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Korea Herald
6 days ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Police forming team to prevent abuse against families of tragedy victims: report
The South Korean police are forming a task force to prevent secondary victimization of people whose family members have died in disasters, in response to President Lee Jae Myung's directive. According to the Yonhap News Agency on Thursday, the National Police Agency has started recruitment of officers for the unit, tentatively named "investigative team against secondary victimization." The team will be headed by two superintendent-level officers — mid-level management position usually in charge of department at police stations. The National Office of Investigation will evaluate the applicants and, if none is deemed fit to carry out the role, will commandeer officers with sufficient experience in investigation and planning. Last Wednesday, Lee invited 200 family members of victims of tragedies with mass casualties, including the Jeju Air crash last year, an underground tunnel flooding in 2023, the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul in 2022, and the sinking of ferry Sewol in 2014. He issued an official apology as the president, and pledged to form an investigative team to prevent secondary damage for bereaved families and survivors. The presidential office said last Thursday that Lee has ordered officials to compose a joint team of police and prosecutors to closely probe the Itaewon tragedy, while instructing a permanent team to prevent abuse of the victims' families.
Korea Herald
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Special counsel fast-tracks Yoon insurrection probe
The special counsel team investigating former President Yoon Suk Yeol's alleged insurrection — led by Cho Eun-suk — has launched its probe ahead of schedule, outpacing two other independent counsel teams. Cho was granted a 20-day preparation period until June 30 to appoint assistant prosecutors, assemble a team of temporarily assigned prosecutors, government officials and investigators, and set up an office. The faster launch puts Cho's team ahead of the two other special counsel probes — one investigating allegations against former first lady Kim Keon Hee, and the other looking into Yoon's alleged interference in the investigation of a Marine's death. As of Sunday, both of the other teams were still in the final stages of transferring cases and forming teams. According to Cho, some assistant special prosecutors will begin work by attending Yoon's eighth criminal trial hearing Monday morning. Cho launched the investigation just six days after being appointed special prosecutor on June 18. This marked the first of the three special prosecutor probes to begin investigating allegations against Yoon and his wife, as well as the death of a Marine during his administration. The special counsel probe team indicted former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun on additional charges of obstruction of public duties and subornation of evidence destruction, and requested a new arrest warrant ahead of his scheduled release. Kim, who has been detained since December last year, was expected to be freed after his six-month detention period on June 26. The former defense minister asked the court to suspend the execution of his indictment, insisting that the indictment was not within the scope of the special counsel's duties. But the Seoul High Court dismissed Kim's request on Sunday. The special counsel team is set to investigate Yoon's insurrection case with some 200 investigative personnel within 170 days, which is expected to continue until the end of the year. The special prosecutor is also reportedly considering seeking another arrest warrant for former president Yoon, who was released on March 9 after 52 days in detention, in connection with additional criminal charges. Police had previously issued three consecutive summonses for Yoon to appear for questioning over allegations related to his attempted imposition of martial law. His repeated refusals to appear prompted investigators to consider requesting an arrest warrant to take him into custody. South Korean police typically pursue an arrest warrant to compel a suspect to appear for an in-person investigation once three consecutive summons have gone unheeded. However, since the police recently had to transfer the case to the independent special counsel, Cho has assumed decision-making authority over the matter. Though the special counsel is yet to decide whether to request an arrest warrant, the National Office of Investigation, under the National Police Agency, reportedly said that Cho and the police will reach a conclusion by the end of this week.
