
Man posts murder threat of children, women
Seoul police recently handed over to prosecutors the criminal case of a 28-year man, who is accused of posting multiple threats of attacks against elementary school students and women in a number of locations across the country.
The suspect in December claimed on an online community that he will go to a Seoul-based elementary school and "murder them all," posting names of the five female students there and a picture of a weapon. They were found to be a girl who the suspect made an unwanted advance to via social media, and her friends.
It was reported that the suspect made a demand for videos and photos of the girl to her and her friends, which they declined and told her to stay away.
A police investigation revealed other murder and terrorism threats posted by the man, which included those targetting women at locations in Seoul, Busan, and Bucheon of Gyeonggi Province. He also claimed to have planted a bomb at the Kintex convention center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and vowed to set the Constitutional Court on fire.
It is also believed that he had owned and distributed child pornography.
Officials caught the suspect in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province on June 16, and placed him under detention two days later. No evidence has been found as of yet indicating that he took any steps to carry out the attacks.
When approached by reporters outside of the Seoul Jungnang Police Station on Monday and asked if he had actually planned to plant the bomb or murder people, he answered "No," and said he was "sorry" for posting the threatening posts.
The suspect is currently facing criminal charges including violation of the Child Welfare Act, Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse. He is also being charged with obstructing performance of of official duties by fraudulent means, as his online threats hindered the duties of police officials.
Police said that it will continue investigating some of the charges, particularly one related to his alleged possession and distribution of child pornography.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Korea Herald
2 days ago
- Korea Herald
Officals warn of rise in fake 'Made in Korea' labels
A record wave of low-cost clothing from China is pouring into South Korea, and much of it is being illegally disguised as Korean-made. Last year, South Korea imported more Chinese apparel than ever before. According to the Korea Customs Service, the country brought in $4.83 billion worth of clothing from China, up 50 percent from 2020. With the rise in volume, the authorities are seeing a surge in a deceptive practice known in Korea as "label switching." Imported garments arrive with tags that say "Made in China," but these are often swapped out before reaching the customer. Korean sellers repackage the items to appear as if they were produced in South Korea. In some cases, they even change the shipping invoices and boxes. Korean customs officials report that in the first half of 2025, they seized 3.1 million illegally distributed goods. More than half (1.7 million) were flagged for missing or false country-of-origin labels. Most of these were Chinese clothes disguised as Korean products. Korean sellers often buy these clothes for under $2 on platforms like Temu or AliExpress, then resell them on other e-commerce platforms or social media at 10 times the price. Many are advertised with vague claims like "luxury local fabric." This comes as Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein sees a sharp rise in sales here. According to Mobile Index, a data service operated by South Korea-based IGAWorks, Shein's monthly active users in the country hit 1.75 million in June. This is almost four times higher than in January. It now ranks sixth among fashion shopping apps in Korea, up from 11th last year. Another analytics firm, WiseApp Retail, reports that Shein passed 2.2 million Korean users for the first time, the highest ever recorded.


Korea Herald
4 days ago
- Korea Herald
Renowned human rights lawyer urges Korea to adopt forced labor import ban
No company is free from forced labor in global supply chain, stresses Vandenberg, founder of Human Trafficking Legal Center American human rights lawyer Martina Vandenberg has called on South Korea, an important economy in the global supply chain, to enact an import ban on goods made with forced labor during her recent visit to Seoul, saying such a measure would benefit not only exploited workers abroad but Korean workers as well. "Forced labor is ubiquitous, and it is so frequently found in global supply chains" said Vandenberg, president of Washington-based Human Trafficking Legal Center, in an interview with The Korea Herald. It is 'a feature, not a bug' in the global economic system, and 'it's systematic.' She visited Seoul earlier this month to speak at a forum on the forced labor issue, co-hosted by the National Assembly Labor Forum, the National Human Rights Commission and the Korean Bar Association. The Human Trafficking Legal Center, founded by Vandenberg, is a nonprofit that trains pro bono lawyers to seek restitution for human trafficking victims. She has trained more than 4,000 pro bono attorneys. 'At this point in the global economy, if you want a job and you're coming from a poor country, you have to buy that job,' she said. 'You pay recruitment fees, fees for medical tests, fees to travel. And when workers arrive at the job site, they discover they're not being paid the rate they were promised. Their debt back home keeps growing. They may be victims of deception, violence or even sexual violence.' "When so many workers across the globe are experiencing forced labor, we have to ask how the system is so broken," she added. She explained that many firms build layers of subcontractors — "subcontractors, and subcontractors and subcontractors" — to distance themselves from legal responsibility. 'They're trying to avoid liability, both criminal and civil.' But the real pressure, she emphasized, comes from the top. 'It's the companies in developed economies putting enormous pressure on supply chains to lower prices.' 'No company is free from this,' Vandenberg said. 'American companies are not free from this. South Korean companies are not free from this.' US import ban model To address the issue, the United States has enforced Section 307 of the Tariff Act, which prohibits the import of goods made with forced labor. Although the law has existed since 1930, it became enforceable only after loopholes were closed in 2016. 'This enforceability has had an enormous impact,' she said. 'Before, companies operated with total impunity. No one would prosecute them. No one would stop them. But now they realize someone is watching. Someone is investigating. And if their supply chain is tainted with forced labor, they may not be able to sell their goods in the US, the EU, Canada or Mexico.' Vandenberg said, 'We hope someday they won't be able to bring their goods into South Korea — when South Korea has an import ban.' 