Yoon sorry for shortcomings but insists policies were right

President Yoon Suk Yeol said he and his administration will humbly accept the result of last week's general election, which renewed the main opposition's firm grip over the National Assembly for the next four years, stressing that he sees it as a reflection of public sentiment. "I will take heed of the public sentiment and communicate more with people with humility and flexibility," Yoon said in a Cabinet meeting held in his office in Seoul, with his opening remarks televised

April 16, 2024

Ex-PPP member attends police questioning for receiving donations via YouTube

An unsuccessful candidate in last week's parliamentary elections appeared before police Monday for questioning on charges of receiving political donations through payments via a YouTube broadcast last year. Jang Ye-chan, a former ruling People Power Party member who quit the party and ran as an independent, has been accused of accepting payments through YouTube's Super Chat function during live streaming in August in violation of the Political Funds Act. Viewers sent as little as 2,000

April 15, 2024

Yoon flounders after election defeat

The main opposition party's attack on President Yoon Suk Yeol intensified on Monday, while his approval rating took the biggest weekly plunge since July 2022 in the wake of a crushing election defeat. With the 21st session of the National Assembly set to end its four-year lifetime in about 1 1/2 months, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea doubled down on the besieged Yoon administration's political vulnerability. The party demanded that the National Assembly pass a bill calli

April 15, 2024

[Bills in Focus] Network usage fees, consumer protection from foreign online platforms

Pending Bill: Partial Amendment to the Telecommunications Act Proposed by Rep. Jun Hye-sook (Independent) ●Recently, concerns have been raised over the low network usage fees paid in Korea by global IT firms, such as Google and Facebook, compared to what these operators pay in other countries, such as those in the EU. Critics argue that this discrepancy constitutes discrimination against domestic value-added telecommunication business operators. The networking provision relationship between netw

April 15, 2024

Opposition victory upends ruling party's plans

The South Korean opposition's landslide victory in the latest parliamentary elections is likely to upend the conservative ruling party's push for key proposals and initiatives, observers said Sunday. One of the ideas that the ruling People Power Party had vowed to pursue, administratively merging Gyeonggi Province's Gimpo city into Seoul, otherwise known as the so-called “Megacity Seoul" project, could be scrapped, an expert said. “Discussion on the Megacity proje

April 14, 2024

Presidential office says it will take time to name new PM, chief of staff after election defeat

A senior official at the presidential office said Sunday it will take time to name candidates for a new prime minister and chief of staff, after the resounding defeat of the ruling party in last week's parliamentary elections. The official told Yonhap News Agency that some media outlets have reported that the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol may announce a personnel reshuffle as early as Sunday, but "it is not physically possible." "It needs a minimum amount of time to find

April 14, 2024

Yoon likely to soon name new chief of staff after election defeat

President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to name a new presidential chief of staff Sunday at the earliest in what would be his first move to overhaul state affairs after a resounding defeat in this week's parliamentary elections, sources at the presidential office said Saturday. After his party's crushing defeat in Wednesday's parliamentary elections, Yoon has delivered a message through his chief of staff that he will "humbly uphold the people's will" shown in the opposition's landslide vi

April 13, 2024

Seoul, London to co-host summit to discuss potential of AI in innovation, inclusion

South Korea and the United Kingdom will jointly host a summit in Seoul in May to discuss artificial intelligence technology's potential to achieve innovation and inclusion at an international level, and its safe development, the presidential office said Friday. The hybrid event "AI Seoul Summit" is scheduled to take place from May 21-22. On day one, leaders will hold virtual discussion sessions co-chaired by President Yoon Suk Yeol and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The next day,

April 12, 2024

Medical standoff enters 2nd stage after election, failed dialogue

The two-month medical standoff between the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and medical circles will likely enter its second stage, amid no signs of initiating talks over the government's medical school admission plan and the looming medical crisis following defiant doctors' mass resignations. The ruling bloc's crushing defeat in Wednesday's general election was a testament that voters "had brought judgment" to the ruling bloc, which pushed to increase the medical school admission quota be

April 12, 2024

Cho Kuk urges probe of first lady’s Dior bag scandal

Cho Kuk, the former justice minister-turned-leader of a rising third party urged prosecutors Thursday to investigate first lady Kim Keon Hee, just a day after the National Assembly election. “This is a final warning to the country’s prosecutors,” he said in a press conference held outside the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul. He said the ruling People Power Party defeat in the Assembly election was “the people’s warning to the president and his dictatorial

April 11, 2024

The weight of likely union of Democratic Party, rising third power

Cho Kuk, onetime justice minister under former President Moon Jae-in, is once again in the political limelight, nearly five years after he was dragged down by a corruption scandal in late 2019. His Rebuilding Korea Party, or the “Cho Kuk Revolution Party” as its Korean name suggests, emerged as the party with the highest number of proportional representation seats from the results of the National Assembly election on Wednesday, behind only those affiliated with the two major parties.

