought in four profilers to investigate the case of a girl who was brutally murdered by her mother and brother who claim the victim was possessed with the spirit of their “demonic” dog. The mother, 54, and brother, 26, allegedly murdered the 25-year-old victim on Aug. 19, at their residence in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)According to the police findings, the three family members had been fasting together for five days since Aug. 15 for a so-far unexplained reason.Th

Top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan will hold a meeting this week to discuss cooperation and make preparations for a summit of their heads of state likely to be held this year, the foreign ministry here said Monday.South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will meet with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida, in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the ministry.  (Yonhap)

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. on Monday said it will shut down its two-year streaming radio service, Milk Music, next month, amid media reports that the service has failed to appeal to users. In a statement posted on the company's website last Friday, Samsung said, "(It is) sun setting its Samsung Milk Music service in the United States on September 22, 2016. "We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music servi

A 20-year-old military serviceman attempted to drown himself in the sea near the southern coastal city of Tongyeong, early on Friday morning. The Tongyeong Korea Coastguard Station said the young man, surnamed Park, had implied he would try to take his own life in a phone conversation with his grandmother just prior to the suicide attempt.  (Yonhap)His grandmother alerted the police, who passed the message on to the coastguard. At around 3:15 a.m., Park was found flailing in the waters around 10

A 65-year-old pastor was arrested under charges of sexual misdemeanor involving two high-school students with intellectual disabilities, the Gwangju District Court said Thursday. According to the court, the accused is being questioned for summoning the 16-year-old to his car and the 17-year-old to a karaoke room, where he allegedly touched them inappropriately, between January and March. 　The case came to light through a counselling session between the students and the manager of their residenti

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's biggest mobile carrier, became the highest-paying company in the country with an average salary of 67 million won ($60,497) for the first half of the year, according to the company's regulatory filing on Thursday. The average salary of SK Telecom, which has focused on investment in the Internet of Things and location-based mobile services, rose 5 million won from six months ago. Men at SK Telecom earned an average salary of 70 million won during the January-June per

A fire broke out on the premises of the Japanese Consulate in the southeast coastal city of Busan on Thursday, blackening a wall, with no other damage reported, police said. (Yonhap)The blaze, which erupted around 6:00 a.m. at a spot that is off-limits to the public and where wooden delivery boxes to the consulate are stored, was put out in seven minutes.  (Yonhap)The police are investigating what caused the fire, including the possibility of an arson attack. (Yonhap) (Yonhap)

A group of international entrepreneurs from across the world pitched their business ideas on Wednesday at a startup acceleration event hosted here by the South Korean government.The K-Startup Grand Challenge, the first of its kind, is sponsored by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and conducted by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency with the cooperation of four accelerators, or venture capitals.The ministry said 78 startups were picked from a total of 2,439 applicants from 1

Negotiations for a meeting of foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan are under way, but the timetable has yet to be determined, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.A Japanese media report earlier said that the three countries are fine-tuning the timetable for the trilateral meeting, saying that it could take place either Tuesday or Wednesday next week in Tokyo. Speculation spread that the three might not be able to get together within this month as territorial disputes between Bei

South Korea's government on Tuesday said it has agreed with Hong Kong to simplify the automated immigration procedures for each other starting next week, by eliminating the mandatory online preregistration.The Ministry of Justice said South Korean nationals and Hong Kong citizens will be able to use the automated immigration system when visiting each other's countries without preregistering online starting Monday.Under the new plan, South Koreans aged 17 or older visiting Hong Kong can register