South Korea - The Korea Times

Children's gym owner faces murder charges in bizarre rectum stabbing case

A 41-year-old owner of a children's gym charged with murdering an employee is transferred to prosecutors in Seoul, Jan. 7. Yonhap Police filed a murder charge against the owner of a children's sports center in Seoul, Friday, for allegedly sticking a 70cm plastic stick into the anus of an employee causing him to die after his internal organs were ruptured.The 41-year-old suspect, whose identity was withheld, was arrested Sunday for killing the 20-something employee at the facility in northwestern Seoul, Dec. 31. The Seodaemun Police Station referred the suspect to the prosecution for further investigation.Police said the victim died from organ rupture. Investigators said they believe the suspect killed the victim after being “irritated” by his “unspecified behavior.” Based on a digital forensic analysis of his phone, police concluded the suspect did not appear to have “perverse sexual tendencies.” The suspect and the victim drank six 640-milliliter bottles of soju to

Jan 7, 2022

Children's gym owner faces murder charges in bizarre rectum stabbing case

'Mergepoint' discount app operators indicted on fraud charges

Mergeplus headquarters in Seoul / Korea Times fileProsecutors said Thursday they indicted the two founders of Mergepoint, a once-popular online discount app, for causing some 100 billion won ($83.63 million) worth of damages to customers and member stores by selling virtual coupons that could not be used.The Seoul Southern Prosecutors Office said the sibling founders ― Kwon Nam-hee, CEO of the app operator, Mergeplus, and Kwon Bo-goon, the top strategy executive ― were charged with fraud and violating the e-transaction law. The latter Kwon was also charged with breach of trust. They were arrested last month.They stand accused of selling 252.1 billion won worth of “Mergemoney” to some 570,000 people from May 2020 to August last year, knowing that their business was going under with mounting losses. They are also suspected of operating the online discount service without registering the business with the Financial Service Commission during the first half of last year, as well as offering an online payment service for VIP customers without a regulatory license. Prosecutors b

Jan 6, 2022

'Mergepoint' discount app operators indicted on fraud charges

Police arrest employee of dental implant maker in embezzlement scandal

An employee of dental implant maker Osstem Implant, only identified by his surname Lee, is taken into Gangseo Police Station in Seoul, Jan. 6, after police arrested him in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, the previous day for allegedly misappropriating 188 billion won ($157.7 million) of the company's funds. Yonhap Police arrested an employee of dental implant maker Osstem Implant, Wednesday, who is suspected of embezzling a large amount of company funds.Police had been searching for the man, only identified by his surname Lee, after the company sued him Friday for misappropriating 188 billion won ($157.7 million). He was in charge of managing corporate funds.Officers arrested the suspect in Paju, just north of Seoul, at around 9:10 p.m. while searching a building he lived in, Gangseo Police Station in Seoul said. He was hiding out in a different unit of the building, it added.The allegedly embezzled funds are estimated to be equivalent to over 90 percent of the company's e

Jan 6, 2022

Police arrest employee of dental implant maker in embezzlement scandal

Smuggled cigarettes

Officials of Korea Coast Guard's Incheon branch examine cigarettes seized from smugglers at the branch office in Incheon, Wednesday. The Coast Guard caught a ring of seven people who allegedly smuggled 3.6 million packs of Korean cigarettes manufactured for export, worth about 17 billion won ($1.4 million), back into the country through Incheon Port, over 10 times from May to July, and arrested the leader. Yonhap

Jan 5, 2022

Drunk driver escapes sinking car in Han River

gettyimagesbankA drunk 30-something man swam to safety after his car sank in a southeastern section of the Han River in Seoul, police said Wednesday.The man's car entered the river near Jamsil District at around 10 p.m. Tuesday. The driver escaped the sinking vehicle without sustaining major injuries, according to police officers.In a following investigation, the man was found to have driven toward the river under the influence of alcohol. The police said he has been booked on DUI charges. (Yonhap)

Jan 5, 2022

Drunk driver escapes sinking car in Han River

Gov't ordered to provide compensation over death of man handcuffed by police

gettyimagesbank A Seoul court has ordered the government to compensate the family of a mentally ill man who died after being handcuffed by police, court records showed Saturday.The Seoul Central District Court recently ruled that the state must pay 320 million won ($269,160) to the victim's family over the use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.The incident occurred in January 2019, when police and emergency rescue workers were called to a home in the city after the family reported that the man was behaving abnormally.The man who suffered from a mental disorder refused to be taken to a hospital and confronted officers with two or three knives in his hands.Officers used a stun gun to overpower the man and held him down on his stomach on a bed for about 10 minutes, with his hands cuffed behind his back and his ankles tied with bandages. When rescue workers tried to move him, he was unconscious. He was taken to a hospital but died five months later.The cour

