The bodies of a 62-year-old woman and her 35-year-old son were discovered Wednesday inside a fridge at an apartment that was burned down in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. No one else was injured in the fire. Authorities found a flammable substance close to the refrigerator and assume arson as a possible cause of the fire. They have collected the substance for further analysis. Police also...

A South Korean diplomat stationed in Cambodia has been relieved from the post following allegations of sexual harassment against a female embassy employee, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday, The diplomat, whose name and position have been withheld, was ordered to return to Korea and is currently undergoing an internal investigation by the ministry regarding the alle...

Yaba, a psychotropic narcotic referred to as the “madness drug,” has shown a steep rise in the amount trafficked to Korea, reaching its highest known figure, prosecution data showed. According to the prosecution on Tuesday, this year, 10.015 kilograms of yaba had been smuggled into South Korea by July. The number is almost a sevenfold increase from 1.267 kg in 2013, and almost double the 5.465 k...

Police said they had suspended indictment procedures for a man suspected of issuing an online threat to assassinate President Moon Jae-in. The decision was made owing to the man’s foreign citizenship, and police have enlisted the help of international authorities in tracking him down. Seoul Gangbuk Police Station said Monday that the man, who allegedly posted the threat last month, turned out to...

The amount of illegal drugs confiscated by the South Korean investigative authorities doubled over the year in 2018, according to prosecution figures released on Monday. The prosecution seized a total of 517.2 kilogram narcotics last year, a 99.8 percent jump from 258.9 kg in 2017, a report released by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office showed. The report showed that the amount of drugs smuggled i...

The 19-year-old son of Liberty Party Korea Rep. Chang Je-won is accused of driving drunk and causing an accident, police said Monday. Rapper NO:EL, whose real name is Chang Yong-jun, was arrested Saturday after crashing into a motorcycle with his car in Mapo-gu, Seoul, between 2 and 3 a.m. the same day. Police say Chang’s blood alcohol level was 0.08 percent, which means he could lose his drive...

Two reports of cars damaged by adhesives were made in less than two weeks, local police in Gwangju said Monday. According to Gwangju Bukbu Police Station, a man in his 60s reported on Sunday that he found his car covered in what is thought to be strong adhesive material on the front side and on parts of the windshield. The automobile owner told the police he had parked the car at his studio apar...

When you take your seat in this seemingly ordinary Italian restaurant in Seoul, no waiter comes to the table with a menu. Bustling servers carrying plates of food are also missing. Touted as the nation’s first robotized restaurant, Merry-Go-Kitchen opened its doors in southeastern Seoul last month in collaboration with South Korean food-delivery unicorn Woowa Brothers. When the robot arrives at...

Line Corp., a Japanese subsidiary of South Korea’s major portal Naver, has come under criticism for selling mobile emoticons that portrayed President Moon Jae-in in a disparaging way. Line hurriedly removed the stamps from its online store available in Korea and Japan after Korean users filed a complaint about the problematic mobile content. Line took down the collection of emoticons titled “St...

South Korea’s biggest dessert festival, the Seoul Dessert Fair, closed the doors on its 23rd event last weekend at the Setec exhibition hall in Gangnam, Seoul. (Shot and edited by Choi Ji-won / The Korea Herald) The three-day event ran Friday to Sunday and garnered more than 30,000 visitors. Around 240 dessert shop owners and individual sellers from around the country presented assorted confect...

A group of fishermen from Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, claimed Tuesday that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has been polluting nearby waters by dumping unpurified sewage water into the Han River, leading to fish mutations. The fishermen said that water reclamation centers have been illegally dumping wastewater into the Han River and should take responsibility for the contamination. Foul scent a...

A dismembered body has been found in the lower reaches of the Han River in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, local police said Wednesday. According to Goyang Police Station, the bare torso of a dead man was found floating in the river near the southern-end of Magok Railway Bridge around 9:15 a.m. Monday by an employee of Hangang Operations Office. The body was missing its head and limbs. Police said t...

Gyeonggi Province’s tourism body is launching a set of campaigns to overcome an upcoming slump in the regional tourism industry following Japan’s recent economic retaliation. The administration was one of the first governmental bodies to express support for the people’s boycott of Japan and take countermeasures to the Japanese government’s decision to remove South Korea from its whitelist of pre...

The Dokdo islets are drawing more attention as a summer getaway for South Koreans, while diplomatic and economic conflicts between Korea and Japan show no signs of abating. The number of visitors to Dokdo is on the rise, while the number of outbound travelers to Japan is plummeting since the Abe administration slapped retaliatory measures against Korea. A total of 172,516 people have made the t...

A fire at a box factory in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, was extinguished early Wednesday, 12 hours after it broke out, injuring two firefighters and nine others. According to the Gyeonggi-do Fire Department, the fire started around 1:15 p.m. Tuesday at the two-story manufacturing building with a single underground floor. It was completely put out around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. Authorities said the ...