Taegu South Korea

Lt. Kim Young Kook of the Taegu police department sat alone at a desk in the otherwise empty office of his substation. Above his head, the ceiling fan was still, its blades wilted by the fire that had scorched the office walls and burned the cabinets. "They came quietly, on Thursday night, and started banging on the door," he told a reporter Tuesday. "We had five men on the roof and five inside. The men threw tear gas. That gave them time to escape."

Lt. Kim Young Kook of the Taegu police department sat alone at a desk in the otherwise empty office of his substation. Above his head, the ceiling fan was still, its blades wilted by the fire that had scorched the office walls and burned the cabinets. "They came quietly, on Thursday night, and started banging on the door," he told a reporter Tuesday. "We had five men on the roof and five inside. The men threw tear gas. That gave them time to escape."

The first time I experienced a Korean spa, I was a youngster, visiting my grandparents in Taegu, South Korea. The shallowness of the oval tub reminded me of our local kiddie pool, except everyone was female, not a bathing suit was in sight and there wasn't an ice cream stand. In recent months, I have started visiting the mogyoktang , or Korean spa, in Los Angeles' Koreatown. Korean is the preferred language at the spa, but I don't speak it, despite my Korean roots.

Chung Ky-young of South Korea retained his International Boxing featherweight title with a unanimous 15-round decision over U.S. challenger Richard Savage at Taegu, South Korea.

A dissident leader began a hunger strike Thursday to protest alleged fraud in last week's presidential election. The Rev. Moon Ik Hwan said before starting the indefinite hunger strike at a monastery in Seoul that the opposition should not abandon its efforts to nullify the Dec. 16 election. "Our historic task is to ascertain all cases of election fraud despite public criticism over the opposition's failure to field a single candidate," said Moon, a 69-year-old Presbyterian minister.

The death toll from last week's subway arson attack in South Korea has risen from 133 to 182 after forensic experts found 49 more sets of remains in the debris of the two scorched trains, officials said today. Authorities investigating the Feb. 18 blaze formally arrested the alleged arsonist and six subway officials Tuesday, and fired the head of the subway corporation.

Not much note of it was made elsewhere, but in Seoul on Thursday the countdown began. On a huge electronic sign prominently displayed in the city center, the days began ticking off one by one. As of Thursday, exactly one year remained before the start of World Cup 2002, the first to be played in Asia. It will also be the first to be jointly staged by two countries, and at the moment South Korea and Japan are going through a dress rehearsal of sorts called the FIFA Confederations Cup.

By day, Lee Seung Seop was a skinny guy with glasses who wore a gray polyester uniform in his job as a repairman of industrial boilers. But after work let out at 6 p.m., he would take off his uniform and head to a nearby Internet cafe. There, the 28-year-old would enter a far more enticing virtual world populated by saber-toothed dragons and purple-haired women in metallic bodices. Gradually the evenings stretched into nights and the nights into the dawning of the next day.

Even the winners made excuses after the first round of the Marlboro Cup soccer tournament Thursday night at the Coliseum. Juventus Coach Dino Zoff, whose 22-time Italian League champions beat the United States, 2-0, said that his team needs considerable work on its conditioning before it is ready to open the regular season two weeks from today. Mexico's interim coach, Mario Velarde, whose team beat South Korea, 4-2, said that his players have not been together long enough to play as a unit.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) earned between $56,000 and $192,000 from real estate holdings and $7,250 in speaking fees in 1987 and has assets exceeding $475,000. His major Republican primary opponent, Sang Korman, who came to the United States from South Korea in 1972, owns real estate in his native land and Japan worth $200,000 to $500,000. The Newbury Park resident and developer has assets exceeding $515,000. Rep. Anthony C.

Daniel Choi was confident his performance on the mound for Long Beach State last season would result in a contract offer from a major league organization. And after he finished 17-2 with a 2.57 earned-run average, the Oakland Athletics selected the sophomore in the 14th round of last summer's amateur draft. Choi, however, was not enticed by the A's offer. He made plans to return to school and help Long Beach return to the College World Series.