Foreign minister calls for talks with Japanese counterpart

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong on Wednesday expressed hopes of meeting with his Japanese counterpart at an early date in an effort to repair bilateral ties that have long been strained over economic and historic disputes.   　 “Personally, I hope for the foreign ministerial talks between Korea and Japan to take place at an early date,” Chung told a press conference held at the Foreign Ministry, saying he was intent on meeting Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu M

Foreign AffairsMarch 31, 2021

[Newsmaker] Minor Seoul mayoral candidates pledge to support women, LGBTQ people

As the April 7 by-election to choose Seoul’s next mayor approaches, a fierce battle is ongoing between the ruling and main opposition parties. At the same time, 10 minor parties and independent candidates are appealing to voters by talking about gender equality, LGBTQ rights, basic income and the environment. The 10 candidates, whose combined approval rating is less than 5 percent, are getting voters’ attention with issues that major candidates haven’t paid much attention to.

PoliticsMarch 31, 2021

Week ahead of bellwether by-elections, rival parties rush for last-minute campaigning

Rival parties were rushing to rally support in their last-minute election campaigning Wednesday, with the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections, seen as a potential game changer for next year's presidential election, only a week away. Some 8.4 million voters in Seoul are set to vote for a new mayor on April 7 in the by-elections that come about a year ahead of the 2022 presidential poll. The mayoral seat in Busan, South Korea's second-biggest city, is also up for grabs in the elections, along w

PoliticsMarch 31, 2021

[News Focus] “Recommended” vaccination leave program feared to fail

Beginning Thursday, the South Korean government is instituting a “vaccination leave” program that would allow up to two days of recovery time for people with immune responses after getting their COVID-19 vaccines. But questions are raised as to how the program will be followed in the private sector, as the program is advised rather than required for employers, some of which are already short on labor power. Some are asking the government to make the measure mandatory for employers

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

N. Korea's trade volume drops to practically zero amid coronavirus pandemic: official

North Korea's trade with the outside world has dropped to practically zero due to the country's tightened border controls amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the unification ministry said Wednesday. In January and February, the trade volume between the North and China stood at around $3.27 million, a ministry official said, citing Chinese customs data. "This figure includes the trade volume of electricity exported last year so there were no actual physical exchanges," a ministry of

North KoreaMarch 31, 2021

NK people's access to information should be expanded without hurting rights of other people: ministry

North Korean people's access to outside information should be expanded but not at the expense of the safety of people living in border regions in South Korea, the unification ministry said Wednesday. A ministry official made the remarks after the US State Department stressed the importance of free flows of information to the reclusive North, referring to South Korea's recently enforced law banning the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets in its annual human rights report. "Our government al

North KoreaMarch 31, 2021

COVID-19 text alerts to be reduced amid public weariness

The central and local governments will reduce their emergency coronavirus text alerts amid mounting complaints that frequent arrivals of such messages have increased the public weariness in the prolonged pandemic, the interior ministry said Wednesday. The revised guidelines for coronavirus-related text alerts, which go into effect Thursday, require only essential information to be sent out to the public and for the alert system to be turned off between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. To deal with growing p

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Top security advisers of S. Korea, US, Japan to hold talks in Washington this week: White House

The top national security advisers of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Washington this week for talks on regional and foreign policy issues, the White House has announced, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will join his South Korean and Japanese counterparts -- Suh Hoon and Shigeru Kitamura -- for a trilateral dialogue on Friday (US time) at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, according to a statement on Tuesday. It will be the first such three-way talk

Foreign AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Latest NK missile nuclear-tipped, hard to intercept: report

The two ballistic missiles North Korea tested a week ago could carry nuclear warheads and would be hard to intercept with South Korea’s missile defense systems, a local security think tank said Tuesday in its latest report. “They could put a nuclear warhead on each KN-23,” the Sejong Institute said, referring to the missiles. The report cited experts including Jefferey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies. He said the North could mount nu

North KoreaMarch 31, 2021

Steam indicates activity at Yongbyon nuke center: think tank

A US think tank suggested possible activity at North Korea’s key nuclear facility in Yongbyon, pointing to a satellite image showing steam coming out of its radiochemistry lab and thermal plant. The Center for Strategic and International Studies published its analysis based on a satellite image dated Tuesday as the US government is wrapping up a comprehensive review of its North Korea policy. In an article published on “Beyond Parellel,” a website run by the CSIS Korea Chair,

