Police are pushing for the introduction of an online search of criminal suspects' mobile phones and other digital devices, officials said Friday. The National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency has recently announced a public bid for research services to review the legality of online search activities and its implementation plan, they said. If the online search is allo...

The head of a cryptocurrency exchange has been indicted for allegedly colluding with a military officer and leaking military secrets, including login information for the military‘s command and control system, to a presumed North Korean agent in exchange for money, officials said Thursday. The head of the exchange, surnamed Lee, was charged with allegedly violating the National Security Act afte...

Woori Bank came under scrutiny for an internal control failure Thursday, after an employee confessed to embezzlement of 50 billion won ($39.4 million). The employee is currently in police custody and investigators are looking to probe the lender’s headquarters to verify the suspect’s statement and seize evidence. The Financial Supervisory Service, the nation’s financial watchdog, said it will l...

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the convictions of adoptive parents who appealed charges of child abuse and neglect that resulted in the death of their 16-month-old daughter, known by the name Jeong-in. The court approved the convictions against the parents from a lower court and confirmed their jail terms. The mother, whose charges include fatally injuring the victim, was sentenced to 35 y...

Anticipated lifting of outdoor mask mandate up in the air as President-elect Yoon’s transition team says no

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld lower courts' acquittal of a former judge accused of meddling in several politically sensitive trials during the previous administration. The top court confirmed a not guilty verdict by a district court and an appellate court for Lim Seong-geun, a former senior justice of the Seoul High Court who was indicted in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstructi...

GIMPO -- A North Korean defectors' group has sent 20 big balloons carrying propaganda leaflets, including those on the news of Yoon Suk-yeol's election as president, to North Korea across the western inter-Korean border, the group said Thursday. Some 1 million anti-Pyongyang leaflets were sent over to North Korea in the latest leaflet campaign carried out in Gimpo, west of Seoul, on Monday-Tuesd...

An employee of Woori Bank, one of South Korea's largest domestic banks, has been taken into custody after he turned himself in for embezzling about 50 billion won ($39.5 million) from the company, police said Thursday. The employee, whose identity was withheld, confessed to his actions at Namdaemun Police Station in central Seoul at around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to officials. The confe...

South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases went down to fewer than 60,000 on Thursday as most of the country's virus restrictions have been lifted amid the slowdown of the omicron wave. The country added 57,464 new COVID-19 infections, including 21 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 17,144,065, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Thursday's tally...

Severe cases drop to 500s for first time in about nine weeks

Kim In-chul, the nominee for deputy prime minister and education minister, denied allegations that his family unfairly received Fulbright scholarships from an association he was closely related to, arguing all procedures were fair. On Wednesday, the parliamentary confirmation hearing team for the Education Ministry representing Kim released a statement denying the allegations brought against his...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol comes into office as South Korea’s huge omicron wave is subsiding. Daily cases have been falling for six consecutive weeks, now down by nearly 80 percent from the peak in mid-March. The presidential transition team’s COVID-19 task force on Wednesday unveiled a plan illustrating how the new administration would handle the recovery phase of the pandemic. Last week in...

Fine dust will rise to "very bad" levels in South Korea's central region, including the greater Seoul area, on Wednesday morning due to the influx of yellow dust originating from deserts in northern China and Mongolia, the state weather agency said. The density of fine dust particles smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter, known as PM 10, will reach "bad" levels in the eastern Gangwon Province ...

Total COVID-19 caseload surpasses 17m

Other planned strikes by unionized bus drivers in different regions across the country have also been canceled or postponed