A person who submitted an edited a voice recording to win a civil lawsuit was found guilty of attempted fraud, a local court said Sunday. Chuncheon District Court sentenced the 41-year-old defendant to a 10 million won ($7,100) fine for attempted fraud. The defendant, who was involved in a legal feud with another person over a bar they had jointly operated, claimed that the partner had promised to pay 50 million won as a form of reimbursement for investing in the bar. A voice recording of the tw

Social Affairs Nov. 24, 2024

A local court ruled against a Daegu hospital that challenged government's decision to withdraw funding after the institution's refused to admit a teenage emergency patient, leading to her death. Th Health Ministry decided not to provide government subsidies to four universities, including the Daegu Catholic University Medical Center (DCMC), for six months in response to their actions concerning a 17-year-old emergency patient in March. The girl sustained a serious injury after fallin

Social Affairs Nov. 24, 2024

A 26-year-old man was found guilty of evading national service after he was found to have deliberately gained weight to avoid serving in the military. Seoul Eastern Dongbu District Court recently sentenced the defendant to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for violating the Military Service Act. The act stipulates that those who evade their mandatary military service without justifiable cause can be punished by up to three years in prison. The defendant deliberately gained weight by

Social Affairs Nov. 24, 2024

The number of newly hired workers in their teens and 20s marked the lowest figure since an official tally has been kept since 2018, a government data showed Sunday. A total of 1.45 million new hires among people under the age of 30 occurred in the second quarter of this year, down 8.6 percent from 1.59 million in the same quarter in last year, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service data by the Statistics Korea. The number of existing jobs held by the same worker for Q2 marked

Economy Nov. 24, 2024

There have been 80,368 calls made with possibly malicious intent to the 120 Dasan Seoul Call Center from 2020 to October this year, the state-run foundation for the city's official information service said during a conference on Wednesday. The 120 Dasan Call Foundation hosted a seminar on the emotional labor of call center workers at the Seoul City Hall, during which it revealed the statistics related to problematic complaints or calls made to the call center. It defined malicious petitio

Social Affairs Nov. 23, 2024

A local online forum platform that been embroiled in series of crimes involving minors, has imposed a ban on underage users from writing in a forum about depression. DC Inside said Wednesday that underage users have been restricted from writing posts or replies on its "Depression Gallery," as part of the protection policy focused on minors recommended by the Korea Communications Commission. Investigative authorities and operators of the website will monitor the posts and replies on the

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

A 56-year-old YouTuber who killed another YouTuber was sentenced to a lifetime in prison on Wednesday, after which he shouted "thank you" for unexplained reasons. Busan District Court found the defendant surnamed Hong guilty of retaliatory murder, rejecting his claims that he had never intended to kill the victim. The court pointed out that it was a planned crime, and that the defendant stabbed the victim 12 times to inflict critical wounds. South Korea's Criminal Act stipulates

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

South Korean police said Thursday a recently born girl was found inside the bathroom of an underground shopping district, and that the mother is under investigation for abandoning the baby. The child was found inside a bag placed in the bathroom of the shopping district in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The child was in good health, and still had the umbilical cord attached. The child was taken to a nearby hospital for medical care. Police used surveillance footage to

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

South Korean police said Wednesday they are pursuing criminal charges against 715 individuals related to a nationwide illegal gambling operation, which is thought to have brought in around 100 billion won ($72 million) in revenue. Busan Metropolitan Police Agency arrested seven individuals suspected of running a poker-themed bar franchise with 15 local branches across the country that conducted an illegal gambling operation from March 2021 to April this year. The others are being investigated wi

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A man under trial in South Korea for killing his grandfather has claimed that the victim had frequently abused his grandmother, while the grandmother in question has requested a lenient punishment for her grandson, saying "she would gladly give her own life for it." Prosecutors asked the Seoul Eastern District Court to sentence the 23-year-old man accused of killing his grandfather to 24 years in prison, in a court hearing Tuesday. They said that, although the defendant said his grandf

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

Seoul court said Wednesday that it had sentenced a 10-month prison term for a monk, who threatened to cut off the injured leg of a high school student with an ax for no apparent reason. Seoul Central District Court found the 63-year-old defendant guilty of special intimidation -- meaning it involved a weapon or collective force. The verdict was a result of an appellate case regarding two separate threats the defendant made with a weapon. The defendant in April of last year approached a high scho

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A school assigning a female-to-male transgender student to stay in the girls' room on a school trip is discriminatory, the state-run human rights body said Tuesday. The National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday it recommended the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to provide a comprehensive education policy that can attend to the needs of LGBTQ+ students and allow diversity in the classroom. The NHRC's decision was in response to a complaint filed in February by a student at

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

An international fraud ring is accused of perpetrating a romantic scam against 14 victims, assuming the fake identities of US soldiers, UN officials and foreign students, Seoul police said Tuesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it has forwarded the case of the criminal organization with a 44-year-old Russian leader to the prosecution for fraud charges. The Russian leader and eight others have been placed under physical detention. They are believed to have swindled a total of 1.4 bi

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A Seoul court on Monday sentenced a man to a one-year prison term for stalking his former girlfriend by leaving hundreds of unwanted messages and calls and visiting the victim's home and work. The Seoul Central District Court found the defendant guilty of violating the Act on Punishment of Crime of Stalking, which punishes stalking with up to three years in jail or a 30 million won ($21,500) fine. The defendant contacted the victim regularly against her wishes after they broke up in April

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024

South Korean model who has confessed drug use recently claimed that she was forced to take drugs by an unidentified businessperson, but police said she made no such claims during the investigation. Kim Na-jung, who recently returned from the Philippines after admitting online to having used drugs, posted on her Instagram page Monday a statement made by her lawyer. She claimed that a "young businessman born in 1995" met with her in the Philippines, tied her up and blindfolded her and fo

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024