Yoon, Kishida say Japan firms won’t be asked to pay damages

The Japanese companies held liable for damages by a 2018 South Korean court ruling for forcing Koreans to provide labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula will not be asked to reimburse Korean company funds used for such compensation. President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida both publicly denied speculation that Seoul would go after the Japanese firms to enforce the plan after compensating the Korean victims on its own, largely because Tokyo refuse

March 16, 2023

Forced labor victims file suit to seize Mitsubishi assets

South Koreans who were mobilized for forced labor by Japanese colonizers filed an asset collection suit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, rejecting the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's plan for locally funded compensation. The forced labor victims and their families, who won the damage suit against Mitsubishi at South Korea's top court in 2018, filed the suit to seize the Japanese company’s assets here, their lawyers said Thursday. The plaintiffs in the suit are one surviving vi

March 16, 2023

Four accused spies for North Korea indicted

Four South Korean “unification activists” met with North Korean agents overseas over several years and helped them carry out intelligence activities and other missions, according to Seoul prosecutors. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said in a release Wednesday afternoon that they indicted the four South Koreans for violating the laws on national security. The four formed an underground organization called the People’s Unification Front and together worked w

March 16, 2023

Yoon calls Japan to action ahead of first summit in 12 years

President Yoon Suk Yeol said he expects Japan to roll out actions commensurate with its recently renewed commitment to a forward-looking South Korea-Japan relationship built on a past apology for its 1910-45 rule of the Korean Peninsula. Yoon flew to Japan on Thursday for a two-day summit. In a joint interview with major Japanese newspapers Thursday, Yoon said the March 6 decision to use Korean company funds to compensate Korean victims forced to work for Japanese companies during the colonial p

March 16, 2023

[Korean History] Kim Dae-jung kidnapping: How future Nobel laureate nearly fell victim to junta

Kim Dae-jung, an opposition leader with a knack for public speeches, was the biggest threat to the military junta led by Park Chung-hee. Later, he served as the President of South Korea and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This file photo from 1973 was originally published in The Korea Herald.An opposition leader was abducted while in exile in a foreign land. His captors bound him up and weighed him down with heavy stones, preparing to throw him from a ship into the sea. It was then that fate

March 16, 2023

Yoon worried by North Korean spying scandal: ruling party sources

President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed deep concerns over the latest North Korean spying scandal during a dinner with the newly elected leaders of the ruling People Power Party on Monday, according to sources familiar with the matter Wednesday. Several ruling party sources said that the president was looking at the counter-North Korean meddling investigations seriously, referring in particular to the country’s main umbrella labor union -- the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions -- and a number

March 15, 2023

Korea sets out W300tr plan to build world's largest system chip cluster

South Korea will build the world's largest high-tech chip cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, with Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker taking the lead in the 300 trillion won ($230 billion) project. The plan, unveiled during a presidential meeting with Cabinet members on the economy held on Wednesday, is aimed at boosting the nation's competitiveness in the chip industry, particularly in the non-memory chip technology sector such as system chips. It is s

March 15, 2023

[New Neighbors] S. Korea needs anti-discrimination law to be an open community for immigrants

This is the second installment of a series of features, analysis and interviews exploring the challenges faced by Koreans and foreigners in creating a more diverse society in South Korea rapidly shifting away from its homogenous past. – Ed. Immigrants are the only solution for South Korea’s looming demographic cliff, as the country faces an ultra-low birth rate and a rapidly aging population. But to turn this homogeneous society into an open community for immigrants, there must

March 15, 2023

Government to hear from public on working hours plan

The presidential office said Wednesday that the maximum weekly working hours would be decided after adhering to the will of the public, especially underprivileged workers. This semi-reversal came just a week after the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced on March 6 that it would revise the current 52-hour workweek to allow workers to manage their working hours depending on their workload balance. “The core of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s labor market policy is to protect the right

March 15, 2023

At Holy See, speaker pitches South Korea’s bid to host papal event

South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo met with Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik on Monday at the residence of the South Korean ambassador to the Holy See. Kim’s visit to Italy comes as South Korea and the Holy See mark their 60th anniversary of forming diplomatic ties. In a release, the speaker’s office said that the Assembly speaker and the Cardinal Lazzaro discussed South Korea’s bid to host the next World Youth Day, a global event for young people organized

