The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday new versions of omicron’s BA.2 subvariant were making up increasingly larger proportions of circulating variants in the country. According to the KDCA’s weekly analysis posted Tuesday, BA.2, which was first spotted here in late January, showed up in 94.2 percent of cases in the third week of April. In a further breakdown of variants, ...

Lee Jun-seok is facing possible penalties from his own People Power Party over allegations he accepted sexual favors as bribes on two instances in 2013. At a meeting on Thursday evening, the party voted unanimously in favor of convening an ethics committee to decide whether a disciplinary action against Lee is warranted. When the allegations first surfaced in December last year, the party decid...

The outgoing Moon Jae-in administration and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team are at odds over the future of South Korea’s COVID-19 policy. The Moon administration’s COVID-19 response headquarters announced last week that starting April 25, COVID-19 will cease to be the most high-consequence infectious disease under Korea’s classification. The headquarters said as the disease’s leg...

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 서해상 피격 사건에서 희생된 해양수산부 공무원의 유족이 더불어민주당 소속 인사들로부터 동생의 월북을 인정할 것을 종용받았다고 주장했다. 사망한 공무원의 친형 이래진(56) 씨는 19일 코리아헤럴드를 만나 복수의 민주당 인사들이 사건 발생 일주일 뒤 자신을 찾아와 “(사망한 동생이) 월북한 것으로 인정하라, 그러면 보상을 받을 수 있도록 노력하겠다”며 회유했다고 주장했다. 이 씨에 따르면 2020년 9월 29일 이 씨의 외신기자회견 직후, 이 씨를 만나고 싶다며 연락한 민주당 국회의원 등 4명은 같은 날 늦은 오후 안산에 있는 이 씨의 사무실을 찾았다. 이 씨는 이들이 찾아와 “당의 국방위 소속 의원들이 국방부에서 확인한 감청 녹음 파일 등에 의하면 월북으로 추정되는 내용이...

Lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and an ex-naval officer pushed for the family of a fisheries official killed by North Korea to admit that the deceased was attempting to defect to the North, the official’s brother claims. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official went missing during a patrol on Sept. 21, 2020, and was shot dead and set ablaze at sea by North Korean troops ...

A victim of police brutality, who was wrongfully convicted and served jail time in place of a serial killer, said taking the prosecution’s investigation powers away could lead more people to suffer in the same way. As a result of a false confession given in response to a coercive police interrogation, Yun Sung-yeo, 55, spent 20 years in jail on a wrongful conviction before he was released on par...

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 연쇄살인범 이춘재 대신 20년간 옥살이를 하고, 사건 발생 32년 만에 누명을 벗은 윤성여(55) 씨는 검찰의 수사권이 박탈되면 “억울한 사람이 늘어날 것”이라며 “별로 반기지 않는다”고 말했다. 윤 씨는 17일 코리아헤럴드와의 통화에서 더불어민주당의 ‘검수완박(검찰 수사권 완전 박탈)’ 입법 추진에 대해 “경찰이 조사해서 억울한 사람이 없으면 다행인데, 억울한 사람이 많을 것 같다”며 반대 의견을 표했다. 그는 이춘재 연쇄살인 사건 중 ‘8차 사건’의 진범으로 억울하게 지목된 당시에 “검사는 경찰 조사에 의지할 수밖에 없었다”며 “그렇게 경찰 수사로 마무리하게 됐다”고 설명했다. 이어 “경찰이 마무리한 걸 검찰이 넘기고, 그걸 법원에서 인정해서 내가 20년을 살고 나왔다”...

This year’s Sewol disaster anniversary is the last one to fall during Moon Jae-in’s term as president. Moon, who blamed the preceding Park Geun-hye administration’s negligence and incompetence for the ferry’s sinking, rose to presidency on the promise that he would uncover the truths surrounding the disaster. A Sewol survivor and Danwon graduate, Jang Ae-jin, told the audience comprising of lawm...

South Korea has conducted whole-genome sequencing on less than 0.1 percent of cases that occurred over its omicron outbreak to date, far below the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 5 percent. The lack of surveillance means Korea may lose sight of the next concerning variant coming its way, and let that variant spread undetected in the community, experts warn. The Korea Disease Contr...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday picked his close associate and elite prosecutor Han Dong-hoon to lead the Ministry of Justice. Han, 49, is known for leading the probes into corruption allegations against the conservative administrations of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye during the early days of Moon Jae-in’s presidency as the head of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s anti-corruption ...

In an escalating legal battle, the family of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korean troops filed an appeal asking the Constitutional Court on Wednesday to stop the Moon Jae-in administration’s plan to archive information related to the case as part of the presidential record. Once archived, the information would not be released to the public for as long as 15 years. The offic...

Top legal scholars and societies have hit back at the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s push to strip the prosecution completely of its investigative powers, warning the move will end up benefiting criminals and hurting victims. Last week the Democratic Party leadership said the party would legislate the prosecution reform bill before the end of Moon Jae-in administration in early May. During a...

The first case of an omicron recombinant variant, XL, was discovered in South Korea, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency announced Tuesday. The XL patient, who tested positive on March 23, was boosted with a third dose, had no recent travel history and showed a mild disease course, said Lee Sang-won, the head of the KDCA’s epidemiological analysis team, during a briefing Tuesday. XL...

By Kim Arin ( arin@heraldcorp.com )

South Korea may start recommending a third COVID-19 vaccination for people who have recovered from a breakthrough infection to prepare for any future variants and ensuing waves, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The national health protection agency told reporters Friday that a review by the advisory committee on immunization practices was underway, the agency said. ...