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Crime Scene Police arrest man over alleged sexual assault of Japanese tourist in Seoul

By Lee Han-sooA Korean man in his 30s, surnamed Kim, has been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a Japanese tourist he met at a nightclub in Gangnam, Seoul, according to Gangnam police station on Monday.The tourist in her 20s reportedly visited the club with a friend and met Kim. Kim allegedly sexually assaulted her after taking her to an emergency stairway. He was stopped when security guards came to rescue the woman after hearing her scream.“We heard a woman screaming and crying, so we sent our security personnel outside to check,” a club employee said. “We intervened and subdued the man until the police arrived."Kim denied the sexual assault charges, saying his interaction with the woman was with consent, police said. Police will summons club officials for the investigation. 

Apr 4, 2017
[Crime Scene] Police arrest man over alleged sexual assault of Japanese tourist in Seoul

Park faces tougher questioning Tuesday

By Jung Min-hoFormer President Park Geun-hye will be questioned Tuesday at the Seoul Detention Center, her first interrogation since being taken into custody on bribery and other charges in the presidential scandal involving her friend Choi Soon-sil.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Monday that Han Woong-jae, one of the two prosecutors who interrogated Park two weeks ago, will visit the detention facility in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, to question her.One or two assistant prosecutors from the team investigating the scandal may accompany him.Unlike the questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office where she was summoned and prosecutors focused on listening to her side of the story, Han is expected to be more aggressive this time to extract a confession.Signs are already palpable that prosecutors have become more reluctant to give her special treatment.Prosecutors initially asked her to come to their office ― with her hands handcuffed ― for questioning, which was rejected by her lawyers because of her psychological state and for security reas

Apr 3, 2017
Park faces tougher questioning Tuesday

Search for missing Korean vessel in South Atlantic continues

Search operations are ongoing for the Korean cargo ship Stellar Daisy that went missing and is presumed to have sank in the South Atlantic, after making its last contact off Uruguay, Friday.Two Filipino sailors were rescued from a life raft, Saturday, among the 24-member crew, which consisted of eight Koreans and 16 Filipinos.According to AFP, Monday, Gaston Jaunsolo, a spokesman for the Uruguayan navy, said the two rescued sailors are in good condition, and the search is ongoing for the others.He said a Brazilian aircraft has joined the search, and four other Korean merchant ships and an Argentine navy ship were also assisting.On Sunday, a C-130 aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force conducted a search within a 500-kilometer radius of the ship’s last reported position including the point where the two Filipino crewmembers were picked up.Two more rafts have been recovered, but without any survivors. The navy spokesman said a search was ongoing for two more life rafts.Jaunsolo said the cause of the ship’s disappearance was unclear.A crew member sent a distress signal to its o

Apr 3, 2017

Sewol to be docked Thursday

Recovery workers prepare the ferry Sewol to be moved to a dry dock, Monday, at Mokpo New Port, South Jeolla Province. / YonhapBy Lee Kyung-min Module transporters that will move the ferry Sewol into a dry dock will be tested Wednesday, according to the government.The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said Monday that of the 456 transporters needed, 342 were delivered Sunday with the remaining 182 due today.The transporters, divided into six rows of 76, will move the ferry from the semisubmersible recovery ship, to which Sewol is secured, to the dry dock.The work should be complete by Saturday, when the first neap tide of the month is forecast to end. Otherwise, the ministry will have to wait 15 days for the next tide when the least wave interference is expected.The ministry, with the agreement of the special investigation committee late Sunday, began drilling 21 holes to facilitate the draining process to reduce the weight of the ferry by at least 460 tons.“Given that the module transporters can carry only up to 13,000 tons, the ferry, currently weighing 13,460 tons, needs

Apr 3, 2017
Sewol to be docked Thursday

Military may help search for Sewol ferry victims: ministry

South Korea's military said Monday it may consider supporting the search for the remains of the victims of the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking.There is no official request yet, though, from the maritime ministry, which recently brought the ship to surface and took it to the Mokpo port in the southwestern province of Jeolla, according to the Ministry of National Defense.The 6,825-ton passenger ship sank off the nearby coast in an apparent accident, leaving 304 people, mostly students, dead. The remains of nine people are still missing.In case of a request for cooperation, the defense ministry will "prudently review" whether to mobilize the agency for the recovery and identification of those killed in action, taking the "significance" of the Sewol issue into account, the ministry's spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told reporters,A potential problem is the military team specializes in ground-based operations, not the search of remains in ship wrecks, another ministry official said on background. (Yonhap)

