An arrest warrant was issued for a 47-year-old woman in Incheon on Friday for failing to register her mother's death for over two years, keeping her body in the house where they had lived together to collect her social security benefits. Police are seeking charges of concealing and possessing a corpse, a crime in South Korea that can be punished by imprisonment of up to seven years. The warrant was issued by the Incheon District Court on Friday. This comes as the welfare authorities grew su

An appellate court on Thursday found the South Korean state partially guilty of secondary victimization of Sewol ferry victims' bereaved families. The Seoul High Court ordered the government and now-defunct Sewol ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine to pay over a combined 88 billion won ($70.6 million) to people who lost their loved ones in the 2014 ferry sinking. The size of the compensation went up by 15.7 billion won compared with the previous ruling. This includes 1.06 billion won in the s

SEJONG -- China said Korean and Japanese nationals will be required to have transit visas when transiting through a Chinese airport as of Wednesday, extending its apparent retaliation against Seoul's quarantine mandate on travelers from China that requires them to submit a PCR test upon arrival. Citing "discriminatory entry restrictions" by Korea and Japan, China also said travelers from two countries will not be allowed to get visas at points of entry in China. The announcement w

SEONGNAM, Gyeonggi Province -- Main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung appeared at a prosecutors office for questioning Tuesday, denying the bribery charges against him and accused authorities for pushing ahead with "a politically motivated investigation." "Prosecutors have already made a conclusion to indict me whatever the circumstances might be," Lee told the media as he was entering the district public prosecutors' office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Calling th

K-pop composer Kim Min-su, better known by his stage name Don Spike, was handed a three-year suspended jail sentence on Monday for buying 45 million-won ($36,100) worth of methamphetamine and abusing it for recreational purposes for at least 14 times. The Seoul Northern District Court ordered the 45-year-old to serve five years of probation and 80 hours of drug awareness classes for treatment. He was also given 120 hours of community service, and some 40 million won in penalty charges. The light

Police said Friday they were unable to tell whether Lee Ki-young, suspected of the murders of a taxi driver and an ex-girlfriend in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, is a psychopath or not. "We've concluded that we are lacking materials with regards to some evaluation methods to assess (Lee's) psychopathy," said an official of Ilsan Dongbu Police Station. According to police, they will not further conduct another psychopathy test, while prosecutors are likely to continue with such testing, as t

South Korea vowed Friday to take stern actions against a Chinese tourist who was arrested in central Seoul after fleeing COVID-19 isolation for two days. The 41-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 immediately after arriving in Korea with his wife. He was sent to a quarantine facility near Incheon Airport, but escaped the facility on Tuesday. "The escapee, who tested positive upon arrival in Korea and was arrested Thursday, will face serious punishment under the law and according to princi

The city government of Seoul opened the doors to a more dynamic skyline in South Korea's capital city on Thursday by scrapping the apartment building height limit, a move that could prop up Seoul's chilly housing market. The 2040 Seoul Plan confirmed Thursday will immediately put an end to the floor limit for new residential buildings across Seoul, introduced in 2013 by since-deceased former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seoul has prohibited any plans

Police chiefs said they did not know about the Halloween crowd disaster at Itaewon in Seoul’s Yongsan as it was unfolding on the night of Oct. 29 last year, appearing as witnesses at a National Assembly hearing on Wednesday. At the hearing, the police chiefs and senior officers of Seoul, Yongsan and the national police were grilled about their lack of presence on the night of the incident, leaving the fire department to respond by itself. “I wasn’t briefed or contacted by anyon

Police on Wednesday sent the Paju, Gyeonggi Province murder case of 31-year-old Lee Ki-young to prosecution, seeking charges against Lee including robbery-homicide, punishable by life sentence or death. Under the Criminal Act, a murder by a robber is punishable by life sentence or death. Robbery-homicide has a greater punishment than homicide, which is punishable by at least seven years in prison, excluding ones under extenuating circumstances. The latest update to the charges brought against

