23-year-old suspect: 'I was out of my mind'

A police officer was arrested and charged with nonconsensual video recording during sex of partners he had met through a dating app. The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office said Friday that it had indicted the officer at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police for breaching the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes and for tampering with evidence. The police officer, whose identity has been withheld, is accused of filming 26 women without consent during sex using his

President Yoon Suk Yeol has named Lee Key-cheol, former Korean ambassador to the Netherlands, to head a new government body overseeing the interests of 7.5 million overseas Koreans launched Friday. Lee also previously served as consul general in Los Angeles and is currently secretary-general of UNICEF Korea. The new agency is intended to offer streamlined services from visas to taxes and pensions to overseas Koreans, which includes citizens living abroad as well as noncitizens with Korean famili

South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup left for Singapore on Friday to attend an annual security forum, where North Korea's evolving military threats, the war in Ukraine and an intensifying Sino-US rivalry are expected to feature prominently. The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue is set to kick off in the city-state later in the day, bringing together senior security officials from more than 40 countries, including the United States, China, Britain, Australia and Japan, according to S

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday named the minister of the upgraded veterans ministry and the chief of a new government agency for overseas Koreans, his office said. Park Min-shik, who currently heads the veterans ministry, will continue to lead the ministry after its upgrade from sub-ministry level to full-fledged ministry status Monday. Lee Key-cheol, former deputy foreign minister for overseas Koreans, will head the new agency tasked with supporting overseas Koreans following its launch Mond

New York artist Gregory de la Haba’s first show in Seoul is underway at Hangaram Art Museum of the Seoul Arts Center, showcasing some 20 paintings completed over the last two years. As was the case for many people around the world, the pandemic period was a productive one for de la Haba, who set up a studio inside his garage at the back of his house in the borough of Queens when he could not travel to his studio in Brooklyn, New York. Unable to travel or meet friends, de la Haba’s fo

South Korea's economy grew 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, unchanged from an earlier estimate, largely thanks to a sustained recovery in private spending amid an extended slowdown in exports, central bank data showed Friday. The country's gross domestic product -- a key measure of economic growth -- increased 0.3 percent in the January-March period from three months earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea. The first-quarter expansion follows a 0

South Korea's new coronavirus cases fell below 20,000 on Friday as almost all pandemic-related restrictions were lifted this month. The country reported 19,724 new infections, including 33 imported cases, bringing the total caseload to 31,747,839, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. Daily infections remained below 20,000 for the six days through Tuesday but rose above 20,000 on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday's tally is higher than the 17,933 cases a week earlier and t

The United States is strengthening its cooperation with South Korea and Japan to deter evolving threats posed by North Korea, President Joe Biden said Thursday. Biden's remark comes after North Korea launched what it claims to be its first military spy satellite in a botched attempt. "In the Indo-Pacific, we deepened our alliance and our trilateral cooperation with Japan and the Republic of Korea," Biden said while addressing the graduating class of the US Air Force Academy in Col

South Korean exports are showing some signs of a recovery on the back of rising demand from China and increasing outbound shipments of semiconductors, the finance minister said Friday. South Korea's exports fell for an eighth consecutive month in May, reaching $52.24 billion, down 15.2 percent on-year, government data showed this week. The decline mostly came as exports of semiconductors sank 36.2 percent on-year on falling demand and a drop in chip prices. "Exports for May fell by two

When South Korea head coach Kim Eun-jung was preparing his players for the round of 16 match against Ecuador at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina, he delivered a straightforward message: that this could be their last match in the tournament and there's no tomorrow. That sense of urgency paid off in South Korea's 3-2 victory in Santiago del Estero, northern Argentina, on Thursday, and South Korea will move on to take on Nigeria in the quarterfinals on Sunday, back in the same city. &

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong attended the awards ceremony for the Samsung Ho-Am Prize held in Seoul, Thursday, renewing his commitment to inheriting the group’s founding spirit of “patriotic industrial service,” according to company officials. It was the first time for Lee to take part in the annual event as chairman of the tech giant. The Samsung Ho-Am Prize, which uses the pen name of Samsung Group’s late founder Lee Byung-chull, was established in 1990 by

South Korean stocks opened higher Friday, led by big-cap tech shares, as investors welcomed the progress in the United States' debt ceiling deal. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index added 18.7 points, or 0.73 percent, to 2,587.87 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Overnight, US stocks closed higher as the House of Representatives passed a debt ceiling bill to avoid a federal default. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.47 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped

Children of four retired senior officials at the National Election Commission were additionally found to have been employed by the election watchdog, an investigation showed Friday, raising suspicions that the individuals secured the positions through their fathers' influence. The children of the four former officials were hired for experienced positions at three different regional offices, where their fathers had previously worked, according to the results of the investigation conducted by

South Korea's consumer prices growth slowed for the fourth consecutive month in May from a year ago, data showed Friday, in yet another signal that the country's inflation has passed its peak. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 3.3 percent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 3.7 percent on-year rise in April, according to the report from Statistics Korea. The growth fell below 4 percent for the first time in 14 months in April. The prices of utility services shot up 23.2