국가정보원 직원의 선거개입 의혹을 수사해온 경찰이 해당 직원들을 기소의견으로 검찰에 송치했다.서울 수서경찰서는 18일 수사결과를 발표하면서 국정원 직원 김모(29), 이모(39)씨, 일반인 이모(39)씨에 대해 국가정보원법 위반 (정치 참여) 혐의로 기소의견으로 검찰에 송치했다고 밝혔다. 사실상 국정원 직원의 정치 개입이 이루어졌다고 판단한 것이다. 이에 따라 서울중앙지검은 이 사건과 관련해 윤석열 현 특수1부장을 팀장으로 하는 특별수사팀을 구성해 본격 수사에 착수했다.경찰은 같은 혐의를 받고 있지만 국정원 심리정보국장 A씨에 대해서는 기소중지 의견으로 검찰에 송치했다고 말했다.다만 경찰은 이들에 대한 공직선거법 위반 혐의에 대해서는 인정하기 어렵다며 불기소 의견으로 검찰에 송치했다.경찰 관계자는 “공직선거법 공소시효(6월19일)가 임박하고 사안이 중대해 현재까지 확인된 혐의에 대해서만 송치했다”며 “향후 검찰과의 합동 수사를 통해 공동으로 최종 수사결과를 발표하겠다”고 말했다.국정

The National Assembly is set to debate a proposal to give incentives to working mothers in employment with the government and state-run firms as part of steps to tackle the declining birthrate.Rep. Shin Eui-jin from the ruling Saenuri Party submitted a bill to promote gender equality in employment and help women balance work and family life last December. It demands that additional points within a range of 2 percent should be given to moms when seeking a job at government offices and some privat

The government and political parties reached an agreement Monday to readjust the proposed rules for real-estate tax breaks aimed at boosting the lackluster property market.The government has proposed that transaction tax for houses worth up to 900 million won ($799,000) and up to 85 square meters be exempted for five years.In a three-way meeting, representatives of the Finance Ministry, the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition Democratic United Party agreed to lower the threshold to 600 milli

The Seoul High Court on Monday lowered the jail term for Hanwha Group chairman Kim Seung-youn from four years to three years after confirming most of the charges of embezzlement and breach of trust.The court cleared him of some charges related to breach of trust in connection with a corporate takeover. But the court additionally found him guilty of illegally supporting an affiliate, for which he was acquitted by a lower court. Kim was imprisoned last year but released in January due to poor heal

The Supreme Court has recently opened a website to provide legal assistance in more than a dozen languages to foreign residents in Korea. Aside from the court’s English website, the new website (jifi.scourt.go.kr) provides detailed explanations of the principles and rules of the legal system such as civil and criminal lawsuits, judicial independence, and types of courts in 15 languages. The language services include Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai.“The Supreme Court set up the website to meet an in

A middle school student in Incheon was apprehended Thursday for allegedly killing a mentally disabled girl after a failed rape attempt.Police said the 16-year-old suspect tried to rape the 12-year-old victim at a building after kidnapping her on her way home from school Wednesday.After failing to rape her, he lured her to a nearby field by asking her to play. He reportedly made a hole in the field with a small shovel he had brought with him, made her lie in the pit, and suffocated her to death b

A mother and father who allegedly killed their two children after failing to commit family suicide were apprehended, according to police Thursday. Police said they caught the husband surnamed Lee, 46, and his wife surnamed Jeong, 37, at a farm in Busan on Wednesday. The family left their home in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in February 2011 and were out of contact since then. The bodies of their two daughters, aged 10 and 12, were found near a valley in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province in December of th

Two Korean expatriates who are registered as members of North Korean propaganda website Uriminzokkiri were found to have conducted pro-North Korean campaigns, according to news reports Tuesday.International hacking group Anonymous disclosed the information of 15,000 members of Uriminzokkiri, including 2,600 presumed to be South Korean nationals, after it hacked the website last week.One person surnamed Kim who went to the U.S. in 1990 is thought to have operated a pro-North Korean website and vi

Seoul was affected by higher levels of harmful fine particles in the air than other metropolitan cities around the world last year, according to the Ministry of Environment. The ministry said the average concentration of PM2.5 in the air, solid or liquid particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter ― one-thirtieth the width of a human hair ― was 25.2 micrograms per cubic meter last year. That level is almost twice that of New York City, which averaged 13.9. The concentration levels in Paris,

Seoul City plans to restrict the height of new buildings alongside the Han River as part of measures to better preserve the riverside environment and promote sustainable urban development.The metropolitan government announced a master plan for riverside management which also includes construction of more eco-friendly parks and facilities and increasing accessibility to the river. To prevent reckless construction of skyscrapers, all apartments planned near the riversides should not have more than