A Korean-Chinese man accused of kidnapping and killing a 28-year-old woman was sentenced to death Friday, two months after the high-profile murder that also exposed the carelessness of the police.The Suwon District Court in Suwon, south of Seoul, handed down the death penalty to Wu Yuanchun, 42, citing the ruthlessness of his crime and his lack of remorse."The defendant killed the victim with sini

A power failure at a Samsung plant in the western city of Asan briefly halted production of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, the company said Friday, leading to concerns about its economic impact.The power cut occurred at around 9:05 p.m. Thursday and lasted about 11 minutes before electricity was restored to the production line in Asan, about 95 kilometers south of Seoul, according to an offi

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a retrial of Sejoong Namo Tour chairman Chun Shin-il, a close friend of President Lee Myung-bak, who was convicted of bribery, saying that the amount of money to be forfeited was wrongly calculated.Last December, Seoul’s appellate court meted out a two-year jail term along with a forfeiture of some 3.21 billion won ($2.75 million) in restitution for his bribery conviction.The top court said that income taxes should be subtracted from the forfeiture in the ca

Education officials said Thursday they are investigating a high school teacher who allegedly gambled with students.The 48-year-old teacher, whose identity was withheld, allegedly played traditional card games with five students for an hour during a field trip last month, according to the North Gyeongsang Province Office of Education. Officials said the teacher had initially tried to persuade the students to go to sleep. But when they refused, he started gambling to “soothe” them.The students’ pa

The bodies of eight South Koreans killed in a recent chopper crash in Peru will be brought home this week as they have been exempted from undergoing autopsies, officials said Wednesday.The bodies currently lie in a morgue in the southeastern city of Cusco, where they have been identified through dental records and by their families. They were expected to undergo autopsies as required under Peruvia

Two 15-year-old girls have been arrested for human trafficking in Ottawa and another 17-year-old girl was being sought Tuesday for her alleged role in forcing teens into prostitution, police said."It's shocking," police spokesman Staff Sergeant John McGetrick said of the pimping case.Ottawa police said they found three female victims, aged 13 to 17 years, who had been lured to a Walkley Road resid

Names on list included Samsung’s Lee, chief justice, police chiefOpposition politicians lashed out at prosecutors for watering down their investigation into the government’s illegal surveillance of civilians after they closed the case on Wednesday without charging any additional high-level suspects.The prosecutors announced that the illegal surveillance activities of the defunct ethics division of the Prime Minister’s Office was overseen by former vice minister of knowledge economy Park Young-jo

Over 1,000 schools in Seoul will get solar panels installed on their roofs by 2014, under a campaign led by the municipal government, city education authority and a civic group.Mayor Park Won-soon, Educational Superintendent Kwak No-hyun and representatives of a group called Seoul Citizens’ Solar Power Plant kicked off the campaign at a ceremony in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, on Wednesday. The movement aims to draw investment from ordinary citizens to build solar panels on schools and other publ

The Seoul municipal government said Wednesday it is seeking to build solar power facilities at about 1,000 of its schools in an effort to cope with the effects of global climate change.The city signed an agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and a local environmental organization, officials said, as part of its measures to conserve energy and reduce the country's reliance on nu

A teenager in Busan is in custody and facing a charge of patricide for stabbing his father to death after being scolded, police said Wednesday.The furious 18-year-old son allegedly followed his father into the bathroom and stabbed him late Tuesday after being told off about a fight he had with a younger sibling, according to the police.The father, 47, was immediately taken to a nearby hospital for

Prosecutors said Wednesday they have sought a warrant to arrest a former tax official over graft allegations as part of an investigation into financial irregularities involving suspended savings banks.The former official who is only identified by his surname Nam is suspected of receiving 100 million won (US$85,689) from Solomon Savings Bank between late 2009 and early 2010, when he was serving at

Korea’s two largest labor groups filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization, accusing the government of breaching a global pact on minimum wages, officials of the two groups said Tuesday. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which together represent 1.5 million workers, claimed that the Korean government’s unilateral appointment of a third of the members of the board that sets the minimum wage resulted in a significant slowdown in w