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Gyeonggi police crackdown nets over 5,000 criminals

Gangsters from the Busan-based mob "Jangcheol-pa" who worked around bars and prostitution houses in the city's Buk-gu district line up at the city police station. Korea Times fileBy Ko Dong-hwanOver 5,000 gangsters and thugs have been caught by a Gyeonggi police dragnet during a special crackdown that lasted 100 days. The group included one man with 99 convictions who visited bars, threatening owners for free alcohol and food. Another targeted vendors at traditional marketplaces, threatening violence to gain free food. Among the 5,337 criminals the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency nabbed from March until June 14, there were 219 gang members, 42 of whom were arrested. The gangsters had allegedly been operating a protection racket for 10 bars that offered prostitutes and in a year made over 1.5 billion won ($1.3 million). Charges against them include threatening the owners and using violence to rob them. Over 82 percent of the gangsters had six convictions or more, while those with no priors accounted for 5 percent, police said. Those in their 20s made up 40 percent, followed by

Jun 27, 2018
Gyeonggi police crackdown nets over 5,000 criminals

Female founder of Korea's largest porn site arrested

A woman who co-founded South Korea's largest pornography website has been arrested after living as a fugitive in New Zealand for years, police said.Soranet ― set up in 1999 ― held tens of thousands of illegal porn videosincluding "revenge porn" and spycam porn videos of women secretly filmed atpublic locations.Distributing pornography is illegal in South Korea, although many such videos are widely consumed on servers based in foreign countries, or secretly shared on file-sharing sites.Soranet ― which once boasted more than one million members ― was closed two years ago following complaints from women's rights groups.The 45-year-old owner -- surnamed Song -- returned to Seoul last week after South Korean authorities annulled her passport.She was arrested on Monday for distributing or aiding the distribution of sex videos featuring minors, police said.Her husband and another couple known to be co-owners of the site ― all of whom have Australian citizenship or permanent residency ― remain overseas.They are also accused of abetting illegal activities by Soranet m

Jun 27, 2018
Female founder of Korea's largest porn site arrested

Korean Air chief to be questioned tomorrow over tax-dodging, breach of trust

Hanjin Group and Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho / Korea TimesHanjin Group and Korean Air Lines Co. Chairman Cho Yang-ho will appear for questioning on Thursday over allegations of tax evasion and causing losses to his company, the prosecution said Wednesday.The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office said Cho has been asked to present himself at 9:30 a.m.Prosecutors are investigating him on suspicion that he evaded taxes worth billions of won, including over 50 billion won (US$44.7 million) worth of inheritance tax he did not pay when he and his sister inherited overseas assets from his father, Cho Choong-hoon, who founded the conglomerate.Prosecutors also believe he has embezzled over 20 billion won.The tax agency in Seoul has filed for a complaint and the prosecution is seeking a probe into Cho on possible tax-dodging.Cho is also accused of causing losses to the business empire by letting members of his family earn easy money from dealings with Hanjin affiliates.The summons comes amid a slew of ongoing investigations into his wife and children, who are accused of multiple assa

Jun 27, 2018
Korean Air chief to be questioned tomorrow over tax-dodging, breach of trust

'Won Sei-hoon set ex-President Roh up for a fall'

By Lee Kyung-min A senior former prosecutor who supervised the questioning of former President Roh Moo-hyun said an intelligence agency chief under former Lee Myung-bak masterminded a plan to set him up for a fall, a move to switch blame from the prosecution onto the now-cornered agency over the death of the liberal leader. Roh, who had a deep relationship with President Moon Jae-in, committed suicide in May 2009 during the investigation. Allegations had been made that his family received about $6 million from a businessman named Park Yeon-cha in return for favors. One claim, that the former first lady received a luxury wristwatch and threw it away in a rice paddy, was widely believed to have triggered Roh's suicide. Lee In-kyu, a former prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, accused broadcaster SBS, which reported the alleged conspiring of the prosecution with the National Intelligence Service (NIS), sowing the possibility of a legal battle between the two over defamation. Lee said former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon asked then-Prosecutor General Lim Chae-jin to make the high

