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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

NEC stonewalls on state auditor's repeated requests for data for hiring scandal inspection

The National Election Commission head office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province/ YonhapThe National Election Commission (NEC) has been stonewalling on repeated requests from the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) that the election watchdog submit necessary data for an inspection into hiring corruption allegations.The BAI has made such requests three times over the past week since announcing its plan to conduct an inspection into suspicions that children of senior NEC officials landed agency jobs thanks to the influence of their fathers.The NEC later decided to refuse the inspection, citing its status as an independent agency. Since then, it has not responded to the BAI's requests for relevant data. After two requests went unanswered, the BAI sent some officials to the NEC, but they came back empty-handed.The NEC has not even sent documents to BAI that it will not accept the inspection."We are aware of the BAI's position through news reports and the BAI is already aware of our stance, so I do not know whether we will send an official document in response," said an NEC official who asked

Jun 8, 2023
NEC stonewalls on state auditor's repeated requests for data for hiring scandal inspection

Some 3,000 home rental scam suspects nabbed in 10-month police crackdown

This file photo shows a home rental scam victim holding a rally in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, May 25. YonhapA 10-month-long special crackdown on home rental scams netted the apprehension of nearly 3,000 suspects nationwide, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday, highlighting the seriousness of the social problem afflicting low-income households.The NPA said a total of 2,895 "jeonse" scam suspects were detained in the crackdown conducted from July 25 last year to May 28 and 288 of them were put under formal arrests.Jeonse refers to a unique Korean system in which renters give landlords a large returnable deposit instead of paying monthly rent. But the long-term deposit rental system has recently emerged as a big social issue, due to a large number of jeonse fraud cases, in which scammers usually bought homes without much money through a series of jeonse contracts and refused to return the deposits at the end of the lease.The NPA said 531 suspects, or 18 percent of the total, were accused of intentionally brokering problematic jeonse contracts or inflating the ap

Jun 8, 2023
Some 3,000 home rental scam suspects nabbed in 10-month police crackdown

Yongsan Ward office chief granted bail 5 months after being arrested over deadly crowd crush

Yongsan Ward office chief Park Hee-young enters the Seoul Western District Court for a hearing on whether to issue an arrest warrant in connection with an investigation into the bungled response to the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon neighborhood, Dec. 26, 2022. YonhapPark Hee-young, the chief of the Yongsan Ward office in Seoul, was granted bail Wednesday five months after she was arrested on charges of professional negligence related to the Itaewon crowd crush last year.Park had been standing trial in detention on charges of shoddy emergency response and disaster prevention measures to the Oct. 29 crowd crush in Yongsan's Itaewon area which killed 159 people. She was arrested on Dec. 26.The Seoul Western District Court on Wednesday granted Park's bail request on the conditions that she pays a bail deposit of 50 million won ($38,461) and she stays within a designated residence. Park filed for bail again last month, saying she is struggling with mental disorders in the aftermath of the crowd crush after her initial bail request in January was dismissed. (Yonhap)

Jun 7, 2023
Yongsan Ward office chief granted bail 5 months after being arrested over deadly crowd crush

Egyptian national arrested for possession of cannabis cookie

Seen is the cookie that was in the possession of an Egyptian national who was arrested on May 22 after being pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province. Captured from Korean National Police Agency's YouTubeBy Lee Hae-rinPolice arrested an Egyptian national who was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving and then found to be in possession of a single cannabis cookie. The Namyangju Police Station in Gyeonggi Province said, Monday, that a report was filed on an Egyptian national in his 30s in Namyangju's Dasan-dong, northeast of Seoul, around midnight on May 22.He was reportedly swerving between lanes showing signs of drowsiness. Another driver, who reported the incident, noted that when he honked to alert the erratic driver, it caused him to speed up abruptly to 170 kilometers per hour, seemingly trying to escape. This unusual behavior led the reporting driver to call the police, suspecting the man was driving under the influence. Police officers pulled over the driver in question and measured his blood alcohol level, which indicated he had not been dri

Jun 6, 2023By Lee Hae-rin
Egyptian national arrested for possession of cannabis cookie

Gov't to abolish 30-year period of prescription for death sentence

This file photo shows the building of the Ministry of Justice in Gwacheon, south of Seoul. Korea Times fileThe government will push to scrap the period of extinctive prescription for the death penalty, currently set at 30 years, through legal revision, the Ministry of Justice said Monday.An amendment to the Criminal Act passed the Cabinet meeting on the day to eliminate clauses that exempt death-row convicts from the execution of the death sentence after 30 years, the ministry said.Articles 77 and 78 of the current Criminal Act stipulate that the period of prescription is completed if the death penalty has not been executed for 30 years. If the amendment passes the National Assembly, the relevant provisions will disappear from the Criminal Act, the ministry said.The provisions were virtually dead letters in the past when the death sentence was executed soon after being finalized. But they have become a matter of concern, as the nation has not carried out any executions since December 1997.Indeed, a controversy has erupted over whether the nation's longest-serving death-row inmate, su

