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

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

The South Korean government vowed Wednesday to launch a special audit on an international adoption agency following rising public concerns over the safety of Korean adoptees in foreign countries. “The government is planning to conduct a special inspection on Holt Children’s Services Inc. over its financial system and the legality of its operations,” the Health and Welfare Ministry said. The move came after civic groups urged the state last month to improve the monitoring system for international

A South Korean woman abducted a month ago in the Philippines was found dead earlier this week, the Foreign Ministry here said Wednesday. The woman in her mid-20s, whose identity was withheld, had been missing in the Philippines since early March. She was kidnapped in the Manila area on March 3 while on her way to meet with her friend, according to a foreign ministry official.“Her body was found in the hiding place of the abductors Tuesday night despite our utmost efforts to win her safe release,

Smuggling of a new type of drug called “rush” is increasing, prompting customs to tighten anti-drug controls.The Korea Customs Service said Tuesday that rush accounted for 34 of the 62 attempts to smuggle new synthetic drugs into the country detected by its Incheon International Airport branch during the first quarter of the year. There were no known cases of the drug being smuggled into Korea last year.Rush poppers, which are inhaled through the nose, can easily be purchased online via internat

South Korean books and authors is expected to play a significant role in the London book that fair kicked off on Tuesday.South Korea is the Market Focus country, which is the most important guest state, for The London Book Fair 2014 that kicked off at Earls Court, London. The fair will run for three days. The event is considered the second-largest book publishing trade fair in Europe next to the Frankfurt Book Fair. More than 25,000 publishers, booksellers, literary agents, librarians and media

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

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday sought an arrest warrant for Kang Duk-soo, former head of shipping and shipbuilding conglomerate STX Group, on suspicion of embezzlement and business malpractice.Kang, 64, is believed to have funneled the funds of STX’s financially troubled shipbuilding unit to illegally support other ailing affiliates during his tenure as the group’s chief between 2003 and February 2014.He also allegedly used the company funds to bribe politicians. Kang

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

A man died at the construction site of the Lotte World Tower early Tuesday morning, according to the Seoul police. It was the second death at the site since construction began in 2009. The 38-year-old man, surnamed Hwang, died while working alone at around 8:40 a.m. on the 12th floor of the Lotte World Tower in Songpa-gu. He is believed to have been hit by an iron pipe and died on the way to hospital. Authorities said that the accident had been caused by fittings on the pipes bursting due to hig

The number of medical dispute claims is on the rise with a low rate of successful settlements, a report showed Tuesday. According to the state-run Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency, a total of 2,287 claims for medical dispute mediation were filed in the last two years. While the monthly average of claims was 56 cases in 2012, the rate has more than doubled this year. Only about 42 percent of the total disputes ― 912 cases ― were settled successfully. Over half of the filed c

The South Korean police have arrested two men accused of leaking LG Electronics’ technology to a Chinese company, the police said Tuesday. The South Gyeongsang Province police charged two former employees of LG, surnamed Yoon, 45, and Kang, 38, with handing over technical data to a Chinese home appliances firm, violating unfair competition and trade secret protection laws.The two men came up with the plot last April, when a headhunter for the company offered them housing, a luxury car and double

A man died at the construction site of the Lotte World Tower early Tuesday morning, according to the Seoul Police. It was the second death at the site since construction began in 2009. The 38-year-old man, surnamed Hwang, died while working alone at around 8:40 a.m. on the 12th floor of the Lotte World Tower in Songpa-gu. He is believed to have been hit by an iron pipe and died on the way to hospital. Seoul Police said that the accident had been caused by fittings on the pipes bursting due to hi