March 14, 2023

'Banner politics' plaguing the streets

Last month, a college student on an e-scooter fell after her neck got caught on a thin rope from a political banner that was tied to a post, at a crossroad at around 9 p.m. in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. The vocal music major suffered an abrasion on her neck. She said she didn’t see the rope as it was too dark. Anyone who has passed through an intersection in South Korea, especially in Seoul, would have noticed large political banners, as well as many other placards advertising various businesses

March 14, 2023

Yoon wages war against labor unions, once the force behind Korea's democratization

Kim, the 65-year-old owner of a construction business-related subcontractor in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, had to sell his business a few months ago, after years of struggling with a local labor union. The Yeosu branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions constantly intervened in the hiring process of workers at Kim's company and even told him to fire people they do not like, he said. Whenever the union had internal quarrels, Kim had to watch his workers leave their work behind a

March 14, 2023

Yoon orders review of 52-hour workweek reform

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government on Tuesday to review its proposed reform of the 52-hour workweek system by paying particular close attention to the opinions of young generations, his office said. Under the reform measures announced by the labor ministry last week, companies will be allowed to increase the maximum weekly work hours to 69 while keeping the average work hours within the 52-hour limit. The proposal came as businesses complained of difficulties in meeting deadlines

March 14, 2023

Yoon to meet with new ruling party leader ‘twice a month’

President Yoon Suk Yeol and the freshly elected chairperson of the ruling People Power Party, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, will meet twice a month. Yoon hosted Kim and the rest of the new People Power Party leadership for dinner at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Monday to celebrate their election at the party convention last week. Over the private dinner, the president and the party chairperson agreed to “meet regularly, about twice a month” for coordination on policies

March 13, 2023

Yoon calls for projects to better ties with Japan

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed officials to come up with projects aimed at bolstering relations with Japan, ahead of the two-day summit starting Thursday with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo. The push for closer ties is meant to foster a “future-oriented Seoul-Tokyo relationship,” Yoon’s office said Monday. Yoon’s remarks came at a time when South Korea is looking to use the recent thaw in ties not only to build on the momentum for cooperation, but to also strengthe

March 13, 2023

I’m not taking a dime of that money: WWII forced labor victim

A South Korean victim who was forced to work for a Japanese company during World War II said Monday she would refuse to accept locally funded compensation as proposed by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. Testifying before the National Assembly foreign affairs committee, Yang Keum-duk, who was conscripted in her early teenage years to work at a plant in Japan’s Nagoya, said she would “never accept” South Korean money as compensation. “I would rather starve to death than re

March 13, 2023

Opposition leader alleges 'black magic' in grave desecration

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung on Sunday pointed to those practicing "black magic" as being responsible for the desecretion of his parents' grave site in Bonghwa-gun, North Gyeongsang Province. “According to (an expert’s) observation, it is a ritual of black magic to dig holes on all sides of a grave and bury evil objects in them. The practice is meant to block the energy of the grave and curse the descendants in order to annihilate them

March 13, 2023

Rep. Lee Chul-gyu to take over as PPP's new secretary general

Rep. Lee Chul-gyu will be named the ruling People Power Party's new secretary general, officials said Monday, as the party fills key posts with those close to President Yoon Suk Yeol after Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon was elected new leader last week. Reps. Park Seong-min and Bae Hyun-jin, who are also considered part of the pro-Yoon faction, will take over as vice secretary-general for strategic planning, and as vice secretary general for organizational affairs, respectively, officials said. Party le

March 13, 2023

Yoon's approval rating falls to 38.9 %: poll

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell to 38.9 percent, dropping below 40 percent for the first time in four weeks, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 2,508 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance declined 4 percentage points from the previous week. The figure had stayed in the low 40 percent range for three straight weeks. Yoon's disapproval rating rose 5.7 percentage points to 58.9 percent in the same

March 13, 2023

Deceased former aide said to have urged Lee to leave politics in suicide note

SEONGNAM, South Korea -- A former chief of staff to opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who was found dead in an apparent suicide, urged the Democratic Party (DP) chair to quit politics in his suicide note, informed officials said Friday. The deceased, surnamed Jeon, is also said to have complained about being investigated by prosecutors in connection with Lee's corruption allegations. Jeon had served as Lee's chief secretary during his term as the mayor of Seongnam, just south of Seoul

March 11, 2023