An office worker in his 30s was apprehended on Tuesday, a day after writing an anonymous post as a police employee on a popular online platform declaring that he would commit a mass stabbing near Exit No. 1 of Gangnam Station in Seoul. According to the National Police Agency, the suspect was caught near his home at 8:32 a.m. on Tuesday. The suspect is accused of writing a post on Blind, an online community and forum for verified employees. “I'm going on a mass stabbing at Gangnam Stat

Subway passes offering unlimited rides for a set duration will begin to be issued in the second half of the year, Seoul Metro announced Monday, with the intention to offer greater convenience in travel to the increasing number of tourists visiting the capital. The operator will begin issuing one-day and three-day passes, considering that 36.8 percent of foreign tourists visit Seoul for four to seven days on average, Seoul Metro said, citing its own polling. The base fare for a subway ride with a

A man was arrested on Monday for robbing a convenience store with a toy gun in Iksan, North Jeolla Province. He is accused of stealing 500,000 won ($373) from a convenience store while intimidating the clerk with a toy gun at 7 p.m. on Monday. The suspect, an Uruguayan national, is reported to have used a translator to demand money while threatening the clerk with the toy gun, which he kept concealed beneath his clothing. The police issued a code zero, denoting the highest response level, after

Prosecutors have arrested and indicted a woman on charges of selling a newborn baby, officials said Tuesday, sparking concerns over continued reports of child trafficking cases. A woman in her 20s made a profit by selling the newborn baby of an unmarried woman for 3 million won ($2,239) after buying the baby for 980,000 won in 2019. The suspect read an online post by an expecting mother who was asking for advice on what to do with her unborn child, saying she got pregnant with her boyfriend with

The suspect in a credit union heist in Daejeon last week was confirmed to have fled to Vietnam, police said Tuesday. The man is suspected of robbing a credit union in the central city Friday, threatening employees with a weapon. He made off with 39 million won ($29,115). The Daejeon Police Agency confirmed that the man departed for Vietnam on Sunday and requested cooperation from Interpol to apprehend him. Police requested search and seizure warrants to investigate his residence and related loca

South Korea will conduct its first nationwide civil defense drill in six years on Wednesday, a move that comes amid rising tensions with North Korea. Set for 2 p.m., the 20-minute exercise will require most people to evacuate to designated shelters or underground safe spaces. The country has identified 17,000 such shelters, with their locations available on widely-used apps like Kakao, Naver, and Tmap. During the drill, drivers must pull over to the side of roads and follow radio instructions. S

Teenagers accounted for 41.7 percent of the 192 suspects taken into police custody for allegedly posting murder threats online last month, the National Police Agency said Monday. Police found 431 murder threats posted online in the month since the deadly stabbing rampage near Sillim Station in Seoul on July 21. They tracked down 192 people in connection with the posts and have arrested 20 suspects. In South Korea, minors under the age of 14 cannot be convicted of a crime. Juvenile offenders aged

Some 8,500 patients out of the 43,000 Scouts who participated in the World Scout Jamboree at Saemangeum, North Jeolla Province visited a medical facility during their stay at the campsite, an opposition party lawmaker said, citing state agency data. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's report, which recorded medical operations at the campsite between July 29 to Aug. 7, about 20 percent of participants had visited the site’s medical grounds due to infectious d

Absence of dress code policies leads to vague charges of ‘overexposure,’ legal expert says

Standardized pangovernmental system to manage foreigners' personal information set to be completed by Nov.

Children born in hospitals but whose births were never registered by their parents will now be added to a state system that manages their welfare, even though they do not have a designated registration number, following the revision of an enforcement decree. The government has decided to include the temporary numbers created and given to newborns when they get various vaccinations right after birth in its e-Child Happiness Support System database. Thus, even babies who have not been officially r

An 11-year-old who earned nationwide fame as a child prodigy recently dropped out of high school, with his father alleging he had been subject to bullying from his much-older classmates. Baek Gang-hyeon’s father on Sunday afternoon posted to the child’s YouTube channel that bullying against his son at school directly affected Baek’s decision to leave Seoul Science High School, one of South Korea's elite science academies, which the boy had entered this year. Earlier in the

Avoid wearing dark clothing and using strong scents, the local emergency service authorities advise, as casualties from bee and wasp attacks continue to rise. According to local authorities, 11 people died and more than 6,400 people were injured in bee and wasp attacks last year alone. According to the Fire Department, the highest number of bee attacks causing human casualties occur in August, with the three-year average death toll standing at 9.7. Most recently, a man in his 70s died after bein

Police said Monday they plan to decide whether to disclose the identity of a 30-year-old man arrested recently for sexually assaulting and murdering a woman on a hiking trail in Seoul in a review committee meeting later this week. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the identity disclosure review committee will be convened Wednesday to determine whether to make public the rape and murder suspect's face photo, name and age. The suspect, currently identified only by his family name Choi

Parties divided over bill that grants teachers immunity from child abuse claims