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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.

Four-term conservative lawmaker's house searched over bribery

By Kim Se-jeong Prosecutors searched the office and home of Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), Monday, over an allegation he accepted a bribe from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 2014 in return for pushing budgetary favors for the spy agency.Choi was then the minister of strategy and finance and deputy prime minister for economic affairs and well-connected with lawmakers at the National Assembly. Ten officials from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office confiscated documents, computer files and hard disks from the four-term lawmaker’s National Assembly office and Seoul residence.Choi faces allegations that he received 100 million won ($91,000) in cash in 2014 in exchange for exerting influence to increase the NIS’s annual budget. The finance ministry is responsible for reviewing the annual budget plan for the spy agency and approving it before sending it to the Assembly.While Rep. Choi denies the allegation, the prosecution suspects the former minister broke the Anti-Graft Law. A crucial piece of evidence for th

Nov 20, 2017

Unilateral marriage registration for visa extension 'invalid'

Busan Family Court annulled the marriage and divorce status of a man who registered his marital situation without the woman’s agreement in order to extend his U.S. visa. / By Ko Dong-hwanA South Korean man who needed to extend his American visa had filed for marriage, and for divorce a year after, both without his partner’s agreement.A Korean court has ruled that his matrimonial escapades are legally ineffective.The man, in his 30s, was living in the U.S. in February 2014 when he met a South Korean woman, also in her 30s, at a casual get-together for the Korean nationals. The two started going out.The man at the time needed to extend the visa and decided to register his status as married. He then asked her for documents required to file for marriage. The woman provided the documents, but told the man “never to proceed with marriage.”But in April the same year, he filed for marriage without her knowledge.He then filed for divorce the following year without her agreement.The woman filed for annulment of her marriage and divorce, saying the papers were signe

Nov 20, 2017
Unilateral marriage registration for visa extension 'invalid'
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Park Geun-hye trial to resume next week

A Seoul court said Monday it will resume the corruption trial of former President Park Geun-hye early next week, more than a month after the proceeding was adjourned following her lawyers' resignations in protest at the extension of her detention.The Seoul Central District Court will proceed with the trial starting next Monday, according to the court.The jailed former president has been standing trial since May over a string of charges including bribery and abuse of power in a massive influence-peddling scandal that removed her from office in March.In October, the court extended her arrest warrant for another six months until April next year. Her legal counsel quit en masse in objection to the court decision, saying that she was not being tried fairly.Park delivered a long speech in her trial after her detention was extended. She claimed to be a victim of political revenge and declared that she would not be attending the rest of the trial.The court has since appointed Park five public defenders to continue the trial, but she has refused to meet them in prison.It is likely the trial w

Nov 20, 2017
Park Geun-hye trial to resume next week

Lawmaker's home, office raided over slush fund linked to spy agency

Prosecutors said Monday they have raided the residence and office of Rep. Choi Kyoung-hwan of the Liberty Korea Party over allegations that he received kickbacks from the state spy agency in 2014.Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office searched his office in the National Assembly as well as his house to confiscate evidence, its office said.Choi is suspected of taking 100 million won ($91,200) in bribes from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) when he was finance minister under the Park Geun-hye administration in return for favors for the NIS' budget.Prosecutors said they plan to summon him for questioning as soon as they finish analyzing the seized evidence. (Yonhap)

Nov 20, 2017
Lawmaker's home, office raided over slush fund linked to spy agency

Moon's former secretary questioned over bribery allegations

Prosecutors began to question Jun Byung-hun, former senior presidential secretary for political affairs, on Monday morning as a suspect in a bribery case involving his two former aides.The 59-year-old veteran politician appeared at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office at around 10 a.m. He stepped down over the scandal Thursday."I say this again. I have never been involved in anything illegal. I will explain myself to the prosecution over the suspicion and misunderstanding," he told reporters. "I apologize for my two former aides' lapses. ... I feel terrible that I brought trouble to (the presidential office)."His two former aides were arrested on bribery charges on Nov. 10. In 2015 they allegedly pressured a local home shopping channel to donate 330 million ($301,150) to the Korea e-Sports Association, which had ties with Jun.The cable channel, Lotte Homeshopping, is suspected of giving the money to seek Jun's influence for the renewal of its broadcasting license. Jun, then a lawmaker, belonged to the parliamentary committee in charge of media policies. He was also the e-sp

