Prosecutor General Lee One-seok on Friday denounced the main opposition party's push to impeach four prosecutors, mostly involved in corruption investigations into former party leader Lee Jae-myung, as an illegal act. The Democratic Party submitted the controversial impeachment motion to the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee earlier this week, triggering criticism from many senior prosecutors. The top prosecutor, who has already criticized the motion as unconstitutional

A fire broke out Friday at an ink factory in the industrial district in Hwaseong, some 62 kilometers south of Seoul. No casualties have yet been reported. The fire broke out at around 7:15 a.m. at the 1,700-square-meter factory and forced the evacuation of three workers from the site, according to the Gyeonggi Fire and Disaster Headquarters. The authorities issued a level-one emergency response and dispatched 31 fire engines and 78 emergency personnel to the site. The flames were extinguished

Gold bars found at a recycling site in Seoul have been safely returned to their owner, according to a local news report. The discovery gained attention through a post titled "The Prestige of Banpo Xi Recycling Center" on an online community forum on Wednesday. The post included an image of an apartment complex notice stating, "An employee found gold bars in a case for a CD player. The resident who discarded the CD player, please contact the resident support center to verify owners

The parents of the players attending a soccer academy run by Son Woong-jung, the father of soccer superstar Son Heung-min, released a joint statement Thursday dismissing the recent allegations that he and two coaches at the institute abused the children there. Despite the statement, civic groups said later in the day that the parents making such claims of no abuse can be in itself a form of secondary abuse against the victim. In the joint statement, the parents said, "after years at the a

The government has been weighing measures on how to deal with trainee doctors who refuse to return to hospitals in protest of medical reform, according to officials Friday. With most trainee doctors still remaining unresponsive to the government's appeasement measures to help them return to hospitals, officials said the government will soon come up with measures on how to respond to the junior doctors who have left their worksites since late February. Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong earlier p

The driver involved in a recent car crash that killed nine pedestrians in central Seoul argued a sudden unintended acceleration caused the accident in the first police interrogation. The questioning comes three days after the 68-year-old man's Genesis G80 sedan plowed through a sidewalk guardrail and hit pedestrians while traveling against traffic on a one-way road near Seoul City Hall on Monday night. A total of nine people were killed, including six who died at the scene, most of them off

A civic group filed a complaint with the state anti-corruption agency Thursday for the second time over a luxury bag scandal involving first lady Kim Keon Hee after the case was dropped last month. The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy filed the complaint, which included additional evidence of the first lady receiving high-end perfumes and expensive liquors from a Korean American pastor, with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. "Since the complaint last year,

The Seoul city government said Thursday it will reinforce traffic signs and road markings on one-way roads as part of safety measures following a deadly car crash that left nine people dead earlier this week. "Although a no-entry traffic sign and a road marking are put up (at the accident site), we plan to reinforce them and install more to make them more noticeable to drivers throughout the day and night," a city official said. On Monday night, a sedan driven by a 68-year-old darted i

The average number of students per elementary school class could fall to single-digit levels in 10 years due to ultralow birth rates, a teachers' group said Thursday. The Good Teachers Movement announced the estimate during a forum held to discuss low birth rates and education reforms, saying the forecast is based on school-age population data that Statistics Korea released in June last year. According to the worst-case scenario, the average number of elementary school students per class co

Parents of players training at the football academy run by the father of South Korean football star Son Heung-min on Thursday dismissed child abuse allegations against him. Son Woong-jung, a former player and director of Son Football Academy, and two of his coaches are under investigation over charges that they had physically and verbally abused a young player. In a joint statement issued Thursday, parents of other players said they had never once heard of or seen any corporal punishment at the

Opening ceremony of 22nd Assembly pushed back indefinitely over ruling party boycott

More conservative leaders in Seoul are joining the hitherto fringe club of politicians calling for South Korea to get its own nuclear weapons to counter growing North Korean and other security threats facing the country. The recurring debate, which used to take place on the peripheries of South Korean politics, is gaining traction this time in the wake of the high-profile meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In a summit in Pyongyang last month, Putin s

Belarus becomes 10th full member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization

South Korea's national weather agency said Thursday it plans to forecast the weather further into the future, starting with expanding its mid-term forecast from the current 10-day outlook to 14 within this year. The Korea Meteorological Administration said it will review its numerical weather prediction to see if it can provide specific weather data for up to 14 days. The KMA currently has a three-level weather forecast system: the short-term forecast of up to three days predicts the specif

The Seoul Safety Income Project, initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will set an example for South Korea's welfare policy in the future, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said Thursday, marking the project's second anniversary. The initiative launched as a pilot project by the city government in 2022, is an income guarantee model that partially compensates the household income gap for families earning less than 85 percent of the median income. A key feature of this initiative is that