A suspect in the suicide death of an Air Force sexual abuse victim has been found dead at a military detention facility, a human rights group said Monday. The senior master sergeant was indicted on charges of inflicting secondary harm and threatening retaliation against the master sergeant who took her own life in May, three months after she was allegedly groped and suffered other abuse by a colleague of the same rank. "The senior master sergeant was found unconscious at 2:55 p.m. Sunday

Terrestrial network MBC admitted its carelessness and apologized for offensive images and captions that aired during its coverage of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony. While broadcasting the parade of national teams in the virtually empty stadium, MBC showed images and captions introducing each delegation of athletes. Several of the images were inappropriate and insensitive. As the Ukraine delegation marched in, MBC showed an image of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. El Salvador was int

Jeju Province Gov. Won Hee-ryong announced Sunday that he will run for presidency in the election slated for March next year. In a video speech, Won, a former three-term opposition lawmaker, vowed to upend "everything" the Moon Jae-in government has done. "I declare my bid for the 20th presidential election to make the Republic of Korea a country of a different class and different dimension," he said in the virtual press conference. "I would like to propose a vision o

Expectations are high that Samsung Electronics, which for months deliberated on a new, $17 billion US investment plan, may finally be ready to make an official announcement in August. According to industry sources on Friday, Samsung is accelerating the internal process for concluding its plan to construct a new chip fabrication line for foundry in the US. Some news reports said Thursday that the City of Austin in Texas, where the South Korean firm already has a chip plant up and running, is

The United States looks forward to a "reliable, predictable and constructive" way forward with North Korea, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Friday, redoubling calls for Pyongyang to respond to Washington's overtures for dialogue. Sherman made the remarks after talks with First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun in Seoul, amid uncertainty over the resumption of nuclear diplomacy following Pyongyang's rejection of dialogue last month. "We are looking forward to a rel

Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism apologizes for seven Haenam monks’ ‘drinking party’　

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the front-running presidential contender for the ruling Democratic Party, made a campaign pledge Thursday to distribute universal basic income of up to 2 million won ($1,736) per year to all citizens. "Within the (five-year) term of the next administration, (I) will provide 2 million won in basic income to each young person every year and 1 million won each to the rest of the citizens" Lee said in a press conference at the National Assembly in Seo

Members of the ruling Democratic Party continued to slam former prosecutor general and presidential contender Yoon Seok-youl on Wednesday for saying that people should be allowed to work 120 hours in a week if they need to. As Yoon criticized the 52-hour work week system as a failed policy in a recent newspaper interview, he said he met people in start-ups who said there should be exemptions to the work hour rule as game developers often need to work 120 hours for a couple of weeks and then hav

The majority of South Koreans support President Moon Jae-in's decision not to visit Japan for the opening of the Tokyo Olympics and summit talks, a poll showed Tuesday. In the R&Search survey of 1,095 people aged 18 and older, 65.5 percent of the respondents were in favor of Moon's decision, while 26.7 percent were against it. Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday that the president decided not to visit Tokyo as the two neighboring countries failed to achieve sufficient progress in consultations

With heat wave warnings issued nationwide Tuesday, Korea is likely to see temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius this week, and possibly a return of the record-breaking heat in 2018 due to a “heat dome” phenomenon, the chief of a nongovernmental weather agency said. “Korea saw the hottest day ever recorded on Aug. 1, 2018, when temperatures hit 39.6 degrees in Seoul and 41 degrees in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. These were official observatory records, and automatic weather stat

A fingerless South Korean mountaineer went missing after achieving the record-breaking feat of climbing all of the world's 14 highest peaks in the Himalayas, officials here said Monday. "I received a call that Kim Hong-bin went missing on his way down from the peak," Lee In-jeong, president of the Union of Asian Alpine Associations (UAAA), said. "I heard that climbers there tried to rescue him, but failed." Kim reached the summit of the 8,047-meter-high Broad Peak, located

South Korean mountaineer Kim Hong-bin has become the first disabled person to successfully climb the 14 highest mountain peaks in the world -- without the use of his fingers. According to local alpine club Gwangju Alpine Federation on Monday, Kim conquered the summit of Broad Peak, the third peak of Pakistan’s Karakoram Range located in the northeastern part of Kashmir, on Sunday. This is an unprecedented accomplishment by Kim, making him the first disabled person and the world’s

The Ministry of Justice on Monday gave advance notice of a revision to the civil law that would grant animals legal status as individuals with lives that deserve to be protected. The ministry said it has added the new clause, "animals are not objects," to article 82 of the Civil Code. Under the existing law, animals are identified as "an object that takes up space" and are not separated from inanimate things, so animal abusers have been punished only for damaging property i

South Korea’s anti-piracy Cheonghae Unit is returning home this week after 68 seamen tested positive for the coronavirus aboard a warship off the coast of Africa, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday. Two-thirds of the 301-strong crew are still awaiting test results. This is the first time the military has cut short an overseas mission because of a pandemic. None of the seamen had received any COVID-19 vaccinations because the March vaccination campaign began a month after their dep

Former legislator and opposition presidential contender Yoo Seong-min criticized the ongoing political argument over whether to hand out another round of COVID-19 relief grants to all Koreans or to only those in the lower 80 percent of the income brackets. Based on the national health insurance premiums, the monthly income of a four-person household in the lower 80 percent income bracket is 9.75 million won at the upper bound, which is 117 million won in annual income (before tax), Yoo wrote on