A nominations committee for the next prosecutor general picked three candidates on Thursday. They are Kim Jin-tae, deputy general prosecutor at the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office, So Byung-chul, chief public prosecutor at the Daegu High Prosecutors’ Office, and Chae Dong-wook, prosecutor general at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office. “The committee screened the candidates based on their integrity and competence and looked through their financial assets and military duty,” said an official fr

The morning of Jan. 29 in Seoul, a mother who lost her daughter in a car accident three years ago in Costa Rica gave a tearful testimony in the trial of the suspected killer taking place in the Central American nation.The video-conference trial was the first of its kind since the establishment of the act on international judicial mutual assistance in criminal matters in 1991. The act Korea signed with 73 nations encourages the countries to cooperate in criminal investigations and trials, such as

An investigation of a spy agent suspected of conducting an online smear campaign against an opposition presidential candidate during the December election took a new turn as new evidence emerged that another person was involved.Suseo Police Station said Sunday that five IDs made by the spy agent surnamed Kim were also used by a different person, whose name was withheld, in writing posts supporting President-elect Park Geun-hye and favoring other posts amiable to the president-elect.The new suspe

A blaze on Sunday swept through containers used as dormitories at a factory in Gyeonggi Province, killing two Vietnamese workers residing in one of them. The fire, which occurred at a metal processing factory in Hwaseong at 12:08 a.m., destroyed four container-dorms before being put out an hour later. The other nine workers who stayed in the dorms were evacuated from the scene unharmed. “When firefighters arrived at the site, the containers had already been engulfed in flames. The blaze spread q

President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team has received tens of thousands of policy suggestions from ordinary people on issues ranging from university tuition fees, real estate policies and measures to help small business owners, an official said Sunday.Yoon Chang-jung, the spokesman for the transition team, told reporters at a briefing that a total of 23,734 policy suggestions have been submitted through Saturday for a daily average of nearly 1,000.Yoon said most of the ideas were closely

Korean children’s physical fitness level deteriorates as they grow older, as they spend more time studying and less on outdoor activities, a survey showed. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education released Sunday the result of its physical ability tests with 840,000 students in 2012. The data showed that just eight percent of fifth and sixth grade elementary school students belonged in the lowest fourth and fifth levels in the five-level scale, while 13.9 percent of middle school students and

Civic groups and politicians on Wednesday stepped up criticism of Samsung Electronics over a toxic chemical leak at one of its semiconductor lines that killed one worker and injured four others. The workers were from a subcontractor.Approximately two to 10 liters of hydrofluoric acid leaked in the incident that took place on Sunday.According to the Industrial Safety and Health Law, business operators that deal with toxic chemicals are legally responsible for safety matters.“The accident occurred

Police have sought an arrest warrant for a CJ CheilJedang Corp company executive and booked 14 others for investigation on charges of giving kickbacks to doctors.The sales executive, 50, whose name is withheld, allegedly offered doctors kickbacks worth around 4.5 billion won ($4.2 million). The company officials are suspected of giving corporate credit cards to 266 doctors across the nation, according to the National Police Agency on Sunday.　They purportedly offered the illegal kickbacks to the

Police are investigating an English language institute on charges of breaching a copyright belonging to The Economist, a British weekly magazine, officials said Wednesday.The publisher Economist Group filed a lawsuit against the English language school in southern Seoul in November for infringing its intellectual property. The publisher said in the complaint that the language school used its articles and columns in their textbooks from 2009 to 2011, earning up to 160 billion won ($150 million) f

The population of Seoul decreased for a second consecutive year in 2012 to around 10.4 million, according to statistics released by the city government on Tuesday. Around 10.6 million people lived in the capital city in 2010 and 10.5 million in 2011.The decline was due to a bigger outflow of citizens than inflow to the city, with 487,000 moving in and 596,000 people moving out. The number of births was 95,000, and 41,000 died last year. The foreign population decreased by 86,000 from a year befo

The recent food waste stink caused by disputes between district governments of Seoul City and private food waste management firms could have been prevented if measures prepared by the Ministry of Environment five years ago had been swiftly implemented.The food disposal firms at 16 district governments have been refusing to pick up food waste, demanding a price increase in food waste treatment services. District governments, however, are reluctant to pay more, saying the demands are too high: the