Moon replaces four vice ministers, two Cheong Wa Dae secretaries

The office of President Moon Jae-in announced the replacement of four vice minister-level officials and two of Moon's secretaries in a partial shake-up Monday as his administration nears its third anniversary. It followed the resignation of some senior officials seeking to run in the April 15 general elections, affecting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the National Agency for Administrative City Construction. Moon

March 23, 2020

S. Korea to take legal actions against churches violating coronavirus guidelines

South Korea will take legal action against some Protestant churches for violating the government's guidelines for preventing the massive spread of the new coronavirus, the prime minister said Monday. As part of the government's drive for stricter social distancing, health authorities advised churches to follow quarantine measures, including keeping the distance between followers at least 2 meters while attending services and having their temperature checked. But some churches, including Saran

March 23, 2020

PM says disaster management funds can be used for small businesses, vulnerable people

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Saturday that the government will allow state disaster management funds to be used to help small businesses and support those socially vulnerable in regards to the novel coronavirus crisis. "We are now facing an unprecedented situation, so we need to use all possible means to handle the situation," Chung said during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in Seoul.    Under a current law, sta

March 21, 2020

Chief of main opposition's affiliated party resigns ahead of April elections

The chief of the Future Korea Party (FKP) stepped down Thursday amid strife with the main opposition party over the selection of candidates for proportional representation (PR) seats. The FKP was established in February as the satellite party of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) specially to target PR slots in the April 15 parliamentary elections. But tensions between the two parties heightened as only one person that the UFP had recruited from outside was included in a list of 20

March 19, 2020

Government rolls out W50tr aid package for small businesses

Deadlines on corporate loans will be extended, and a fund to stabilize the country’s stock markets will be established as part of Seoul’s efforts to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Under the measures, deadlines for loans taken out by small and medium-sized enterprises and small merchants will be extended by more than six months. In addition, debtors will be given six-month extensions on their interest payments. 　 　According to the government, the measures --

March 19, 2020

[Newsmaker] First-ever strong wind warning to be issued for Seoul

South Korea's weather agency on Thursday issued a strong wind advisory for the entire nation, calling for concerted preparedness for typhoon-class winds and forest fires throughout the day. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said wind gusts of up to 90 kilometers per hour, or 25 meters per second, will blow across the nation, due to the difference in air pressure between cold low pressure over North Korea and warm high pressure southeast of the peninsula. The KMA put the entire nat

March 19, 2020

Moon to hold 1st emergency economic council session against coronavirus impact

  President Moon Jae-in plans to convene an inaugural "emergency economic council" session Thursday to discuss ways to minimize the fallout of the coronavirus. Moon has urged his economy team to explore "aggressive special measures" to prop up the economy amid what he calls the "unprecedented multi-crises" arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. He told related officials not to quibble over policy precedents. Moon and other participants in the Cheong Wa Dae meeti

March 19, 2020

Opposition leader Hwang shows softer side

Hwang Kyo-ahn, chief of the conservative opposition United Future Party, gave his first-ever solo broadcast on YouTube and sang a song he wrote as a teenager. He also told viewers how he proposed to his wife many years ago. During the 30-minute show, livestreamed on his YouTube channel Tuesday night, the 62-year-old judge-turned-politician reached out to viewers and answered their questions. “I didn’t do any romantic marriage proposal. I think I just said something like, ‘S

March 18, 2020

Ruling camp floats 2nd extra budget, supports anti-virus cash transfers

A day after the parliament endorsed a 11.7-trillion-won supplementary budget, the ruling Democratic Party on Wednesday started official preparations for another extra budget, as the country fights a double whammy of a deadly virus and economic recession. It also said it was desirable that some local governments were seeking to provide something similar to basic income for disaster relief. “What the local governments are doing can help the central government prepare,” Lee Nak-yon

March 18, 2020

Moon calls for business, unions’ support in reducing COVID-19 economic impact

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday called for the support of businesses, labor unions and financial institutions in minimizing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the government’s efforts alone would be insufficient. Speaking at a meeting with leaders of business, financial and labor organizations, Moon said that the country’s economy is facing an unprecedented crisis. “COVID-19 is impacting both supply and demand, and causing a compound crisis of real (ec

March 18, 2020

Moon meets leaders of business, labor groups, says pandemic-led economic crisis to continue

