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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.

Samsung heir Lee attends trial over alleged fraud, stock manipulation following parole release

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong attends a trial over a suspected fraud and stock manipulation case at the Seoul Central District Court, Aug. 19. YonhapSamsung heir Lee Jae-yong made his first public appearance Thursday since his release on parole to attend a trial over a suspected fraud and stock manipulation case.The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. was charged in September with unfair trading, stock manipulation and breach of trust in relation to the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Cheil Industries Inc. and Samsung CT, seen as a key step toward his succession, and suspected accounting fraud at the pharmaceutical unit of Samsung Biologics.He was released Friday after serving seven months in prison for a separate bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye, after the Ministry of Justice granted him parole citing the impact of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic on the country's economy and "social sentiment, and (the prisoner's) behavior and attitude."On Thursday morning, Lee did not respond to questions, including the one regarding a

Aug 19, 2021
Samsung heir Lee attends trial over alleged fraud, stock manipulation following parole release

High court okays 34-year prison term for university student in sexual blackmail case

Moon Hyung-wook / YonhapAn appellate court on Thursday upheld an imprisonment of 34 years for a key member of an online sexual blackmail ring indicted on 12 criminal charges, including the violation of laws on protecting minors from sexual abuse.The Daegu High Court in this southeastern city approved the hefty prison term after convicting Moon Hyung-wook, a 24-year-old university student, of coercing 21 women and girls into sharing nearly 3,800 sexually explicit videos of themselves for distribution on a Telegram sexual exploitation chatroom called "Nth Room."Moon, known by his username GodGod, was arrested in May 2020 in the shocking case that sparked public fury and was indicted the following month. Moon was charged with producing and possessing sexually explicit videos of the 21 victims from early 2017 to early 2019 and blackmailing three parents of his victims by threatening to release the videos. He was found to have uploaded 3,762 videos on the messaging app from February 2019 to January 2020.In a local court trial held in the southeastern city of Andong in April, prosecutors d

Aug 19, 2021
High court okays 34-year prison term for university student in sexual blackmail case

Korea to grant legal status to animals to tackle abuse, abandonment

gettyimagesbankJin-hui, a cream-colored Pomeranian, was buried alive and left for dead in 2018 in the South Korean port city of Busan.No charges were filed against its owner at the time, but animal abusers and those who abandon pets will soon face harsher punishment as South Korea plans to amend its civil code to grant animals legal status, Choung Jae-min, the justice ministry's director-general of legal counsel, told Reuters in an interview.The amendment, which must still be approved by parliament, likely during its next regular session in September, would make South Korea one of a handful of countries to recognize animals as beings, with a right to protection, enhanced welfare and respect for life.The push for the amendment comes as the number of animal abuse cases increased to 914 in 2019 from 69 in 2010, data published by a lawmaker's office showed, and the pet-owning population grew to more than 10 million people in the country of 52 million.South Korea's animal protection law states that anyone who abuses or is cruel to animals may be sentenced to a maximum of three years in pr

Aug 19, 2021
Korea to grant legal status to animals to tackle abuse, abandonment

Gym teacher at USFK base sentenced for smuggling narcotic painkillers

By Bahk Eun-jiA gym teacher at an army base of the United States in Korea has received a suspended jail term for smuggling more than 400 pills of two narcotic painkillers, morphine and oxycodone, into the country in a chocolate box.The Incheon District Court said, Wednesday, that it had sentenced the man in his 50s to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the law on drug management. Gettyimagesbank The man was indicted on charges of smuggling chocolate boxes containing 435 pills of morphine and oxycodone by international express mail through Incheon International Airport at 8:43 a.m. last year Dec. 17.Oxycodone is an opioid medication to help relieve severe pain. The court pointed out that his charges are not light, as drug-related crimes not only damage people's physical and mental health, but also have serious adverse effects on society, such as harming public health and causing other crimes.However, the reason for handing dow

Aug 19, 2021By Bahk Eun-ji
Gym teacher at USFK base sentenced for smuggling narcotic painkillers

Woman gets 8-year prison term over death of switched daughter

A Gumi woman, surnamed Seok, arrives at the Gimcheon branch of the Daegu District Court in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, Aug. 17, to attend her hearing in a child death case. YonhapA forty-something woman, who recently made headlines in South Korea for allegedly switching her newborn infant with her daughter's baby years ago, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday for attempting to abandon the body of her 3-year-old daughter this year and abducting her granddaughter of the same age in 2018.The Gimcheon branch of the Daegu District Court gave the prison term to the 48-year-old woman, surnamed Seok, after convicting her on multiple charges, including baby switching and abduction.The case dates back to Feb. 10, when the mummified body of Seok's young daughter, who died apparently of starvation six months earlier, was discovered at the multi-unit house of her 22-year-old daughter, surnamed Kim, in Gumi, a quiet industrial city about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul.At that time, the dead girl was believed to be a daughter born to Kim. However, it was discovered through

