World Scene: South Korea

$1m for 'dead' husband

A South Korean man was arrested for allegedly pretending to have died at sea three years ago to defraud insurance companies of nearly $1 million, which his wife collected, police said yesterday.

The 35-year-old suspect, who briefly worked for a private insurance company in 1998, told investigators that he plotted the scheme after his cafe in Tongyoung, about 450 km south of Seoul, ran into financial trouble, according to police officer Oh Dong-wook.