Five teenage members of a motorcycle gang assaulted a drunken man, apparently copying scenes from a violent video game, police said on Tuesday.They attacked the 31-year-old man, who was sitting on the curb of a road in Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul, at around 4 a.m. on Sunday.Police believe they were trying to copy a scene from “Grand Theft Auto IV.”The computer game, rated over-18, features the main character wielding guns and escaping in stolen vehicles including motor bikes. The teens did not hav

Prosecutors on Monday detained with a court-issued warrant a former official of the ruling Saenuri Party believed to have served as a go-between in a money-for-nomination scandal for further investigation.The Busan District Court approved the prosecutors' request to issue an arrest warrant for Cho Ki-moon, a former official at the party's Busan branch.Cho is suspected of relaying 300 million won (

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon on Monday jumped into the debate over the cause of a recent algae outbreak in major rivers, blaming President Lee Myung-bak’s four rivers pet project as the main culprit. Blue-green algae blooms have covered the upper stream of Han River, the source of drinking water for 25 million people in greater Seoul, prompting city officials to issue an algae crisis advisory. “Han River is now more like a lake, with weirs blocking water flows,” the mayor said in a radio interview.

No. 1 newspaper solidifies position, embraces changesThe Korea Herald has served as a leading English newspaper in South Korea over the past six decades. The 59th anniversary this year, which falls on Wednesday, carries a special meaning, as the paper is readying itself for a fresh move forward including a set of reforms in design and content ahead of the 60th milestone next year. It was Aug. 15, 1953 that the inaugural edition of The Korea Herald, then called The Korean Republic, was published

A South Korean man died in a fatal climbing accident in the Swiss Alps, Seoul's foreign ministry said Sunday.The 44-year-old, identified only by his surname Jeong, fell to his death at 10:45 p.m. on Friday (local time) while descending from the Eiger, the ministry said in a statement.Two other South Koreans, who had reached the summit with Jeong earlier in the day, were unscathed. The three were m

Park Jung-won, a member of the Doosan Group’s founding family who was found guilty of stock price-rigging in 2010, has been accused of fraud.According to the police, an Internet shopping mall operator filed a complaint against Park over an unpaid dept of 50 million won ($44,000). The police said that Park has been ordered to appear for questioning twice but has refused comply saying that he was negotiating with the complainantIn the filing, the online mall operator said that Park borrowed 50 mil

Police said Thursday that they will summon a former leader of a minor opposition party next week for questioning over her alleged involvement in survey tampering ahead of April‘s general elections.Aides of Lee Jung-hee, former co-chairperson of the left-wing Unified Progressive Party (UPP), were arrested on charges of rigging the public survey to help her win the single opposition candidacy for a parliamentary seat in Seoul’s Gwanak district during the general elections.Lee has denied her role i

Two high-ranking monks of South Korea‘s largest Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, have each received2 million won (US$ 1,775) in fines for illegal gambling, court officials said Friday.The two were charged with playing poker with hundreds of millions of won in play at a hotel room in southern South Korea in April.The gambling scandal was considered one of the incidents in a long-running feud between supporters of the Jogye Order’s administration at the time and its opponents, as a video footage sh

South Korea’s weather agency on Friday lifted all heat wave advisories that were issued throughout much of the country, marking an end to the sweltering weather that lasted for up to 21 days.The advisories, some of which were first issued on July 20, have been lifted as of Friday 4 a.m., as temperatures are expected to drop with a forecast of rain showers in most parts, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.Southern regions below the Chungcheong provinces in particular will experience hea