Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae on Wednesday rejected the chief prosecutor's offer to create an "independent" investigative team to handle an alleged blackmail case at the center of friction between the two.     The Supreme Prosecutors' Office made the recommendation to the justice ministry earlier in the day, six days after the minister issued a rare directive ordering Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl to take his hands off the sensitive case invo

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl on Wednesday ordered the creation of an independent investigative team to handle an alleged blackmail case at the center of his friction with the justice minister.     The Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced Yoon's decision six days after Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae issued a rare directive ordering the chief prosecutor to take his hands off the sensitive case involving his key aide and a now fired TV reporter. Earlier in the day, Choo sent a

Quarantine rules to be tightened at churches

The government and ruling Dmocratic Party of Korea are taking unprecedented steps to douse the controversy over multiple homeownership among their ranks faced with mounting criticism from both conservative and progressive blocs. On Wednesday, Noh Young-min, President Moon Jae-in’s chief of staff, announced that he will sell his southern Seoul home within the month, saying that he has failed to meet public expectations. Noh’s Seoul home became a focal point in the growing controv

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae issued an ultimatum to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol to respond by Thursday morning to her directive to forgo his authority to supervise an investigation in the case involving a senior prosecutor known to be loyal to him. “A week has passed. I will wait one more day until tomorrow 10 a.m.,” Choo said in a statement released by the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday. Choo has been exerting pressure on Yoon after having a disagreement over who shou

US President Donald Trump has said that he is open to holding another summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite Pyongyang's repeated claims that it has no intention to hold talks with the US, according to news reports. "I understand they want to meet and we would certainly do that," Trump said in an interview with Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday (Washington time), according to Voice of America and other news reports. "I would do it if I thought it wa

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae issued an ultimatum to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol to respond by Thursday morning to her directive to forgo his authority to supervise an investigation in the case involving a senior prosecutor known to be loyal to him. “A week has passed. I will wait one more day until tomorrow 10 a.m.,” Choo said in a statement released by the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday. Choo has been exerting pressure on Yoon after having a disagreement over who shou

North Korea appears to be weighing the timing to test a submarine-launched ballistic missile as part of the aggression it threatened to stage last month, a think tank that is part of Seoul’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday. “With an SLBM launch, Pyongyang could deliver strongest shockwaves it intends to the international community, while shunning the risk of being seen as defying the UN Security Council resolutions,” the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said in a report.

The US top nuclear envoy says the US strongly supports inter-Korean cooperation.

The number of blood donors sank almost 11 percent during the first five months of 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, posing a threat to the country’s blood supply going forward, as the virus spread shows no sign of abating. According to data from the Korean Red Cross provided to Rep. Jeon Bon-min of the main opposition United Future Party, around 966,900 people gave blood from January to May this year, down 10.9 percent from 1.08 million in the same period a year earlier. The country&

The Labor Ministry unveiled a draft of legislative revisions aimed at extending the unemployment insurance safety net to workers outside standard labor contracts, such as home-visit tutors, courier service workers, golf caddies and door-to-door salespeople. The draft, published in advance to reflect public opinions as required by law, envisions the inclusion of workers in “special forms of employments” as those eligible for the state-run job insurance scheme, while leaving details

The unification ministry reacted negatively to the idea of suing North Korea for damages for blowing up a joint inter-Korean liaison office Wednesday, a day after a Seoul court ordered Pyongyang to pay compensation to former South Korean prisoners of war. The Seoul Central District Court delivered the landmark ruling in favor of the two former POWs in a damages suit they filed against the North and leader Kim Jong-un for the forced labor they endured after they were taken to the communist nati