Jan 1, 2022

Gov't ordered to provide compensation over death of man handcuffed by police

Daycare center head's son gets 10-year jail term for sexually abusing girls

By Bahk Eun-jiThe nation's top court has upheld lower court decisions that gave a 10-year jail sentence to a male teacher at a daycare center for sexually abusing four- to five-year-old girls. Korea Times fileThe Supreme Court announced Friday that it had confirmed the jail sentence for the 32-year-old teacher, who was the son of the center's head.He sexually abused a five-year-old and a four-year-old girl between December 2019 and January 2020 in a classroom of the daycare center, taking advantage of the fact that the young children were unable to resist what he told them to do, according to the court.The man denied the abuse, claiming he had just hugged the children. But the courts did not accept the claim based on CCTV footage and the victims' testimony.A local court said he committed the crime despite his role as a daycare center teacher who should have been protecting them. It also banned him from getting a job at children-related facilities for 10 years after finishing his jail term. An appellate court and the top court all upheld the decision.The man's mother, the head of the

Jan 1, 2022By Bahk Eun-ji

Daycare center head's son gets 10-year jail term for sexually abusing girls

Top court orders review of drunk driving case killing Taiwanese student

The friends of Tseng Yi-lin, a Taiwanese woman killed in a drunk driving accident in Korea, talk to reporters in front of the Supreme Court, Thursday, after the court sent the case back to a lower court for review. YonhapBy Kim RahnThe nation's top court has ordered a lower court to review a drunk driving case where a Taiwanese student here was killed, as a relevant law applied to the case had been ruled unconstitutional last month. The bereaved families and the friends of the victim protested the decision, as the perpetrator is likely to get a lighter punishment if a different law is applied.According to the Supreme Court, Thursday, it overturned a lower court ruling that sentenced the driver, Kim, 52, to eight years in jail, and sent the case to the appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court for review.In the accident on Nov. 6 last year, Kim's car hit Tseng Yi-lin, 28, a Ph.D. student at Torch Trinity Graduate University in Seoul, who was crossing the street. Kim was driving at the speed of 80.4 kilometers per hour on a street with a speed limit of 50 kilometers. In ad

Dec 31, 2021By Kim Rahn

Top court orders review of drunk driving case killing Taiwanese student

Employer investigated over spycam in factory shower room

By Lee Hyo-jin Police are investigating the owner of a factory in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, for allegedly illegally filming a female worker of foreign nationality there, but a suspicious fire in the facility has destroyed much of the evidence.The man, whose identity was withheld, has been accused of filming the victim when she was taking a shower, through a two-way mirror he had installed earlier in the women's shower room at the worksite, according to Pocheon Police, Wednesday. A factory owner in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, is under investigation for allegedly illegally filming a female employee of foreign nationality, according to the police, Wednesday. Korea Times fileThe female worker from the Philippines filed a police report, Monday, after she noticed a suspicious flash in the mirror. Through an initial investigation, the police found the mirror to be two-way, appearing reflective on one side and transparent on the other, allowing a person from one side to see the other but not vice-versa. The police suspect that the factory owner filmed the victim with his phone while she wa

Dec 29, 2021By Lee Hyo-jin

Employer investigated over spycam in factory shower room

Panel says late ex-President Chun called recommendation for crackdown on Gwangju uprising 'good idea'

This military document, obtained by Yonhap News Agency in September 2019, shows an operational plan against a 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Late former President Chun Doo-hwan described the crackdown on the uprising as a "good idea," a fact-finding panel said Monday. YonhapLate former President Chun Doo-hwan described a military document recommending a crackdown on the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju as a "good idea," a fact-finding panel said Monday.Marking the second anniversary of its launch, the May 18 Democratization Movement Truth Commission released interim results of a probe into the clampdown that led to the deaths of hundreds of protesters in the city, now the cradle of the country's democracy. The commission said the document, written by South Korea's Second Army Command, showed "his excellency" had called the recommendation of the military operation against protesters a "good idea." The commission said the expression, "his excellency," apparently referred to Chun, then defense security commander, rather th

Dec 27, 2021

Law & Crime