Prosecutors raided Hyosung Group and its chairman’s residence on Friday in a widening probe into the group and the owner family suspected of evading taxes for more than 15 years.Hyosung chairman Cho Suck-rai and the group’s senior executives are suspected of fabricating accounting records to dodge tax and amass slush funds overseas. Residences of the chairman’s three sons have also been raided, according to prosecutors at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.Investigators have confiscated

A Christian pastor who has been working nearly 30 years to help unprotected migrant workers said he is in dire need of support after a fire devastated his migrant workers’ shelter.The Global Sarang center in Garibong, southwestern Seoul, was partially destroyed when a fire broke out in the building’s entrance hall on Tuesday night, injuring at least 10 people and causing an estimated $186,000 worth of damage.Pastor Kim Hae-sung admitted he does not have insurance on the migrant center he has ope

The government said Thursday that it found a total of 277 falsified test certificates for parts and materials used in nuclear reactors currently in operation.About 100 officials from the state-run nuclear power plant operator, parts suppliers and certifiers have also been indicted on charges of forgery and corruption, the Office of Government Coordination said.The government has conducted a thorough investigation into a total of 22,712 certificates for parts and materials used for 20 reactors ov

Gender Equality Minister Cho Youn-sun met with Democrat Rep. Mike Honda in Washington on Wednesday to discuss issues involving Korean victims of Japan’s sex slavery during World War II. Cho expressed her gratitude on behalf of the Korean government to Rep. Honda for his years of dedicated work urging for the Japanese government’s apology and compensation for the wartime sex slaves.Cho is currently in the U.S. to attend a meeting at the United Nations on Saturday where she is expected to official

Seoul City and Hyundai Motor’s Chung Mong-koo Foundation, a charity group, will host a festival for multicultural families at Seoul Square on Sunday.The annual Seoul Multicultural Festival will offer photo exhibitions, performances, concerts and other events. Korean idol singers IU, T-ara and BTOB will perform. Participants will also have opportunities to try out traditional food, costumes and instruments of other countries.(rene@heraldcorp.com)

A homeless woman, known as “McDonald’s Grandma,” died in July, authorities said on Thursday. She was 73. The Junggu Office said the woman named Gwon Ha-ja died at the New Hope Convalescent Hospital in Seoul on July 12. Her body was cremated as she had no family members.Gwon was found collapsed near Seoul Station in May and transferred to the National Medical Center. It turned out that she was already struggling with terminal cancer.The homeless woman received the peculiar nickname as she was fre

Hundreds of documents meant to ensure the safety of South Korea's nuclear reactors have been forged, a top official said Thursday.Kim Dong-yeon, a minister at the Prime Minister's Office, said government officials combed through about 22,000 test results for parts used in 20 reactors that are currently online. Among the test results, 277 documents or 1.2 percent were fabricated, said Kim.A separate probe of 218,000 out of 275,000 test results for eight other reactors also showed that 2,010 docum

The recidivism rate for juvenile offenders has been on a steady rise in recent years, police said Thursday.The second conviction rate for juvenile offenders arrested over the past four years rose from 32.4 percent in 2009 to 35.5 percent in 2010, 36.9 percent in 2011 and 37.3 percent in 2012, the National Police Agency said in a report submitted to a ruling party lawmaker.The share went up to 41.9 percent in the first eight months of this year alone.The number of youth convicted for more than ni

Sons of 16 high-ranking public officials have abandoned their South Korean nationality in an apparent attempt to evade mandatory military service, an opposition lawmaker said Wednesday.The sons became U.S. or Canadian citizens after giving up their Korean nationality when they were required by law to choose their nationality, Ahn Gyu-baek, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party, citing government data.Their fathers now all serve in the government. They include Yoo Min-bong, senior pr

The government is moving to disclose the personal information of about 11,000 people convicted of sex crimes against adults since April 2008. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday it would request local courts to issue related publication orders in line with a recently toughened law to curb sex offenses. After court approval, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family will make offenders’ names, resident registration numbers, addresses, occupations and workplaces available on a speciali

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― Senior officials from South Korea and China held inaugural talks on Wednesday during which they discussed ways to promote bilateral cooperation on climate change and address environmental problems, a Seoul official here said. The Korea-China Climate Change Dialogue, the first of its kind, was led by Shin Boo-nam, South Korean ambassador for green growth, and Su Wei, director general of the climate change department at the National Development and Reform Commission, China’

Seoul City is expected to expand its public security guard service for women returning home at night that has attracted more than 11,000 users since it started in June. Once a woman requests the service via the 120 public call center or local district office 30 minutes before she arrives at the subway or bus station near her home, two “public security agents” arrive to accompany her. The service operates between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. on weekdays. Having started in 15 Seoul districts on a trial basi

A middle-aged man in Daegu attacked a couple living upstairs with a sickle over a noise complaint. The man began arguing with the couple in Bongdeok-dong, Daegu, at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday. As the altercation grew heated, the man struck the couple in the neck and chest with a sickle. The couple were taken to a hospital and are now undergoing treatment. Their injuries were reportedly not life-threatening.The police plan to seek an arrest warrant for the man on the charge of attempted murder. 　　B

South Koreans predicted that they willreduce expenditure on traveling in the fourth quarter of this year due to the protracted economic downturn, a poll showed Tuesday.According to the survey of 1,000 men and women taken by the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, the consumer survey index on overseas trips fell 20 points to 91 for the fourth quarter from a year ago, marking the lowest level since the October-December period of 2009.Index values of lower than 100 indicate pessimists outnumber opti