New GTX line connecting Dongtan, Suseo in 20 min. to launch Saturday

The new high-frequency suburban rail service for commuters named Great Train Express (GTX) is set to begin operation on Saturday, marking a watershed moment in the evolution of Seoul's public transportation. President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday the GTX network will grow to become the South Korean equivalent of the Crossrail of London and its suburbs in the United Kingdom, and the RER centering around Paris. Those using the commuter rail network to travel from Suseo Station in southern Seoul to Do

March 29, 2024

Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia

Lee Jong-sup, South Korea’s ambassador to Australia, on Friday has given up the post less than a month after he was appointed. The former national defense minister’s offer to step down follows a controversy over his his taking on the job while still under investigation over the death of a marine in July last year. President Yoon Suk Yeol approved his resignation later the same day, according to his press office. Twenty-year-old Corporal Chae Su-geun died when he was swept away by an

March 29, 2024

Korea enters full election mode

South Korea shifted into full-scale election mode Thursday, with political parties launching their official campaigns to stretch until the general election on April 10 that is expected to shape the political landscape for the next four years. For the next 13 days, eligible candidates representing their parties are allowed to use loudspeakers and trucks with megaphones for campaigning activities in open spaces from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the National Election Commission on Thursday. The t

March 28, 2024

Far-right lawmaker candidate forcefully detains migrant workers

Police have initiated an investigation into a candidate for the National Assembly who has taken it upon himself to forcefully detain and inspect migrant workers, a local media outlet reported Wednesday. Police in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and Daegu received multiple complaints alleging that Park Jin-jae, a candidate for the Liberty Unification Party, has been accosting people who appear to be migrant workers, according to a report by the Kyunghyang Shinmun. The Liberty Unification P

March 28, 2024

Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections

Official campaigning kicked off Thursday for the April 10 general elections, with the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party vying fiercely for control of the National Assembly. The quadrennial race holds significant importance for the ruling party as failure to regain a majority could potentially render President Yoon Suk Yeol a lame duck for the remaining three years of his single five-year term. The main opposition Democratic Party aims to retain its parliamentary

March 28, 2024

[Election Battlefield] Political novice to face off star politician in ‘swing district’

On a rainy Monday afternoon in Dongjak-gu, southwestern Seoul, four-term lawmaker and star politician Na Kyung-won stepped inside the underground Sadang Station around 5:50 p.m. to greet tired commuters returning home from work. Faces of several Dongjak-gu residents who spotted the 60-year-old former judge-turned-politician lit up as they approached her to shake hands. Some even took photos with her, acting like excited fans who finally met their rock star. Greeting commuters returning from wo

March 27, 2024

Ruling party leader pledges to relocate National Assembly to Sejong

The ruling party interim leader pledged Wednesday to relocate the National Assembly to the administrative city of Sejong to balance out the political power currently concentrated in the nation’s capital. Han Dong-hoon, the interim chief of the People Power Party, revealed plans to push for “complete relocation of the National Assembly to Sejong to end an era of Yeouido politics,” in a press conference held some two weeks ahead of the April 10 legislative election. Yeouido, an

March 27, 2024

Yoon offers to jointly discuss next year's medical budget with doctors

President Yoon Suk Yeol offered Tuesday to jointly discuss next year's medical budget with the medical community, his office said, amid a protracted walkout by junior doctors protesting an increase in the medical school enrollment quota. Yoon instructed his aides to make the proposal to the medical community after he held a meeting with medical staff at Hankook General Hospital in Cheongju, 112 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to Lee Do-woon, senior presidential secretary for public

March 26, 2024

S. Korea seeks W200tr biotech industrial output by 2035

  South Korea is poised to quintuple its biotechnology industrial output in 15 years, to 200 trillion won ($149 billion) by 2035 from 43 trillion won as of 2020, according to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday. The Ministry of Science and ICT defined life science industrial output as domestic outputs of all types of biopharmaceutical products including biosimilars, medical equipment, supplements, biomass and biotech-related services. Moreover, his administration will nurture an environment

March 26, 2024

Banks compete for foreign customers

Recognizing the expansion of the foreign population in Korea, banks are striving to improve access for foreign residents here by providing customized services from the point of arrival to departure. As Foreign nationals are expected to take up a more significant portion of Korea’s demographics amid the nation's continued population decline, local lenders are looking to woo foreign customers through designated communication channels. Korea's top four financial groups -- KB, Shinha