April 11, 2024

What led to ruling party’s defeat?

The ruling party’s bitter loss at Wednesday’s parliamentary elections was expected, with the majority of the voters hoping to "bring judgment" upon President Yoon Suk Yeol for failing to curb soaring food prices, end a prolonged doctors’ strike and quell a slew of scandals, critics said Thursday. The main opposition Democratic Party and its satellite party secured a total of 175 seats, while the ruling People Power Party and its sister party only won 108 seats of the

April 11, 2024

Key conservative wins defy exit poll predictions

The atmosphere of election camps of the candidates vying for the 300-member seats in the National Assembly shifted minute by minute as the votes were counted throughout Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Ferocious election battlefields, especially, where the results were hard to predict ended with major cliffhangers, as the victories predicted from the exit polls sponsored by South Korea’s major TV stations were disproven at the last minute. Lee Jun-seok, leader of the New Reform P

April 11, 2024

Despite landslide win, opposition party chief not yet home-free

  Wednesday’s general election concluded in a resounding victory for the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which took 175 seats of the National Assembly's 300 seats while the ruling People Power Party scraped up 108. While Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung celebrates what he called "a great victory of the people," the prospect of him becoming a front-runner for the next presidency is murkier than what the landslide victory may suggest. With Lee winning his own c

April 11, 2024

Meet the freshmen of S. Korea’s National Assembly

From a naturalized South Korean doctor of US missionary descent to a four-time Olympic pistol shooting champion and the former chief executive officer of the country’s largest business conglomerate, several new faces are pursuing a second career in politics through the April 10 general election. New to the National Assembly is Kwak Sang-eon of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, who won an Assembly seat for Seoul’s Jongno constituency against the incumbent Rep. Choi Jae-hy

April 11, 2024

Ruling party leader quits after bitter loss, leaves room for political comeback

Han Dong-hoon’s 107-day journey as the ruling conservative party’s interim leader officially ended Thursday, after the People Power Party failed to take back the National Assembly through Wednesday’s parliamentary elections. The 51-year-old prosecutor-turned-politician announced his resignation from his position as chair of the People Power Party emergency response committee, saying that he takes responsibility for the election defeat. “The voice of the people is always r

April 11, 2024

Former biz leaders receive mixed results in election

Former corporate executives who ran for a seat at the National Assembly received mixed results as the votes from the general election were announced Thursday. The two headliners -- Koh Dong-jin, former president of Samsung Electronics, and Kong Young-woon, former president of Hyundai Motor -- found each other on opposite ends of the spectrum as the former won while the latter suffered a loss. Koh, who joined the ruling People Power Party in January, confirmed victory in the Gangnam-C constituenc

April 11, 2024

New parliament to have no independent member

    The new National Assembly of 300 members selected in Wednesday’s general election will be devoid of any independent members for the first time in over five decades. A total of 58 candidates without any political party affiliation ran in 254 constituency races, but none prevailed. The Assembly previously lacked a nonpartisan representative three past sessions spanning from 1963 through 1972. But that was before partisan politics firmly took root in Korea, with the "democr

April 11, 2024

Old guard of the left makes return to parliament

Members of the center-left Democratic Party of Korea's old guard, each of them with political careers spanning several decades, made a splendid comeback in Wednesday’s general election in South Korea. The victories of Park Jie-won, Choo Mi-ae and Chung Dong-young are expected to give more strength to the opposition camp, which delivered a crushing defeat to President Yoon Suk Yeol and his conservative People Power Party. Choo, who will be returning to the National Assembly for a sixth term

April 11, 2024

Yoon's aides, PM offer to resign over election defeat

President Yoon Suk Yeol's aides and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo offered to step down from their posts, as the vote count on Thursday showed that the ruling conservative bloc took a landslide defeat in Wednesday's parliamentary elections. According to a source from the presidential office who declined to be named, Prime Minister Han "verbally expressed his intention to resign" to Yoon. Key aides who directly report to Yoon -- Chief of Staff Lee Kwan-sup and Director of National Policy S

April 11, 2024