Police are to review revealing the identity of a suspect in the murder of a 32-year-old man whose torso was found without a head or limbs in the Han River on Aug. 12. Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency said Monday a committee was to be launched to decide whether to make the suspect’s identity public and to what scope. The suspect, a 39-year-old motel employee, turned himself in to Jongno P...

A suspect in the murder of a man whose dismembered body parts were found in Han River claimed the victim “started it” during an arrest warrant hearing held Sunday afternoon, a day after he had turned himself in to police. The suspect, a 39-year-old motel employee, said the victim “punched (him), and talked down to (him) first” before the press gathered at the Uijeongbu District Court in Gyeonggi...

Nearly 1,000 complaints have been filed in a week concerning suspicions of tap water contamination in Pohang, a port city in North Gyeongsang Province. Pohang City said Sunday that 925 complaints were lodged Aug. 10-16, reporting black or reddish tap water. The most number of complaints came from residents in Nam-gu, whose water is filtered at a plant in Yugang-ri, a neighborhood in the city’s ...

Women who work at the National Assembly are holding a monthlong campaign to promote gender equality within the legislative arm of the government. According to National Assembly Feminists, a feminist group composed of female National Assembly staffers, 38.2 percent of all staffers at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, were women as of Aug. 1. While women made up 52.3 percent of interns and...

Authorities have arrested a 39-year-old motel employee suspected of killing a man whose dismembered torso was found in Han River on Aug. 12. An arrest warrant was granted after a hearing for the suspect was held at the Uijeongbu District Court at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Goyang Police said. The man turned himself in to Jongno Police Station at around 1 a.m. Saturday, five days after the dismembered to...

On Saturday, a commemoration ceremony was held in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, to remember the women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. The House of Sharing, a shelter for the wartime sex slavery survivors, hosted the event, with two of its residents in the audience. This year marks the 28th anniversary since the first South Korean survivor of sexual...

Some 300 government officials, activists, historians and citizens came together Wednesday for commemorating the second memorial day for World War II sexual slavery survivors at the Kim Koo Museum in Yongsan, Seoul. The government last year designated Aug. 14 Comfort Women Memorial Day. On that day in 1991, Kim Hak-soon, a South Korean victim of sex slavery, came forward and gave testimony on Jap...

South Korea will celebrate its 74th independence anniversary outside Seoul for the first time in 15 years, at the Independence Hall of Korea in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. The Ministry of Interior and Safety, which organizes the annual event, said Tuesday the government ceremony celebrating Liberation Day will be held at the Independence Hall of Korea at 10 a.m. Thursday in the city 84 ...

Koh Yu-jeong, who is suspected of murdering her former husband, has sued her current spouse for defamation. Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency said Monday that Koh has filed defamation charges against her husband, who alleges that she is responsible for the death of his 4-year-old son. He also accused police of “lax investigation” via an online petition posted July 29 on Cheong Wa Dae’s website....

A Russian diplomat in South Korea has been booked without detention on a drunk driving charge. The Namdaemun Police Station said Tuesday that the diplomat crashed into a tree on the side of the road in front of Deoksugung, a Joseon-period royal palace in Jung-gu, Seoul, at around 9:40 p.m. Monday. An on-site test showed the diplomat’s blood alcohol level to be 0.289 percent, far over the legal ...

Koh Yu-jeong, suspected of murdering her former husband, attended her first trial before a crowd of jeering spectators Monday. During the trial at Jeju District Court, which started at 10 a.m., Koh maintained that she had acted in self-defense against a rape attempt by her ex-husband, identified only by his surname Kang. Koh’s attorney said that Kang attempted “unwanted physical contact” with K...

A YouTuber with millions of followers was fined 5 million won ($4,100) Monday for false advertising of food products. Food content YouTuber Jung Man-su, who goes by the name Banzz online, was fined for falsely promoting the weight-loss effects of his products, according to Daejeon District Court. Eat4U, a health food company Jeong launched in March 2017, marketed its products as diet aids in a ...

Seventeen people were poisoned by carbon monoxide while dining at a charcoal-grill barbecue restaurant in Seogwipo on Jeju Island. Jeju fire authorities said the diners were sent to hospital at around 8 p.m. Sunday after they showed signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. Emergency dispatchers moved them to state-run Seogwipo Medical Center and Jeju Naval Base which are equipped with hyperbaric cha...

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said Monday two South Koreans died at a national park in Croatia, confirming earlier media reports. According to the ministry, the two Korean tourists were found dead at around 3:40 p.m. Sunday about 50 meters from a wooden bridge which cuts across the Krka River in the Krka National Park. The man in his 50s and his daughter in her 20s were found by police after a F...

President Moon Jae-in carried out his first Cabinet reshuffle in five months Friday, nominating four new ministers, four minister-level positions, a vice minister and ambassador to the United States. The reshuffle comes as Moon heads toward the second half of his presidency with next year’s general election looming. Moon kept his top diplomatic and national security officials while reshuffling ...