Aug 17, 2021
Woman gets 8-year prison term over death of switched daughter

Two men fined for hate speech against woman of mixed Korean heritage

The Incheon District Court / Korea Times fileBy Jung Da-min Two men have been fined 1 million won ($860) each after being found guilty of insulting a woman of mixed Korean Bangladeshi heritage, by suggesting that she had COVID-19. This is the first time for a court to recognize that using hate speech against someone with the insinuation of a relationship between the coronavirus and an individual of migrant background constitutes committing an insult, which is punishable under Korean law. The Incheon District Court issued a summary order Wednesday stating that the two men, aged 56 and 52, must each pay a 1 million won fine. A summary judgment is a court order issued without holding a full trial.On Oct. 27 last year, the two men, who were drinking alcohol in front of a convenience store in Incheon at around 11 p.m., made the remarks to the 29-year-old woman, whose mother is Korean and father is from Bangladesh.They shouted to her, “Hey, coronavirus!” After she protested, they taunted her with comments such as, “I guess people like you are all illegal migrants, aren't

Aug 12, 2021
Two men fined for hate speech against woman of mixed Korean heritage

Appellate court upholds 4-year prison term for ex-justice minister's wife

Chung Kyung-sim / YonhapAn appellate court on Wednesday upheld a four-year prison sentence for the wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk over academic fraud.The Seoul High Court found Chung Kyung-sim, a professor of Dongyang University, guilty of all charges related to the unfair college admission of her daughter and upheld the lower court's sentence of four years.The appellate court, however, lowered her fine from 500 million won (US$433,000) to 50 million won and her forfeiture from 140 million won to 10 million won."(The defendant) disrupted the educational institutions' admissions system and seriously damaged our society's trust in the system's fairness," the court said in its ruling.Chung was convicted of forging a presidential citation from Dongyang University and getting a false internship certificate to use for her daughter's admission to a medical school in 2013.She was also indicted on charges of financial misconduct and convicted of some of them.The professor was immediately taken into custody after the Seoul Central District Court sentenced her to four years in December

Aug 11, 2021
Appellate court upholds 4-year prison term for ex-justice minister's wife

Court rules against forced Korean labor victim in suit against Japan's Mitsubishi Materials

Seoul Central District Court / Korea Times fileA South Korean court on Wednesday ruled against a victim of forced wartime labor in Japan in a damages suit launched against Japan's Mitsubishi Materials.The Seoul Central District Court ruled against the surviving family of the late victim, surnamed Lee, who demanded 100 million won ($87,000) from Mitsubishi Materials for the late Lee's forced labor in Japanese coal mines from 1941 to 1945.Lee claimed that he was forced to work in Japanese coal mines during those five years. The surviving family filed a damages suit against the company in February 2017.The court ruling is in contrast to a landmark October 2018 ruling from the Supreme Court, which upheld an appeals court ruling in 2013 that ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay each of four Korean plaintiffs 100 million won in compensation for their wartime forced labor and unpaid work.The latest ruling came after a Seoul court ruling in June, which rejected a damages suit launched by 85 South Korean victims and their families against 16 Japanese companies, ruling that the pla

Aug 11, 2021
Court rules against forced Korean labor victim in suit against Japan's Mitsubishi Materials

Special counsel closes investigation into suspected evidence tampering related to Sewol disaster

Special Prosecutor Lee Hyun-joo speaks during a briefing, Tuesday, held in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul. YonhapA special counsel team investigating alleged evidence tampering in connection with the fatal Sewol ferry disaster said Tuesday that it found no evidence to support the claim.Special Prosecutor Lee Hyun-joo said at a briefing that the team decided not to pursue the case and to wrap up its three-month investigation.Since May 13, the team has been looking into a series of suspicions that data saved on the ferry's closed-circuit television (CCTV) may have been manipulated or deleted, a suspicion first raised by the Special Commission on Social Disaster Investigation in 2019. Other suspicions included the alleged fishy circumstances surrounding the collection by the country's Navy and marine police of the ferry's digital video recorder with the CCTV footage stored on it, and the suspected involvement of Cheong Wa Dae under the Park Geun-hye administration in the process. The commission suspected that the recorder could have been swapped with a new one to conceal the real reason, if

Aug 10, 2021
Special counsel closes investigation into suspected evidence tampering related to Sewol disaster

Chun Doo-hwan attends court hearing for libel suit over Gwangju Massacre

Former President Chun Doo-hwan leaves the Gwangju District Court after attending an appellate court hearing in a defamation case, Monday. The 90-year-old was earlier sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years by a lower court last November on charges of defaming the late Catholic priest Cho Pius in his memoir by denying his eyewitness account of the military's brutal suppression of the May 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy movement, and calling him a liar. YonhapBy Jung Da-min Former President Chun Doo-hwan attended an appellate court hearing on a defamation case at the Gwangju District Court in Gwangju, Monday, after having failed to show up for two previous hearings since June. Chun's lawyers had earlier told the court that he would not attend another hearing but later said he had changed his mind after the court warned that there could be consequences in future proceedings if he continued refusing to attend. During his lower court trial, he appeared only three times, citing health reasons. Chun left his house in Seoul in the morning wearing a gray suit. He looked thinner

Aug 9, 2021
Chun Doo-hwan attends court hearing for libel suit over Gwangju Massacre
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