Approval rating for ruling party down 3.4% points, lead over main opposition narrows

The approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party (DP) slid 3.4 percentage points last week from a week earlier amid growing allegations that some party members were involved in financial scam scandals, a recent public poll showed Monday. The approval rating for the DP came in at 32.2 percent in the survey conducted on 2,523 voters from Monday-Friday last week by Realmeter, down 3.4 percentage points from a week earlier. In the latest poll, the main opposition People Power Party saw its appr

Oct. 19, 2020

Ruling party chief holds talks with Japanese politician

The head of ruling Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yon, met with a senior Japanese politician, Takeo Kawamura, on Sunday and discussed ways to improve bilateral ties, Lee said. During the 40-minute closed-door meeting in Seoul, Lee expressed regrets over Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's sending of a ritual offering to a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's past militarism the previous day. It was Suga's first offering to the war shrine since he took office in September. He succeeded Shinz

Oct. 18, 2020

Fund fraud scandal spills over to prosecution

A financial fraud scandal involving a private equity investment company has spilled over to the prosecution after a key suspect claimed to have lobbied ranking prosecutors, one of whom is now part of the investigative team. The revelation added fuel to the political debate surrounding the country’s law enforcement authority, which the Moon Jae-in administration has openly criticized for wielding “uncontrolled” power and has vowed to reform. It also ripped open a rift between

Oct. 18, 2020

US national security adviser to visit Seoul next month: Cheong Wa Dae

US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien will visit Seoul next month, probably after the US presidential election, Cheong Wa Dae said Sunday. Presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said during a briefing that Suh Hoon, director of South Korea's National Security Office, asked his counterpart to visit Seoul during their meeting at the White House last week. Kang expected O'Brien's visit to take place after the US presidential election on Nov. 3. During his visit, "Suh met with other seni

Oct. 18, 2020

Moon requests support for S. Korea's WTO chief bid in meeting with foreign envoys

President Moon Jae-in sought support for South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee's bid to become the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as he received credentials from six new top foreign envoys on Friday. They were the German, Vietnamese, Austrian, Chilean, Pakistani and Omani ambassadors to South Korea. Having a group conversation with them after the Cheong Wa Dae ceremony, Moon pointed out that Yoo is running for the post with a vision for reforming the WTO, rebuilding trust in th

Oct. 16, 2020

Moon emboldened by S. Korea's digital govt. feat

President Moon Jae-in views the OECD's recognition of South Korea's digital government system as an outcome of longstanding efforts that date back to the Kim Dae-jung administration two decades ago, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. Moon was responding to reports that the country ranked first in the Paris-based group's "2019 Digital Government Index" assessment. Moon, during a government meeting at his office, attributed the feat to the country's longtime efforts initiated by the Kim Dae-ju

Oct. 16, 2020

Watchdog eyes finalizing audit into controversial reactor closure

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the country's audit watchdog, on Friday plans to finalize an audit surrounding the controversial Wolsong-1 nuclear reactor closure. BAI plans to convene a commissioners' committee meeting to review and finalize the agency's audit of the controversial early reactor closure, sources familiar with the issue said. The committee has held serial meetings since last Wednesday but has not yet managed to wrap up the report. BAI chief Choe Jae-hyeong recently tol

Oct. 16, 2020

Over 20 sitting lawmakers indicted on illegal election campaigning charges

More than 20 sitting lawmakers face trials on charges of violating the public election law while campaigning for the previous parliamentary elections in April. Prosecutors said Thursday they indicted seven lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and 10 of the main opposition People Power Party and several others on charges of breaching the Public Official Election Act during their campaigns for the April 15 parliamentary elections. The measures were taken en masse before the statute of l

Oct. 16, 2020

Ruling party chief proposes dispatching bipartisan delegation to US after Nov. election

Launching an internal task force handling diplomatic and security issues in light of the upcoming US presidential election, the head of the ruling party Thursday proposed dispatching a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers to Washington following the election. "With the American presidential election just three weeks away, (efforts for) intensifying the Korea-US relationship and building peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula should continue ceaselessly, no matter who wins," DP Cha

Oct. 15, 2020

Supreme Court confirms prison term for ex-presidential aide over abuse of power

The top court on Thursday upheld a one-year prison term for a former chief of staff to ex-President Park Geun-hye, who was indicted on charges of abusing his power to illegally support conservative groups. Kim Ki-choon, who served as Park's chief of staff from 2013-2015, is accused of pressuring the Federation of Korean Industries, a business lobby group, into getting firms to provide 2.4 billion won ($2.1 million) to 21 organizations favorable to the administration at the time. The organizati

