The prosecution is set to question Hyosung Group chairman Cho Suck-rai on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the company’s alleged tax evasion, slush funds and accounting fraud, officials said Monday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has summoned Cho to appear at 10 a.m. Tuesday. He will be the third person from the family to be questioned. Hyosung is Korea’s 26th largest business group, with assets of more than 11 trillion won ($10.4 billion). Prosecutors are expected to gri

Leniency leads to child sex crimes: surveyNearly five out of 10 Koreans said mild punishment is the major cause behind sex offenses targeting children and adolescents, according to survey results released on Monday.The recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Anti-Corruption Civil Rights Commission showed that 47.3 percent believe that sex crimes against children occur because of lenient punishment, followed by deviant sexual impulses (21.1 percent) and porno

Voice phishing swindlers are targeting South Korean phone users with a new trick: the new address system that will go into effect in January next year.Under the address system change, customers of bank and other services are being required to update their addresses. Professionals engaged in voice phishing -- usually pretending to be officials from commercial banks -- are now asking unsuspecting users to type in personal information including resident numbers and passwords to update their data fo

Prosecutors conducted on Monday a search operation looking for any evidence that a teachers’ union had illegally involved itself in last year’s presidential election.Officials from the Seoul South District Prosecutor’s Office raided an unnamed server provider to investigate traces of illegal electioneering on the Korean Teacher’s Union homepage. Prosecutors have reportedly found evidence supporting the charges against the KTU on the union’s website and intranet system.The KTU has been on a rolle

More than 3,300 people have been indicted on charges of siphoning off or embezzling state subsidies worth a total of 170 billion won ($160 million), prosecutors and police said Sunday, revealing serious problems with Korea’s subsidy management system.In a six-month joint crackdown launched in June, prosecutors and police uncovered a total of 3,349 people suspected of involvement in subsidy-related irregularities. Of them, 127 were formally arrested, while the rest were put to trial without physi

The Korea Internet Digital Entertainment Association’s online petition against the so-called “addiction bill” saw more than 300,000 votes as of Sunday. According to K-IDEA, the online petition that launched on Oct. 28 against the proposed act, which classifies Internet games as addictive, has gained 300,978 votes. The poll is operated jointly by major domestic gaming corporations including Nexon, NCsoft, NHN Entertainment and CJ E&M Netmarble.“The opposition movement in every corner, even among

South Korea‘s trade watchdog issued a correction order to a British tobacco firm over misleading advertising. The Fair Trade Commission said Sunday it sent the order, a mild form of a sanction, to British American Tobacco Korea for describing its Dunhill Fine Cut 1 mg menthol as containing charcoal filters. The product had “charcoal filter” written on its packaging from November 2010 to September 2012 and generated 11.8 billion won ($11.15 million) in revenue, even though it did not have such a

A zookeeper who was bitten by a Siberian tiger died Sunday after 14 days in a coma, according to Ajou University Hospital.The 52-year-old zookeeper, identified by last name Shim, was mauled by the 3-year-old tiger in the neck and spine at a zoo in Seoul Grand Park on Nov 24.According to the zoo officials, Shim was laying food outside the tiger compound when he was attacked. The tiger escaped through an enclosure door, but how the door came to be unlocked is unknown. The tiger walked back into hi

State prosecutors said Friday it is seeking suspended jail terms for singer Tony An, Tak Jae-hoon and comedian Lee Soo-geun after the three admitted to betting on illegal sports gambling websites.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office demanded that An be sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years. For Tak and Lee, prosecutors sought eight and six months behind bars, respectively, suspended for two years each. “It has been taken into account that all of the defendants have

South Korea enshrined the remains of 666 soldiers on Friday, more than 60 years after they were killed in the three-year Korean War that ended in a truce in 1953.Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and 400 other government and military officials attended an enshrinement ceremony at Seoul National Cemetery for the remains excavated this year. A total of 731 sets of remains were recovered after searching 77 former battlefield sites from March to November, of which 666 have

The city of Seoul got cleared of ultrafine dust coming from China on Friday, leading the Seoul government to lift the warning against the pollutant.Concerns, however, persist, as China still has a high level of the "particulate matter (PM) 2.5," a nanoscale particulate matter that is 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter and largely made up of sulphate and nitrate particles.The city and the surrounding areas experienced unprecedentedly thick layers of ultrafine pollutants on Thursday, prompting th

Song Hong-bin, a 22-year-old college student in Seoul, regrets his choice of an all-English class this semester.Unable to comprehend lectures and conversations, he is only left with frustration and a sense of inferiority. “I chose the class to learn real-life English. But I feel like I’m being left out. Others seem to understand all the lectures,” he said.“It’s more like showtime for English-fluent people to boast their ability. I don’t think my English improved.” More and more universities are