Police have requested the Justice Ministry to ban some 10 people including former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-ui from leaving the country pending an investigation into their involvement in an alleged sex-for-favors scandal.“(We have) requested travel bans (on 10 figures including Kim) because (we) need to do so for further investigations and we have identified substantial criminal charges,” an official said. The official declined to name the other figures the police have sought for the oversea

Jeju Island plans to construct enough wind power plants to generate 2,350 megawatts of electricity by 2030 to meet growing demand and increase the share of renewable energy, the local government announced on Thursday.The planned increase in its wind energy capacity breaks down to 2,000 megawatts offshore and 350 megawatts onshore. The local government will add 1,000 megawatts in offshore plants by 2019 and another 1,000 megawatts by 2030. It signed agreements on offshore wind power plant constru

A Japanese man who allegedly tried to kill a woman he was stalking by putting poison in her shoes was arrested Thursday, police and reports said.The woman, a colleague, did not die, but developed gangrene in part of her left foot, they said. It was not known to what extent she was injured or if she had to have any amputations.Tatsujiro Fukasawa, 40, allegedly put hydrofluoric acid, a highly caustic chemical, in her shoes in December last year, a police spokeswoman and reports said.He is believed

SEOUL -- Most of South Korea's 30 major companies lack awareness about human rights, coming far short of international standards, the country's rights watchdog said Thursday.   According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRC), its analysis of the reports on corporate sustainability management published by 19 out of the country's top 30 corporations based on sales as of 2010 showed that a large share of them failed to meet international standards in dealing with labor and human r

Those caught producing and distributing adulterated food could face a minimum of three years in prison as part of the government’s effort to root out problems caused by substandard food that threatens public safety, the Prime Minister’s Office said Wednesday.It is one of the comprehensive countermeasures the government devised to guarantee the safety of foodstuff in line with President Park Geun-hye’s pledge to eradicate the country’s four major “social ills” of school and sexual violence, home-

Minister of Environment Yoon Seong-kyu is facing an investigation by a university panel on suspicion of plagiarizing parts of his doctoral dissertation. His alma mater Hanyang University said Wednesday that it would form a research ethics committee to investigate the allegations first raised by lawmaker Chang Ha-na from the opposition Democratic United Party. Chang said during Yoon’s confirmation hearing last month that the introduction, research methods and conclusion were largely similar to th

Early Sunday morning is the time of the week when women in their 20s and 30s are most vulnerable to sexual assault, police said. North Jeolla Provincial Police Agency’s record of the past three years showed that 16.1 percent of sex crimes occurred on Sundays, and 39.4 percent of those incidents happened between midnight and 4 a.m. Women in their 20s and 30s were the most targeted groups, accounting for roughly one-third of all assaulted women.“It is important that one confirms the identity of th

A number of government and civilian organizations experienced network and website malfunctions on Tuesday, unnerving government officials just days after computer networks at banks and broadcasters crashed due to cyber attacks.Following the incident, President Park Geun-hye called for a comprehensive checkup on cyber-security of a range of civilian organizations including broadcasters, and telecom and financial service providers. She also ordered for a more concerted effort in fighting cyber ter

The police said Tuesday that they are investigating a man believed to be an official from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on suspicions of posting articles on Internet sites in an attempt to influence the outcome of last year's presidential election.The 39-year-old man, identified only by his surname Lee, allegedly used nearly 40 different accounts to post around 160 articles that either supported or opposed certain candidates in the December presidential election, according to the polic

A week after a massive cyber attack on the country's major broadcasters and banks, several associations here for North Korean defectors and local media outlets that primarily focus on the communist country suffered a paralysis of their Web sites in what appeared to be a hacking attack, officials of the entities said Tuesday.The home page of the Daily NK, which is run by opponents of the North Korean government to provide detailed coverage of the communist nation, and those of several other assoc

A Korean literature professor at Yonsei University came under fire for demanding students buy his books or fail his class. Ma Kwang-soo, a renowned advocate of sexual liberation and author of several lewd novels, directed students attending his “Literature and Sexuality” class to buy his two books and attach the receipts to their mid-term reports. Those who did not comply would be denied a grade, the professor was quoted as saying by students. The assignment triggered widespread criticism from t