South Korea on Tuesday counted a death of a teenager, who survived in the aftermath of Itaewon crowd crush but later took his own life in December, in its official death toll. This pushed the Itaewon disaster death toll up to 159. The Ministry of Interior and Safety said bereaved families of the victim will be eligible for the same state support such as a financial relief as other victims. "The Ministry has decided to recognize a person who suffered an injury from Itaewon disaster and later

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Tuesday that its plan to extend Seoul Subway Line No. 9 farther east side of the country's most populous city has been approved by the central government. Under the plan worth 640.8 billion won ($504 million), the capital city looks to add four more subway stops along a new 4.1-kilometer branch of Line No. 9, stretching out of VHS Medical Center Station, located in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. The new last stop would give the Godeok Gangil New Town 1 residentia

South Korean police unveiled Monday plans to ramp up human rights protections for foreign suspects through a new set of standards and a new policy. The Korean National Police Agency said it would seek to make video recordings of custodial interrogations involving foreign suspects mandatory beginning this year at their request in case they need an interpreter. Foreigners would be among those eligible to request video recording of their statement to police, along with those who are illiterate or

President Yoon Suk-yeol used his New Year's address Sunday to call for new export strategies in South Korea to overcome external crises that threaten an economic recession, vowing to personally attend to the nation’s export strategies and focusing diplomacy on the economy. Stressing the importance of exports to Korea, Yoon said it was time to change its export strategy, as protectionist trade policies were undermining the world's joint efforts to tackle inflation, global supply chain disru

The suspect who admitted to killing a taxi driver and his ex-girlfriend was revealed to be a 31-year-old Lee Ki-young, according to police Thursday. In a rare move, Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency revealed the suspect's name and age. His driver's license photo was also released upon his request. The decision to divulge Lee's identity was because the murder case was considered highly condemnable and that it had enough evidence, it added. A suspect's identity and personal information is ve

At least five people died and 37 people were injured as of 5 p.m. Thursday as a fire engulfed a soundproof tunnel on a highway in Gwacheon, southern Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday afternoon. President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the Interior Ministry and Health Ministry to conduct a thorough search at the scene of the incident to prevent more deaths. He also ordered an all-out inspection of the road structures like sound barriers to check whether the materials used are fire-prone, in a move to preve

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Thursday that it would raise the fares for the public transit system in South Korea's capital by as early as April 2023 for the first time in about eight years. While the city did not confirm the degree of the fare increase, it projected subway and bus fares to rise by 300 won (24 cents) to keep the public transportation system afloat. Currently, adults in Seoul pay 1,250 won for a regular subway fare and 1,200 won for a regular bus ride. The fare

A man who confessed to killing a woman and a taxi driver this week was arrested Wednesday, amid a widening probe into alleged serial killing. The Goyang Branch Court of Uijeongbu District Court in northwestern Gyeonggi Province issued an arrest warrant for the unnamed 32-year-old on charges of beating a 60-year-old taxi driver to death and concealing the body inside a closet in his house in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, citing concerns about him destroying evidence and fleeing. The arrest warrant

  The prosecution launched on Tuesday a search and seizure over KH Group's alleged interference with bidding regarding the sale of a ski resort in Pyeongchang, as well as its role in supporting illegal cash transfers to North Korea. The investigation led by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office took place in about 20 locations, including offices of construction-to-electronics KH Group and state-run Gangwondo Development Corp., as well as houses of KH Group officials and former Gang

The Chinese Embassy to Korea on Friday expressed regret over an allegation that China had operated an undercover police station in Seoul, labeling a local media report about the matter as "groundless." "I am paying attention to a report on Friday by a Korean media outlet, citing sources, that China had installed an 'overseas police station' in Seoul and a restaurant in Gangnam served as a 'location,' and I regret this media depiction," a spokesperson of th