Day: June 30, 2023

The top diplomats of South Korea and Slovenia held consultations Friday to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties in areas of nuclear power plants and science technology, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

During their talks held in Seoul, Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Slovenian counterpart, Tanja Fajon, agreed to broaden shipping and logistics cooperation, highlighting an agreement signed between South Korea’s port city of Busan and the Slovenian port of Koper earlier this month.

Park also asked for Slovenia’s support in South Korean companies’ business endeavors in Slovenia, including their bid to participate in the construction of a new unit in the country’s Krsko nuclear power plant.

Further, Park highlighted South Korea’s recent election to the United Nations Security Council for the 2024-25 term as a nonpermanent member, and asked for Slovenia to join international efforts against North Korea’s evolving missile and nuclear threats.

Fajon expressed hopes for strengthened bilateral cooperation in areas of digital, automobiles and advanced technologies, the ministry said.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

A mother arrested for allegedly killing her two newborn babies and storing their bodies in a home refrigerator was found to have strangled both just one day after their births, police said Friday.

Police also determined that the woman in her 30s committed the crime amid economic hardship and deceived her husband into believing that she had abortions. Police investigated the husband on charges of being an accessory to her crime but decided not to charge him.

The mother was apprehended last week for allegedly strangling her two babies to death shortly after their births in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and keeping their bodies in a refrigerator in her apartment in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.

On Friday, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency forwarded the suspect to the prosecution on the charges of murder and concealing of a corpse. She made no comment to reporters as she was escorted out of the Suwon Nambu Police Station to be sent to the prosecutors’ office.

Police revealed that the suspect had killed both babies one day after giving birth. The woman gave birth to her daughter at 2 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2018, and strangled her to death the following day after bringing her home.

She then gave birth to a son around noon on Nov. 19, 2019, and killed him the same way on her way home from the hospital, the following night.

The bodies of the babies were kept in the fridge for four years and seven months and three years and seven months, respectively, according to the police. The suspect said there was no special reason behind her storing the bodies in the fridge.

The referral came a day after police decided to apply the murder charges, which can be punished much more severely, instead of the infanticide charges, saying the murders were committed after some time had passed since the children’s births, and that the same crime was acted out for two consecutive years. Infanticide charges are applied in cases where a mother kills a baby during or immediately after birth.

The Criminal Act stipulates a prison term of up to 10 years for those convicted of infanticide, and the death penalty, life sentence or an imprisonment of at least five years for those convicted of murder.

Earlier, police decided not to reveal the identity of the suspect, pointing to concerns of secondary damage being done to the rest of the family.

The woman admitted to killing the infants due to economic hardships while raising three children but told police she had lied to her husband, telling him she had two abortions.

Meanwhile, police said they are investigating a total of 15 cases involving children without birth registrations nationwide after receiving 25 such reports from municipal authorities.

Of the reported cases, police officials have so far confirmed the whereabouts of 13 children and are trying to locate seven others. Five children have been confirmed to have died.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

A summer exhibition tour by the Italian football club AS Roma has been canceled.

Stadium X, the local promoter for the proposed preseason trip, announced Friday AS Roma’s matches against the Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the K League 1 side Incheon United will not take place as scheduled.

The announcement comes on the heels of a report in Italian media over the weekend that AS Roma would not travel to South Korea because local organizers had not delivered on financial commitments. On Thursday, Wolves announced they would withdraw from the trip because of unmet financial obligations.

AS Roma, the Europa League finalists coached by Jose Mourinho, had been scheduled to play Wolves on July 29 and Incheon United on Aug. 1, both in the western city of Incheon. And Wolves, featuring South Korean international Hwang Hee-chan, had been set to face the Scottish champions Celtic, with another South Korean player, Oh Hyeon-gyu, on the squad, on July 26 in Suwon, about 45 kilometers south of Seoul.

Stadium X added it was still working on scheduling a match between Celtic and Incheon United.

The promoter first sought to invite five European clubs to South Korea this summer, with the Italian champions Napoli and Spanish club RCD Mallorca being the other two. Napoli were led by South Korean defender Kim Min-jae in their title-winning season, while Mallorca featured popular South Korean midfielder Lee Kang-in.

Napoli and Mallorca were to meet twice in June, but those matches were scrapped in May because of scheduling conflicts with the K League 1 and financial issues.

Two more clubs have bit the dust, and Wolves in particular blamed the local promoter for not honoring “numerous financial and logistical obligations.”

Stadium X, on the other hand, claimed on Friday its agreement with the clubs only required an advance payment accounting for 70 percent of the fee by the end of June, with the remaining 30 percent to be paid after the matches. The company said AS Roma and Wolverhampton demanded a 100 percent payment up front and canceled their trips unilaterally.