March 26, 2024

Med student hike, a must for competent regional hospitals: Yoon

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday reiterated his stance that the medical school expansion plan is a prerequisite for improving the quality of care at regional hospitals. At a Cabinet meeting held in his office Tuesday, Yoon said the plan to increase the school quota by 2,000 to 5,058 starting 2025 -- confirmed on March 20 -- is "a minimum requirement" to address the doctor shortage and improve the medical system, especially in remote areas. Under the plan, the students admitted to sch

March 26, 2024

Overseas voting to kick off this week ahead of April 10 elections

Overseas voting for the April 10 general elections is set to kick off this week and run for the next six days at 220 polling stations across 115 countries, the National Election Commission said Tuesday. A total of 147,989 people are eligible for overseas voting set for Wednesday through Monday, the NEC said. Eligible voters unable to participate in the overseas voting or those wishing to cast their ballots in South Korea can do so on the voting day if they report to regional election commissions

March 26, 2024

[Election Battlefield] Power of young voters gains traction in chip cluster

HWASEONG, Gyeonggi Province -- Hwaseong City lies at the heart of South Korea's chip industry cluster in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, which anticipates a total of 622 trillion won ($462.1 billion) in spending by 2047 and 3 million new jobs. With a large capital commitment constantly drawing young voters to the chip cluster in the south of Seoul, the number of constituencies in five such cities -- Hwaseong, Suwon, Yongin, Pyeongtaek and Icheon -- increased to 17 for the April elec

March 25, 2024

North Korea going for short-range missiles a ‘Japan-conscious move’: Seoul’s ex-vice defense chief

CHEONAN, South Chungcheong Province -- Shin Beom-chul, who until recently served as the deputy national defense minister, said that North Korea limiting its weapons testing to short-range missiles last week “may have been a Japan-conscious move.” Speaking with The Korea Herald, he said that as Pyongyang has been courting a summit with Tokyo, “anything beyond short-range missiles being fired toward the sea east of Korea would have the potential to be perceived by the Japanese as

March 25, 2024

Yoon vows new law for autonomy of Yongin, Suwon, Goyang, Changwon

Four cities that have lower-level local autonomy but have populations of over 1 million each may enjoy greater autonomy to set up infrastructure for construction, transportation and education, as the government anticipates a population influx with the advent of new chip industry complexes, according to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday. A new law, if proposed, will ensure the administrative power of a provincial governor in these cities be transferred to the cities' mayors, President Yoon

March 25, 2024

Russian subway pickpockets given suspended sentences

A group of Russian nationals received suspended prison sentences for pickpocketing passengers in Seoul's subways late last year, according to a local court. The Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 17 handed down one-year sentences, suspended for two years, to three Russian nationals -- two men in their 40s and a 39-year-old woman. Over a period of nine days in November, the three pickpockets spent an average of five hours a day in Subway Line No. 3 and Line No. 9, where

March 25, 2024

[Bills in Focus] Infrastructure building in new cities, retail industry deregulation

Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Public Housing Proposed by Rep. Seo Il-jun (People Power Party) ● The lack of major transportation infrastructure in new cities is inconvenient for residents. This amendment modifies the timeframe for formulating improvements in metropolitan transport in large-scale housing supply projects from "before the approval of the housing zone development plan" to "within one year after the designation of a housing zone." Propos

March 25, 2024

‘If Trump wins, Yoon may be pushed aside in US talks with North Korea’

NAMYANGJU, Gyeonggi Province -- If former US President Donald Trump returns to the White House, Seoul may be excluded from Washington’s potential negotiations with Pyongyang due to the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s hard-line stance on North Korea, according to former Army general-turned-lawmaker Rep. Kim Byung-joo. “There is a possibility that our government may not have a seat at the table where decisions concerning the Korean Peninsula are being made between the US and North

March 24, 2024

Han accuses opposition leader of being 'subservient to China'

The ruling party head on Sunday slammed main opposition leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung for his speech on the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's stance on the South Korea-China relationship, accusing the Democratic Party of Korea as being subservient to China. Han Dong-hoon, interim chair of the ruling People Power Party, said in a meeting of the party's election committee on Sunday that Lee's comment Friday "reaffirms the Democratic Party of Korea's perception of itself as a vassal to China." T

March 24, 2024

253 candidates sign up for 46 proportional seats in parliamentary elections

A total of 253 candidates have registered to compete for the 46 proportional representation seats up for grabs in the April 10 parliamentary elections, according to the National Election Committee on Saturday. Major parties have established paper parties, commonly known as satellite parties, for the proportional representation seats in the 300-member National Assembly that are allocated to parties based on the total number of votes they receive. The committee reported that 38 satellite parties

March 23, 2024