A Seoul district court on Thursday cleared former Constitutional Court Justice Cho Dae-hyun of charges that he had broken into an office along with several other suspects.Cho, who is working for a law firm, had been indicted for colluding with members of a church who attempted to steal internal documents from the church office. He was the attorney for the church members who were embroiled in a legal dispute with other devotees.But the Seoul Central District Court made it clear that Cho had not u

An appellate court on Wednesday acquitted a deceased man of his charges that he spread groundless rumors on Park Chung-hee’s military regime 42 years ago.At a park in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in October 1972, the man, surnamed Park, reportedly told his friends that “amendment to constitution (which was dubbed the authoritative Yushin Constitution) is a dictatorship.”He was arrested and indicted as the martial law proclaimed by then-President Park Chung-hee allowed investigators detain

A Seoul court on Wednesday handed a former policeman an eight-month suspended prison sentence for accessing a woman’s mobile phone messages and leaking some investigative information.The ex-policeman, surnamed Tak, was dispatched to a street in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul, to attend to a drunken woman in September 2013. After escorting the woman to her home, he pocketed her smartphone, according to the Seoul Central District Court.He accessed the KakaoTalk messages between the woman and her b

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Tuesday that the ratio of female and senior members of the workforce would sharply increase in the coming decade.In its outlook on changes in the workforce structure for the 2013-2023 period, the ministry said women’s participation rate in economic activities is projected to increase by 6 percentage points, which will surpass the estimated 4.1 percentage points for men.The report said that 56.2 percent of working-age women will likely participate in econ

The growth rate of real wages for salaried workers hit its lowest mark in 33 months during the third quarter, due mainly to the low purchasing power of consumers.The per-capita real wage ― adjusted from the minimum wage in reflection of on-year consumer prices growth ― stayed at 2.95 million won ($2,680) per month in the third quarter, inching up 0.08 percent from 2.94 million won over the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor showed Monday.The figure is the lowes

Three in 10 defendants convicted of sexual violence in Korea receive a commutation of their prison sentence in trials at appellate courts, data from the Seoul Women Lawyers Association showed Monday.According to the data, the appeals courts commuted the terms of 299 (or 31.8 percent) out of 939 sexual crime case rulings in district courts, from January 2013 to June 2014.Among the 299 commutations, 59.5 percent (178 cases) were reduced to jail terms ranging between six months and two years, 30.4

A controversial American movie on an assassination plot targeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will hit the screens in 63 countries starting late next month, a U.S. news report said Friday.The comedy, titled “The Interview,” will be released in the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 25 before hitting the screens in European, Middle Eastern and African countries early next year, the Washington-based Voice of America said, citing the movie‘s distributor Sony Pictures.South Korea was not mentioned among th

The nation’s ruling and opposition parties tentatively agreed to raise the tax on cigarettes by 2,000 won ($1.80) per pack next year during their review of the 2015 budget.Under the agreement between the Saenuri Party and the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the cigarette prices are likely to range between 4,300 won and 5,000 won, depending on the product.The government announced in September that it would push to raise tobacco prices by 80 percent by January as part of its measures to decre

The prosecution on Tuesday indicted former National Assembly speaker Park Hee-tae without detention for sexually harassing a female gold caddie in Wonju, Gangwon Province, earlier this year.The 76-year-old political heavyweight ― as a standing adviser to the ruling Saenuri Party ― was embroiled in a scandal in September after the golf caddie, 23, filed a police complaint against him alleging inappropriate physical contact several times at a golf course.While there were speculations that investig

An apartment complex in Gangnam district, southern Seoul, is moving to dismiss all of its security guards and contract cleaners.Dubbed New Hyundai Apartment, the wealthy Apgujeong-dong residential complex attracted public scrutiny after a security guard in his 50s attempted to burn himself to death in October, having suffered repeated insults from residents.According to a group of Seoul labor advocates, the complex has informed 106 workers, including 78 security guards and some female cleaners,

South Korea’s top court has handed down a potentially explosive ruling that recognizes sexual relations between a middle-aged man and a teenage girl.The Supreme Court said Monday it had overturned a ruling by the Seoul High Court, which convicted the man in his 40s of sexually assaulting the girl, who was then aged 15, several times when she was working for his entertainment agency.A Seoul district court had sentenced him to 12 years in jail on charges of raping the girl. Later, the appellate co