The Korea Times

Ban on release of sinking image of Cheonan lawful

By Lee Hyo-sik The Seoul Administrative Court Friday rejected a petition filed by a civic group seeking to force the Ministry of National Defense to disclose the entire image of the sinking frigate Cheonan in waters near the disputed inter-Korean border on March 26 captured by a thermal observation device (TOD). In April, the Human Rights Center for Soldiers filed a complaint with the court after the ministry refused to release TOD images. At that time, the ministry claimed that the images are a matter of national security and that the disclosure could harm South Korea’s interests. The center then took legal action against the defense ministry, saying that with the world already aware that a North Korean torpedo attack sank the naval ship, making the TOP images public would not compromise national security. ``If the entire TOD images, recorded by the military surveillance devices installed at observation points on Baengnyeong, the country’s northernmost island, are made public, the Marines’ surveillance area, the location of guard posts and other sensitive military i

Dec 24, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Use of wrongly wired money embezzlement

By Lee Hyo-sik If someone mistakenly transfers money into your bank account, what would you do? If you spend it, you can be prosecuted on charges of embezzlement, according to the nation’s highest court Friday. The Supreme Court found a 49-year old man, identified only by his surname Cho, who spent the money wrongly transferred into his bank account, guilty of embezzlement, overturning a lower courts’ ruling and sending the case back to the Seoul Central District Court. In June 2008, an employee of a company mistakenly wired HK$ 3 million (390 million won) to Cho’s account. But the 49-year-old man did not return the money and spent it. The company sued him and the lower courts sentenced Cho to one year imprisonment, saying the company’s ownership of the wired money became invalid after the transfer and charged him with “misappropriation of lost item.” But the Supreme Court found him guilty of embezzlement. “Even after the money was wired to Cho, it still belonged to the company and he had an obligation to return it and not withdraw the cash from his account at his

Dec 24, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Casino partially liable for gamblers loss

By Lee Hyo-sik An appeals court ruled Friday that Kangwon Land, Korea’s only casino open to local citizens, must make partial restitution to the bereaved family of a habitual gambler, who took his own life after losing more than 8 billion won gambling there. The Seoul High Court said Kangwon Land should return 1.32 billion won to the family, finding the casino operator partially responsible for the gambler’s losses of 8.08 billion won and subsequent suicide. From April through July in 2003, he lost a total of 4.58 billion won at the casino. His wife then filed a complaint with Kangwon Land, asking for a ban on her husband’s access to slot machines and other gambling games. But the wife was forced by the husband to ask the casino to allow him back in. He then lost a further 3.5 billion won through April 2007. Seven months later, he filed a lawsuit against Kangwon Land, seeking a return of the 8.08 billion won. But in September 2008, he took his own life out of despair over losing such as huge amount of money. “Kangwon Land should pay the bereaved family 1.32 b

Dec 24, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

Travel & Food

Nanobreaks new tourism trend in S. Korea

By Lee Hyo-sik For many Koreans, travel means usually taking more than a week off from work once or twice a year and flying to one of the Southeast Asian countries with family members or friends. But a growing number of Koreans have and will take short-term trips multiple times throughout the year to their hometown or to foreign destinations amid an increasingly hectic modern lifestyle, according to Hotels.com, the world’s leading hotel booking website with a network of 130,000 hotels worldwide. The site said ``nanobreaks,’’ a newly coined term referring to a trip to a nearby country on short breaks or extended weekends, will become one of the new travel trends for Korea in 2011. ``In Korea, considerable growth in the number of independent travelers and the online hotel reservation market is expected to continue in 2011, as various social networking services such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr are making it easier for people to share stories about their travels,’’ said Peter Yoshihara, marketing director for Hotels.com in Korea and Japan. Conditions a

Dec 23, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Vaccination of animals to start

By Lee Hyo-sik The government said Thursday it will start vaccinating animals Saturday in five areas where a number of farms have been hit by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The regions are Andong and Yecheon in North Gyeongsang Province, and Yeoncheon, Paju and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province. All livestock on farms in Andong where the first outbreak was confirmed on Nov. 29 will be vaccinated, with about 133,000 animals at 7,000 farms within a 10-kilomter-radius of infected farms in four other municipalities to also be given vaccines. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the slaughter-and-burial method will be deployed for other regions. “We will mobilize 200 teams, each made up of four personnel, including civil servants and veterinarians, to give shots to animals in five municipalities. We would like to finish the first wave of vaccinations within 10 days,” a ministry official said. He said vaccinations will only be given to cattle because they are more vulnerable to the disease, while pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals will be excluded.

