S Korea footballers get life ban

17 June 2011 Last updated at 11:14 GMT Players and officials have taken an oath to end match fixing and illegal betting The top professional football league in South Korea has imposed lifetime bans on 10 players accused of match fixing.

One of them is said to have accepted 120m won ($110,000; ?67,000) to lose a match, and then shared the proceeds with team mates.

Eight of the players indicted are from the Daejeon Citizen team. It is the toughest-ever penalty issued in the K-League's 28-year history.

They could face up to seven years in jail if found guilty in court.

Daejeon Citizen lost 0-3 to the Pohang Steelers on 6 April.

Brokers and players from other teams have also been indicted.

An 11th player received a five-year ban.

The scandal has also been linked to a player found dead last month in a hotel room.

Eight of the banned footballers play for the Daejeon Citizen team.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap reported a suicide note had been discovered referring to the match-fixing ring.

The K-League will ask the Korea Football Association to block the banned players from taking up other football-related posts.

"We made the decision, determined that this would be the first and the last match-fixing scandal in the league," Kwak Young-Cheol, head of the K-League's disciplinary committee, told journalists.

"Players must keep in mind that they will be kicked out of the sport permanently if they get caught committing wrongdoing."

Mr Kwak also said the players' bans would be reviewed if they were cleared of wrongdoing in criminal proceedings.

The Daejeon Citizen team will lose 30% of its annual share from Sports Toto, the national sports lottery. The loss amounts to about 270m won for the team.

Professional teams regularly receive portions of the sales of the lottery.

Gwangju FC and Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, which each have one player banned, will each lose 10% of their lottery share.

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N Korea 'to release US citizen'

27 May 2011 Last updated at 08:40 GMT North Korea has detained US nationals in the past: Aijalon Gomes was held for seven months North Korea says it is releasing an American citizen it has been holding for six months on unspecified charges.

Eddie Jun Yong-su would be freed on humanitarian grounds following repeated requests by visiting US officials, the KCNA state news agency said.

South Korean newspapers have said the Korean-American was involved in Christian missionary work.

The officially atheist North views organised religious activity as a potential challenge to the leadership.

The quote from North Korea's news agency said Mr Jun was being released for humanitarian reasons, after three separate US-led delegations to Pyongyang had asked for forgiveness.

The US special envoy for human rights, Robert King, is visiting North Korea this week to asses the food situation there - the first step in deciding whether to restart US food aid to the country.

According to the report, Mr King had expressed regret for the incident and said he would do his best to stop it recurring.

Two other American-led delegations visiting North Korea in a private capacity during the past few weeks have also pressed for his release, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.

North Korea has accused Mr Jun of committing a "grave crime" in North Korea, one - the agency said - that he himself had frankly admitted to.

It is believed he may have been carrying out missionary work while visiting the Communist state on business trips.

The North Korean news report stresses that Mr Jun was well-treated during his time in custody, and was allowed diplomatic contact, as well as family phone calls and hospital treatment.

It is not clear when Mr Jun - who is the latest in a series of Americans to be detained by Pyongyang - would be released.

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Somali pirates jailed in S Korea

27 May 2011 Last updated at 11:47 GMT This has been a high-profile case for South Korea - believed to be the first piracy trial held in the country A Somali pirate has been jailed for life by a South Korean court, after being convicted of the attempted murder of the captain of a hijacked ship.

Mahomed Araye was one of several Somalis seized in January when South Korean special forces stormed a cargo ship hijacked in the Arabian Sea.

Another man was sentenced to 15 years; two others received 13-year terms.

The trial marks the first attempt by South Korea - a major seafaring nation - to punish foreign pirates.

The court in the port city of Busan ruled that only Araye had been involved in the shooting of Capt Seok Hae-Kyun, who is still recovering in hospital.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Araye, and life imprisonment for his accomplices, saying the pirates had used the captive crew as human shields during the raid by South Korean forces.

Eight pirates were killed and five were arrested during the mission to recapture the South Korean-owned Samho Jewelry on 15 January, six days after it was seized.

Defence lawyers argued the ballistic evidence linking Araye to the shooting of the captain was thin, and that no one saw him fire.

In the course of the trial, prosecutors also said that a British man working in the insurance industry contacted the Samho shipping company shortly after the kidnapping, allegedly to broker a possible deal with the hijackers.

A fifth suspect is being tried separately, and will be sentenced next week.

The Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia, is one of the world's busiest shipping routes and has become a hotspot for pirate attacks.

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S Korea police end Hyundai strike

24 May 2011 Last updated at 13:27 GMT Officials said the strikers had illegally blocked others from entering the factory South Korean police have broken up a strike at a car parts factory which was threatening the country's car industry.

More than 3,000 riot police moved in to disperse protesters at the Yoosung Enterprise factory in Asan, south of Seoul, Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

About 500 workers had been staging a sit-in at the factory since last week after wage negotiations broke down.

Hyundai, South Korea's top carmaker, had warned it was facing severe disruption to production.

Yoosung manufactures piston rings, which are key components in car engines.

Hyundai had already suspended production of diesel engines at its Ulsan plant and warned earlier on Tuesday it could also have to stop production of petrol or gasoline engines.

Supply disruption was also expected to hit its subsidiary car manufacturer Kia Motors.

Yoosung also supplies parts to the Korean units of General Motors and Renault.

'Negative impact'

In a statement issued before the raid, the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association said the industry could lose up to five trillion won (?2.8bn: $4.57bn) if the stoppage ran into June, and urged the union to consider the "negative impact" of the strike.

Officials at the plant said the strike was illegal because those taking part were occupying the production line and blocking non-strikers from entering the building.

"Police have marched into the plant... so far without any violent clashes," a police spokeswoman in Asan told the AFP news agency.

Yonhap said police had secured warrants for the arrest of two union leaders involved.

The majority of strikers occupying the plant were detained while others were dispersed, a police statement said, adding that most of those in detention would be released later.

It remains unclear when production might resume at the plant.

The disruption comes as South Korean carmakers are poised to take market share from their Japanese rivals, which are suffering from parts shortages of their own.

Hyundai reported record profits in the final three months of last year, due in part to strong overseas sales in China and the US.

Analysts had been expecting the carmaker, the fifth-biggest in the world, to continue to perform well in 2011.

There were concerns that serious disruption to production lines could have affected those forecasts.

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