The Supreme Court ruled that police records of a defendant’s statements cannot be used to prove guilt unless the defendant agrees to the records being used as evidence.The top court said Friday that it reversed a lower court ruling that sentenced a defendant to six months in prison for violating the law on community credit cooperatives, and sent the case back to the Daegu District Court.The defendant was indicted for allegedly giving 500,000 won in cash each to two voters and asking for th

Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon on Thursday asked Koreans to reduce their power usage in winter, to help the country maintain a stable power supply and sufficient reserves. “Most countries recommend room temperatures be kept between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius,” Lee said during a meeting at the government complex in Sejong on Thursday morning.“But there are people who wear shorts indoors during the winter, and they need to reduce power use by lowering their room temperatures a little.

The chief of a US think tank said South Korea currently pays an adequate amount -- $1 billion -- for the upkeep of US Forces Korea, Voice of America reported Wednesday. John Hamre, president and CEO of the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview with the US broadcaster that the US was stationing troops in South Korea for its own interests and that there is no minimum amount that Seoul should pay.Defense cost-sharing talks between Seoul and Washin

The ruling Democratic Party and the government agreed on Tuesday to increase the budget for traffic safety facilities near schools, such as speed cameras and signals, by some 100 billion won ($85 million) next year.They will also swiftly handle traffic safety bills named after children killed in car accidents inside school zones, party policy committee chief Cho Jung-sik said in a press briefing following a meeting of the relevant government and party officials.“Next year’s budget wi

The military prosecution is investigating an incumbent Army division commander who is suspected of ordering his staff to shred documents on the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking while he was working at the presidential office in 2017.Kwon Young-ho, commander of the Army’s 22th Division, allegedly instructed his subordinates to destroy two boxes of documents on the Sewol accident without lawful procedures in July 2017. He was serving as chief of the crisis management center at Cheong Wa Dae at the t

Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Sunday he will make the effort to “create an environment” for denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea as he began his first trip to the US since taking office.　Kim’s seven-day visit to the US came after Pyongyang demanded Seoul remove all the facilities it had built at the Kumgangsan resort and vowed to build its own resort. 　“I plan to meet some people in the State Department and Congress to exchange views on the Nort

Pyongyang sent an ultimatum to Seoul on Monday, warning that it will unilaterally remove all South Korean-built facilities from the Kumgangsan resort unless Seoul tears them down on its own, North Korean state media said Friday.Dismissing South Korea’s calls for talks to salvage the long-suspended tourism venture at the mountain resort, the North said it would develop the resort in its own way, and that there was no room for the South to meddle. “We sent an ultimatum on Nov. 11 that

The US Treasury Department issued another advisory against financial dealings with North Korea on Tuesday.In its latest advisory, the department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reminded financial institutions not to do business with North Korea, which the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force recently targeted in a call for countermeasures because the North lacks adequate systems to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.On Oct. 18 the FATF, an intergovernmental bo

South Korea can allow individual trips to Kumgangsan in North Korea only if Pyongyang guarantees the safety of the visitors, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.Seoul is considering the possibility of allowing individual visits to the mountain resort, after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the removal of South Korea-funded facilities from the resort late last month. “Like non-Koreans traveling to North Korea, individual tours do not violate international sanctions against Pyongy

SINGAPORE -- Jim Rogers, the Singapore-based US investor and chairman of Rogers Holdings, said he was still optimistic about investing in North Korea even after the country’s leader Kim Jong-un ordered the removal of all South Korean facilities from the Kumgangsan resort.　“I’ve never met the man so I don’t know what he thinks, but I speculated that maybe, what he was doing was part of a negotiation ploy,” Rogers said in a telephone interview with The Korea Herald on

The First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted on Wednesday a resolution submitted by South Korea to encourage youth participation in disarmament and nonproliferation efforts.It is the first resolution Seoul has proposed as the single “main sponsor” to the First Committee, which deals with disarmament and international security matters, since it joined the UN in 1991. Eighty-four countries including South Korea co-sponsored the resolution on “youth, disarmam

The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the Korean government must compensate an English teacher from New Zealand for demanding that she take a HIV test in 2009.In the suit she filed against the government, the court ordered that the government pay her about 30 million won ($25,950) in damages.The New Zealand citizen worked as an English teacher at an elementary school in Korea with an E-2 visa issued in 2008. She was told to take a HIV test while discussing the renewal of her contract the f

A senior US official denounced North Korea’s test of what it claims was a super-large multiple rocket launcher on Thursday, saying it will have a negative impact on Pyongyang’s talks with Washington.Clarke Cooper, the US State Department’s assistant secretary for political-military affairs, said the North’s firing of two short-range projectiles toward the East Sea was a threat to the entire Pacific region. “Completely unfortunate, completely inappropriate and certai

A resolution calling for accountability for human rights violations in North Korea has been submitted to the United Nations committee that oversees humanitarian issues, Voice of America reported Thursday.This year’s resolution, written by the European Union, does not differ significantly from last year’s, which was adopted by the UN Third Committee and the UN General Assembly by consensus without a vote, a spokesperson for the EU delegation to the UN told the US broadcaster.The spoke

Liberal politician-turned-writer Rhyu Si-min repeated his claim Tuesday that the prosecution secretly investigated Cho Kuk’s family before he was nominated as justice minister.On his YouTube show aired Tuesday evening, Rhyu said that Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl requested a person “who can deliver messages to the president” in mid-August for a meeting with President Moon Jae-in to tell him that Cho shouldn’t be appointed as justice minister.According to Rhyu, Yoon sa