Nov 20, 2017
Moon's former secretary questioned over bribery allegations

Court to review 'packet sniffing' by spy agency next month

 By Lee Kyung-min The Constitutional Court will hold a hearing next month to review whether the law governing details of “packet sniffing” violates an individual’s right to privacy and freedom.Packet sniffing, otherwise known as network monitoring or network analyzing, is used by a network or system administrator to troubleshoot network traffic.Packet sniffers with access to its host computer can intercept, log network traffic and can see username and passwords as well as messages exchanged via wired or wireless network interfaces in real-time. In Korea, most of the “sniffing” was conducted by the spy agency, which has long used the method to monitor anti-state activities of “North Korea sympathizers.”Police and the prosecution often use it, but NIS is known to be the most frequent user.The hearing comes nearly two years after an earlier long-dragged-out case ended without a court ruling in February 2016 after the petitioner, surnamed Kim, died of liver cancer.Kim, a former member of the Korea Teachers & Education Workers&r

Nov 19, 2017

Ex-NIS chief summoned for 2nd time

Lee Byeong-ho, the only one that avoided arrest among three former spy agency chiefs over allegation that they gave “bribes” to former President Park Geun-hye with the agency’s “special funding,” was questioned for the second time, Sunday. By Lee Kyung-minLee Byeong-ho, the only person who avoided arrest among three former spy agency chiefs over allegation they gave “bribes” to former President Park Geun-hye with the agency’s “special funding,” was questioned for a second time, Sunday.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office summoned Lee in less than two days after the Seoul Central District court rejected its request to issue an arrest warrant. The remaining two _ Nam Jae-joon and Lee Byung-kee _ were arrested following the court-issued arrest warrant.The three are suspected of paying 4 billion won ($3.6 million) of the agency’s special funds to Park’s former presidential secretaries _ Ahn Bong-geun, Lee Jae-man and Jeong Ho-seong.Nam was under suspicion that while he was serving as spy chief, h

Nov 19, 2017
Ex-NIS chief summoned for 2nd time

Sewol families say final goodbye

By Kim Bo-eunBereaved family members of five unaccounted for passengers of the sunken ferry Sewol held a memorial ceremony for the deceased at Mokpo New Port, Saturday.The ceremony was held more than three and a half years since the ferry sank off the coast of the southwestern island of Jindo and killed over 300 passengers, most of them students of Danwon High School, on an excursion to Jeju Island, on April 16, 2014.The family members had stayed at the ports of Jindo and Mokpo throughout the three years and seven months, waiting for the remains of their loved ones to be retrieved. But on Thursday they stated they would move on, as searches were coming to an end.The five whose remains were not retrieved are two second-year students of Danwon High School Park Young-in and Nam Hyun-chul, Danwon teacher Yang Seung-jin, and two other passengers _ a father and son Kwon Jae-keun and Hyuk-kyu.Their coffins were instead filled with their belongings.Present at the ceremony were members of a civic group representing the bereaved family members of the Sewol disaster, Minister of Oceans and Fish

Nov 19, 2017

Thai government warns masseuses about working in Korea

By Bahk Eun-jiThailand has warned the country’s traditional masseuses about working in South Korea, where providing a massage service is generally illegal.Under Korea’s medical law, providing therapeutic massage for business is exclusively reserved for blind people or nationally certified professionals.According to The Nation, a daily English newspaper in Thailand, the Department of Special Investigation issued the warning after eight Koreans were arrested for allegedly forcing Thai women to work as prostitutes.The suspects were charge with human trafficking after a joint operation by Korean police, Thai Police and the Korean embassy to Thailand.In August, a Korean man, surname Kim, 39, said to be a key member of the criminal network, was arrested for human trafficking in Thailand.He allegedly lured Thai women to work in massage parlors in Korea, and forced them into prostitution.The Thai government has warned women to be careful when using social media, because this was how Kim allegedly recruited women.On Friday, Thai authorities also arrested a woman for allegedly

Nov 19, 2017
Thai government warns masseuses about working in Korea

Memorial service held for 5 missing victims of ferry sinking

Families of five missing victims of the 2014 ferry sinking held a joint memorial service on Saturday after their bodies could not be recovered despite months-long search.The ceremony for the missing victims including two high school students and a teacher was held at a port in Mokpo, some 410 kilometer south of Seoul, where the hull of the suken Sewol ferry sits after being retrieved from the sea earlier this year.The 6,800-ton Sewol ferry that sank on April 16, 2014, in waters off the country's southwest coast claimed the lives of 304 people, most of them teenage students on a school trip.A team of rescue workers had sought to find nine missing victims since early April when the hull was raised from the bottom of the sea and put into a dry dock at the port. But only the bodies of four victims were found.A funeral car carrying items left by the victims went around the hull, according to participants.The service was attended by a group of families of the ferry incident, Oceans Minister Kim Young-choon and others.The country's ruling and opposition parties expressed their condolence to

Nov 18, 2017
Memorial service held for 5 missing victims of ferry sinking
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