President Yoon Suk Yeol and ruling People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon are scheduled to hold a dinner meeting Tuesday, as several impending issues, such as the country's deepening medical crisis, loom over their heads. Besides Yoon and Han, the dinner will be attended by 14 officials from the ruling party leadership and the presidential office. Han recently requested a separate, private one-on-one meeting between him and Yoon on the sidelines of the dinner meeting, but the presidential o

Politics Sept. 23, 2024

A presidential security official who was recently arrested on charges of illegally taking personal profits when handling the 2022 presidential office relocation project, was found to have extorted a large sum of money from a construction broker to funnel the relocation budget, reports said Friday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, which last week arrested the official, identified by his surname Jeong, found that the suspect threatened and extorted a total of 176 million won ($132,15

Social Affairs Sept. 20, 2024

South Korea's National Assembly on Thursday passed three contentious bills pushed ahead by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, including one that mandates a special counsel probe into multiple allegations against first lady Kim Keon Hee. The special counsel probe bill passed 167-0 by the opposition-led parliament during Thursday's plenary meeting is an updated version of the one vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol in January. The previous version focused on appointing a specia

Politics Sept. 19, 2024

South Korea’s political climate post-Chuseok is likely to revert to a familiarly confrontational one, with the powerful opposition party poised to railroad several contentious bills, including those targeting President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee with special counsel investigations. At the National Assembly’s plenary session scheduled for Thursday, the liberal opposition Democratic Party of Korea plans to present three high-profile bills, Rep. Yoon Jong-kun, the party&r

Politics Sept. 18, 2024

The Supreme Court on Thursday finalized life imprisonment for 34-year-old Cho Seon who carried out a stabbing rampage near Seoul's Sillim Station in 2023, leaving one person dead and three others injured. The top court upheld lower courts' decision to sentence Cho to life in prison, finding him guilty on multiple charges including murder, attempted murder and contempt. The court also ordered him to be tracked via an electronic ankle monitor for 30 years, with or without parole. "

Social Affairs Sept. 12, 2024

The first-ever memorial ceremony for laborers in the Sado mines, a site associated with the forced labor of Koreans during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, will be held by the end of the year, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Wednesday. "The ceremony at the Sado mines will be held by the end of the year," Cho said during a parliamentary session held by the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee. "We are currently negotiating

Politics Sept. 11, 2024

A panel under South Korea's top prosecutors office on Friday has advised not to indict first lady Kim Keon Hee over allegations that she broke the country's antigraft law by accepting a luxury Christian Dior handbag worth 3 million won ($2,248) from a Korean American pastor in 2022. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Investigation Review Committee, consisting of 15 outside experts, held the meeting from 2 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. to deliberate whether she is guilty of six different

Politics Sept. 6, 2024

Both ruling and opposition lawmakers have recently highlighted the need for a solid control tower within the Cabinet to tackle the latest surge in digital sex crimes involving deepfake pornography, while criticizing the weak coordination among ministries tasked with handling the issue. During a parliamentary hearing held by the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee on Wednesday, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Kim Nam-hee blamed the Ministry of Gender Equal

Politics Sept. 5, 2024

Tensions between the rival parties have escalated in recent days over the opposition's move to float a revised version of a special counsel probe bill into the death of a young Marine, as it claimed to have added an earlier suggestion from the ruling party leader into the latest version of the legislation. On Wednesday, the ruling People Power Party and main opposition Democratic Party of Korea clashed over opposition parties' move to propose the latest and fourth version of the bill t

Politics Sept. 4, 2024

Armed Forces Day, which is celebrated annually on Oct. 1 to honor the country’s military, has been designated by the government as a temporary holiday this year to boost awareness of the new security challenges on the Korean Peninsula, officials said Tuesday. In the afternoon, President Yoon Suk Yeol approved the Cabinet's decision in the morning to pass the motion to designate Oct. 1 as a temporary holiday, according to the presidential office. "Oct. 1 is when (UN troops) crosse

Politics Sept. 3, 2024

The National Assembly on Monday held its opening ceremony nearly 100 days after the members of the new parliament began working and with the incumbent president skipping the event for the first time since South Korea ended decades of military dictatorship in 1987. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s decision to skip the Assembly’s ceremony, where it had been customary for the president to give a congratulatory speech since 1987, followed hearings held by the parliamentary judiciary committee i

Politics Sept. 2, 2024

People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon and Democratic Party of Korea Chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Sunday agreed to launch a special consultative body for livelihood policies, review issues tied to the financial investment tax policy and urge the government to establish an emergency medical system for the upcoming Chuseok holiday. The agreements came as part of a joint statement announced by the ruling and the main opposition parties as the result of the first official talks between Han and Lee. T

Politics Sept. 1, 2024

The government and the ruling party agreed on adopting longer prison sentences of up to seven years for deepfake sex crimes Thursday, as South Korea grapples with a surge in female victims of such illegal pornography. The decision made during an emergency meeting at the National Assembly followed President Yoon Suk Yeol’s order, on Tuesday, of a crackdown on the latest reports of digital sex crimes involving the production and circulation of fake sexually explicit images of women and girls

Politics Aug. 29, 2024

The National Assembly on Wednesday passed a total of 28 bills aimed at improving the people’s livelihoods, marking the first time the rival parties showed such bipartisan support in advancing legislation since the 22nd Assembly started its four-year session in late May. Among the 28 was the Nursing Act, which specifies the roles and responsibilities, while providing better legal protection, for nurses and nursing assistants, across the country. The bill is in line with the Korean Nursing A

Politics Aug. 28, 2024

While South Korea’s infrastructure for people with disabilities has significantly improved in the past decades, the government still needs to appoint more of them to key posts in the administration, a former member of the US National Council on Disability said. Pak Dong-woo, known to people around him as Joe Pak, who served as the first Korean American member of the NCD under US President Barack Obama's administration from 2009 to 2013, highlighted the importance of such inclusivity w

Politics Aug. 26, 2024