Ruling bloc seeks tougher sentences for deepfake sex crimes

The government and the ruling party agreed on adopting longer prison sentences of up to seven years for deepfake sex crimes Thursday, as South Korea grapples with a surge in female victims of such illegal pornography. The decision made during an emergency meeting at the National Assembly followed President Yoon Suk Yeol’s order, on Tuesday, of a crackdown on the latest reports of digital sex crimes involving the production and circulation of fake sexually explicit images of women and girls

Aug. 29, 2024

Aricell CEO arrested in first case under industrial accidents law

The chief executive of lithium battery manufacturer Aricell and his son, who oversees factory operations, have been arrested over the deadly fire at the company’s Hwaseong plant that claimed the lives of 23 -- 17 Chinese nationals, five Korean nationals and one Laotian national. The incident marks the first time a company head has been formally arrested under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, which came into effect in January 2022. The law mandates a minimum prison sentence of one year

Aug. 29, 2024

Unionized hospital workers pull out from strike

Unionized hospital workers pulled out from their planned strike Thursday after reaching an agreement on pay raises and better working conditions with hospitals, withdrawing from a decision that could have caused potential chaos at understaffed hospitals already suffering from junior doctors' collective walkouts in February. The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union -- which has some 30,000 nurses, caregivers and other medical workers as members -- said Thursday that health care work

Aug. 29, 2024

Newborns hit new low, but births to those unmarried reach record high: data

Births to those not married accounted for nearly 5 percent of all births last year, setting a new record high, while the total number of newborns dropped to a new low, data showed Thursday. According to Statistics Korea, of the 230,028 babies born last year, 10,900, or 4.7 percent, were born to women who were not married, marking the highest proportion since records began in 1981. Babies born to people who were not married have steadily increased since 2020, reaching 9,800 in 2022, or 3.9 percen

Aug. 29, 2024

Sinkhole swallows up car, injuring 2 in Seoul

A sinkhole opened up in the middle of a road in western Seoul on Thursday morning swallowing an entire car. Two people were injured, with one in critical condition, according to fire authorities. At 11:26 a.m., the vehicle, carrying the driver and a passenger, rolled over sideways crashing into the sinkhole while driving on Seongsan-ro in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, northwestern Seoul, toward Seongsan Bridge. The two who were injured, a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s, sustained serious

Aug. 29, 2024

[LLG] When compassion meets law: Lawyer defends goats, dogs, other helpless animals

As a child, Park Joo-yeon always loved animals. She enjoyed going to the zoo and constantly pestered her parents to have pets at home. In 2011, while undergoing training after passing the state bar exam, Park came across a horrendous photo that opened her eyes to aspects of animal life that she had not seen before. It was of a piglet being subjected to a gruesome death by protesters opposing an army base relocation plan in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. The incident, which took place in 2007, involv

Aug. 29, 2024

[From the Scene] How ‘world’s first oil town’ is wrestling to become ‘green'

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Driving just a few miles from the venue of this year’s global climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, a transformation is taking place. Once known as the Black City, from all the soot created in the 19th century from pumping and refining oil, it claims the dubious honor of being the world's oldest oil town. Having the world’s first-ever mechanically drilled oil well in 1846, the country at one point provided more than half of the world's oil. Having fu

Aug. 29, 2024

[Graphic News] Average book price nears 20,000 won

The cost of purchasing a book in South Korea is approaching 20,000 won ($14.80), according to recent research by the Korean Publishers Association. In 2023, the average book price was 18,633 won. Books in the miscellaneous category were the most expensive, with an average price of 24,517 won. Other high-priced categories included history (24,289 won), social science (24,203 won), and descriptive science (24,157 won). The study also revealed that 62,865 books were newly published in 2023, a 2.8

Aug. 29, 2024

NCT member Taeil leaves band over sexual offense allegations

Taeil, a member of K-pop boy band NCT, has left the team after being accused of sexual offense allegations, NCT's agency said Wednesday. "Our company recently found out that Taeil has been accused in a criminal case in relation to a sexual crime," SM Entertainment said. "In the process of verifying the details, the company reached the conclusion that (he) could no longer be part of the team, given the gravity of the incident." The company said the decision was made upon

Aug. 28, 2024

Haru Invest CEO stabbed during fraud trial

The chief executive of Haru Invest, a troubled South Korean cryptocurrency deposit service, was injured Wednesday after being stabbed during a fraud trial. The CEO, only identified by his surname Lee, was stabbed in the neck by a man in his 50s during the trial at the Seoul Southern District Court and was taken to a hospital. His injuries are not life-threatening, according to authorities. Police said they have arrested the assailant on charges of attempted murder and are investigating his motiv

