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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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[Today’s K-pop] BTS pop-up event to come to Seoul
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[Graphic News] More Koreans say they plan long-distance trips this year
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[Election 2024] What voters said
Wednesday’s general election was to pick the 300 members for the next four-year session of the National Assembly, but voters who spoke with The Korea Herald said their ballots extend beyond the next parliament, embodying their hopes and expectations for Korean politics as a whole, with President Yoon Suk Yeol included. Here are their voices. ‘It's all a mess’ says 87-year-old voter leaning on cane Cherry blossoms had burst into full bloom just outside a Hangangno-dong
April 10, 2024
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Clashes over China mark late campaign
South Korea’s two major parties traded barbs over their respective stance on China and foreign policies over the final days leading to the National Assembly election on Wednesday. Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea leader, slammed President Yoon Suk Yeol’s “touted value-based diplomacy” as having an adverse impact on the country’s economic partnerships with China. “Our economic domain is shrinking globally because the Yoon administration is too
April 10, 2024
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S. Koreans head to polls amid deepening political divide
South Korean voters headed to the polls Wednesday for the country's 22nd parliamentary elections, as the country's political landscape continues to experience a deepening divide and increasing tensions. The outcome of the latest elections was expected to shape the policy road President Yoon Suk Yeol will walk for his remaining three years in office. The possible scenario of the liberal main opposition party maintaining a majority in the single-chamber, 300-member National Assembly was projected
April 10, 2024
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[Election 2024] 3 focal points of general election
As South Koreans vote Wednesday to elect all 300 members of the National Assembly, there are some crucial questions and pivotal issues to keep an eye on. Here, The Korea Herald highlights three focal points before the results come in. 1. How big will the liberal presence be? The election's likely victor appears clear: the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. The question is, how big will their win be? The liberal party held onto an absolute majority position in the previous parlia
April 10, 2024
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First lady remains out of public view on Election Day, inviting attacks
South Korea's controversy-ridden first lady, Kim Keon Hee, reportedly cast her vote unbeknownst to the public or apparently the presidential office, raising questions and drawing attacks from President Yoon Suk Yeol's political opponents. Liberal YouTube channel "Park Yeol TV" revealed in a post in the channel's community section on Tuesday that Kim had voted during early voting on Friday at a polling station in Itaewon 1-dong of Yongsan-gu, Seoul, which is near the presidential
April 10, 2024
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Voter turnout at 56.4% at 2 p.m.
April 10, 2024, 2 p.m. The nationwide voter turnout for the 2024 general election on Wednesday was 56.4 percent as of 2 p.m., 3.4 percentage points higher than the 53 percent recorded at the same time in the previous 2020 general election. The figure includes votes submitted in the two-day early voting period last week, which saw a record turnout of 31.28 percent of the electorate. Voter turnout for the election has been higher than the last general election for both the 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
April 10, 2024
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[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
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[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
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[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
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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
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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
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[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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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