Dec 23, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Wife drugged, stabbed husband to death

A 39-year-old housewife was taken into police custody Thursday for drugging and stabbing her violence-prone husband to death. Incheon Seobu Police Station said the housewife, identified by her surname Kwon, ground about 100 sleeping pills and put the powder into grapefruit juice. She then gave the beverage to her 42-year-old husband, identified by his last name Ahn, at 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning at their house in Seoknam-dong, a western district in Incheon. After he fell asleep, she stabbed his chest and abdominal area up to 50 times with a sharp object and left him to bleed to death, the police said. Kwon told the police that ever since she married Ahn 11 years ago, he had constantly beat her for no apparent reason. She asked the husband many times to get a divorce but he refused. “The housewife told us that she couldn’t take the violence from her husband anymore and did not want to live with him any longer. With no way out, she decided to take his life,” a police officer said. The officer also said Kwon and Ahn appeared to have nothing in common, with the wife inte

Dec 23, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Korea struggles to stop FMD spread

Vaccination of pigs, cows to begin soon By Lee Hyo-sik The government said Wednesday that it will vaccinate pigs, cows and other animals with cloven hooves to stop the rapid spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). The decision came after the highly contagious virus has turned into a nationwide epidemic, with livestock farms in the eastern province of Gangwon, the least polluted place in Korea, falling victim to the deadly disease. “The government decided to inoculate cattle and other livestock on a limited basis to stop the further spread of the disease and regain a clean status free of FMD. The extent of the vaccination and other details will be determined later by a group of experts to achieve maximum effectiveness,” Minister of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yoo Jeong-bok said after a meeting of an Emergency Livestock Quarantine Committee. The FMD outbreak was first reported in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 29. The deadly virus has since devastated pig and cattle farms in the province, and then made its way into northern Gyeonggi Province,

Dec 22, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

Cattle farms to ban people from FMD-prone nations

South Korea

Online censorship to be bolstered

By Lee Hyo-sik The government is moving to strengthen its online censorship by allowing messages deemed to contain false information to be deleted without a review process during a national emergency, such as the sinking of the frigate Cheonan and North Korea’s artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island. Government officials say it is essential to immediately stop unfounded rumors from spreading on the Internet and to prevent possible social unrest or other “unnecessary” side effects. However, civic groups argue that the government is seeking additional ammunition to gag those who are critical of policies of the Lee Myung-bak administration in cyberspace. An official at the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said Tuesday that it is drawing up a manual, which includes measures to require web portals to beef up the monitoring of comments posted on blogs, Internet cafes and other sites in case of a national emergency. “We will also make it possible for messages containing bogus information to be removed immediately without a review process. These steps will only be

Dec 22, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Prosecution loses face with own corruption

By Lee Hyo-sik The prosecution has had a bad year in the Year of the Tiger, with its morality put to the test following a series of bribery scandals involving high-ranking prosecutors. It has been under intense political pressure throughout the year, particularly from opposition parties, over politically sensitive matters, including the illegal surveillance of civilians by the Prime Minister’s Office and former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook’s alleged bribe-taking. Investigators have failed to achieve tangible progress in a series of investigations into business groups allegedly creating slush funds and politicians suspected of receiving bribes from businessmen. To regain public trust, prosecutors introduced a package of reform measures, highlighted by a U.S.-style grand jury system, which is designed to dilute its exclusive authority to indict suspects. They also sought to expand internal affairs investigations and outside supervision of crimes involving prosecutors. But the public has largely remained cynical about these self-reform measures. In April this year, t

Dec 21, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

South Korea

Yeonpyeong residents breathe sigh of relief

By Lee Hyo-sik Residents of Yeonpyeong Island on the disputed maritime border in the West Sea breathed a collective sigh of relief as the military live-fire drills near the island ended without further clashes. Until the drills finished, the residents were gripped by fears of another attack on the island, waiting at underground air-raid shelters Monday. The atmosphere was tense until late afternoon. Those living on four other islands, just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), were also instructed to go to nearby air-raid shelters in case of possible military retaliation from the North, while ferries connecting the islands and Incheon were ordered to stop operating for the day. About 270 residents, government officials and reporters staying on Yeonpyeong Island fled to a total of 13 air-raid shelters as of 9:50 a.m., following a mandated order announced through loudspeakers installed throughout the island. “A maritime firing drill is scheduled to take place today. All residents are required to bunker down in nearby shelters,” the broadcast blared. Those on other isl

Dec 20, 2010By Lee Hyo-sik

Lee Hyo-sik

Read more

Ban on release of sinking image of Cheonan lawful

Use of wrongly wired money embezzlement

Casino partially liable for gamblers loss

Nanobreaks new tourism trend in S. Korea

Vaccination of animals to start

Wife drugged, stabbed husband to death

Korea struggles to stop FMD spread

Online censorship to be bolstered

Prosecution loses face with own corruption

Yeonpyeong residents breathe sigh of relief

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