Police on Wednesday said that 10 people fell victim to phishing scams after their personal information was stolen through a massive data leak at banks last year. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested four members of a voice phishing ring for extorting a total of 37 million won ($35,500) from the victims in two weeks from March 18. Among the suspects is a general manager surnamed Lee, 42, who orchestrated the large-scale scam.The data of up to 16,000 customers of Citibank was leaked in Ap

Social Affairs April 9, 2014

The drive to shorten the work week to a maximum of 52 hours is gaining momentum, signaling a major change to the country’s notoriously long working hours.Politicians and labor parties have built a consensus to slash the maximum number of work hours from 68 hours to 58 hours a week to improve people’s work-life balance and create more jobs. The subcommittee of the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee has so far made little progress on when and how to reduce the hours but the Suprem

Social Affairs April 9, 2014

A Seoul court has ruled in favor of singer Seo Taiji in a lawsuit against a tenant in one of his buildings, court officials said Wednesday.The tenant, a hospital owner surnamed Byun, has leased the second to fifth floors of the building in Seoul since July 2011. Byun was to pay monthly rent of 34 million won ($32,600) and a maintenance fee of 9.4 million won, but fell behind in the rent starting in September 2012. Seo filed a suit against the tenant as Byun refused to leave the building, even af

People April 9, 2014

South Korea said Tuesday that it will conduct a survey of inpatient care centers to question whether patients’ personal consent was taken into account prior to hospitalization. The measure comes in the wake of numerous reports on forced hospitalization during family inheritance disputes after crimes motivated by revenge. The government approved the revision of the Habeas Corpus Act in a Cabinet meeting in an apparent effort to improve patients’ rights at inpatient facilities such as psychiatric

Social Affairs April 8, 2014

Teenagers addicted to smartphones have a higher chance of falling prey to cyberbullying, data showed Tuesday.According to a 2013 survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government of 4,998 students aged 10-17, a fifth of teenagers are smartphone addicts, with 2.9 percent of them categorized as “high-risk.” The data showed that the more addicted students were, the more likely they were to get involved in online bullying. Among the high-risk group, 9.1 percent responded that they had been victims of cybe

Social Affairs April 8, 2014

A survey of female patients has found that more than 10 percent felt sexually harassed while receiving medical treatment. Nearly 12 percent of adult female patients experienced sexual harassment in hospitals over the past five years, according to the Human Rights Law Foundation’s survey of 1,000 people aged 19-59. In the survey permitting multiple answers, a total of 255 cases of sexual harassment were documented. Having to take off clothing in an open area made up the largest share of complaint

Social Affairs April 7, 2014

Political parties, businesses and labor unions have made little progress in closing the gap in their positions on key labor issues in the run-up to a public hearing this week. The subcommittee for the National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee convened Monday to seek an agreement on ordinary wages and work hours, the biggest areas of contention dividing the management and labor circles.But pundits questioned whether the subcommittee would yield promising results, given their differences

Social Affairs April 7, 2014

A South Korean man was found guilty of obtaining Canadian citizenship to evade the country’s mandatory military service, court officials said on Thursday.The Seoul Central District Court upheld a ruling last Friday sentencing the 37-year-old man, identified by the surname Lee, to six months in prison with a one-year stay of execution for giving up his Korean nationality to avoid military conscription.Lee is expected to be deported to Canada as under the country’s Immigration Control Act foreign

Politics April 3, 2014

A South Korean court turned down a transgender father’s request to be legally recognized as female, citing the disapproval of family members. The Incheon District Court in February ruled against the person only identified as Lee, in a verdict intended to protect the social status of his adult son.The Korean court previously threw out a similar case involving underage children, and the latest marks the first of a kind in which an adult son’s legal position is taken into consideration when a paren

Social Affairs April 3, 2014

A Seoul court handed down a ruling on Wednesday ordering the family of a victim acquitted after being imprisoned for campaigning against the military regime led by then-President Park Chung-hee to return part of its compensation from the government. The late victim, Lee Jae-hyung, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 1978 after being found guilty of plotting against the regime at the behest of the North Korean government. In 2007, his family won a retrial against the state and received about 1.7

Social Affairs April 2, 2014

The nation’s top court on Wednesday accepted the resignation of the chief of the Gwangju District Court over allegations he helped an ex-tycoon receive a soft punishment in 2010. Judge Chang Byong-woo offered to resign on Wednesday after his lenient ruling on the former chairman of now-defunct Daeju Group caused a public uproar for valuing his daily work at 500 million won ($467,700) in a high-profile embezzlement case.The development has added weight to suspicions that there was an illicit real

Social Affairs April 2, 2014