“We’d like to offer our sincere apology to football fans for not being able to bring them these great matches,” Stadium X said in a statement. “We will now try our best to make the Celtic-Incheon match happen.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The National Assembly passed a bill requiring medical institutions to report the births of newborns to local governments Friday, after two unregistered babies were found dead in a refrigerator last week.

The revision to the Act on Registration of Family Relations came amid public outrage over shocking revelations that a woman in her 30s allegedly strangled her two babies to death shortly after their births in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and kept their bodies in a home refrigerator.

The case revealed a loophole in South Korea’s baby registration system in which only parents are required to report the births of their children to the government within a month after their births, leaving open the possibility of abuse of unregistered babies.

The new legislation requires hospitals to notify local governments of baby information within 14 days after birth via the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRAS). The bill unanimously passed the judiciary committee Thursday.

The revision will take effect one year after promulgation.

During Friday’s plenary session, the National Assembly also passed a proposal to introduce an opposition-led pro-labor bill, nicknamed the “yellow envelope bill,” directly to the plenary session for debates.

The motion passed in a 178-4 vote, with two votes declared invalid, after lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) left the session en masse in protest of the motion and did not participate in the voting.

The revision of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act aims to restrict filing damage suits against striking workers. The bill had passed the labor committee in February but had since been pending at the judiciary committee chaired by the PPP for more than 90 days.

By law, a parliamentary committee can send a bill directly to a plenary session for debates and final approval with three-fifths support from its members if the judiciary committee takes no action for more than 60 days after taking over the bill.

During the session, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), which holds majority control of the Assembly, meanwhile, railroaded a strongly-contested parliamentary resolution urging the government to file a complaint with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea over Japan’s plan to release contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The resolution was passed in a 171-0 vote, with one abstention vote. Members of the PPP boycotted the vote en masse.

Earlier this week, opposition members of the parliamentary oceans and fisheries committee unilaterally passed the resolution after their counterparts from the ruling party left the committee meeting en masse in protest.

Yun Jae-ok, floor leader of the ruling party, strongly protested the resolution being put to a vote and declared an envisioned parliamentary hearing on the water discharge, which was previously agreed upon by rival parties, as being terminated.

Additionally, a motion to designate a special bill aimed at supporting victims of the Itaewon crowd crush as a “fast track” bill requiring expedited deliberations was passed 184-1. Members of the PPP again did not participate in the vote.

The session was attended by some of the bereaved family members of the crowd crush victims.

The DP also submitted a proposal to launch a parliamentary investigation against the state audit agency, claiming the agency has unduly targeted government officials appointed during the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

A mother arrested for allegedly killing her two newborn babies and storing their bodies in a home refrigerator was found to have strangled both just one day after their births, police said Friday.

Police also determined that the woman in her 30s committed the crime amid economic hardship and deceived her husband into believing that she had abortions. Police investigated the husband on charges of being an accessory to her crime but decided not to charge him.

The mother was apprehended last week for allegedly strangling her two babies to death shortly after their births in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and keeping their bodies in a refrigerator in her apartment in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.

On Friday, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency forwarded the suspect to the prosecution on the charges of murder and concealing of a corpse. She made no comment to reporters as she was escorted out of the Suwon Nambu Police Station to be sent to the prosecutors’ office.

Police revealed that the suspect had killed both babies one day after giving birth. The woman gave birth to her daughter at 2 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2018, and strangled her to death the following day after bringing her home.

She then gave birth to a son around noon on Nov. 19, 2019, and killed him the same way on her way home from the hospital, the following night.

The bodies of the babies were kept in the fridge for four years and seven months and three years and seven months, respectively, according to the police. The suspect said there was no special reason behind her storing the bodies in the fridge.

The referral came a day after police decided to apply the murder charges, which can be punished much more severely, instead of the infanticide charges, saying the murders were committed after some time had passed since the children’s births, and that the same crime was acted out for two consecutive years. Infanticide charges are applied in cases where a mother kills a baby during or immediately after birth.

The Criminal Act stipulates a prison term of up to 10 years for those convicted of infanticide, and the death penalty, life sentence or an imprisonment of at least five years for those convicted of murder.

Earlier, police decided not to reveal the identity of the suspect, pointing to concerns of secondary damage being done to the rest of the family.

The woman admitted to killing the infants due to economic hardships while raising three children but told police she had lied to her husband, telling him she had two abortions.

Meanwhile, police said they are investigating a total of 79 cases involving children without birth registrations nationwide after having received 95 such reports from municipal authorities as of Friday afternoon.

Of the reported cases, police officials have so far confirmed the whereabouts of 13 children and are trying to locate 74 others. Eight children have been confirmed to have died.

Source: Yonhap News Agency