Some 5 billion won ($4.2 million) could be added to the total amount of bribes former President Lee Myung-bak is alleged to have taken from Samsung Group, according to prosecutors Wednesday. The Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission sent evidence of Lee’s additional bribery charges to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation department at the end of May, the p...

South Korea’s suicide mortality rates across all age groups have been steadily declining since a 2011 peak, except for people in their 20s, data showed Wednesday. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Suicide Prevention Center said Tuesday the country’s overall suicide death toll in 2017 had decreased by 4.8 percent from 2016’s 13,092. This marked a notable decline from 2011’s 15,906 -- d...

Politicians on both sides of the aisle came together Tuesday to mourn the passing of Lee Hee-ho. Lee, a women’s rights and pro-democracy activist, first lady and aide to Kim Dae-jung, died at 11:37 p.m. Monday at Severance Hospital in western Seoul. She was 96. Starting Tuesday morning, visitors filled the funeral hall to offer their condolences. The corridor leading to the memorial parlor was ...

The Coast Guard is investigating six people on possible charges of cultivating opium poppies in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. According to the Pyeongtaek Coast Guard Station on Tuesday, the suspects were arrested without a warrant on suspicions of growing 1,306 opium poppies at their homes and greenhouses. The Coast Guard said the plants that could potentially be used for narcotics were confis...

Three police lieutenants appeared in court for tipping off brothels of police inspections in exchange for sexual services, prosecutors said Tuesday. According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the police lieutenants -- identified by their surnames Gu, Yoon and Hwang -- face charges of taking bribes, leaking official secrets, forging official documents and dereliction of duty. S...

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced Monday it has listed certified reference materials for 21 new types of illegal drugs on its inventory. Certified reference materials are drug samples that act as standards in drug screenings to examine a drug’s purity and identify its type. The ministry will provide the samples to the relevant authorities, such as the National Forensic Service, Sup...

Medical associations in Korea have voiced support for the World Health Organization’s designation of gaming addiction as a disease. The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, Association of Neuropsychiatric Practitioners, Korean Society of Epidemiology, Korean Pediatric Society and Korea Society of Preventive Medicine jointly released a statement Monday in support of the WHO’s recent move to recog...

Body parts that may belong to a man who was murdered by his ex-wife were found in Incheon, the police said Sunday. According to Jeju Dongbu Police Station, bone parts believed to be those of the suspected murder victim were found June 5 at a waste recycling company in Incheon’s Seou-gu district. The police said they collected the remains to run tests that may aid investigation. But because his ...

A bill that requires surveillance cameras at hospital operating rooms, aimed at preventing malpractice, is facing resistance from doctors’ associations around the country. On May 21, lawmaker Ahn Gyu-back of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea co-submitted a bill proposing the installation of closed-circuit cameras and the management in hospital operating rooms for a second time, after the same...

The legal limit for drivers’ blood-alcohol level will be reduced from the current 0.05 percent to 0.03 percent starting June 25. According to the Korean National Police Agency on Sunday, the number of drivers whose blood-alcohol level was measured between 0.03-0.05 percent has been on the rise for the past four consecutive months, from February’s 941 to March’s 1,124 and April’s 1,213 to May’s 1...

A nursery is suspected of discarding a closed-circuit television memory device after it was reported for child abuse, police said Sunday. According to Seoul Gwanak Police Station, a nursery in Gwanak-gu is under investigation for suspicions of child abuse. The parents of the young victims told police their 2-year-old and 3-year-old started coming home with bruises in April, police said. They re...

Police are sending the attempted rape suspect of the “Sillim-dong closed-circuit television footage” case to prosecutors Friday, Seoul Gwanak Police Station said Thursday. Police referred the case to Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the law on sexual crimes. Man, 30, is suspected of stalking a woman and attempting to break into her home at around 6:20 a.m. on M...

A 51-year-old man surnamed Jung leaped from the 12th floor of an apartment building in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, at around 9:45 a.m. Thursday, after ranting and throwing appliances out the window while naked for over two hours. According to Uijeongbu Police Station, a report was filed with police at around 7 a.m. by building residents stating that a naked man appeared to be attempting to jum...

Nearly half of women say they dread running into strangers when commuting at night, Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs’ research showed Wednesday. According to the state-funded think tank’s study on social integration, 46 percent women replied they have been afraid when encountering passersby at night. On the other hand, only 12.57 percent of the men said they have experienced such fe...

Yoon Ji-oh, who claimed to have been a witness to the sexual abuse and corruption scandal surrounding late actress Jang Ja-yeon, is facing a lawsuit from people who donated funds to help pay for her protection, according to a law firm Wednesday. The Seoul-based law firm Law & Us said the donation totaled around 10 million won ($8,500), collected from some 370 individuals. On March 18, Yoon post...