Eight people were injured in a knife rampage at a subway station near Seoul on Saturday. The victims were stabbed or cut by a man wielding a box-cutter, but none of the victims’ injuries are believed to be life-threatening, police said.The incident happened at around 6:35 p.m. when a man began stabbing people on a running train heading to Seoul from Uijeongbu Station on the Gyeongwon Line.The 39-year-old suspect surnamed Yoo also injured passers-by while running away from people who tried to sto

Police arrested a man who attacked passengers in a running subway with a box-cutter and inflicted injuries on seven of them, officials said.The man in his early 40s, identified only by his family name Yoo, went on a rampage as the subway was headed to Seoul from Euijeongbu, a city 23 kilometers north of the capital, said Oh Yoon-hui, a police officer.The suspect later got off the subway and ran aw

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon stepped into politics last October after beating his ruling party rival Na Kyung-won in a by-election. He is the first mayor of the capital from civil society without a political affiliation.His triumph drew keen attention from political circles as it underscored the public disenchantment with the political establishment, which critics argue has been mired in wasteful partisan disputes at the expense of the public.The former human rights lawyer is well-known for his lon

BEIJING (AP) ― The powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday morning, after Beijing earlier in the week agreed to help Pyongyang revamp two trade zones near the Chinese border.The high-level talks are a sign that Beijing and Pyongyang are strengthening ties after Kim took over following his father’s death last year. State media have said the visit by Jang Song-thaek, the chief of the central administrative department of t

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Friday that it received more than 34,000 calls on its school violence hotline between January and July this year, skyrocketing from a total of 280 calls last year.The dramatic surge in school violence reports came after the government introduced in January a “117” hotline call center, which receives reports on school violence from students and parents and links them to support centers and the police.Seven months after its launch, a tota

The ruling Saenuri Party on Friday expelled Rep. Hyun Young-hee for her alleged involvement in a money-for-nomination scandal ahead of April’s general election.In a general meeting of the party’s lawmakers, all 120 present voted in favor of the expulsion, satisfying the requirement for the ouster of an incumbent legislator of at least two-thirds approval of Saenuri’s 149 parliamentary seat holders.The move strips Hyun of her party membership, but she can hold onto her proportional representative

An electronic anklet is disputing as sex offenders who have electronic anklets commits sexual crime again.The Seoul Northern District Court sentenced a 35-year-old kim, whose full name was withheld by authorities to 10 years in prison.Kim met a female as introducing himself as a TV program director to make a sexual relationship. However, as the woman denied, he tried to force her to take her into his car and used violence. Kim already put on electronic anklets as he committed the same kind of se

A 16-year-old student reportedly jumped off the 11th floor of an apartment building in Seoul on Tuesday after she was abused by a group of fellow students. The high-school student surnamed Kang had been suffering from depression over the past two months, and had been insulted and harassed on the messaging service Kakao Talk, according to her family.Her father told police that 16 students engaged in a group chat, and insulted her, calling her names such as “fat pig.”Her father said she had attemp

The country’s anti-corruption agency said Thursday it will toughen its crackdown on public officials involved in irregularities as part of efforts to root out corruption in the public sector and to regain people’s trust.Under the bill proposed by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, government officials caught accepting more than 1 million won ($883) in bribes will face punishment of up to three years in prison or fines of up to five times the kickbacks received. The rule will be app

Hanwha Group chairman Kim Seung-youn was put into prison Thursday on conviction of embezzlement and other illegal financial activities. Seoul Western District Court sentenced him to four years in prison and fined 5.1 billion won ($4.5 million). In January 2011, Kim was indicted without detention on charges of illegally making Hanwha Group subsidiaries guarantee payment for the 320 billion won debt held by companies he was operating under borrowed names between 2004 and 2006, and then embezzling