Dec 8, 2019

Korean Chinese still largest group of foreign residents in S. Korea

Korean Chinese make up the largest group of registered foreign residents in the country, especially in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, the latest official data showed Sunday.Meanwhile, in Daejeon and on Jeju Island, Chinese people without Korean ancestry accounted for the biggest number of registered residents.According to the Korea Immigration Service, of 1,274,775 registered foreigners here, which counts foreign residents on long-term visas, but not F-4 visa holders, Chinese nationals of Korean e

Dec 8, 2019

[Newsmaker] Leader of drug-trafficking ring gets 9-year prison term in appeals trial

The Seoul High Court on Sunday sentenced the leader of South Korea's largest drug-trafficking syndicate to nine years in prison for distributing about 730,000 doses of methamphetamine smuggled from Taiwan.The 63-year-old leader, identified by his surname, Yoon, and an accomplice, surnamed Woo, 53, were charged with distributing 22 kilograms of methamphetamine. That amount was part of a total of 112 kg of methamphetamine smuggled by a Taiwanese crime ring in July and August last year. Woo was sen

Dec 7, 2019

Pet-caused fires on rise in Seoul: data

The number of fires caused by pets is on the rise, data showed Saturday, raising the need for pet owners to take precautionary measures.A total of 31 reported fires in Seoul in the January-September period were accidentally caused by pets, according to the data from the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters.This marks a sharp rise from 19 cases in 2018, seven cases in 2017 and eight cases in 2016. The figures for the three years cover the January-December period. 　Except for one ca

Dec 7, 2019

Swine fever-infected wild boars on steady rise in S. Korea

  The number of wild boars infected with the deadly African swine fevervirus has been continuously increasing in South Korea despite a two-month hiatus from local farms, data showed Saturday.　The total number of wild boars infected with the virus here has reached 41 since the first such case was reported in October, according to local quarantine authorities.　On Saturday, the National Institute of Environmental Research confirmed two new cases in Cheorwon, a town near the border with North K

Dec 5, 2019

[Newsmaker] Actor Kang Ji-hwan gets suspended prison sentence in rape case

Actor Kang Ji-hwan, who was indicted in July on charges of raping a woman and molesting another at his home, was given a suspended prison sentence by a local court on Thursday.The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court sentenced 42-year-old Kang to an imprisonment of two and a half years, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of sexually assaulting two female production staffers.He was also ordered to conduct 120 hours of social service, undergo 40 hours of sexual offender tre

Dec 4, 2019

Prosecutors raid Blue House in power abuse scandal probe

Prosecutors’ investigation into an alleged power abuse scandal involving Cheong Wa Dae intensified Wednesday as prosecutors -- for the third time in the current administration -- raided the presidential office to secure records related to the controversial suspension of an internal inspection of a senior official in late 2017. The senior official, former Busan Vice Mayor for Economic Affairs Yoo Jae-soo, was detained Nov. 27 on bribery charges.Prosecutors were handed over documents id

Dec 4, 2019

[News Brief] Bomb scare in Incheon caused by toy

The police said a report that an explosive material was found under an overpass in Incheon on Wednesday turned out to be false.Around 11:56 a.m. on Wednesday, a resident reported to the police that an object which looked like a dynamite was found under road bridge in Jung-gu district. Police and military authorities dispatched bomb disposal technicians and sniffer dogs to the site and searched for signs of explosives, closing off the surrounding area. What was reported as a dynamite turned

Dec 4, 2019

[Newsmaker] Verdicts vary for Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing conscription

Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing mandatory military service have regularly been found guilty or not guilty of evading conscription based on whether they had “true faith.”A 24-year-old Jehovah’s Witness received a notice of enlistment from the Daejeon-South Chungcheong Regional Military Manpower Administration in September 2017, and refused conscription citing religious grounds.He submitted to the authorities papers stating that he belongs to the religious group and that he re

Dec 4, 2019

Broken glass falls from high-rise apartment in Busan

Broken pieces of glass fell from some 110 meters at a high-rise apartment building in Haeundae, Busan, on Monday. No one was injured.According to the Haeundae IPark apartment’s administrative office on Wednesday, hundreds of glass fragments fell to the ground at around 10 a.m. Monday as workers were repairing a window on the 44th floor of one of the buildings. Most of the glass pieces fell onto the playground, pedestrian overpasses and near the entrance to residential buildings.According t

Dec 3, 2019

[Newsmaker] Eight people indicted in audition show vote-rigging scandal

Eight people were indicted on Tuesday in connection with a widening vote-rigging scandal involving the high-profile audition show “Produce X 101,” prosecutors said Tuesday.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors‘ Office said it has indicted Ahn Joon-young -- a director at entertainment giant CJ ENM’s K-pop-oriented music channel, Mnet -- and the program‘s chief producer, Kim Yong-beom, with physical detention.　The two are charged with fixing the final vote result in

Dec 3, 2019

[Newsmaker] Welfare minister apologizes for controversial comment on child-on-child sexual abuse

The Ministry of Health and Welfare apologized Tuesday for a comment from the minister regarding a child-on-child sexual abuse case that has drawn public outrage. Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo said Monday morning that a recent incident of a prepubescent child’s molestation of another child at a kindergarten in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, was part of “natural behavior over stages of development.”“But it poses a problem when that behavior is expressed in excess,” he

Dec 3, 2019

[Newsmaker] Former President Park to return to detention center from hospital

Former President Park Geun-hye is expected to be sent back to a detention center as early as Tuesday, after 2 1/2 months in a hospital for shoulder treatment, sources said.The 67-year-old, jailed in March 2017 over a massive corruption case, underwent an operation for a rotator cuff tear at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in mid-September. She has since received rehabilitation treatment. "(She) will be discharged at 2:00 p.m. today," said Hong Moon-jong, co-chair of Our Republican Party, a r

Dec 3, 2019

[News Focus] Number of centenarians in Korea tops 20,000

SEJONG -- The number of people over the age of 70 is rapidly increasing in South Korea, which was dubbed an “aged society” two years ago, according to standards set by the United Nations.Further, the number of people aged 100 or over has also posted the highest growth among all age groups over the past decade.There were 20,102 centenarians in Korea as of November -- the highest so far -- as per the monthly demographic data of the Ministry of Interior and Safety, with 4,812 men and 15