A North Korean defector who has been working as a Seoul city official assisting fellow refugees is under investigation on charges of spying for the communist country, officials said.The 33-year-old identified by his surname Yoo is suspected of handing information about defectors to the North’s intelligence agents. He was apprehended by the National Intelligence Service on Jan. 11. The contract public servant Yoo was hired by the Seoul Metropolitan Government through an employment procedure for N

A two-year-long collective lawsuit filed by a group of Korean iPhone users against Apple Inc. wrapped up as the plaintiffs withdrew the case, citing the difficulty of proving the alleged irregularities by the tech company. Twenty-nine iPhone users filed the complaint in 2011 against Apple Korea Inc. and U.S.-based Apple Inc. insisting that the tech giant had illegally gathered users’ location information in a hidden file “consolidated.db” on the handset. “It was impossible to acquire evidence fo

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office said Friday it will call in around 100 doctors at hospitals and medical centers across the nation on charges of receiving illegal commission from Korea’s largest pharmaceutical firm Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.The prosecutors have already sent summonses to some of the doctors, who allegedly received kickbacks from pharmaceutical firms. The rest will be summoned in the coming days. The doctors are thought to have received money or goods worth more than 3 m

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday that influenza could fast spread across the nation. During the second week of this year, 4.8 per 1,000 people were infected with the flu. The figure, which is less than the 11.3 recorded in the same period last year, nonetheless surpasses the threshold of 4 that indicates an epidemic, according to the KCDC.The Gangwon area and cities of Seoul, Incheon, and Gwangju recorded relatively high infection rates. Those aged between 20

Gray pollutants that have turned China’s Beijing into “Gray-jing“ appear to be affecting Korea as well, government researchers said Wednesday.The level of particulate matter and air pollutants including sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide in major cities surpassed two times the standard in recent days, prompting authorities to issue health advisories and environmentalists to take to streets. “The recent smog in Korea is a mixture of air pollutants coming from China, water vapor and polluting substan

More than 10 parents occupied the president’s office at Chung-Ang University for a second consecutive day on Tuesday in protest of the school’s plan to close a recently outlawed program through which their children were admitted. More than 240 students were admitted through the so-called “1+3” student exchange program, in which they study at the university for one year and at another university abroad for three years. Late last year, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced th

Unpleasant odors and piles of plastic bags containing rotting food waste littered the streets of Seoul as garbage disposers refused to make their rounds in a simmering dispute with city authorities.Seoul’s district offices including Seongbuk, Yeongdeungpo, and Yangcheon are butting heads with private food waste management firms over a price increase in food waste treatment services. The firms are demanding an increase in fees as food waste treatment has become more expensive due to a new law tha

Environment authorities conducted overnight operations during the weekend to plug and clean up chemical leaks at a factory where 200 tons of hydrochloric acid escaped.An evacuation order for 760 residents within a radius of 1.5 kilometers was removed as of Sunday morning after it was issued on Saturday upon the report of the accident. Hydrochloric acid leaked out of a factory in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province, 280 kilometers south of Seoul. The toxic chemical is an aqueous solution of hydroge

Seoul City put a brake on a plan to build a foreign school in Gaepo, southern Seoul, due to decreased demand and a possible oversupply of foreign schools. The city government had a project to build three foreign schools since 2008 to increase the city’s global competence by providing a better educational environment to children of foreign businesspeople and attracting more investment in the city. The city government currently runs two foreign schools, Dulwich College Seoul in Banpo, southern Seo

Police have summoned a National Intelligence Service official again to investigate allegations that she vilified opposition candidate Moon Jae-in in online comments during the election period. Suseo Police Station in southern Seoul said its investigators found that the agent reportedly clicked an approval/objection button attached to Internet posts regarding the presidential candidates. “Comments or posts that support a certain presidential candidate have not been found. The police, however, wil