SEOUL – South Korea’s Foreign Ministry plans to give severe penalties and pursue legal action against a diplomat who is accused of harassing at least two teenage girls while working in Chile, officials said Wednesday.

After a two-day investigation on the diplomat, who returned home the day before, the ministry confirmed some of the allegations, to which he also partially admitted. The decision was based on his testimonies and those by others, as well as a video unveiled in a Chilean television show in which the official is seen attempting to hug and kiss a girl while trying to take another into his room.

The ministry will convene a disciplinary committee as early as next week and decide on its action.

“He did concede to having harassed the minors, but flatly denied a rape claim, and on other accusations, he did not see them as problematic or said he did not remember,” a ministry official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.

“With some of the confirmed ones, it shouldn’t be a problem taking severe disciplinary action against him,” the official said, adding that the agency will make further preparations before pursuing a criminal charge.

The incident shook not only the Korean community in Chile but the diplomatic circle here as the government has been tightening discipline across public offices, especially since the National Assembly passed an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye earlier this month.

During an interview aired as part of the show, one of the girls said, “I even came to think of suicide because I felt it was extremely disgusting.”

The diplomat was seen repeating “Please” to the programme’s producer who apparently brought up the issue.

The two girls are believed to be around 13 years old and students of a Korean language course of the diplomat, who had served as a cultural diplomacy officer. The girls’ parents have also filed a complaint against him there.

HONG KONG – Kung fu master Wong Yiu-Kau stands in a Hong Kong studio and waits as his black suit is covered head to toe in reflective markers to capture his every motion.

The lights dim and Wong launches a flurry of hand strikes, blocks and leg moves as two directors watch his movements displayed on computer screens.

The 56-year-old kung fu master is part of the world’s first three-dimensional martial arts archive, a project that hopes to digitally preserve a tradition that experts fear is at risk of being lost forever.

“When I was a student, I was taught the moves and given a manual to just read. Now there is this where it’s recorded and preserved with precision,” said Wong, a master of the Southern Dragon style of kung fu.

There are hundreds of differing fight styles classed as kung fu, which soared in popularity globally following a series of films featuring US-born and Hong Kong-raised actor Bruce Lee, who died in 1973.

But as kung fu’s popularity waned in recent years, practitioners worried about passing the martial arts form to future generations.

The 3D project, known as the Hong Kong Martial Arts Living Archive, aims to capture and preserve more than 400 different kung fu styles. About 50 have been recorded so far. “Hong Kong is a very important city in the Chinese martial arts world,” said Hing Chao, executive director of the Hong Kong Guoshu Association, a martial arts group working on the project with Hong Kong’s City University. “It has protected the resources and so far managed to preserve the different types of martial arts, but today, there are fewer people passing this tradition on,” Chao said.

Project organisers say the 3D archive will not only preserve a discipline central to Hong Kong’s heritage, it also offers newcomers a more easily accessible visual learning experience. “We can have a richer content of kung fu styles,” said Lau Chi Fung, the project’s technical director.

SEOUL – South Korea’s top carrier Korean Air said its staff followed company procedure in restraining an unruly passenger after 80s pop singer Richard Marx tweeted that he helped the “ill-trained” crew handle the situation.

Marx said he and his wife were flying from the Vietnamese capital Hanoi to Incheon airport, the South’s main hub, when a passenger started physically attacking another passenger sitting next to him and the crew members.

“Passenger next to us attacked passengers and crew. Crew completely ill trained,” Marx said on Twitter, posting a series of photos showing him trying to hold down the unruly passenger.

The pictures – taken by Marx’s wife, TV host and model Daisy Fuentes and posted on their Twitter and Facebook pages – show the male passenger apparently grabbing a female flight attendant by her hair and another crew member pointing a taser gun.

Fuentes said the all-female crew members did not know how to use the taser nor how to secure the rope around the man and “never fully got control of him”.

Marx said the fiasco lasted four hours until he stepped in along with other male passengers and tied him down with a rope.

The passenger was turned over to police upon arrival at Incheon and later charged with violation of aviation security laws and assault.

“Korean Air should be sanctioned for not knowing how to handle a situation like this without passenger interference,” Marx said on his Facebook.

Korean Air spokesman Sung Suk-Jae said the crew members all received safety instruction and were acting “according to protocol”.

“They took measures that were most appropriate to the situation,” he said.

Sung acknowledged the crew members received help from other passengers and added that the case would be further investigated.

