A mechanic working at the U.S. Army in South Korea was arrested for threatening a South Korean citizen with a knife, police here said Saturday.A 48-year-old aircraft maintenance crew from the 8th U.S. Army, identified only by the initial J, allegedly threatened a 42-year-old South Korean citizen, known as Choi, with a knife the previous day while having a dispute over a near accident involving their cars on a street in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of Seoul.He has been handed over to the

Nine people have died and one is still missing in a fire that broke out on a fishing boat operating off this western port city, local maritime police said Saturday. The fire started at about 5:20 a.m. on the 20-ton fishing boat operating in the waters about 24 kilometers southwest of the port city, according to the police. Gunsan is located 274 kilometers south of Seoul.The accident forced all 11 crew members on board to jump off the boat. Ten have been rescued but nine of them were pronounced d

A 20-year-old rape victim was taken into custody by Busan Police Friday after she tortured her rapist for three days.Busan Seobu police booked the woman and four of her friends without physical detention for allegedly imprisoning and torturing 26-year-old Jeong, who is suspected of raping the woman. Last August, the group lured Jeong to a motel and attacked him, according to police. They are suspected of torturing the man in various ways, including water boarding.“We demanded an apology from him

A 52-year-old man has been arrested on the charge of setting fire to a restaurant in Seoul's cultural district of Insa-dong last month, police said Friday.The suspect, only identified by his surname Ahn, is accused of torching the closed restaurant in the dense area of downtown central Seoul on Feb. 17, that ripped through a total of 11 buildings, they said. The blaze caused hundreds of tourists and residents in nearby neighborhoods to be evacuated.Ahn, with a record of mental illness, was found

GUMI (Yonhap News) ― A tank at an oil refinery in the southeastern city of Gumi exploded Thursday, with no injuries reported, police and fire officials said.The 200,000-liter tank containing 5,000 liters of bunker C fuel oil at the Kyung Buk Kwang Yu Co. refinery located in Gumi, some 200 kilometers southeast of Seoul, exploded around 8:21 a.m., they said.Around 4,000 liters of oil are suspected to have leaked, they added.Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 30 minutes, they said.The exp

The United Nations Office for Sustainable Development kicked off its Expert Consultation on Building Knowledge and Capacity for Sustainable Development on Wednesday. The three-day session is being attended by 130 prominent experts on sustainability and member state representatives.The goal of the gathering is to understand the specific knowledge and capacity needs members states must satisfy to implement the outcomes of Rio+20, an earlier conference held in June 2012. For this, the consultation

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Thursday that it will launch a special investigation into Younghoon International Middle School over alleged admission fraud involving conglomerate and elite families.Several civic activist groups also petitioned Wednesday, calling for an investigation into the school officials. They claim the chairman of the school asked for money, reportedly some 20 million won ($18,500) per student, from parents in exchange for enrolling their children.The schoo

A fugitive South Korean solider has been detained after attempting to sneak into China aboard a cargo ship through the western port of Incheon, military and port officials said Thursday.The 21-year-old sergeant of special forces, whose identity was withheld, covertly entered the port, located west of Seoul, on Saturday after crossing over barbed wire, they said. He then got on board the vessel that was anchored at the port.After hiding in one of the compartments for more than a day, he was appre

In the wake of a series of toxic gas leakage cases, the government will launch extensive inspections of firms that deal with chemical substances, the Prime Minister’s Office said Wednesday.There have been growing calls for thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of toxic chemical leakage accidents after the country saw a string of such cases over the past several months.On Tuesday, about 1 liter of liquefied chlorine gas was leaked at a factory run by the chemical company Gumi Chemical, lead

A total of 20 cab drivers have been booked for investigation on charges of ripping off foreign tourists ― sometimes for hundreds of thousands of won ― at popular tourist districts in Seoul, police said Wednesday.The suspects, including a 45-year-old driver surnamed Baek, are accused of driving unregistered “call vans” and overcharging the foreign riders up to 10 times more than the normal fare from July to until recently, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.Police officers said the

The Korea International Cooperation Agency said Wednesday that it would build a water resources management center in Pakistan to help fight water shortages. The government agency for international aid agreed to the $3 million project following preliminary research and structure designs in 2012. Following the construction, KOICA will carry out the water management project in conjunction with the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources. Pakistan is one of KOICA’s 26 priority partner countr