[Election 2024] What more famous voters said after voting

  Lee Myung-bak, who was president of South Korea from 2008-2013, shared his views on the current state of Korean politics, after voting at a polling station in Seoul’s Gangnam district. “It's a challenging time," he began, as he sought to answer a question about the meaning of today’s elections, and before pointing out, "Korean politics don’t really match the overall level of Korea.” Kwon Yang-sook, wife of the late former president Roh Moo-hyun, vot

April 10, 2024

[Election 2024] Election in numbers

  As Koreans head to the polls to elect their next representatives for the legislature, here’s a quick look at the vote by key numbers.   ►22: The number of the parliamentary session to be established as a result of the April 10 election. ►51.7: Length of the ballot paper in centimeters The ballot for proportional representatives is 51.7 centimeters long, listing 38 political parties vying for the 47 seats allocated to proportional representation. ►44.25 million: Number of eligib

April 10, 2024

[Live updates: Election 2024]

Stay tuned to The Korea Herald's live coverage of the 2024 parliamentary elections. Opposition rejoices; Humbled ruling party says will watch election results till end April 10, 2024, 6:30 p.m. With exit polls predicting a bigger than expected victory for the liberal opposition Democratic Party and its allies, approaching the critical two-thirds majority, on Wednesday evening, the mood among the main two parties stood in stark contrast to each other. --------------------------------

April 10, 2024

Opposition victory ‘could turn Korea pro-China,’ ruling party chief warns in last rally

Han Dong-hoon, the ruling People Power Party leader, said that a Democratic Party of Korea victory in the National Assembly election slated for Wednesday would “topple South Korea-US alliance” and turn the country “pro-China” during a final rally on Tuesday evening in Seoul. Speaking to a crowd of supporters, Han said that the Democratic Party would “weaken cooperation with the US, sour relations with Japan once again to ‘xie xie’ with China,” refe

April 9, 2024

Yoon stresses medical reform 'for all' during visit to heart hospital

President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed Tuesday that medical reform should not come at the expense of the public or medical personnel but be made to satisfy both sides. Yoon made the point during a visit to a cardiovascular hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, just southwest of Seoul, in his fourth such visit to a medical facility amid a prolonged walkout by junior doctors protesting a government plan to raise the medical school admissions quota. "Medical reform should be for all and not forcin

April 9, 2024

[Election 2024] 5 races to watch

In elections, the big shot politicians don’t always get to clinch easy wins. In the April 10 general election, five prominent figures of South Korean party politics are vying for parliamentary seats via constituency races. The outcomes of these contests are poised to have a significant potential impact on their future paths. A defeat, in particular, could cast their political futures into doubt. How will they fare? Below is an overview of the five races. Lee Jun-seok Lee Jun-seok, who,

April 9, 2024

Perks of being a National Assembly member

Being a member of South Korea’s National Assembly comes with many perks, legal and otherwise. On top of having the power to legislate, conduct budget reviews, audit and investigate the government and its affiliated institutions, assembly members also enjoy benefits that are not directly related to their parliamentary role. Every election season, there is some initiative to “abolish the rights and privileges of lawmakers.” Han Dong-hoon, soon after taking office as the interim l

April 9, 2024

S. Korea at political crossroads as nation heads to polls

South Korea is poised to confront a pivotal moment Wednesday as much of the nation prepares to cast their votes for 300 new members of the National Assembly, in an election that will not only shape the political landscape of the country for the next four years but also serve as a crucial test for the president, who is currently a conservative. On the eve of the quadrennial Election Day, the rival parties fanned out to critical battleground districts Tuesday, making last-minute efforts to woo v

April 9, 2024

Seoul rolls out W9.4tr package to bolster AI chips

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday rolled out a massive spending package to nurture the domestic chip industry and bolster artificial intelligence technology deployment through the AI-Chip Initiative. By 2027, Seoul will spend 9.4 trillion won ($6.94 billion) on AI chips, which are chips sophisticated enough to perform AI tasks and those that use AI technology to achieve greater power efficiency. The country will also introduce a new 1.4 trillion-won fund to spur the development of innovative te

April 9, 2024

Ex-presidents break silence in rare election move

Former South Korean presidents have traditionally maintained a reserved stance regarding elections held after their tenure, but some have been making rather different moves in this general election. Showing active support for his party, the Democratic Party of Korea, Moon Jae-in, the predecessor of incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol, has been the most vigorous among the past three presidents, directly joining rallies of individual candidates from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Dre

April 9, 2024

Opposition leader attends court hearing on corruption charges on eve of elections

