Kim Beom-su, the founder of Kakao Corp. has been indicted with detention Thursday on charges of stock price manipulation tied to the South Korean tech giant’s takeover of SM Entertainment last year. The Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office charged Kim with violating the Capital Markets Act, accusing him of inflating SM Entertainment’s share price in a bid to acquire a controlling stake in the K-pop agency during a competitive bidding war against Hybe. Hybe is the parent c

Minister of National Defense Shin Won-sik apologized Thursday over high-profile allegations that a Defense Intelligence Command official leaked agents’ identities to Chinese hackers earlier this year. “I would like to apologize to the South Korean people for the public display of the (alleged) leak of military secrets and the bickering that ensued among senior intelligence officials,” Shin said at a National Assembly national defense committee meeting. At Thursday’s defen

The South Korean government has turned a blind eye towards a joint request by a group of a hundred children and teens here calling for the elimination of restaurants and cafes banning the entrance of children, a local news report revealed Thursday. A joint resolution calling for the riddance of so-called "no-kids zones," drafted last year by a hundred students aged 10 to 17 from across the country -- elected by their peers to represent them at a government-organized 20th National Child

The South Korean government on Thursday flagged that North Korea's receipt of Samsung-gifted smartphones, specially customized for all athletes competing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, could constitute a violation of UN sanctions. The International Olympic Committee has provided all athletes at the Paris Olympics with specially designed Olympic Edition Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphones from Samsung Electronics, an official event sponsor. The Unification Ministry in Seoul said the North Korean Olympic

The South Korean government has embarked on a task to bring about a major overhaul of the nation’s minimum wage system, launching an in-depth study into how key economies determine their minimum wages, officials said Thursday. The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced Thursday that it has recently commissioned a study titled "International Comparative Analysis of Minimum Wage Determination Systems." The move aims to address long-standing criticisms of South Korea’s min

The number of insomnia patients in South Korea continued its upward trend, nearing 800,000 last year, recent health data showed Thursday. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, 782,381 patients visited hospitals for insomnia treatment last year, a 3.4 percent increase from the previous year’s figure of 756,635. Over the past decade, the number of insomnia patients has surged over 70 percent, rising from 448,000 recorded cases in 2013. The number of sleep-deprived

Government data showed Thursday that 4,394 domestic airline passengers could not reach their destination in the first half of this year, due to forced turnarounds caused by inaccurate weather forecasts. Of all the cases of planes returning to their departure airports due to bad weather between January and June of this year, the forecast was wrong on 20 occasions and did not require the turnaround. This was revealed by Rep. Jeon Yong-gi of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who cite

The leader of the ruling People Power Party announced plans Thursday to provide an additional 15,000 won ($11) in electricity support to 1.3 million vulnerable households to help them better cope with the hot weather. Han Dong-hoon made the announcement during a meeting of the PPP supreme council, pointing out that many families are suffering from the record-breaking heat wave this summer. He explained his support scheme will essentially cover the entire electricity bill for the vulnerable house

Yonsei University has revoked the master's degree of a minor party leader's son following a court ruling related to the case, informed school officials said Thursday. The university recently decided to cancel the admission of Cho Won, the son of Cho Kuk, the chief of the Rebuilding Korea Party, into its graduate school of political science and diplomacy in 2018 and his master's degree earned from the same school in 2021, they said. The decision came after the Supreme Court confirm

A military intelligence official has been referred to the prosecution for allegedly leaking information of South Korean espionage agents operating overseas, the defense ministry said Thursday. "The Defense Counterintelligence Command has referred the civilian official at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command to the military prosecution on charges of violating the Military Secret Protection Act ... as well as espionage charges," the defense ministry said in a statement. The official, w

The government is considering requiring electric vehicle manufacturers to disclose information on car batteries amid an EV scare following a massive fire caused by a Mercedes-Benz vehicle last week, according to sources Thursday. According to the sources, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is reviewing the measures for car manufacturers to include EV battery manufacturer details in vehicle specifications. Currently, EV manufacturers are required to provide information on vehicle

The justice ministry on Thursday was scheduled to review beneficiaries of special presidential pardons to be granted on the occasion of Liberation Day next week, including a former South Gyeongsang governor and a former presidential secretary. President Yoon Suk Yeol will grant special pardons mostly to those convicted of livelihood-related crimes and others in commemoration of the Aug. 15 national holiday, the fifth round of such special pardons since his inauguration in 2022. The justice minis

The incidence of heat-related illnesses from midnight to 10 a.m. has skyrocketed by more than 900 percent over the past decade, outpacing the growth rate of daytime cases. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s annual report released Tuesday, the number of patients recorded between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. soared by 1,225 percent, from 20 cases in 2011 — the first year of the monitoring system — to 265 cases last year. The number of patients between midnight

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited a major naval base in the southern part of the country this week as part of his summer vacation, his office said Wednesday. During the two-day visit to the naval base in Changwon, some 310 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Yoon spent time with service members, playing basketball with a group of Navy personnel and Marines on Wednesday, it said. On Tuesday night, Yoon had dinner with various service members at the base, including those who served during the sinking of

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo met the Philippines' top diplomat Wednesday and asked for Manila's support in efforts to send a stern message against North Korea's provocations, his office said. Han made the request during talks with Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo in Seoul in the wake of North Korea's launches of thousands of trash-carrying balloons across the inter-Korean border since late May. "In order to ensure that North Korea does not undertake