A progressive lawyers’ group Tuesday slammed an anti-corruption investigative agency established by President Moon Jae-in administration over alleged spying on South Koreans. Lawyers for a Democratic Society, more widely known by the Korean acronym Minbyun, held a round-table talk with civic groups to address recent allegations of communications surveillance by the Corruption Investigation Offic...

How an international coffeehouse chain is being co-opted by the South Korean right

A facade of a high-rise apartment building under construction in the southwestern city of Gwangju collapsed Tuesday, injuring at least one person and burying about 10 vehicles under the rubble, police said. The exterior wall of the apartment building crumbled down at the construction site in western Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, at around 3:46 p.m., police said. Three people trapped i...

Why a presidential candidate’s pledge on alopecia treatments sparked strong reactions from young voters in Korea

The National Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that mandates a union representative be included on public institutions' boards of directors. The lawmakers approved a bill during a plenary session that dictates public firms and quasi-public institutions must appoint one nonexecutive director recommended or picked by the head of a labor union on their boards. More than 130 public institutions wil...

An Air Force pilot died after an F-5E fighter jet crashed in central South Korea on Tuesday, the military said. The aircraft crashed into a mountain in Hwaseong, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul, at 1:46 p.m. minutes after taking off from an Air Force base in the nearby city of Suwon, they said. "An engine fire warning light turned on for the plane's left and right sides after the takeoff at a...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a lower court's decision to sharply reduce the fine for Audi Volkswagen Korea (AVK) and clear the company of most of the charges in its diesel emissions scandal. The top court said it approved the Seoul High Court's order last September, calling on the South Korean unit of the German carmaker to pay a 1.1 billion-won ($921,000) fine, instead of a 26 billion-wo...

The Supreme Court has dismissed a second appeal filed by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries against an order to sell patent rights the company has in South Korea to compensate a victim of wartime forced labor, according to legal sources Tuesday. The top court dismissed Mitsubishi Heavy's appeal against the forced sale of two patents to compensate Park Hae-ok, a female victim of forced labor dur...

A growing number of crosswalk traffic signals are finding their way onto the ground in Seoul as a way to enhance the safety of pedestrians glued to their smartphones, according to the city's ward offices Tuesday. Nearly 1,200 in-ground crosswalk traffic signal systems were in operation across the city's total 25 boroughs as of Tuesday, led by the southern ward of Gangnam, which was operating 138...

A cold wave hit South Korea on Tuesday, with temperatures in Seoul dropping to minus 9.3 C as of 8 a.m. and expected to remain below zero in the afternoon too, the state weather agency said. The apparent temperature for Seoul was minus 15.6 C, the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said. Cold wave alerts were issued in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province and some parts of the eastern ...

South Korea's military on Tuesday reported 17 additional COVID-19 cases, including 15 breakthrough infections, raising the total caseload among its personnel to 3,461. Of the new cases, 12 are from the Army, three from the Air Force and two from a unit under the direct control of the defense ministry. Currently, 182 military personnel are under treatment. Of the total military caseload, 1,646 a...

SEOUL/PAJU -- Police have booked three family members of a dental implant maker employee arrested for allegedly embezzling 221 billion won ($185 million) in company funds on suspicions of possible collusion. Police were looking into whether the father, the wife and the sister-in-law of the 45-year-old Osstem employee, identified only by his surname Lee, played a part in the suspected embezzlemen...

South Korea's daily coronavirus cases stayed below 4,000 for the fifth consecutive day Tuesday amid tightened antivirus restrictions, but concerns linger over a possible resurgence due to the continued spread of the omicron variant. The country added 3,097 new COVID-19 infections, including 2,813 local infections, raising the total caseload to 670,483, according to the Korea Disease Control and ...

A parliamentary committee on Monday approved a bill on lowering the age at which people can join a political party, a move seen as aimed at wooing young voters ahead of the March presidential election. The Legislation and Judiciary Commission passed the revised bill that calls for lowering the age of eligibility for joining political parties to 16 from the current 18. Under the bill, people aged...

A man convicted of killing three people in an arson fire at a motel in Seoul was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Supreme Court of South Korea ruled Monday. The 71-year-old man was indicted on charges of setting a fire at a motel located in Mapo-gu, Seoul, in November 2020, which led to a total of eight casualties. The man demanded the owner of the motel give him alcohol, but the owner refu...