The government is conducting inspections in areas of northern Gyeonggi Province where pigs culled to contain the spread of African swine fever were buried, after blood from their carcasses leached into the river. A river cutting across the central part of the Korean Peninsula was polluted over the weekend by the blood of pigs killed during the containment efforts, according to Gyeonggi officials...

A leading democracy activist sought support for Hong Kongers as they strive for democracy and autonomy, speaking to a Seoul audience Monday. “The movement in Hong Kong is about securing democracy, not independence from China,” Lai Yan-ho, vice convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, a pandemocratic group, said during a meeting with students, activists and reporters at an art gallery in Jongno,...

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Monday launched a special investigation unit to probe allegations surrounding the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014. During a press briefing at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the unit said it is “committed to making its probe so thorough that it will be the last one to be conducted into the Sewol sinking.” The unit will take on investigations...

The South Korean police are widening their probe against criminal activity on the “dark web” – parts of internet hidden from public access. The dark web, which is not indexed by search engines and requires special software to access, has been associated with crimes and other illicit activities as it permits users to dodge identification and keep their browser history discreet. The police invest...

Former head and executive producer of K-pop talent agency YG Entertainment Yang Hyun-suk was grilled by police Saturday for about 14 hours. The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, handling the case, said its special crime squad questioned Yang from 10 a.m. to 11:50 p.m. Police booked Yang on Wednesday on suspicion of blackmailing a witness to retract her statement to police in August 2016 ...

Millennials are the most active participants on Cheong Wa Dae’s online petition site. Figures released by Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday showed 689,273 petitions were submitted to its webpage in the first two years of Moon Jae-in’s presidency. This translates to 851 petitions filed per day. Average daily visitor count was 245,586. According to the data, collected between Aug. 18, 2017 and Oct. 20, ...

Prosecutors on Tuesday raided former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s office at Seoul National University School of Law. Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it conducted a search and seizure operation at Cho’s office at the law school where he teaches, as part of a probe into a school admissions scandal involving his two children. The recently resigned minister is suspected of orchestrati...

Police are wrapping up a probe into the cold case serial killings from over 30 years ago before commencement of a retrial over the wrongful conviction of a man in one of the 10 rapes and murders. Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said Tuesday it intends to close the probe into the serial murder cases in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, that stretched from 1986-1991 ahead of the initiation of r...

Korean liquor manufacturers may no longer be allowed to use photos of celebrities on their beverage packaging. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday it would come up with measures banning the images of celebrities on alcohol bottles to discourage the drinking culture. The move follows Rep. Nam In-soon’s exhortation during a parliamentary audit of the ministry last month that featuring ...

SUWON, Gyeonggi Province -- The lawyer of a man claiming wrongful conviction in the 1988 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, said he is “sure of (his client’s) innocence.” Park Joon-young, a lawyer defending a 52-year-old man surnamed Yun who is seeking acquittal on retrial, told reporters Monday he was “convinced (Yun) was wrongly convicted,” and that the defen...

The Ministry of Justice admitted Friday that it had not properly consulted media and other relevant bodies before announcing its recent directive restricting media access and imposing sanctions on journalists for “false reporting.” On Wednesday, the Justice Ministry issued a set of press guidelines that would expel reporters from the prosecution press corps if they are found to have reported “fa...

A 52-year-old man surnamed Yun who claims he was wrongly imprisoned for the 1988 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, is seeking a retrial. Yun’s lawyer Park Joon-young confirmed to The Korea Herald on Thursday that his client will file a petition for retrial in about two weeks’ time. Park said Yun will undergo forensic hypnosis and lie detector tests next Monda...

Family of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who died in 2017 shortly after being released from prison in North Korea, is expected to visit Seoul next month for a meeting of international victims of abduction by the North. The Korean War Abductees’ Family Union said Wednesday the American victim’s parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have accepted its invitation for the convention slated fo...

Democratic Party Chairman Lee Hae-chan on Wednesday apologized for the Cho Kuk controversy that gripped the country for months after President Moon Jae-in tapped him as justice minister in August. During a press conference at the National Assembly, the ruling party leader issued his first formal apology over Cho’s family corruption scandal that erupted following his Cabinet nomination. Cho quit ...

An obstetrician was detained on allegations of performing an abortion on a woman who was 34 weeks pregnant and killing the fetus after it survived the procedure. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Tuesday that the 60-something obstetrician faces charges of murder and performing an abortion. According to police, the fetus allegedly survived the hysterotomy abortion, which involves opening...