The National Human Rights Commission of Korea has launched an investigation into the controversial repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019. The Commission assigned the case to its human rights violation investigator on Tuesday, according to a screen capture of the petition processing page provided by Lee Jong-bae, a Seoul city councilmember. Lee, who filed the petition Monday, called...

Most suicide victims showed warning signs before taking their own lives, according to a Ministry of Health and Welfare report. The report, released Tuesday, reviewed 801 cases of suicides involving South Koreans ages 19 and older between 2015 and 2021. The report found that 94 percent of suicide victims exhibited signs that included talking about dying or wanting to die; making preparations such...

South Korea’s decision in 2019 to forcibly repatriate two North Korean fishermen suspected of murder is spurring debate over whether North Koreans can be treated as people of South Korea, and under what circumstances. President Yoon Suk-yeol, vowing to reopen the case of two North Koreans deported by his predecessor, has said the Constitution “dictates that defectors are our people.” The admini...

At the same forum, Yoon Yeo-sang, the president of the Database Center for North Korea Human Rights, said that the circumstances revealed so far were “already fraught with possible human rights violations.” “Our authorities at the time admitted to arresting and deporting the two men based on the grounds that they were violent criminals -- although whether that’s true or not remains disputed -- w...

The committee considering Supreme Court nominations convened a meeting Thursday afternoon and zeroed in on three finalists. The nominees are Daejeon High Court Chief Justice Lee Kyun-yong; Jeju District Court Chief Justice Oh Seok-jun; and Seoul High Court Senior Justice Oh Young-jun. The Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Kim Myeong-soo will pick one of them to be reviewed for appointment by Presid...

President Yoon Suk-yeol has said he would handle the pandemic better than his predecessor Moon Jae-in; that his response would be “driven by science rather than politics.” But the shift that the president signaled was not realized in the summer resurgence preparedness plans announced Wednesday -- his administration’s first major COVID-19 measure -- with experts labeling them a repeat of what has...

South Korea on Thursday confirmed the first case of BA.2.75, another omicron subvariant that is rapidly gaining ground in India and several other countries. The patient, who is in his 60s, lives in Incheon and has no recent travel history, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The KDCA said the BA.2.75 patient tested positive Monday and started experiencing symptoms arou...

Seoul prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon raided the National Intelligence Service as a part of investigations into two North Korea-related controversies allegedly linked to the Moon Jae-in administration’s two spy chiefs -- Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon. The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office told reporters that the raid sought materials associated with the 2020 shooting death of a Ministry of Oceans...

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration faces its first major COVID-19 test, as BA.5, a recent subvariant of omicron, begins to drive up cases across South Korea. In a televised news conference Wednesday morning, top health officials stressed that social distancing will not be making a comeback. Peck Kyong-ran, Yoon’s first Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency commissioner, said, “Social distan...

The string of legal battles trailing the Moon Jae-in administration in search for the truth by the family of Lee Dae-jun may reach the former president himself. Since January last year, Lee’s family has been has been looking for answers through the courts, and won access to Cheong Wa Dae records that are believed to hold clues about the events leading to as well as after his murder at the hands ...

Prosecutors are launching an investigation into Cho Kuk and Im Jong-seok, both of whom served top roles at former President Moon Jae-in’s Cheong Wa Dae, over allegations that they blacklisted high-ranking public officials appointed during the Park Geun-hye administration. The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office has recently tapped its criminal department to handle the investigation into two ex-Che...

South Korea is warily eyeing its latest bump in cases as omicron’s new and likely more elusive subvariant, BA.5, begins to dominate. For two consecutive days on Sunday, the number of cases counted daily topped 20,000 -- a mark that has not been passed since mid-May in the aftermath of the spring omicron wave. Over the most recent seven-day period, 17,467 cases were reported per day on average, ...

Women and doctors still navigate murky legal waters when it comes to abortion in Korea, despite the practice having been decriminalized over a year ago. The ban on abortion was ruled unconstitutional in April 2019, but the National Assembly has failed to meet its deadline -- which expired on the last day of 2020 -- to make new laws to reflect the changes. As of Jan. 1 last year, abortion was no...

The family of Lee Dae-jun, a fisheries official killed by North Korean soldiers at sea in 2020, on Thursday called for arresting former President Moon Jae-in’s spy chief, Park Jie-won, who is already facing a criminal investigation after he was reported by the National Intelligence Service to the prosecutors. The NIS on Wednesday filed a criminal report against Park, who served as its director...

The National Intelligence Service on Wednesday filed a criminal report against its former chiefs Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon, alleging abuses of power in two high-profile cases involving North Korea. In a message to reporters, the NIS said it reported Park, who served as its director from July 2020 until Moon Jae-in’s term as president ended in May, to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office after an in...