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung accused the Yoon Suk Yeol government of trying to knock out his political enemies as he attended a court hearing on charges connected to a development corruption scandal on the eve of the parliamentary elections Tuesday. Lee, the chair of the main opposition Democratic Party, appeared for the hearing at the Seoul Central District Court on corruption charges related to two apartment construction projects in Seongnam, south of Seoul, launched during his term as the

April 9, 2024

Rival parties vie for final voter support in wider Seoul area on eve of elections

The ruling and opposition parties intensified their final appeals for support on the eve of the quadrennial parliamentary elections Tuesday, concentrating on the most fiercely contested battlegrounds in Seoul. Wednesday's general elections are to pick 300 members of the National Assembly, with 254 of them to be selected through direct elections and the remaining 46 proportional representation seats to be allocated to parties according to the number of votes they receive overall. The quadrennial

April 9, 2024

Lee Jae-myung has hot mic moment on campaign trail

Democratic Party of Korea Chairperson Rep. Lee Jae-myung has come under fire after he was caught on a hot mic saying he “put on a show” after a campaign event Sunday. “I put on a show of working (hard). My back hurts,” the main opposition leader said as he was getting into his van while still live on air on his YouTube channel. The hot mic remarks came immediately after Lee held a campaign rally in a district in Incheon, where he is running for a second term in the Nation

April 8, 2024

South Korea launches 2nd spy satellite amid space race with North Korea

South Korea on Monday succeeded in sending its second domestically made military reconnaissance satellite into space from the US to enhance its space-based surveillance of North Korea and deterrence against nuclear and missile threats. The Ministry of National Defense said the satellite was launched at 8:17 a.m., Korea time, on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. About 45 minutes after liftoff at 9:02 a.m., the satellite entered its target o

April 8, 2024

S. Korea's housing market stabilizing, Yoon says

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday touted his administration's policy efforts as the reason behind the recent signs of the housing market stabilizing. Yoon said his conservative administration will spare no efforts to further stabilize the housing market, as the interest rate and the cost of construction remain high, posing hurdles for the housing supply in Seoul, which is suffering a shortage of affordable housing for prospective homeowners. "Now is the (optimal) time to normalize the housi

April 8, 2024

Political satire strikes back ahead of election

Watching "Saturday Night Live Korea" on his laptop with a bowl of popcorn is how 33-year-old office worker Im Tae-ho unwinds after work. "I love that political satire sketches on 'SNL Korea' have returned stronger than ever this season," Im told The Korea Herald. "I feel like 'SNL Korea' is the only comedy show that dares to poke fun at politicians so brazenly in Korea. It's the only show that does political satire the right way," he added.

April 8, 2024

Presidential office denies deferring med student hike

The presidential office said Monday that it has no plan to defer the medical school admissions quota hike, fueling confusion both in the government and medical community, which briefly saw the possibility for dialogue over the matter. “The government has never reviewed postponing the plan for a year, nor will it do so in the future,” an official from the presidential office told reporters during a closed-door briefing, reiterating that the government remains unchanged on its medical

April 8, 2024

[Bills in Focus] Display of in-game items, future car development

Pending Bill: Partial Amendment to the Income Tax Act Proposed by Rep. Park Dae-chul (People Power Party) ●This amendment proposes canceling the planned implementation of the financial income tax system next year, which imposes a 20-25 percent tax on capital gains from investments in financial investment products, such as stocks, bonds and funds, that are worth 50 million won ($38,230) or more. The financial investment income tax, also known as the “geumtuse,” is a system that levi

April 8, 2024

[KH Explains] Political leeks: Scallions become election attack line

The green onion, a beloved vegetable among South Koreans, has unexpectedly become the latest political weapon for opposition parties to attack President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling party. It all started with Yoon's visit to a hypermarket in southern Seoul on March 18, just before he rolled out measures to tame food prices in the country. There, Yoon noticed that a bundle of green onions weighing 1 kilogram was selling for 875 won ($0.65), significantly lower than the usual price of between

April 7, 2024

[Election 2024] Will S. Korea's political regionalism crumble?

South Korean politics has long been marked by a sharp east-west divide in its southern regions. In the southeast, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan and the Gyeongsang Provinces have been a conservative stronghold for decades, while the country’s southwest, including Gwangju and the Jeolla Provinces, has been a bastion for the left wing. In the 2020 legislative election, the center-left won in 27 out of 28 seats in Korea's southwest, while the conservatives won 56 out of 65 constituencies in the sou

April 7, 2024