99% of adult missing person cases closed within month: data

National Police Agency data showed Monday that 99 percent of missing-person cases involving adults are closed within 30 days, as the recent disappearance and death of a woman on Jeju Island touched off concerns over how such cases are handled by police. Over 70,000 cases of missing adults were filed to with police each year from 2022 to 2025, with 41,894 cases filed from January to July this year, according to the NPA data submitted to Rep. Chung Choon-saeng of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party.

2026-08-24 20:31:17:00

Another body of missing person found on Jeju Island

A man presumed to be in his 70s was found dead in waters off Jeju City on Sunday, the Coast Guard said Monday, marking yet another case where a person reported to be missing on the island was found dead. The body was found at 3:04 p.m. by a local fisher. It was later discovered that the deceased had been reported as missing just the previous day. Four bodies of missing persons have been found on the southern island over the past three days, including a man in his 60s on Saturday, another man in

2026-08-24 19:51:52:00

Unauthorized imports of Wegovy, Mounjaro surge in Korea

Unauthorized imports of weight-loss medications into South Korea surged in the first half of this year, reaching 3.5 times the total recorded throughout 2025, according to the Korea Customs Service on Monday. A total of 4,155 cases involving drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro were detected in the first six months of this year, up from 1,189 cases for all of last year. Since 2024, customs authorities have identified 5,348 unauthorized imports of weight-loss medications. Unauthorized imports of suc

2026-08-24 13:29:57:00

Kazakh national beaten with metal pipes over parking dispute

South Korean police said Monday they are investigating an assault in which a Kazakh national was allegedly beaten with metal pipes by four following a parking dispute. The four suspects, also foreign nationals, allegedly attacked the victim at around 3:40 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a residential building in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province, according to the Eumseong Police Station. The victim suffered serious injuries to his leg and is being treated at a local hospital. Police are inv

2026-08-24 11:14:13:00

Teen kills father, injures mother; says he was trying to break up fight

South Korea police are investigating a teenager accused of stabbing his parents on Sunday, killing the father and inflicting severe injuries to the mother. The suspect, reported to be a college student with foreign nationality, purportedly committed the attack at 1:10 a.m. at their apartment in Dongnam-gu in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, according to the Cheonan Dongnam Police Station. The female victim is being treated at a local hospital. The teen reported his own crime to authorities a

2026-08-23 16:10:52:00

Kakao Talk's message reader was disabled for days, inconveniencing visually impaired users

KakaoTalk, the most popular mobile messenger platform in South Korea, had its text-to-speech service disabled for three days on Aug. 12-14, it reported Sunday. The messenger application's operator Kakao Corp. confirmed that the iOS version of the app distributed on Aug. 12 had a critical error when using this function, and the problem was fixed two days later. It said the function is available with the latest update for the app. But the momentary flaw in the system had severely hindered users wi

2026-08-23 15:03:50:00

Regaining weight lost through diet pills increases suicidal thoughts: study

People who have used medication to lose weight are more prone to depression or suicidal thoughts, which rises even more when they regain that weight, a South Korean study showed Sunday. It found that people using medication for weight loss were 2.7 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts, twice more likely to receive counseling for mental health issues and 1.9 times more likely to suffer from depression, compared to those who had never been on such medication, according to researchers at the

2026-08-23 12:36:56:00

Police use drone to find intellectually-disabled woman: report

South Korean police have been using drones to assist in searches for missing individuals, in one case allowing Gyeonggi officers to locate a woman in just half an hour, according to a local media outlet on Sunday. Local daily Money Today described some successful cases of drone-assisted search operations, such as the disappearance of a 45-year-old woman with intellectual disabilities on July 14 in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. The woman's father called the police and said she went missing during

2026-08-23 11:55:28:00

Calls to prevent child neglect, welfare abuses going unanswered

South Korea has had a series of cases this year where parents were found to have neglected their children while receiving regular government subsidies on their behalf, but the government has said it does not have plans to prevent such abuses of the child welfare system, despite calls for government action. Recent reports show that the Ministry of Health and Welfare is focusing on minimizing the application process so people raising children can receive welfare benefits, and not on measures to we

2026-08-23 11:49:55:00

Heat to return next week after brief reprieve

High temperatures that relented over the past couple of weeks are expected to return, according to the state-run weather agency. On Thursday afternoon, the Korea Meteorological Administration issued heat wave advisories in the southern part of the country and on Jeju Island, with tropical nights projected in some regions. The KMA forecast perceived temperatures as high as 35 degrees Celsius in some regions next week as the Korean Peninsula falls under the influence of the North Pacific high. But

2026-08-20 17:52:44:00