Police are investigating medical staff at a hospital who allegedly dropped a newborn premature baby and told the parents the baby had died of illness. No autopsy was performed before the newborn was cremated.Seoul District Police Agency said court warrants had been requested to detain two doctors at Cha Bundang Medical Center who led the destruction of evidence and issuing of a false diagnosis after the baby’s death. (Yonhap)Police have also booked a resident on charges of involuntary manslaught

A broadcaster aired Friday part of a high-definition video clip showing a former vice justice minister singing while hugging a woman, an evidence in the investigation into a sex-for-favors scandal possibly involving rape charges.Cable news broadcaster YTN said it had confirmed that the video shows Kim Hak-eui attempting to have sex with the woman, which the police said they obtained in May 2013.Citing a video analysis expert, YTN said chances are “very high” that the man in the video is indeed K

Police on Thursday raided two companies related to Seungri and the scandal-ridden club Burning Sun as part of an investigation into embezzlement charges involving the former Big Bang member. Investigators searched the offices of Junwon Industries and Yuri Holdings to seize materials related to alleged embezzlement by Seungri. (Yonhap)Junwon Industries is a major shareholder of Burning Sun Entertainment, which had run the club. Yuri Holdings is an investment company that Seungri and Yoo In-suk co

The total number of confirmed cases of measles reached 129 in Korea as of Tuesday amid major outbreaks in other parts of the world, health authorities said Wednesday.But the situation does not raise concerns about a nationwide epidemic, the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. (Yonhap)“Korea has a high vaccination rate for measles. It can hit groups of people as it has in Anyang and Daejeon, but we can keep it under control by managing people who have been in contact with the pa

Former President Chun Doo-hwan on Monday once again denied in court that military helicopters shot at civilians during a pro-democracy uprising in Gwangju in May 1980.Chun did not show up for a preparatory hearing at the Gwangju District Court on Monday for his trial on charges that he defamed the dead.Chun’s lawyer Chung Joo-kyo objected to about one-third of the evidence that prosecutors submitted, including a report by a special panel of the Defense Ministry and a National Forensic Service re

Yoon Ji-oh, a colleague of the late actress Jang Ja-yeon, who has testified that Jang was forced by her agency to provide sexual favors to high-profile men, said investigators have apologized to her for the prosecution’s poor work 10 years ago.Yoon, who says she saw the note Jang left before taking her own life in 2009, is a key witness in the investigation that was recently reopened by a special commission under the Justice Ministry.(Yonhap)Yoon said in an interview with Yonhap News on Thursday

North Korea’s move to restore a satellite launching site appears to be aimed at using it as leverage in nuclear negotiations, defense authorities said.Seoul’s Defense Intelligence Agency and the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command said that North Korea was working on rebuilding the Tongchang-ri site even before the second summit between Washington and Pyongyang on Feb. 28, according to Rep. Lee Hye-hoon of the Bareunmirae Party, who leads the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee.  (Yonh

A senior Russian minister is visiting Pyongyang amid speculation that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may travel to Russia soon.Choe Pu-il, head of the North’s Ministry of People’s Security, held talks with Russia’s Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev in Pyongyang on Tuesday, the North’s state-run media reported. (Yonhap)The two exchanged views on how to develop the friendly relations between their agencies and issues of mutual interest, the Korea Central News Agency said.The Minis

Senior officials from the ruling party, government and the presidential office agreed in a meeting Tuesday to draft a supplementary budget to tackle fine dust and shore up the slowing economy.The extra budget will be spent on building infrastructure that can scientifically measure, monitor and analyze fine dust levels, and reduce emissions, Hong Ik-pyo, spokesman for the Democratic Party, said in a press briefing after the meeting. (Yonhap)The officials agreed that the additional budget plan wil

Yoon Jung-cheon, a contractor who allegedly hosted and filmed a sex party attended by a senior prosecutor who later became vice justice minister, appears to have sought to destroy the video during a police probe, a voice recording showed.Kim Hak-ui stepped down as vice justice minister in March 2013 amid allegations that he attended the orgy at Yoon’s villa. Police and prosecutors cleared Kim of sex crimes in 2013, but a special panel at the Justice Ministry recently recommended that the case be

An opposition lawmaker filed a request to the Board of Audit and Inspection on Tuesday to look into suspicions regarding President Moon Jae-in’s daughter’s move to Thailand last year.　The lawmaker, Rep. Kwak Sang-do of the Liberty Korea Party, has been pegged as a subject of investigation into the nomination in 2013 of an ex-vice justice minister despite a suspected sex-bribery scandal (Yonhap)At the time, Kwak was the top aide on civil affairs to then President Park Geun-hye.“Under the current

An opposition lawmaker disclosed a recording on Monday substantiating allegations that the presidential office pressured a former chief of a state-run think tank to step down in January last year.In the four-minute recording of a Jan. 12, 2018, telephone conversation between Sohn Ki-woong, then chief of the Korea Institute for National Unification, and an official at the Prime Minister’s Office, the latter says that they “receive notifications from the office of the senior presidential secretary

Spanish police and intelligence have linked an attack on the North Korean Embassy in Madrid on Feb. 22 to the US Central Intelligence Agency, Spain’s daily El Pais reported Wednesday.At least two of the 10 assailants who broke into the embassy, tied up staff and stole computers and cellphones have been identified to have connections to the CIA, according to the newspaper. (AP)The CIA has denied any involvement, but Spanish government sources said their response was “unconvincing,” El Pais said,

Unification minister nominee Kim Yeon-chul is expected to focus on taking back or explaining his past remarks on social media at the parliamentary confirmation hearing scheduled for March 26.Kim stepped down as chief of the state-run think tank the Korea Institute for National Unification on Friday following his nomination as the minister in charge of inter-Korean affairs, replacing Cho Myoung-gyon.(Yonhap)Since then Kim has been preparing for his confirmation hearing at the Office of Inter-Kore

North Korean media stated their commitment to “complete denuclearization” nearly two weeks after the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi faltered.A propaganda website called Uriminzokkiri said in an article on Tuesday that it is Pyongyang’s firm stance to establish new relations with Washington, build a lasting and solid “peace regime” on the Korean Peninsula, and move toward complete denuclearization. It did not mention that the summit fell apart without a deal.(Yonhap)It also said the North’s leade