North KoreaMarch 31, 2021

[#WeFACE] Floating solar farms show how green projects can thrive in South Korea

JECHEON, North Chungcheong Province -- Over 2.75 trillion liters of water behind the Chungju Dam in North Chungcheong Province, dozens of solar panels are laid out to generate power. While it may seem odd to some as to why these solar panels are over water as opposed to other, more conventional places, the idea is one of many projects that South Korea is betting on to generate renewable electricity as it promised to the international community. The country has announced plans to achieve carbon

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Ex-DP head issues public apology in admission of housing policy failure

The former head of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Wednesday made a public apology in admission of the overall failure in the party's housing policy and a recent bombshell land speculation scandal involving public servants. The so-called LH scandal was triggered earlier this month when two civic groups alleged that employees at the Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) bought plots of land in two cities -- Gwangmyeong and Siheung in Gyeonggi Province -- before the government announced a massive

PoliticsMarch 31, 2021

[#WeFACE] S. Korea’s new ‘climate law’ should put ‘justice’ at its core: activist

As South Korea’s National Assembly works to draft and pass a climate law to make the country’s goals of going carbon neutral by 2050 legally binding, the law should put “justice” at its core to effectively address the climate emergency, according to a local environmental activist. Last year, the Moon Jae-in administration jumped on the climate crisis bandwagon by announcing its ambitious Green New Deal and promising to go carbon neutral by 2050. The National Assembly

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

FM Chung expresses hope for early talks with Japanese counterpart

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong expressed hope Wednesday for an early meeting with his Japanese counterpart, as South Korea seeks to improve ties with Japan in resuming diplomacy with North Korea amid the US' calls for stronger trilateral cooperation with its two Asian allies. Since his inauguration last month, Chung has not held talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi even by phone, let alone a face-to-face meeting, amid tensions between the two countries over wartime history a

Foreign AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Moon vows support for corporate governance campaign

President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that the government will provide full support for the spread of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria in South Korea's business sector. He was speaking during the 48th Commerce & Industry Day event hosted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) at its headquarters in Seoul. The president declared a vision for turning 2021 into the original year for the expansion of "ESG management and entrepreneurship for all&qu

PoliticsMarch 31, 2021

Vaccine rollout hiccup worrisome amid delayed shipment

South Korea's nationwide inoculation against the novel coronavirus is expected to lose pace due to vaccination delivery delays as health authorities aim to achieve so-called herd immunity by November. Earlier this week, the authorities announced that a planned delivery of COVID-19 vaccines by British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and Oxford University to the country has been pushed back to the third week of April. Initially, 690,000 doses, or shots for 345,000 people, of the AstraZe

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Arms procurement agency official tests positive for virus

An official at the country's arm procurement agency in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Wednesday. The official at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after showing symptoms, according to the ministry. Among service members, four soldiers in the border county of Cheorwon and a Marine in Gimpo, west of the capital, have tested positive while in quarantine fter vacation. Ano

Social AffairsMarch 31, 2021

Steam detected at N. Korea's plutonium reprocessing plant: US think tank

Recent satellite imagery showed steam from the plutonium reprocessing plant at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex, a US think tank said Wednesday, an indication of activity at the facility used to extract the key nuclear weapon ingredient. The imagery taken on Tuesday shows a plume of steam or smoke emanating from a small support building in the center of the reprocessing plant, known as the Radiochemical Laboratory, according to Beyond Parallel, a project of the Center for Strategic and In

North KoreaMarch 31, 2021

Moon names new Cheong Wa Dae aides on anti-corruption, economy, digital innovation

President Moon Jae-in appointed Kim Gi-pyo, a prosecutor-turned-lawyer, as his new secretary for anti-corruption, Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday. The president also picked Deputy Finance Minister Lee Hyong-il as secretary for economic policy and Kim Jeong-won, information and communication policy chief at the science ministry, as secretary for digital innovation, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. Kim is succeeding Lee Myung-shin in a follow-up to Moon's replacement of seni

PoliticsMarch 31, 2021

[Graphic News] Number of marriages hits new low in 2020

　The number of South Koreans getting married fell at a double-digit rate to an all-time low in 2020, amid young people’s changing attitude toward marriage and the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed. 　The number of couples tying the knot in Asia’s fourth-largest economy reached 214,000 last year, down 10.7 percent from the previous year, according to data from Statistics Korea. 　The figure is the lowest since 1970, when the statistical agency b

NationalMarch 31, 2021