Prosecutors in Seoul are seeking five years in prison for Cho Kuk, who served briefly as justice minister during the Moon Jae-in administration, over a college admissions scandal involving his two children. Cho and his wife Chung Kyung-shim were sent to trial three years ago for making bogus certificates and forging credentials to get their children into prestigious schools, and accepting favors from the faculty. While Cho was senior secretary in Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae, his daughter received

Suh Hoon, ex-spy chief and former President Moon Jae-in’s national security director, was summoned to Seoul court on Friday for a questioning after prosecutors filed for an arrest warrant against him in an investigation into North Korea’s killing of South Korean fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun. Suh is accused of ordering the deletion of intelligence reports related to Lee’s case -- the day after he was shot then burned by North Korean soldiers on Sept. 9, 2020 -- while he was t

The bereaved families of the victims of the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon last month called the firing of Lee Sang-min, the minister of interior and safety, who has yet refused to resign. In a press conference held outside the Seoul Metropolitan Police’s office, the mother of late Lee Ji-han, 24, said that the ongoing investigation by the police “should not spare those in high offices.” “But in order for that to be possible, the safety minister needs to be r

At minus five degrees Celsius on Wednesday evening, when the first cold wave warning of this year was issued, more than 200 Chinese and Koreans gathered for the first time to denounce Beijing’s zero-COVID policy and to demand President Xi Jinping to step down. The unprecedented uprising was the first protest by the Chinese against its authorities in Seoul amid ongoing “white paper” protests in mainland China in a symbolic protest against censorship. The protest was led by Chine

Pressure is growing for Lee Sang-min to leave his post as minister of interior and safety in the wake of the deadly Halloween crowd crush, with the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Wednesday threatening to file a motion to impeach him if he doesn’t step down. The Democratic Party leadership held an emergency meeting on this day and decided to pass a proposal to dismiss the safety minister at the plenary session the following day on Thursday. If the safety minister doesn’t

The families of victims who died in the Halloween crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood a month ago asked for solidarity from the community as they search for accountability from the government. In a statement late Monday, the families thanked supporters and offered consolation to survivors, marking one month since the disaster that killed 158 people and left dozens with severe injuries. “Because the government did not take measures to allow the bereaved families to communicate

The Cambodian boy who was visited by South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee last month will be given cost-free care at a top hospital in Seoul next month. Asan Medical Center, one of the largest hospitals in Seoul, said Monday that all of the boy’s medical expenses will be covered by the hospital and its parent foundation, the Asan Foundation. The boy, who is reported to be suffering from a congenital heart disease, will likely be treated at the Seoul hospital’s pediatric cardiac cen

The Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday gave President Yoon Suk-yeol a one-day ultimatum to fire Lee Sang-min, the minister of interior and safety, over the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon last month. “The president needs to stand by his words that there will be accountability. The first step to do that is to remove the interior and safety minister from his post,” Democratic Party spokesperson Rep. Lee Soo-jin said in a briefing. If Yoon fails to respond to do so by Monda

South Korea’s fourth monkeypox patient is a health care worker who came into close contact with the country’s third monkeypox patient on Nov. 15, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The KDCA said the health care worker was exposed while taking samples from the third monkeypox patient a week ago, and has been put under “active monitoring” since. The health care worker’s test results came back positive on Tuesday. The health care worker sh

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday addressed the National Assembly amid escalating partisan conflict that led to an unprecedented complete boycott by the main opposition party. Doubling down on defense In the address, Yoon stressed the need to strengthen deterrence against North Korea, saying that another nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang is imminent. “It is judged that North Korea has already completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test,” Yoon said. "North Korea has rece

Diplomatic and other questions are being raised for South Korea, as Russians trying to avoid conscription into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are anticipated to head to the country to seek refugee status. Earlier this month, about two dozen Russians apparently fleeing Vladimir Putin’s draft were refused entry to South Korea.　 Over the first few days of October, five yachts carrying Russian passengers were spotted in South Korean waters, according to Coast Guard data submitted to

The South Korean government says the resurgence of COVID-19 this summer has subsided without leading to a spike in hospital admissions or deaths, despite social distancing rules being phased out. In recent briefings the Ministry of Health and Welfare called the summer resurgence, triggered by omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, “the first large wave of COVID-19 the country has gone through without social distancing.” “South Korea was able to minimize critical and fatal cases in th

You might know Gangneung as one of the host cities for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and among the host cities of another Olympics event, the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics. But Gangneung is so much more. Gangneung, a city in Gangwon Province on the east coast of South Korea, is where you can watch the first sunrise in the country. If you take the high-speed KTX train, it takes an hour and 50 minutes from Seoul to get to Gangneung, and three hours from Incheon Airport. The Yangya

Small island countries were on the front lines of climate change but the clock is now ticking for the developed world, former president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, said at the H.eco Forum in Seoul on Thursday. “Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern US in 2005, at a time when many parts of the country were still in denial of climate change,” Tong said. “The scale of destruction caused by that hurricane left even the most economically developed country on the planet struggling.&r

The first known COVID-19 death in South Korea was a 63-year-old hospitalized at a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province. The man, who was schizophrenic, died with pneumonia on Feb. 19, 2020, at the hospital where he had been a resident for over 20 years. He tested positive postmortem. In less than a week after his death, six more at the hospital lost their lives to the virus. All of the 101 patients save for just two ended up getting infected. The outbrea