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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.

Prosecutors seek 12-year prison term for Samsung heir

Lee Jae-yong enters the courtroom at the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / YonhapBy Jung Min-hoProsecutors are seeking a 12-year prison sentence for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong on five charges, including offering bribes to former President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.Special counsel Park Young-soo demanded the prison sentence Wednesday during Lee’s appeal at the Seoul High Court, accusing Lee of giving a bribe of 29.8 billion won ($28 million) in return for receiving government support to ensure his control of Samsung Group.“The defendants claim it was just part of Samsung’s philanthropic activities. But the same year the company bought Choi an expensive horse, it stopped donating to a charity group. This reflects their perception about corporate social responsibility,” the special counsel said. “The deal is a typical example of the collusion between politics and business.” Park Young-soo said the former president and Lee had three private meetings at Cheong Wa Dae to make the deal.At Lee’s

Dec 27, 2017

Park Geun-hye refuses questioning in prison

By Jung Min-hoFormer President Park Geun-hye refused to be questioned in prison by prosecutors, Tuesday, over allegations she received bribes from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) while in office.Senior prosecutor Yang Suk-jo and three other investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office visited Seoul Detention Center at 8:30 a.m. to question Park, who allegedly received 4 billion won ($3.7 million) from the spy agency.Park, who has been in presentencing detention since March because of many corruption charges, agreed to meet them in the interrogation room, but told them to leave without answering any questions.“We repeatedly asked her to cooperate, but she was adamant … It seems to be meaningless to return to question her further,” one investigator said. “Under the law, there is no way to force her to cooperate with the investigation.”Many had already expected such a reaction from her. She has been boycotting all sessions in her trial since October in protest of the court decision to extend her detention for six months m

Dec 26, 2017
Park Geun-hye refuses questioning in prison

Elementary school teacher suspended for drug use, avoids heavy punishment

By Park Si-soo An elementary school teacher was suspended for a month for a drug offense, an education office governing North Chungcheong Province said on Tuesday.The teacher was among 10 public officers caught taking illegal drugs, it said. The office’s disciplinary committee imposed the penalty. The prosecution looked into the case and decided not to send him to trial because it was his first drug offense and the dose he took was small.

Dec 26, 2017
Elementary school teacher suspended for drug use, avoids heavy punishment

Probe into ex-president and DAS begins

By Jung Min-hoJoo Jin-wooAfter years of speculation about its ownership, prosecutors began a reinvestigation into DAS, a car parts maker many suspect of de facto belonging to former President Lee Myung-bak.According to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, Tuesday, it created a team of 10 investigators to look into suspicions surrounding the firm, including whether Lee abused his power to protect its funds.Given that Lee is at the center of the suspicions, he may well be questioned soon.DAS is officially owned by Lee’s eldest brother, Lee Sang-eun, but many believe he is nothing but a “cover” for the real owner ― the former president.On the first day, investigators questioned Joo Jin-woo, a journalist who has been investigating the suspicions.“The prosecution asked me to provide information about the former president,” Joo said as he entered the prosecutors’ office. “My documents and hard drives show what Cheong Wa Dae did to recover DAS’s 14 billion won ($13 million) and the people who were involved in it.”“

Dec 26, 2017
Probe into ex-president and DAS begins

Dog owner jailed after pets attack neighbors

By Ko Dong-hwanA Seoul man whose Dojo Argentino, left, and Presa Canario escaped from his house and attacked neighbors was jailed on Sunday.The owner of two dogs that attacked neighbors has been jailed.Seoul Northern District Court sentenced the man, surnamed Lee, 32, to eight months’ jail without hard labor on Sunday for allowing his Presa Canario and Dogo Argentino to escape his house and injure the neighbors in June.The dogs were in the front yard of Lee’s house in Dobong-gu, Seoul, when he left. The Dogo Argentino was on a leash wrapped around a pole while the Presa Canario was loose. The door had an electronic lock and a chain lock.After Lee left, the Argentino broke free and both dogs managed to ram through the door. They bit two people who later required extensive medical treatment. Another person tripped while fleeing the dogs. Emergency services killed the Dogo Argentino and captured the other dog. The court said: “Living with dogs with a particular nature of assaulting humans requires taking precautionary measures and being responsible for the damage done