Apr 3, 2017
Military may help search for Sewol ferry victims: ministry

Tens of items retrieved from sunken Sewol ferry

Some 50 items presumed to belong to those that were on the ill-fated ferry Sewol have been retrieved from the wreck that has been brought to the port of Mokpo after being raised from the bottom of the sea, the government said Monday.Salvage operators raised the 6,800-ton Sewol ferry and placed it on a semisubmersible ship last month, nearly three years after the vessel sank off the country's southwestern coast near Jindo Island in April 2014.The sinking -- the country's worst maritime disaster -- left more than 300 people dead, mostly high school students on a school excursion. Nine of them still remain missing.Since the Sewol arrived at Mokpo on Friday, operators have been draining water and mud from the hull in order to reduce weight before putting it in a dry dock around Thursday.The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it has collected 48 items, including clothes, mobile phones, ties and shoes, during the drainage work.It said the owners of the items retrieved have yet to be identified.On Sunday, nine bone fragments, along with a passport and other personal belongings, were disc

Apr 3, 2017
Tens of items retrieved from sunken Sewol ferry

Search operation for missing S. Korean cargo ship in S. Atlantic continues

Search efforts for 22 crew members of a South Korean cargo ship that apparently sank in the South Atlantic last week are making little headway after two sailors were rescued Saturday, a government official said Monday.The search for the missing South Korean ship, the Stellar Daisy, began Saturday, one day after the ship's crew sent a text to their South Korean employer, saying their ship was taking on water. The Marshall Islands-flagged ship, carrying eight South Korean and 16 Filipino sailors, was sailing off Uruguay when it made the distress call, according to South Korea's foreign ministry.Dispatched by the Brazilian government, a C-130 aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force on Sunday searched inside a 500-kilometer radius area, including the scene and a point where the two Filipino crew were picked up in a raft, but it detected only fuel and debris believed to have come from the ship without finding other missing sailors, the official said.The government will have a Brazilian Navy's destroyer and merchant ships of Polaris Shipping, the crew members' South Korean employer continue th

Apr 3, 2017
Search operation for missing S. Korean cargo ship in S. Atlantic continues

S. Korean found dead in Malaysian condo

By Park Si-sooA South Korean man was found dead inside a condominium in Mont Kiara, an affluent residential town in Malaysia, on Saturday, according to local media.The man, 58, was found hanged in the bathroom. No other details were available. An investigation is under way to determine the exact cause of his death.According to Malaysian English daily The Star, police broke into the apartment about 11:30 p.m. (local time) after receiving a call about a bad smell. 

Apr 2, 2017

More bone fragments emerge - not victims'

Bereaved family members walk toward the end of a dock to board a ship which will take them near the semisubmersible recovery ship carrying the ferry Sewol in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, Sunday. / YonhapBy Lee Kyung-min Nine more bone fragments were discovered early Sunday on the deck of a semisubmersible recovery ship to which the salvaged ferry Sewol is secured, but they are believed to be those of animals, not the remains of missing victims, forensic scientists said Sunday.“Although we believe the bones are from an animal, we cannot say that with 100 percent certainty. Additional DNA testing is needed, which will take about a month,” a National Forensic Service (NFS) official said at Mokpo New Port in South Jeolla Province, where the recovery vessel docked, Friday.The families rushed to the port, only to be disappointed again by the NFS assessment that the bones were not human.“I wish the officials had told us about the possibility of the bones not being our loved ones so as not to get our hopes up only to be crushed,” a mother of one of the victims s

Apr 2, 2017
More bone fragments emerge - not victims'

Park to be questioned Tuesday in prison

By Jung Min-hoFormer President Park Geun-hye will be questioned Tuesday at the Seoul Detention Center as the prosecution carries on its investigation into the major corruption scandal involving her close friend Choi Soon-sil.The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Sunday that prosecutors will question her at the detention facility in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, following the Seoul Central District Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for her Friday on 13 charges.“At first, we asked her to come to the prosecutors’ office Monday for questioning, which her lawyers rejected because of her psychological state and for security reasons,” an official from the team dealing with the case said. “So we have decided to do it at the detention center on Tuesday.”With less than 20 days to collect evidence and testimony before the warrant expires April 19, prosecutors are apparently accelerating the investigation. This will be her second questioning after a first one, March 21, before her detention.Both or one of the two prosecutors who prev

Apr 2, 2017
Park to be questioned Tuesday in prison
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