A Seoul court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for a medical school student on charges of killing his girlfriend in Seoul earlier this week for allegedly breaking up with him. The 25-year-old, only identified by his surname Choi, who goes to a prestigious medical school in Seoul, was arrested without warrant on Monday for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend to death on the rooftop of a building in southern Seoul around 5 p.m. on Monday. The Seoul Central District Court issued the warrant af

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s mother-in-law, who is currently serving a one-year jail sentence for forgery, will be released some two months early, said the Justice Ministry on Wednesday. Choi Eun-soon, the 77-year-old mother of first lady Kim Keon Hee, will be released 10 a.m. on May 14, a day ahead of Buddha’s birthday, considering various factors including her age, health condition and good behavior while incarcerated, according to the ministry’s nine-member Probation and Parole

The Health Ministry said Wednesday that it would allow those holding foreign medical licenses to practice medicine in South Korea to help cope with a health care crisis exacerbated by a walkout by junior doctors. The ministry said it would make revisions to the enforcement regulation of the Medical Service Act, adding “medical support” to the list of tasks that foreign medical license holders can perform to address the shortage of medical personnel in the event of a medical disaster

The Gwangju High Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced two men to 10 years in prison for smuggling 12 kilograms of methamphetamine into the country. The two suspects, Malaysian nationals in their 30s and 40s, were found guilty of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, particularly the section on narcotics and psychotropic drugs. "Considering the amount of smuggled drugs and severe nature of drug-related crimes, the sentence seems to be app

A man found bank checks worth 50 million won ($36,600) and helped return them to their owner, then donated the reward money that the owner gave him to the local government. According to Saha-gu Office in Busan, a resident named Cha Sang-jae recently found the checks inside an old piece of clothing that he came across and reported it to the police. The checks were revealed to have belonged to the father of Wi Seong-han, who passed away two years ago. Wi, a resident of Seoul, had thrown the clothi

Experts call for clear legal framework to prosecute perpetrators and protect women

The Ministry of Education warned Wednesday of punitive measures, including the suspension of student admissions, as a potential consequence for Pusan National University if it persists in halting its medical school enrollment expansion plan. Expressing regret over the school's decision on Tuesday to suspend the increase of medical seats, the ministry emphasized that each university must adhere to the allocation of medical school seats as determined by the education minister in accordance wi

The US-based United Methodist Church said it does not see homosexuality as a sin or heresy, countering the accusations leveled at the global denomination by a coalition of Korean Protestant churches. “The Bible says homosexuality is a sin and consecrating gay clergy amounts to heresy,” President Jung Seo-young of the Christian Council of Korea said in a statement Saturday, made in response to the UMC decision to lift its 40-year-old ban on ordaining gay clergy Wednesday. “The U

Amid an intensifying medical standoff between the government and the medical community over a plan to increase the medical student quota starting next year, some young Korean medical residents are contemplating switching their tracks to cosmetic dermatology or pursuing their careers overseas. A junior doctor majoring in the essential medical field, who wished to be unnamed, told The Korea Herald that he recently attended a conference on skin care and plastic surgery hosted by the Korean Academy

An emergency text message warning that 70 fierce dogs were on the loose in Daejeon on Wednesday morning turned out to be an overstatement, as only two small dogs had escaped from a local breeding facility. At around 10:00 a.m., the city's Dong-gu District Office sent out an emergency alert message to residents, stating that 70 “fierce dogs” had escaped from a nearby dog breeding farm at 9:44 a.m. The message urged residents to "avoid approaching the affected area and evacua

A Seoul high school recently set up a screen golf facility inside its premises which is mostly used by the staff, sparking complaints from students and their teachers over whether it was a proper use of school funds. According to a report by local broadcaster MBC, the school based in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul shut down the school's snack bar after the government enforced social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The area was turned into a screen golf zone that is not regularly open to st

Police said late Tuesday they plan to seek an arrest warrant for a medical school student in his 20s accused of killing his girlfriend on a building rooftop near Gangnam Station in southern Seoul. The Seoul Seocho Police Station said the suspect, whom the authorities only identified as a student at one of the top medical schools here, was detained after allegedly stabbing his girlfriend multiple times and murdering her on the rooftop around 5 p.m. on Monday. The suspect later admitted to his cri

A man in his 80s has been apprehended for stabbing a woman and her son at an apartment complex in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul on Tuesday. According to Seoul Suseo Police Station, the suspect allegedly stabbed a woman in her 50s and her son after raiding their home in Gaepo-dong at 8 a.m., Tuesday morning. The woman was quickly transferred to the nearest hospital in a state of cardiac arrest, but was later pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital. The son is currently being treated at the ho

The Supreme Court recently overturned a lower court ruling that found three men guilty of group rape, based on the written confession left by another man before his death. South Korea's highest court said the note left by the deceased cannot be used as evidence of the sexual crime in a criminal case, saying its credibility has not sufficiently been verified. The deceased, who died at his apartment in Seoul in 2021, had apologized in what is thought to be a suicide note that he and three oth

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon proposed to forge mutual financial and economic cooperation with Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, during the Dubai Fintech Summit held there on Monday. In his keynote speech, “Seoul - A Global Economic Innovation Hub,” Oh highlighted the city’s strengths as a global financial center, a leader in innovative finance and a digital financial hub. He also outlined Seoul's strategic direction to become one of the top five global cities