Dec 26, 2017
Dog owner jailed after pets attack neighbors

Unsung heroes of Jecheon fire

By Jung Min-hoLee Yang-seobLee Ki-hyungWhen flames were engulfing an eight-story building in Jecheon last week, Lee Yang-seob, 54, immediately called his son Ki-hyung.The owner of Jecheon Cargo Sky, a construction machinery rental company, asked Ki-hyung to bring a ladder truck to the scene and together they rescued three men from the top floor.“When I called my son for help, he said he had finished his work earlier than usual, which to me was like a message from God that we should rescue them,” the father told the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times. “Black smoke blocked my view, so I had to rely on the people’s voices to locate them.”People who were anxiously watching their rescue operation shouted with joy when the three escaped from the burning building.The next day, Lee Yang-seob received a call from the wife of one of the three thanking him for the rescue.The death toll from the fire, which eventually killed 29 people, could have been higher if Kim Jong-soo, a 64-year-old barber, had thought of himself first. After hearing about th

Dec 25, 2017
Unsung heroes of Jecheon fire

Illegal parking blamed for causing more casualties in Jecheon fire

By Jung Min-hoVehicles are illegally parked on a narrow street in the Bupyeong District of Incheon, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Lee Hwan-jikWhen people park their cars illegally on the street, they just worry about a fine. Almost no one thinks they may jeopardize people’s lives by parking illegally. But that’s exactly what happened when illegally parked cars blocked firefighters from getting to a burning building in Jecheon last week.Seven minutes after the fire, which eventually killed 29 people and injured 36, was reported fire trucks arrived near the scene at 3:53 p.m., Thursday. But they were blocked by the many cars that filled the narrow street.As a result, only small fire rescue vehicles were able to get near the building, while big fire trucks, such as those equipped with ladders, had to wait an additional 30 minutes to get close enough to the building to be useful. It could have been even longer had citizens not volunteered to push away the parked cars.This is just one of the situations firefighters often face.According to Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster

Dec 25, 2017
Illegal parking blamed for causing more casualties in Jecheon fire

Park Geun-hye to be quizzed over spy agency embezzlement scandal

Prosecutors will question former President Park Geun-hye this week in a detention center as part of their investigation into allegations that the presidential office during her term had received illicit money from the spy agency.Four officials from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will visit the detention center on Tuesday to interrogate the ousted chief executive over suspicions that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had offered her office a total of 4 billion won ($3.7 million) between 2013 and mid-2016.The move comes as Park has rejected the prosecution's summons, citing health conditions.Investigators plan to ask the former leader where her office spent the money and for what purpose.They are also expect to question Park over the suspicions that the then presidential office pressured local conglomerates to offer financial support for conservative protesters that staged demonstrations in favor of her government.It remains unclear whether Park would respond to the prosecution's questions, as she has dismissed the investigations as the "political retribution in t

Dec 25, 2017
Park Geun-hye to be quizzed over spy agency embezzlement scandal

Funeral services held for Jecheon fire victims

A family member of a Jecheon fire victim puts up a photo of her relative at a memorial altar in Jecheon Gymnasium, North Chungcheong Province, Sunday. Banners among the photos read: “Honey, I am sorry,” “Mom, I love you” and “Honey, I love you.” / YonhapBy Jung Min-hoIt was a heartbreaking Christmas Eve for the families of the Jecheon fire victims.On Sunday, funeral services for 19 of the 29 people who died in the fire last week were held in Jecheon and other cities in North Chungcheong Province.The family members and friends of Kim Da-ye, one of the victims, broke down in tears as her coffin was carried past them at Jecheon Bogung Funeral Hall. Kim, an 18-year-old high school senior, was at the building for an interview for a part-time job at the time of the incident.After hearing about the fire, Kim called her grandmother and told her that she would run up to the eighth floor from the sixth floor (where she was at that time). After extinguishing the fire, rescue workers found her dead near the entrance to the eighth floor.Kim In-dong, the hu

Dec 24, 2017
Funeral services held for Jecheon fire victims

Lotte Chairman gets suspended jail term

By Kim Bo-eunLotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin received a 20-month prison term suspended for two years after a court found him guilty of breach of trust Friday.In the ruling on the founder family of the retail group, the Seoul Central District Court handed his father and group founder Shin Kyuk-ho a four-year sentence and fined him 3.5 billion won. The court sentenced his sister Shin Young-ja, head of the Lotte Foundation, to a two-year term, but acquitted his brother, SDJ Corp. Chairman Shin Dong-joo. It sentenced Shin Kyuk-ho’s common-law wife Seo Mi-kyung to a two years in jail suspended for three years.“(The Lotte Group owner family) regarded the group’s affiliates as their private possessions, and carried out the offenses for their own interests, without a rational decision-making process,” the court said in its rulings.It acknowledged the charges of malpractice Shin Dong-bi faced, but cleared him of embezzling corporate funds.Shin, 62, was indicted on charges of giving business rights to a company run by his sister, Seo and her daughter, wreaking 77.8 b

Dec 22, 2017
Lotte Chairman gets suspended jail term
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