President Moon Jae-in warned Wednesday that the global economic crisis could be drawn out and stressed South Korea should explore bold preemptive measures without being restricted to precedents. He was speaking at a rare group meeting with the heads of the country's major business-related associations and umbrella labor unions. COVID-19 is bringing about a "combined crisis" in the real economy and finance, Moon pointed out. "Now that it's a problem that the whole world is unde

March 18, 2020

Ruling party urges govt. to take more bold action to fight coronavirus

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) called on the government Wednesday to consider drawing up another extra budget and come up with bold market-stabilizing and economic measures to fight the new coronavirus. The National Assembly passed an 11.7 trillion won ($9.44 billion) supplementary budget bill Tuesday to help contain the spread of COVID-19 and minimize the economic fallout of the outbreak. But the ruling party urged additional and unprecedented steps to tackle the potentially devastating im

March 18, 2020

S. Korea's parliament passes extra budget bill to fight coronavirus

The National Assembly on Tuesday approved an 11.7 trillion-won ($9.42 billion) extra budget to help contain the novel coronavirus and minimize the economic fallout from the outbreak. The supplementary budget bill passed through the parliamentary plenary session, with 222 of the 225 lawmakers present voting in favor. One voted against the bill while the remaining two lawmakers abstained. The overall size of the budget was unchanged from the original government proposal but details have been ad

March 17, 2020

Over 170,000 overseas Koreans eligible to vote in April general elections

More than 170,000 overseas Koreans in 119 countries will be allowed to vote in the April 15 general elections, the National Election Commission said Tuesday. The number of eligible overseas voters stood at 171,959, up 11.5 percent from 154,217 four years ago, according to the NEC. It will be the third time for Korean citizens to participate in parliamentary elections from abroad. The first was in 2012, when a total of 123,571 overseas voters were registered. Residents in the United States ha

March 17, 2020

Moon calls for ‘unprecedented’ economic measures

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that he will chair an emergency economic conference, and that all available resources and methods will be mobilized to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Special responses and measures will be decided on quickly, and (the situation) will be dealt with firmly through the emergency economic meeting presided over by the president,” Moon said at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, calling the current economic situation more grievou

March 17, 2020

S. Korea's COVID-19 test kits exported to UAE: Cheong Wa Dae

South Korea has sent 51,000 coronavirus test kits to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in "emergency exports," Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday. So far, 17 countries have formally requested the items from South Korea, it added, amid the global attention being paid to the country's rapid testing regime that is apparently behind a lower-than-average mortality rate. The UAE is the country South Korea can ship the kits to the fastest, according to a Cheong Wa Dae official, who added that the mov

March 17, 2020

S. Korea to launch 'emergency economic council' over coronavirus impact

President Moon Jae-in announced plans Tuesday to establish an "emergency economic council" that will be headed by himself and push for additional bold steps to shore up South Korea's economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The move reflects a growing sense of alarm over what he called "unprecedented emergency economic conditions," which are more serious than the 2008 global financial crisis. Speaking at a weekly Cabinet meeting, he raised the possibility that the i

March 17, 2020

Parliament set to handle extra budget bill over coronavirus

The National Assembly is set to handle an extra budget bill Tuesday that is designed to strengthen quarantine measures and minimize the economic fallout from the new coronavirus. Rival parties earlier agreed to handle the proposal by Tuesday, the last day of the current extraordinary parliamentary session, amid an urgency to back up the government's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. The government submitted an 11.7 trillion-won ($9.53 billion) supplementary budget bill to the Nationa

March 17, 2020

Liberal proportional coalition off rocky start

The ruling Democratic Party’s efforts to launch a liberal coalition party to win more parliamentary seats via the new proportional representation system in next month’s general election got off to a rocky start as only minor parties with no seats in the legislature are expected to join. The Democratic Party said it would bring together all parties seeking to join the coalition by Wednesday, but it is yet to figure out its relationship with minor parties should it decide not to take

March 16, 2020

National security advisers of S. Korea, US discuss coronavirus response in phone talks

South Korea's national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, spoke by phone with his US counterpart Robert O'Brien on Sunday and discussed ways of cooperation to tackle the new coronavirus, the presidential office said Sunday. In particular, Chung explained President Moon Jae-in's proposal to hold a special video teleconference among the leaders of the Group of 20 nations and asked O'Brien to relay the offer to US President Donald Trump, Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement. Moon proposed the idea d

March 15, 2020