Police have booked a woman on suspicion of selling her ova to reproductively challenged women by lying that other women got pregnant using her eggs.According to police, the suspect, 37, posted a fake testimonial that she conceived with a donor egg on an online community site that has many members who are women who have difficulty conceiving in 2014.When people asked her for the donor’s contact information, she provided her own phone number.She is suspected of meeting four reproductively challeng

With the leaders of US and North Korea expected to meet soon for a second summit, the two countries are set to restart negotiations on nuclear inspections.　US President Donald Trump said Monday that the venue of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be announced in “a pretty short period of time.”　Trump made the comments after talks with President Moon Jae-in in New York, during which Moon conveyed Kim’s proposals to Trump including the date and location for a second summi

Nine months after proposing a ban on English classes in kindergartens, the government is set to review related policies next month, as parents have complained that the move will only widen the education gap in a market led by pricey private pre-schools that teach in English.　Last year, the Education Ministry forbid public elementary schools from teaching English to first and second graders during affordable after-school classes.　The action was based on a special law on normalizing public educati

The value of 2 tons of pine mushrooms that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent to the South as a gift Thursday is believed to be 1.5 billion won ($1.34 million).According to the Yangyang branch of the National Forestry Cooperative Federation, a recent winning bid for top grade natural pine mushrooms was 769,100 won per kilogram.Although it is currently unknown where the mushrooms were grown or what the grade is, they are believed to be top grade from the mountain Chilbosan in North Hamgyong Pro

SINGAPORE -- The historic summit in June between the leaders of North Korea and its wartime enemy US on this Southeast Asian island state has triggered people’s interest in the reclusive East Asian country. Singapore is seeing a surge in tourists bound for Pyongyang as fall is a popular season for travelling in the country, and the huge art and dance performance known as the “Mass Games” is taking place throughout in Pyongyang in September.Over 200 tourists, mostly Singaporeans, are expected to

The Constitutional Court of Korea will have only four justices for the first time ever as successors to the five outgoing justices are yet to be appointed.Five of the nine justices, including President Lee Jin-sung, will step down on Wednesday as their terms expire.The National Assembly is scheduled to vote Thursday afternoon on President Moon Jae-in’s pick of nominees for the Constitutional Court, including Yoo Nam-seok as the president and three other justices -- Kim Ki-young, Lee Young-jin an

Police are studying measures to enhance safety at live shooting ranges after a man killed himself Sunday.The Namdaemun Police Station in Seoul said Tuesday that the man, a 36-year-old film production worker, shot himself at the Myeong-dong Shooting Range in Seoul on Sunday evening. He entered the shooting range after filling out personal information, as required by regulations. He then used a stun gun he had brought along on the shooting range employee accompanying him before shooting himself. (

In a meeting held Monday with the victims of BMW vehicle fires, Justice Minister Park Sang-ki said the government would make class-action suits possible in a wider range of cases. Unlike the US and certain European countries, in Korea, class-action suits can only be filed in cases involving securities trading.　Under proposed revisions, Koreans would be able to file class-action suits in areas where there is a significant risk of repeated mass damage, Park told a group that included the victims o

The government will have to compensate bereaved families of civilians shot to death by military and police officers 68 years ago based on false accusations that they were communists during the Korean War.In a damage suit filed by the family of a victim surnamed Yang killed in the 1950 manslaughter in Boseong, South Jeolla Province, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the government should pay about 100 million won ($88,635) to Yang’s family.  (Yonhap)In 2008, the government-led Truth and

Night markets open along Cheonggye Stream, at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, riverside parks in Yeouido and Banpo, and next to the World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu this weekend, featuring food trucks and handmade crafts from around the world, games, cultural performances and preloved items, Seoul City said Friday.People can exchange items they do not need at a designated spot in Cheonggye Plaza throughout the Seoul Bamdokkaebi Night Market, which runs through Oct. 28. (Yonhap)An open audition will be held

The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced a former senior prosecutor to a suspended jail term of eight months for molesting two women -- a junior prosecutor and a prosecutor-turned-lawyer.The court also ordered him to attend 40 hours of lectures for sex offenders.The Seoul Central District Court (Yonhap)The 49-year-old offender surnamed Kim molested a junior female prosecutor at a dinner gathering in January while he was working at the Goyang branch

An inquiry team under the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office interrogated a former agriculture minister on his complaint filed against a 2008 MBC-TV report about mad cow disease.The inquiry team, upon recommendation by a panel digging up prosecution’s past irregularities, questioned Chung Un-cheon about whether the then Lee Myung-bak administration had intervened in the request for an investigation into the MBC producers, prosecutors said Thursday.(Yonhap)The former agriculture minister is reported to

Police grilled Korean Air chairman Cho Yang-ho for 11 hours until early Thursday over allegations that he used company money to pay security staff at his residence.The chairman of Hanjin Group faces breach of trust charges, allegedly getting a Hanjin subsidiary to contract a security firm and then having the security guards work at his home in Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul.This was the third time this year Cho was summoned by the prosecution for questioning as a suspect on different charges, including

A judge-turned-lawyer under investigation for taking tens of thousands of confidential documents from the Supreme Court was found to have emailed incumbent judges on Monday to appeal his case while the court was still reviewing a request for a warrant to search his office.While he was a senior research official at the Supreme Court, Yoo Hae-yong allegedly received a document written by the National Court Administration on the 2014 decision by the Constitutional Court to dissolve the minor Unifie

The prosecution detained a former senior official with the National Intelligence Service for allegedly taking part in fabricating evidence against a Chinese-Korean man, who was indicted in 2013 on charges of violating the National Security Law.The Seoul Central District Court said on Tuesday that it had issued a warrant to detain the National Intelligence Service’s former director of security investigations, surnamed Lee, citing the risk that he might destroy evidence.The public security departm