Aug. 28, 2024

[Online Predators] Deepfake pornography haunts S. Korea

Song, a 17-year-old high schooler based in Gyeonggi Province, used to be just like any other girl her age on social media -- posting photos and short-form videos of herself or with her friends dancing along to trending audio tracks. That was until she received an anonymous message on Instagram. It still haunts her to this day. “I looked at my phone after school when I saw a message sent through an unidentified account,” Song told The Korea Herald. “The message read, ‘Do y

Aug. 28, 2024

Suicide warning signs were there, but 7 out of 10 went unrecognized

Nearly everyone who died by suicide showed warning signs beforehand, yet few people around them took these signs seriously, a report showed Wednesday. A 2023 report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Foundation for Suicide Prevention reveals that while 96.6 percent of suicide victims exhibited suicide warning signs through unusual behavior, only 23.8 percent of their loved ones recognized these signals. The report analyzed victim records from 1,099 suicide cases and interviews w

Aug. 28, 2024

New guidelines proposed for writing foreign nationals' names

The government has proposed new guidelines for state and municipal offices when writing the names of foreign nationals in South Korea on administrative documents, to improve the convenience of identity verification, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Wednesday. Under the new standards, the government proposes that foreigners' names in the Latin alphabet be written as surname followed by given name, in uppercase, with a space between each. If a name in the Latin alphabet is already lis

Aug. 28, 2024

Understaffed, overwhelmed: S. Korean ERs in emergency mode

Seven months into South Korea's medical sector standoff, fatigue and backlogs of patients are hammering emergency departments nationwide as emergency medicine physicians are reeling from the mass walkout of medical interns and residents in February, with some deciding to leave their jobs for good. Seven out of 14 ER doctors at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, have tendered their resignations, putting the emergency unit under immense pressure as it grapples with personne

Aug. 28, 2024

[Community Discovery] Gwanak transforming from 'goshi town' to youth innovation hub

Gwanak-gu, home to South Korea's most prestigious university Seoul National University, has been a key incubator for the nation's top elites for decades. Located in the southwestern part of Seoul and nestled within Gwanaksan, the district is home to numerous cram schools, small residential units, and affordable eateries. These support those preparing for South Korea’s notoriously competitive civil service exams, which facilitate significant social mobility and early career advanc

Aug. 28, 2024

[Herald Interview] Hwaseong, Korea's newest special city, aims to become sustainable metropolitan hub

As Hwaseong Mayor Jeong Myeong-geun reaches the midpoint of his term, he reflects on both the progress he has made and his ambitious plans for the city's future. "On Jan. 1, 2025, Hwaseong is set to debut as South Korea's fifth special city officially, ‘Hwaseong Special City,’" Jeong told The Korea Herald. "We are fully preparing to make it more livable, work-friendly, and enjoyable." Achieving special city status requires surpassing a population of 1 mi

Aug. 28, 2024

Long-lost woman reunited with daughter after 40 years

A 71-year-old woman has been reunited with her daughter with the help of the police, 40 years after she ran away from home due to the domestic violence of her husband. Daejeon police on July 29 were investigating the woman related to an argument that had occurred between her and a customer in the small corner store she had been managing, according to the Jungbu Police Station in Daejeon. Investigators found that she had been registered as deceased for decades, after going missing in 1984. Back

Aug. 28, 2024

Overdue apology issued to fishers wrongly accused of being NK spies

A former chief of a local police station has apologized for an illegal police investigation that occurred over half a century ago into fishers were then wrongly convicted of being spies for North Korea. Lee Eun-sil, the recently retired chief of Goseong Police Station in Gangwon Province, visited the fishers and offered her apology, according to the victims' group based in the province. This was among her last actions as police chief, and marked the first time an incumbent head of an inve

Aug. 28, 2024

Police use translator app to help child of foreign nationality

Seoul police recently helped a lost child of foreign nationality locate her parents, according to its official YouTube channel. Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Monday posted a video of the child's rescue, as part of the ongoing effort to promote its activities. A child was wandering near a police precinct station affiliated with the Gwangjin Police Station in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on an unspecified date in August. The station's officers invited her in, but the crying child did not sp

Aug. 28, 2024

A major Korean webtoon, web novel pirate site shut down

South Korean authorities shut down Agitoon, a major piracy platform of Korean webtoons and web novels, and arrested its operator on charges of copyright infringement, officials announced Tuesday. According to the Daejeon District Public Prosecutors’ Office, which led the crackdown with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Agitoon, at two different sites, shared unauthorized copies of over 2.5 million web fiction titles and 740,000 webtoon series. Based on the volume of pirated co

Aug. 28, 2024