No shirt, no shoes or dressed for mourning: Candidates' campaign gimmicks

As South Koreans go to the polls to elect the 300 members of the National Assembly on Wednesday, political candidates have fully ramped up efforts to court voters. Walking down practically any main street at the moment, one will easily spot rallies of candidates and supporters singing theme songs with politically tweaked lyrics and flamboyant dance routines. Others have taken more unconventional turns in the outreach. One candidate was seen barefoot greeting visitors at the red clay road in Gumi

PoliticsApril 7, 2024

Assembly race heats up as early voters turn out in record numbers

More registered voters than ever turned out for early voting on Friday and Saturday, further heating up the election race, with the Democratic Party of Korea claiming that it points to their advantage. According to the National Election Commission, the early voter turnout rate was 31.2 percent -- the highest since early voting was introduced in 2016. In the Democratic Party's turf, namely the Jeolla Provinces, the rate was highest with around 40 percent showing up to vote early. By contrast

PoliticsApril 7, 2024

Ministry to study how much repeat Suneung-takers spend on tutoring

The Ministry of Education said Sunday it has ordered a study on private education spending of those taking state-administered college entrance exam multiple times, in a bid to figure out a more accurate estimate of the private education sector in South Korea. According to the ministry, 31.7 percent of college entrance exam takers in 2023 had already graduated from high school, an increase from 23.2 percent in 2017. South Korean students take the annual exam, known as Suneung, in the last Novembe

Social AffairsApril 7, 2024

Reports of workplace abuse double over past 5 years

Over 10,000 cases of workplace abuse were reported to authorities last year, the Labor Ministry said Sunday, marking a steep increase every year since the government first started compiling such reports in 2019. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, it received 10,028 reports of workplace abuse in 2023, up 12 percent from 8,961 the year before. South Korea in 2019 revised the Labor Standards Act to stipulate in Articles 76-2 and 76-3 the prohibition against workplace harassment and

Social AffairsApril 7, 2024

Users of bullet trains KTX, SRT hit record Q1 figures

The number of passengers on South Korea's bullet trains KTX and SRT hit a record high for the first quarter of a year, the trains' operators said Sunday. From January to March, the number of KTX users jumped to 19.26 million from 17.91 million during the same period of last year, according to Korea Railroad. SR Inc. said the number of SRT users rose to 6.43 million from 6.3 million during the same period. The operators said the "pent-up" travel demand after years of the COVID

Social AffairsApril 7, 2024

Regular inter-Korean liaison contact remains severed for 1 year amid frosty ties

Regular communication between the two Koreas through cross-border hotlines has remained severed for one year as the North continues to be unresponsive to calls from the South amid increasingly frosty ties. The two Koreas used to hold routine calls twice a day -- once in the morning and the other in the afternoon -- via liaison and military hotlines, but the North has stopped answering calls from the South since April 7, 2023. The move came a day after Seoul called on Pyongyang to stop its unauth

North KoreaApril 7, 2024

FM Cho discusses cooperation, NK threats with NATO chief

South Korea's top diplomat and the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (have discussed bilateral cooperation, and the ongoing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow during a meeting in Brussels, the foreign ministry said Saturday. The talks between Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday came as Cho visited Brussels for a NATO meeting of foreign ministers earlier this week. In their meeting, Cho said the government is working

Foreign AffairsApril 7, 2024

Jury finds crypto mogul Kwon liable in US civil fraud trial: reports

A jury in New York found crypto mogul Do Kwon and his company, Terraform Labs, liable on civil fraud charges on Friday, news outlets reported, as he is in Montenegro pending a process to determine whether he should be extradited to his home country, South Korea, or the United States. The jury agreed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that Kwon and the company misled investors before TerraUSD stablecoin's collapse in 2022, according to Reuters and other outlets. The jury's v

Foreign AffairsApril 6, 2024

Early-voting turnout for general elections hits record 31.28%

Turnout for the two-day early-voting period that wrapped up Saturday ahead of the parliamentary elections next week hit a record 31.28 percent, the election watchdog said. A total of 13,849,043 out of 44,280,011 eligible voters cast their ballots at 3,565 polling stations during the early-voting period that ended at 6 p.m., according to tentative data from the National Election Commission. Those who missed the opportunity this weekend will have to vote on Election Day on Wednesday. It marked the

PoliticsApril 6, 2024

Local festivals disappoint as cherry trees blossom late

South Korea’s local flower festivals this year have so far fallen short of expectations as cherry blossoms did not reach their peak in time. Jinhae Gunhangje in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, saw a decline of about 1.2 million in the number of visitors this year, a Changwon official said to local media. While 4.2 million visited the most well-known cherry blossom festival in South Korea last year, the city tallied the number of visitors at 3 million during the 10 days of the festival