Jun 26, 2018

Review underway for Yemenis asylum seekers in Jeju

By Lee Kyung-min The immigration authorities initiated refugee recognition reviews for 486 Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island, Tuesday, with the procedure expected to take up to eight months. The displaced are among 549 who sought refuge in Korea after fleeing their country to escape the ongoing civil war that began in 2015. The Jeju branch of the Korea Immigration Service said a team of four officials will conduct up to six-hour in-depth interviews of up to three individuals per day over place of birth, family background, grounds for seeking asylum and claimed fears of persecution. The interviews will be led by a review commissioner with the help of immigration office-designated interpreters. Those who are denied the recognition can file an appeal with the regional office, the outcome of which will be finalized unless disputed otherwise following a judgment by an administrative court. The review comes amid growing anti-refugee sentiment in Korea as an increasing number of Koreans are protesting the regional government's “asylum seeker-friendly policies” to help th

Jun 26, 2018

Two airplanes collide at Gimpo airport amid heavy rain

In this photo provided by a person at Gimpo International Airport on Tuesday morning, a Korean Air flight, left, stands in front of an Asiana Airlines flight after they collided with each other. YonhapTwo airplanes collided at an airport in Gimpo in western Seoul, causing damage to part of the jets and a delay in takeoff, authorities said Tuesday. A Boeing 777 Korean Air plane hit its tail against a wing of an Airbus 330 Asiana Airlines plane in the apron of the International Terminal of the Gimpo International Airport at around 8 a.m., according to the authorities. No passengers were aboard either of the planes, they said. There were two mechanic staff on each and neither of them were hurt. The accident caused damage to part of the planes and about four-hour delays in their takeoffs. The Korean Air plane was bound for Osaka and the Asiana Airline flight was set to head to Beijing. Airport authorities said they are looking into the exact cause of the accident, including possible careless handling of the towing vehicles that were moving the planes. (Yonhap)

Jun 26, 2018
Two airplanes collide at Gimpo airport amid heavy rain

Municipal police system igniting concerns

Police stand guard in front of the National Police Agency headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. / YonhapCritics question over distribution of law enforcement powersBy Kang Seung-wooConcerns are growing over the government's plan to introduce the autonomous police system that will be placed under direct control of local governments.Critics say the new police system would lead police to lose political neutrality, while triggering a qualitative difference in security services in accordance with disparities in local governments' financing. Above all, they are questioning whether the system, run in the United States and Japan, is suitable for Korea, a far smaller country, while still keeping the current national police organization.As President Moon Jae-in pledged on the campaign trail last year, the government announced last week that the system will be test-run next year in three regions -- Seoul, Sejong and Jeju Island -- before going into full operation nationwide in 2020.The system is kind of an offset program for the prosecution as the government has given police greater investigative po

Jun 25, 2018
Municipal police system igniting concerns

'Public interest neglected in investigative prerogatives revision'

By Lee Kyung-min A recent reorganization of investigative prerogatives between police and the prosecution is only part of a power struggle between the two law enforcement agencies and failed to address measures to protect public interest, an advocacy group said Monday. In a major change to grant police more autonomy to rein in the prosecution, the Moon Jae-in administration unveiled plans to revise the current law. The change will allow police to open, lead and close investigations without the prosecution's supervision. The much-awaited measure redefines the relationship between the two as cooperative, not authoritative. The measure seeks to help police limit the prosecution in exercising authority and discretion to unrestrictedly intervene in investigations. The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy issued a statement criticizing a lack of preventative measures against possible abuse of authority by the two investigative bodies. “More measures should be in place to rein in police, the power of which will increase greatly if the revision materializes,” it said.

Jun 25, 2018

Judicial union head calls for 'no-holds barred' probe

By Lee Kyung-min The leader of a judicial civil servants' union urged the prosecution, Monday, to conduct a thorough investigation into “abuse by judiciary,” claiming judges should be subject to the same stringent standards of justice over a highly damaging allegation that continues to erode public trust in the judiciary. The high-profile scandal that rattled Korea over the past few weeks concerns an allegation that the top court under the leadership of former chief justice Yang Sung-tae drafted documents on delivering “friendly verdicts” on politically sensitive trials to the previous Park Geun-hye administration, in exchange for the establishment of what would have been a de facto “Second Supreme Court.” The Office of Court Administration (OCA) also allegedly discussed measures to suppress critical voices within the judiciary by creating and managing a so-called “blacklist of judges.” The man surnamed Cho, who heads the judicial branch under the national civil servants union representing about 10,000 workers at district courts, high c

Jun 25, 2018
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