Jun 5, 2023
Gov't to abolish 30-year period of prescription for death sentence

Korea vows to fight spread of fentanyl

gettyimagesbankBy Jung Min-hoThe government has vowed to stop the spread of hallucinogenic drugs, particularly fentanyl, amid a surge in drug crimes in recent years.At a meeting, Friday, attended by all related government ministries, Bang Moon-kyu, minister for government policy coordination, said the country is now “at a crossroads” between two starkly different paths.“Korea now stands at a crossroads of becoming either a drug-contaminated country or reverting to a drug-free country,” he said. “The government will try its best to help the country regain its drug-free status with strong measures against illegal drugs.”Developing a policy strategy against fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year, was one of the main focuses of the meeting. Deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) continued to rise in the U.S. with 70,601 overdose deaths reported in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.High-ranking officials reviewed the risks of fentanyl spr

Jun 2, 2023By Jung Min-ho
Korea vows to fight spread of fentanyl

KCTU officials questioned over illegal street protest

Lee Tae-eui, a vice chair of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, appears before the Seoul Jungbu Police Station to face questioning over a two-day street rally held last month, June 2. YonhapPolice questioned three officials of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) on Friday as part of an investigation into an illegal overnight street rally held in central Seoul last month.A total of 29 people, including the three summoned, have been booked for violating the assembly and demonstration act during the May 16-17 protest organized by the militant labor umbrella group and its affiliate, the Korean Construction Workers' Union (KCWU). An estimated 25,000 union members participated in the rally protesting the Yoon Suk Yeol government's labor policies and condemning its crackdown on labor unions. They marched toward the presidential office late at night and camped overnight on the street.Police suspect they violated the demonstration guidelines set for the rally's organizers and disregarded police orders to disperse. They also occupied the entire eight-lane road next to the Se

Jun 2, 2023
KCTU officials questioned over illegal street protest

Suspect in grisly Busan murder sent to prosecutors for further probe

Murder suspect Jung Yoo-jung, wearing a hat and a mask, leaves a police detention center en route to the prosecution in Busan, June 2. YonhapA Busan woman who was arrested last week for allegedly killing another woman "out of curiosity about murder" was transferred to the prosecution for further investigation and indictment, police said Friday.Jung Yoo-jung, 23, was apprehended last Saturday on suspicion of killing the victim, known as a freelance tutor, with a weapon at the latter's home in Busan's Geumjeong district the previous day and abandoning her body.Jung is accused of dismembering the victim's body and dumping some of the body parts in a riverside bush in Yangsan, just north of the southern port city. Her arrest came after police were tipped off by a taxi driver who took the suspect to Yangsan and found it strange that she dumped a bloodstained suitcase in the woods.The suspect triggered social resentment after she reportedly confessed that she killed the victim with no personal connection just out of her curiosity about murder.The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency disclosed

Jun 2, 2023
Suspect in grisly Busan murder sent to prosecutors for further probe

Man gets five-year jail term for K-pop concert ticket fraud

K-pop girl group Oh My Girl performs during “K-Culture Night” at Busan Cinema Center in Busan's Haeundae District, April 5. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul By Ko Dong-hwanA local court recently handed down a five-year prison term to a 25-year-old man for defrauding K-pop fans of money by saying he would give them tickets to concerts that he could not attend.The man, whose name was not disclosed, took a total of 230 million won ($174,000) from September 2021 to June 2022 from teenagers and those in their early 20s who were looking for tickets for K-pop concerts, according to the Seoul Central District Court, Thursday.He told them he had tickets to concerts or fan meetings but could not go and would thus sell the tickets to them. He found the victims on Twitter.The man targeted those with little social experience, including minors or those just out of high school, and abused their desperation for tickets, the court said.It is alleged that he also demanded some victims, who were minors, provide sexual services in exchange for the tickets.“This kind of crime not onl

Jun 1, 2023By Ko Dong-hwan
Man gets five-year jail term for K-pop concert ticket fraud

State anti-corruption agency starts probe into NEC's hiring scandal

Deputy Chairman Jeong Seung-yoon of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission tells a press briefing at the government complex in Seoul on June 1. YonhapThe state anti-corruption agency on Thursday launched an investigation into snowballing allegations that children of senior officials at the National Election Commission (NEC) were employed through favoritism.The election watchdog has come under fire after suspicions arose that children of some senior officials landed agency jobs thanks to the influence of their fathers. The NEC secretary general and his deputy offered to resign last week, though they claimed no wrongdoing."The investigation was launched on a full scale, as relevant data has arrived after coordination with the NEC," Deputy Chairman Jeong Seung-yoon of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission told a press briefing.Jeong said the scope of the investigation would cover all former and incumbent officials of the NEC for possible irregularities related to the hiring of their children.Dozens of officials will be mobilized for the intensive investigation for one

Jun 1, 2023
State anti-corruption agency starts probe into NEC's hiring scandal
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