Oct. 15, 2020

Supreme Court revisits '80s case of abusive state facility for vagrants

The Supreme Court opened a case on Thursday on a state-run facility for vagrants, 31 years after its owner was acquitted of illegal confinement charges. The court held a hearing for Park In-keun, the late owner of the Brothers Home facility in the southern port city of Busan, which confined and enslaved thousands of innocent people, including children, for forced labor from 1975 to 1987. Park was found not guilty by the top court in 1989 of illegal confinement of the facility's inmates, who we

Oct. 15, 2020

Lawmakers rap universities for lukewarm response to students' tuition refund calls

Local universities are coming increasingly under pressure to heed students' calls for partial tuition refunds over the poor quality of online lectures currently under way due to the protracted coronavirus outbreak. Many universities' reluctance to offer tuition refunds also emerged as one of the hottest issues during the National Assembly's inspections of 12 education-related public institutions earlier this week, with lawmakers siding with students' calls for tuition reimbursement for the fall

Oct. 14, 2020

Ruling party faces dilemma over launching mayoral candidates for April by-elections

With about six months left before the April by-elections for the country's two largest mayoral seats, the ruling Democratic Party is unsure whether to nominate candidates for the elections. The seats were left vacant by the abrupt death of DP-affiliated Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon in July and the resignation of Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don, also affiliated with the party, in April after both were involved in sexual molestation allegations. The DP's own internal rule prohibits it from nominating a cand

Oct. 14, 2020

Seoul won't seek end of Korean War without denuclearization: UN envoy

The South Korean government is not seeking to declare the end of the Korean War without denuclearization by the North, Seoul’s envoy to the UN said Wednesday. “I don’t think declaring an end to the war is being sought without a resolution to the denuclearization issue,” Ambassador Cho Hyun said at the parliamentary audit of diplomatic missions via video link. “The government’s position is that permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula and complete denucleariz

Oct. 14, 2020

Prosecution searches residence of former financial watchdog official in fund scandal

The prosecution said Wednesday it has searched the house of a former financial official in connection with its investigation into a financial fraud scandal involving two embattled private equity investment companies. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office raided the house of the former employee, surnamed Yoon, who worked at the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the state financial regulator, Tuesday and called him in for questioning in connection with the scandal. The scandal centers

Oct. 14, 2020

Cheong Wa Dae says S. Korea-Japan summit talks needed to resolve bilateral problem

Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday it is important for the leaders of South Korea and Japan to meet each other in order to resolve pending issues that have strained bilateral ties. The presidential office was responding to a news report that Japan's new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, will consider boycotting an annual trilateral forum, expected to be held in Seoul later this year, unless Seoul takes measures especially to address the dispute over compensating Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced

Oct. 14, 2020

Moon instructs Cheong Wa Dae to cooperate with probe into investment fund scandals: Cheong Wa Dae

President Moon Jae-in has ordered his Cheong Wa Dae aides to cooperate "actively" with state prosecutors' ongoing investigation into a high-profile financial fraud and corruption scandal allegedly involving some former and current senior government and ruling party officials, according to his office Wednesday. Moon stressed that no one can be immune to a strict probe by the prosecution service, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kang Min-seok. The president was quoted as instructin

Oct. 14, 2020

Ruling party head 'very disappointed' over Japan's summit boycott report

The head of the ruling Democratic Party on Wednesday expressed frustration over a report that Japan's new prime minister threatened to skip a trilateral summit planned by Seoul this year unless South Korea takes action to resolve the dispute over wartime forced labor. According to Japan's Kyodo News, Tokyo has informed Seoul in late September that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will boycott an annual trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan this year unless the Korean government mo

Oct. 14, 2020

S. Korea's first lady stresses IVI's role in global fight against COVID-19

First Lady Kim Jung-sook of South Korea said Tuesday that the role and mission of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has become more significant than ever amid the new coronavirus outbreak. She was speaking in a video message for the Seoul-based organization's annual forum of partner nations, which was held online. Kim serves as honorary president of South Korea's IVI support committee. "As the whole world battles against the COVID-19 pandemic, the mission of the IVI, which is to d

Oct. 13, 2020

Korean New Deal to focus on local-level projects

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday added the concept of balanced development to the Korean New Deal program, saying that the essence of the program is to shift the “axis of national development to the provinces.” At the second Korean New Deal strategy meeting, Moon again stressed his administration’s drive behind the Korean New Deal and called for cooperation from the heads of 17 provincial and metropolitan government attending the meeting. “In order to further clarify t

Oct. 13, 2020