Budapest Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
National Security Service identifies more Ukrainian spies
Máté Kocsis, ruling Fidesz's parliamentary group leader, said the National Security Service have identified more Ukrainian spies, including Roland Tseber as an 'illegal' officer of the Ukrainian intelligence service, and István Holló, who is under investigation by the National Office of Investigation on suspicion of espionage activities. After a meeting of the national security committee on Tuesday, Kocsis told a press conference that Tseber, as an 'illegal' officer, had probably been actively building relations with members of the Hungarian opposition for a long time. Kocsis added that Tseber had met several leading politicians and senior officials of parliamentary parties as part of his activities in Hungary. In the meantime, Holló's activities in Hungary involved active intelligence activities to learn about Hungary's army and energy systems in cooperation with Ukrainian military intelligence, Kocsis said. He added that Tseber was earlier a dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizen, but he returned his Hungarian citizenship in 2017. He has built a political career in Ukraine, including as a representative of the Transcarpathian County Council, Kocsis said. Tseber had been on the radar of the Hungarian national security authorities for years, and he was banned from entering and staying in Hungary due to his intensifying activities in 2024, he added. Holló, who had also been on the radar of Hungarian counterintelligence for a long time, is a Ukrainian citizen who had never held Hungarian citizenship, Kocsis said. He has been involved in activities to influence Hungary's international reputation in a negative way and aimed to make the Hungarian government change its position concerning Ukraine with the help of external pressure, he added. In response to a question about the transparency law, Kocsis said the aim was to prevent, for instance, the disinformation campaigns that are currently underway from Ukraine, and to protect the Hungarian public space from foreign secret services and foreign state interests.
Korea Herald
17-04-2025
- Korea Herald
126 booked after yearlong crackdown on hagwon irregularities: police
After 20 months of investigating irregularities linked to the Suneung college entrance exam, South Korean police have charged 126 individuals and referred 100 of them to prosecutors, according to the National Office of Investigation on Thursday. The investigation began following a request from the Ministry of Education in July 2023, leading to a full-scale probe in August. In June 2023, the South Korean government announced reforms to the Suneung exam, including the removal of so-called, excessively difficult 'killer questions.' As part of these changes, the Education Ministry began investigating misleading ads and instances of examiners leaking questions to private academies, which is prohibited to ensure fairness. The reforms were designed to strengthen public education, reducing students' reliance on cram schools for academic success. Of the 100 individuals referred to prosecutors, 72 were schoolteachers, three were private education company officials and 11 were cram school instructors. Nine were heads of private education institutions, and five were from the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation, which issues the Suneung exam questions. The police discovered that 47 schoolteachers had illegally created and sold Suneung-related questions between 2019 and 2023, earning up to 100 million won ($70,400) each. One teacher reportedly earned 260 million won from these transactions. Each question sold for 100,000 to 500,000 won and was typically sold in sets of 20 to 30. Nineteen administrators and instructors from private education companies, including a CEO, were also referred to prosecutors for buying leaked questions. Additionally, nine teachers, experienced in creating or reviewing Suneung questions, allegedly formed a 'question-making team' and sold up to 2,946 questions, earning up to 620 million won. The police also revealed cases of university admissions officials accepting up to 3.1 million won for providing guidance to high school seniors applying to university. 'The investigation was driven by the belief that the sale of Suneung questions had become a socially acceptable practice and aimed to eliminate collusion between teachers and private education companies,' the police said. 'We will continue to target illegal practices and support educational reforms to ensure fairness in the college admissions process.'
Korea Herald
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
NK hackers sent over 120,000 malware-laced emails during martial law turmoil: police
North Korean hackers were found to be responsible for sending 126,266 emails to steal the personal information of online users in South Korea from November to January, according to the Korean National Police Agency, Tuesday. The KNPA's National Office of Investigation announced that a North Korean hacker group sent emails, titled 'Defense Counterintelligence Command's Martial Law Document,' on Dec. 11, eight days after former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration. While investigating the case, the police confirmed that the group's email hacking targeted 17,744 South Koreans, who were working in the fields of unification, diplomacy, national defense and security, for three months. Though the police did not release details about the hacker group's identity, including its name or link with North Korean agencies, Seoul officials said they confirmed the hackers' server was identical to one used in past North Korea-linked cases. Police added that they found a hacker group's attempt to collect information about North Korean defectors and South Korean military after investigating the servers. The content of the emails varied widely, ranging from the martial law-themed documents to North Korea's political outlook, invitations to concerts by popular artists and tax refund notifications. The emails impersonated the recipient's acquaintances by inserting additional spelling to the original IDs and changing parts of web addresses with visually similar letters, such as writing "rn' instead of "m." The hacking emails commonly consisted of a link, which, when clicked, would direct the users to a phishing site and request personal accounts to log in, according to the police. The officials announced that 120 people were hacked this way. While pledging utmost efforts for strict, speedy measures for any type of cyberattack and a cooperative system to respond to hacking attempts, the police asked online users to prevent damage by snubbing emails with an unidentified sender.