'South Korea is a very important economy, a key player in the global economy,' she added. According to a 2023 report by international human rights group Walk Free, South Korea imports up to $20 billion worth of goods each year that are at risk of being linked to forced labor. Many of these products originate from regions where Uyghur workers and others are forced into labor in the lowest tiers of global supply chains. While Korea has not yet proposed such a bill, The Korea Herald has learned that Rep. Kim Tae-seon of the ruling Democratic Party is preparing to introduce legislation following a series of public discussions. Import bans, she noted, do more than protect workers abroad. 'They also protect workers at home. There's no way a Korean or American worker can compete with someone earning almost nothing. A US steelworker, who testified in a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee several years ago, said 'There's no way I can compete with someone held in slavery.' So US and South Korean workers can't compete when other workers aren't being paid." Vandenberg suggested that import bans can be incorporated into bilateral trade agreements. Canada and Mexico, for example, adopted import bans as part of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, negotiated under the Trump administration in 2020. 'It's a very good way for countries to negotiate with the US — agree to adopt import bans and reach mutually beneficial trade deals,' she said. Korean sea salt under scrutiny The US has already taken action against a Korean company. In April, US Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order against products from Taepyung Salt Farm, one of Korea's largest sea salt producers, citing evidence of forced labor. The action followed a 2022 petition from Korean civic groups urging a ban on Korean sea salt allegedly produced under forced labor conditions. According to Vandenberg, the action against the Korean company is highly unusual. 'It's one of only three issued this year -- alongside actions against frankincense from Somaliland and seafood from a Chinese fishing vessel, Zhen Fa 7, which had Indonesian fishers onboard.' 'We don't believe any withhold release order should be modified or revoked until there is proof that workers have been compensated and that conditions have changed,' she said. 'The whole point is not just to block goods — but to change the reality for workers on the ground.' She added, 'There's still a long way to go. It will take attention and effort from the company and Korean authorities before any modification or revocation would be justified.' shinjh@


Korea Herald
16-07-2025
- Korea Herald
Syria announces ceasefire after latest outbreak of deadly sectarian violence
Syria's defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there. Neighboring Israel again launched strikes on Syrian military forces, saying it was protecting the Druze minority. The latest escalation under Syria's new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community. Syrian government forces, sent to restore order on Monday, also clashed with Druze armed groups. On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said an agreement was struck with the city's 'notables and dignitaries' and that government forces would 'respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.' However, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that security forces had committed violations against civilians. Syria's Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Tuesday that 166 people had been killed since Sunday, including five women and two children. Among them were 21 people killed in 'field executions' by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians and also cited reports of members of the security forces looting and setting homes on fire. Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said in a statement that he had tasked authorities with 'taking immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position.' Associated Press journalists in Sweida province saw forces at a government checkpoint searching cars and confiscating suspected stolen goods from both civilians and soldiers. Israeli airstrikes targeted government forces' convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in other areas of southern Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sought to 'prevent the Syrian regime from harming' the Druze religious minority 'and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.' In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. Meanwhile, Israeli Cabinet member and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli called on X for al-Sharaa to be 'eliminated without delay." Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, of the Interior Ministry forces, was being treated for shrapnel wounds at a local hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy. 'We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us," he said, adding that there were 'many casualties.' The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had killed 'several innocent civilians' as well as soldiers, and called them 'a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and external interference" in Syria's internal matters. It said the Syrian state is committed to protecting the Druze, 'who form an integral part of the national identity and united Syrian social fabric.' Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria's new leaders since al-Sharaa's Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it doesn't want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities. One of the main Druze spiritual leaders later released a video statement retracting the call. Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in the video that the initial Druze leaders' statement had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but that 'they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.' 'We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,' he claimed, without offering evidence. Some videos on social media showed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some cases, forcibly shaving men's moustaches. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Since Assad's fall, clashes have broken out several times between forces loyal to the new Syrian government and Druze fighters. The latest fighting has raised fears of more sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government forces by Assad loyalists in another part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of Assad's minority Alawite sect. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but no findings have been made public. The videos and reports of soldiers' violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighboring Lebanon, northern Israel and in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, where the Israeli military said dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory. The violence drew international concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, called the violence 'worrisome on all sides' in a post on. 'We are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian government and Israeli forces,' he said. (AP)