Social AffairsApril 6, 2024

Just one more? Gwangju police DUI is 4th this year

A Gwangju police officer was caught drunk driving Wednesday evening, local police said Thursday, marking the fourth such case in the southwestern city this year. The officer of Seobu Police Station in Gwangju was found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol at around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency. He had driven his car into another vehicle. The officer has been removed from duties. The incident occurred after the National Police Agency and the

Social AffairsApril 6, 2024

Russia summons S. Korean ambassador to protest against Seoul's sanctions: Sputnik

Russia's foreign ministry has summoned South Korea's top envoy to Moscow to protest against Seoul's sanctions on its vessels and nationals, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported Friday. On Tuesday, South Korea imposed sanctions on two Russian individuals and their companies involved in the illegal sending of North Korean IT workers overseas, as well as two Russian vessels involved in shipping containers of military supplies between Pyongyang and Moscow. Russian Deputy For

Foreign AffairsApril 5, 2024

Koreans head to polls for early voting amid record-high turnout

More than 6.91 million South Korean voters headed to the polls as of 6 p.m. Friday to cast their ballots on the first day of the early voting for next week’s parliamentary election. Some 15.61 percent of all 44.28 million eligible voters here had cast their votes at a total of 3,565 polling stations across the country as of 6 p.m., according to the National Election Commission. The figure marked the highest turnout for a legislative election on the first day of early voting for the cited t

PoliticsApril 5, 2024

YouTuber transferred for prosecution over polling station spycams

A far-right YouTuber arrested for installing illegal cameras at voting stations and vote-counting venues nationwide has been handed over to the prosecutors, police in Nonhyeon, Incheon, said Friday. The police found that the suspect installed illegal cameras in a total of 41 locations and recovered the cameras at 36 locations through further investigations. In three of the remaining five locations, the cameras had already disappeared. In the other two locations, the suspect confessed that he had

Social AffairsApril 5, 2024

Police intensify monitoring throughout early voting

The South Korean police have deployed around 2,000 police officers for the first time to monitor closely the entire process of transferring early voting ballots from the constituencies where they were submitted to their actual constituencies. The Korean National Police Agency announced the deployment on Friday, coinciding with the commencement of the two-day early voting period for the April 10 general election. In South Korea, voters who partake in the early voting process can vote at whichever

Social AffairsApril 5, 2024

Korean election day: 2 in 10 work, 30% of them lack overtime pay or leave

As many as 30 percent of Koreans who are working on next week's parliamentary election on April 10 are unlikely to be compensated with overtime pay or paid leave, according to a survey released Friday. A survey of 901 employees by job search website Incruit in April found that 17.3 percent reported having work obligations on the upcoming national election holiday, while 31.4 percent of them said their companies did not offer any compensation, either in the form of extra pay or vacation ti

Social AffairsApril 5, 2024

Hopes for breakthrough fade as talks yield no change in stance

Hopes for a breakthrough in the protracted medical standoff are fading after the meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Park Dan, the head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, ended without agreement Thursday, with the two sides still far apart. Amid the impasse, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during Friday’s government response meeting that the government would continue to “communicate flexibility” with junior doctors but “based on principles.” “

Social AffairsApril 5, 2024

S. Korea, Japan 'should normalize bilateral defense relations': CSIS

South Korea and Japan should work towards "normalizing bilateral defense relations through a first-ever joint security declaration" in light of the growing necessity to strengthen connections between their respective militaries, according to a report from a Washington-based think tank released Thursday. The report titled "The US-Japan Alliance in 2024: Toward an Integrated Alliance," sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), emphasized that the &

Foreign AffairsApril 5, 2024

S. Korea, Japan, China in discussion finalizing date for Seoul summit

South Korea, Japan, and China are in discussions to finalize a date for a long-awaited trilateral summit in Seoul, which has been on hold since 2019, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday. "The three countries -- South Korea, Japan, and China -- have agreed to convene a summit at the earliest convenient time, and we have been in discussions with Japan and China to facilitate this," a Foreign Ministry official, who requested to remain anonymous, said. "We are currently d

Foreign AffairsApril 5, 2024

Early voting for parliamentary elections kicks off

Early voting began Friday ahead of next week's parliamentary elections, with turnout reaching a record high amid high interest in the vote seen as a midterm referendum on the administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Voters began casting ballots at 3,565 polling stations nationwide at 6 a.m. in the two-day early voting taking place ahead of Wednesday's main vote to elect a new 300-member National Assembly. Voting hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. As of 11 a.m., some 2.26 million people

PoliticsApril 5, 2024