There have been 80,368 calls made with possibly malicious intent to the 120 Dasan Seoul Call Center from 2020 to October this year, the state-run foundation for the city's official information service said during a conference on Wednesday. The 120 Dasan Call Foundation hosted a seminar on the emotional labor of call center workers at the Seoul City Hall, during which it revealed the statistics related to problematic complaints or calls made to the call center. It defined malicious petitio

Social Affairs Nov. 23, 2024

A local online forum platform that been embroiled in series of crimes involving minors, has imposed a ban on underage users from writing in a forum about depression. DC Inside said Wednesday that underage users have been restricted from writing posts or replies on its "Depression Gallery," as part of the protection policy focused on minors recommended by the Korea Communications Commission. Investigative authorities and operators of the website will monitor the posts and replies on the

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

A 56-year-old YouTuber who killed another YouTuber was sentenced to a lifetime in prison on Wednesday, after which he shouted "thank you" for unexplained reasons. Busan District Court found the defendant surnamed Hong guilty of retaliatory murder, rejecting his claims that he had never intended to kill the victim. The court pointed out that it was a planned crime, and that the defendant stabbed the victim 12 times to inflict critical wounds. South Korea's Criminal Act stipulates

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

South Korean police said Thursday a recently born girl was found inside the bathroom of an underground shopping district, and that the mother is under investigation for abandoning the baby. The child was found inside a bag placed in the bathroom of the shopping district in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. The child was in good health, and still had the umbilical cord attached. The child was taken to a nearby hospital for medical care. Police used surveillance footage to

Social Affairs Nov. 21, 2024

South Korean police said Wednesday they are pursuing criminal charges against 715 individuals related to a nationwide illegal gambling operation, which is thought to have brought in around 100 billion won ($72 million) in revenue. Busan Metropolitan Police Agency arrested seven individuals suspected of running a poker-themed bar franchise with 15 local branches across the country that conducted an illegal gambling operation from March 2021 to April this year. The others are being investigated wi

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A man under trial in South Korea for killing his grandfather has claimed that the victim had frequently abused his grandmother, while the grandmother in question has requested a lenient punishment for her grandson, saying "she would gladly give her own life for it." Prosecutors asked the Seoul Eastern District Court to sentence the 23-year-old man accused of killing his grandfather to 24 years in prison, in a court hearing Tuesday. They said that, although the defendant said his grandf

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

Seoul court said Wednesday that it had sentenced a 10-month prison term for a monk, who threatened to cut off the injured leg of a high school student with an ax for no apparent reason. Seoul Central District Court found the 63-year-old defendant guilty of special intimidation -- meaning it involved a weapon or collective force. The verdict was a result of an appellate case regarding two separate threats the defendant made with a weapon. The defendant in April of last year approached a high scho

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A school assigning a female-to-male transgender student to stay in the girls' room on a school trip is discriminatory, the state-run human rights body said Tuesday. The National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday it recommended the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education to provide a comprehensive education policy that can attend to the needs of LGBTQ+ students and allow diversity in the classroom. The NHRC's decision was in response to a complaint filed in February by a student at

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

An international fraud ring is accused of perpetrating a romantic scam against 14 victims, assuming the fake identities of US soldiers, UN officials and foreign students, Seoul police said Tuesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it has forwarded the case of the criminal organization with a 44-year-old Russian leader to the prosecution for fraud charges. The Russian leader and eight others have been placed under physical detention. They are believed to have swindled a total of 1.4 bi

Social Affairs Nov. 20, 2024

A Seoul court on Monday sentenced a man to a one-year prison term for stalking his former girlfriend by leaving hundreds of unwanted messages and calls and visiting the victim's home and work. The Seoul Central District Court found the defendant guilty of violating the Act on Punishment of Crime of Stalking, which punishes stalking with up to three years in jail or a 30 million won ($21,500) fine. The defendant contacted the victim regularly against her wishes after they broke up in April

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024

South Korean model who has confessed drug use recently claimed that she was forced to take drugs by an unidentified businessperson, but police said she made no such claims during the investigation. Kim Na-jung, who recently returned from the Philippines after admitting online to having used drugs, posted on her Instagram page Monday a statement made by her lawyer. She claimed that a "young businessman born in 1995" met with her in the Philippines, tied her up and blindfolded her and fo

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024

Some 8.3 percent of middle school students in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province have used drugs, a survey by the state-run drug addiction center showed Monday. The Hwaseong Community Addiction Management Center conducted a survey between Aug. 28 and Sept. 27 of 2,450 middle school students in the city south of Seoul, which showed that 204 students of them said they have used substances defined as illegal drugs by the Narcotics Control Act. South Korea defines narcotics, cannabis and psychotropic subst

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024

An employee of a privately run ambulance service has been fined for dropping a terminally ill patient and causing an injury to the head that ended up killing the patient. Seoul Central District Court found the 29-year-old employee guilty of death by negligence, for the death of the 85-year-old cancer patient in February. The patient, who had been given three months to live, was being taken home from a local hospital. The patient was dropped while being moved from the ambulance, resulting in ce

Social Affairs Nov. 19, 2024

A man in his 20s was talked out of jumping off a Han River bridge by Seoul police officers, Saturday, police said Monday. Seoul's Seocho Police Station at 8:50 p.m. on Saturday received a report from the man's friend that he appeared to have gone to the Han River alone after getting drunk. The police tracked his cell phone to find him standing near the southern end of the Banpo Bridge, and requested rescue authorities to install an air mattress beneath the concrete floors of the river

Social Affairs Nov. 18, 2024

The state-run operator of Seoul's subway system on Monday issued an apology related to its recent comment on an online petition, in which it used the word "villain" to refer to Chinese people. Seoul Metro recently used what have been widely called racist remarks in the official reply to a complaint posted on the Civil Complaint/Proposal Integrated Services (Eungdapso Seoul) webpage of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. "We apologize for the inappropriate language related to

Social Affairs Nov. 18, 2024