SEOUL – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged to devote his life to the advancement of South Korea on Tuesday, sending the strongest signal yet that he might run in next year’s presidential election.

“If what I have learned, seen and felt during my 10-year service as UN secretary-general could help advance Korea, I am more than willing to sacrifice myself for this cause,” said Ban during a farewell press meeting with Korean reporters. His term ends on Dec. 31.

Though Ban has not clarified his bid for the 2017 presidential race – only saying that he has been “giving much thought” to the plan – the career diplomat’s remarks were widely viewed as his strongest declaration for a presidential bid since he first hinted about the plan in May this year.

When asked about which political party he would represent, Ban highlighted that he would not be bound by establishment political groups, saying that “political parties are not important” and that “political leaders must think beyond themselves.”

Such remarks added speculation that Ban – once considered to be a favourite for President Park Geun-hye and her loyalists from the governing Saenuri Party – would distance himself from the pro-Park faction whose approval ratings have plunged to a record-low amid the corruption and nepotism scandal tied to the president.

Some centrist political groups, meanwhile, have been urging Ban to join them in the hopes that Ban would expand their pool of supporters and energise moderate voters. Among them are Saenuri bigwigs critical of Park and leaders from the centrist People’s Party.

“I think Ban could work with us,” said Rep. Kim Dong-cheol, a leader of the People’s Party on Wednesday. “Ban has a sufficient amount of experience for dealing with state affairs. We agree with his plan to use such experience for the country.”

Since the Choi Soon-sil scandal first made headlines in October, Ban has stepped up criticism against the president for creating what he views as “the worst political turmoil” and for showing complete lack of governance during the crisis.

During Tuesday’s remarks, Ban said that his criticism did not target specific political groups – such as President Park and her loyalists. But he added that the people were outraged over the lack of “good leadership,” blaming the government for worsening the crisis.

Ban also defended himself against accusations by the main opposition Democratic Party that he had betrayed late President Roh Moo-hyun, who had elected him as head of the Foreign Ministry and campaigned for his bid to become UN chief in 2006.

“I have always thanked President Roh for tapping me as a presidential aide, minister of foreign affairs and UN secretary-general. Every New Year’s Day, I have called Roh’s spouse and paid a tribute to him,” said Ban.

Democratic Party, however, showed Wednesday their disapproval of Ban’s potential bid at the 2017 election, urging the UN chief to stay away from Korean politics and focus on finishing his term.

“I don’t think it is desirable for Ban to think about entering politics,” said Rep. Choo Mi-ae, leader of the Democratic Party. “Since South Korea’s global reputation has taken a hit due to the Choi Soon-sil scandal, I hope Ban will just wrap up and finish his job on a sound note.”

MANILA – The Philippines said Wednesday that President Rodrigo Duterte’s killing of three people in the 1980s was part of a police operation, after the United Nations rights chief urged Manila to investigate him for murder.

In several speeches last week, Duterte recounted how in 1988, early in the first of his several terms as mayor of the southern city of Davao, he and local police ambushed and killed three suspected kidnappers.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement Tuesday that Duterte’s killings, by his own admission, “clearly constitute murder” and Philippine judicial authorities must launch a murder investigation.

Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said Wednesday Zeid’s comments were nothing more than “his (Zeid’s) opinion”.

“Again, let me just remind one and all, that the incident referred to by the president was actually covered by media and it was (a) legitimate police action,” Abella added.

He did not address Duterte’s possession and discharge of a firearm while not a policeman.

Duterte has said he routinely carried a gun during his early years as mayor of Davao to protect himself in a high-crime environment. He has not said if the weapon used in the ambush was licensed.

He won the presidential election by a landslide in May largely on a vow to kill 100,000 criminals to stop the country’s slide into a “narco-state”.

According to the UN, nearly 6,100 people have been killed since Duterte took office in late June.

Philippine police put the figure at about 5,300 violent deaths, with Duterte consistently rejecting allegations his incendiary comments could be encouraging police to commit murder.

While mayor of Davao, Duterte was investigated by the independent Commission on Human Rights over allegations he ran death squads that killed more than a thousand petty criminals in the city.

Duterte has variously denied or confirmed the allegations. The commission did not file any criminal charges after completing its inquiry.

Zeid called for “credible and independent investigations” to be immediately reopened into the Davao killings.

And he demanded similar probes into the “shocking number of killings that have occurred across the country since Mr. Duterte became president”.

“The perpetrators must be brought to justice, sending a strong message that violence, killings and human rights violations will not be tolerated by the State and that no one is above the law,” Zeid said.