
AI-generated summary
Three members of a criminal ring were sentenced to prison terms on Thursday for collaborating with North Korean hackers to create and distribute illegal gambling websites in South Korea. The Seoul Central District Court sentenced one member to four years in prison and a four-year suspension of qualifications after finding him guilty of violating the National Security Act and operating illegal gambling sites. The two other ring members indicted in the same case were both sentenced to three years in prison, while one of them also received a three-year suspension of qualifications. The three individuals were brought to trial as accomplices to the ringleader, surnamed Kim, who was convicted of the same offenses in September and sentenced to five years in prison and a five-year suspension of qualifications. Kim was found guilty of creating 16 illegal gambling sites in collaboration with North Korean hackers between 2022 and 2024 and selling them to domestic gambling site operators. Kim earned about 23.5 billion won (US$17.6 million) from the sales and transferred more than 7 billion won, or roughly 30 percent of the proceeds, to North Korean hackers. The three accomplices were accused of helping Kim distribute the illegal gambling sites.
SEOUL, Nov. 12 (Yonhap) -- Three members of a criminal ring were sentenced to prison terms on Thursday for collaborating with North Korean hackers to create and distribute illegal gambling websites in South Korea.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced one member of the criminal ring to four years in prison and a four-year suspension of qualifications after finding him guilty of violating the National Security Act and operating illegal gambling sites.
The two other ring members indicted in the same case were both sentenced to three years in prison, while one of them also received a three-year suspension of qualifications.
The three individuals were brought to trial as accomplices to the ringleader, surnamed Kim, who was convicted of the same offenses in September and sentenced to five years in prison and a five-year suspension of qualifications.
Kim was found guilty of creating 16 illegal gambling sites in collaboration with North Korean hackers between 2022 and 2024 and selling them to domestic gambling site operators. Kim earned about 23.5 billion won (US$17.6 million) from the sales and transferred more than 7 billion won, or roughly 30 percent of the proceeds, to North Korean hackers.
The three accomplices were accused of helping Kim distribute the illegal gambling sites.

A 15-year-old woman was murdered by a man in his 50s at a shared lodging business in Jeongneung-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. The victim was under the care of a youth shelter, and the shelter recognized the conflict and sexual exploitation within the family and reported the victim missing to the police, but she was found dead.

A woman in her 40s was arrested by the police on suspicion of injuring her sister by swinging a weapon at an apartment in Mok-dong, Seoul. It was found that the victim had no life-threatening injuries and that the perpetrator was not drunk or mentally ill.

A man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul. The police detected the circumstances of a planned crime, such as the pre-purchase of a weapon and the abandonment of evidence after the crime, and applied for an arrest warrant. They are investigating the motive for the murder through the deployment of a profiler and an autopsy.

The Financial Supervisory Service has issued a 'caution' consumer alert level regarding voice phishing methods that impersonate community center employees, bank branch managers, etc. as relays. The victim transferred 100 million won to the fraudster in three days, and the Financial Supervisory Service requested direct confirmation through the Government Civil Service Information Call Center (110).

The Jeju District Court's Criminal Division 2 sentenced Mr. A, in his 20s, to three years in prison and detained him for committing adultery with a minor and producing sexually exploitative materials targeting six children and adolescents. He was also ordered to complete an 80-hour sexual violence treatment program and to be restricted from employment at institutions related to children, youth, and the disabled for 10 years.

As it became known that a teenage girl who was murdered in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul was investigated for theft along with the killer's family, calls were made to strengthen the protection network for youth outside of school. In a survey by the Korea Youth Policy Institute, 10.3% of 87 out-of-school youth responded that they had experienced difficulties of being forced or threatened to commit crimes by people around them. According to a report by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Women's Human Rights Agency, among the 1,226 children and adolescents who were victims of sexual exploitation last year, 'conditional encounters' was the most common type of victim with 942 cases (37.9%). The damage route was online media such as chatting apps and SNS, accounting for 82.7%.