The Supreme Court will hold its sentencing council meeting on Monday to finalize a new set of sentencing guidelines that call for increasing the maximum prison sentence for brutal murderers to 50 years, officials said Sunday. Under the new guidelines prepared following last year's revision of the criminal law, those convicted of killing more than two people in a premeditated or cruel manner will...

Ninety-seven of the 102 Korean nationals who were reported missing in Japan's Iwate prefecture have been confirmed alive, Seoul's foreign ministry said Saturday. However, the fate of the remaining five Koreans in Iwate and 90 others in Sendai has yet to be confirmed, a ministry official said. Meanwhile, South Korea has sent 100 tons of bottled water and six thousand blankets in emergency aid fo...

SEOSAN (Yonhap) -- A South Korean forestry helicopter crashed into a reservoir Sunday, leaving one crew member dead while two others were rescued, authorities said. The Korea Forest Service (KFS) chopper carrying three crew members crashed into a reservoir in Seosan, some 277 kilometers south of Seoul, at 6:47 a.m., a few minutes after taking off for an extinguishing operation in the nearby Moun...

TOKYO ―The number of ethnic Koreans whose whereabouts are unknown after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan a week ago amounts to nearly 300, according to a group of Korean residents in Tokyo. “Mindan,” or the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan, said Friday that the total number of ethnic Koreans out of reach was 297, as of 2 p.m. on Thursday. The union said that it was...

Korea is serving as a temporary base for Japan-based employees of some multinational companies who are fleeing the quake-stricken country. Foreign governments are advising their citizens to get out of the country and mobilizing airplanes to evacuate them as health risk fears are growing from radiation leaks at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. A growing number of foreigners are arriving in Korea, ...

It’s business as usual for many Korean companies as foreign firms flee Japan It looks like Korean firms will be holding the fort in Japan as a growing number of foreign companies appear to be withdrawing employees and their families over the nuclear radiation scare. Most Korean firms have decided to stick with Japan based on research and testimonies from their Japanese offices that the situatio...

Two men violate rules in fundraising for quake victims via Twitter Police booked two men without detention for breaking fundraising rules while running a campaign claiming to be for the Japanese Red Cross, officials said Friday. According to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the duo set up an online charity site last Wednesday, called “Let’s send the Power of Korean Twitter through the Japanese...

Police booked two men without detention for breaking of fundraising rules while running a campaign claiming to be for the Japanese Red Cross, officials said on Friday. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the duo set up an online charity site last Wednesday, entitled “let us send the power of Korean Twitter through the Japanese Red Cross.” Only identified by their surnames, 39-yea...

Recent explosions at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in northeastern Japan will have no serious impact in Korea, experts said in a conference Thursday. The Korea Green Foundation, a leading environmental group here, held an academic conference on the impact of the deepening nuclear crisis in earthquake-hit Japan. “Considering the long distance from here and the radiation level is d...

A government minister visited Japanese spouses living in Korea on Thursday to offer his consolation over the damage caused by the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis. Kim Kyo-sik, vice minister of gender equality and family affairs, had tea at the multicultural center in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, with 10 Japanese women who have settled in Korea through marriage. Fou...

An office worker in his 20s was apprehended Thursday for spreading groundless rumors that radioactive material from the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, would reach Korea. The rumors elevated anxiety among people here who were already taken aback by the disaster in the neighboring country. The police, however, said they had failed to detect any intention to shake up the stock ma...