Yoon's approval rating at 36.3%: Yonhap News survey

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating stands at 36.3 percent, a survey Yonhap News Agency conducted jointly with Yonhap News TV showed Wednesday. The ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party would win 31.2 percent and 33.1 percent of the vote, respectively, if the parliamentary elections set for next year were to take place tomorrow, the poll also showed. Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV jointly commissioned the survey to gauge public sentiment ahead of ne

June 7, 2023

Yoon touts elevated US ties built on nuclear deterrence

President Yoon Suk Yeol praised a recent deal between South Korea and the US that allows for a joint nuclear response to North Korea’s potential nuclear attacks, at an annual Memorial Day ceremony Tuesday, as he called the change an upgrade to the 70-year-old alliance. The Washington Declaration, announced at a White House summit in April between Yoon and President Joe Biden, dramatically reinforces a US pledge to deliver on deterring North Korea amid its growing nuclear threats, according

June 6, 2023

Head of opposition party reform resigns over pro-North remarks

Lee Rae-kyung, the honorary chair of the progressive grassroots advocacy group The Tomorrow, offered to resign from his role to lead the reform of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, about 10 hours after his nomination Monday. Lee's decision comes following controversy in political circles over past pro-North Korea remarks, which surfaced immediately after the news of his nomination. "I regret that a private opinion ... has become the subject of a political witch-hunt,"

June 5, 2023

[Bills in Focus] Sudden car acceleration, AI regulation and ESG incentives

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Motor Vehicle Management Act Proposed by Rep. Han Jun-ho (Democratic Party of Korea) ● Amid the series of recent car accidents involving suspected sudden unintended acceleration, car accident victims have found it difficult to prove the causality between a car defect and the accident, as highly specialized knowledge and access to core information held by the car manufacturer is required to establish such connections. This amendment aims to protect car acci

June 5, 2023

Overseas Koreans Agency chance for global business hub: Yoon

A new agency that will be exclusively in charge of representing the interests of 7.5 million overseas Koreans will help Incheon rise as a global business hub, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday, launching the body he promised a year ago to advance the country’s business ties. The Overseas Koreans Agency offers one-stop services for Koreans who have acquired permanent residency in a foreign country, who once held Korean nationality or who are lineal descendants of someone who once held Kor

June 5, 2023

Left-wing media chief to lead opposition reforms

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has appointed Lee Rae-kyung, the honorary chair of progressive non-profit media platform The Tomorrow, as the head of the new committee launched to renew and innovate the party. Party leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung announced at a Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly Monday that Lee Rae-kyung will be in charge of leading the party's new innovation committee. "We will leave all decisions, such as the names and roles of new innovat

June 5, 2023

Opposition lawmaker searched over suspected leak of justice minister's personal info

Police seized the mobile phone of Rep. Choe Kang-wook of the main opposition Democratic Party on Monday in a raid conducted as part of an investigation into the alleged leak of personal information of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon. Investigators from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confiscated Choe's phone in front of his home in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, and were trying to search his office at the National Assembly, officials said. Investigators are looking into the alleged

June 5, 2023

[Bills in Focus] News portal transparency, labor union protection and golf course deregulation

Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Newspapers Proposed by Rep. Yoon Doo-hyun (People Power Party) ● An increasing number of people have begun using online news services to read the news, implying that public opinion can be significantly influenced by the positioning of news articles. Accordingly, there have been calls to prescribe the duties and public responsibility of online news service providers. This amendment aims to require online news services to uphold their

June 5, 2023

Yoon orders stern crackdown on civil organizations misusing government subsidies

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered a stern crackdown on corruption involving government subsidies to civil organizations and a full recovery of misused funds, his spokesperson said Monday. Yoon issued the instruction after an audit of government subsidies given to about 12,000 civil organizations over the past three years found a total of 1,865 cases of irregularities involving about 31.4 billion won ($24 million), presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said. The ruling People Power Party heaped cri

June 5, 2023

Ruling party ups call for election body probe

South Korea’s central election body is resisting mounting calls to face investigation even as the allegations of nepotistic hiring practices and negligent cyber security continue to grow. The ruling People Power Party convened an emergency meeting of its leaders on Sunday and slammed the National Election Commission for rejecting the state inspectors’ request to look into the ongoing allegations. At Sunday’s meeting, the ruling party chief Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said the election co

June 4, 2023

Largest umbrella labor union turns back on government after bloody crackdown

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions is considering whether to pull out of negotiations with the government following what it calls excessive use of force by police on one of its members. At around 5:31 a.m. last Wednesday, Kim Joon-young, an executive of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers' Trade Unions, sustained injuries from a police baton wielded by an officer while resisting a crackdown. Kim has been staging a sit-in rally since May 29 on a 7-meter-high steel structure installed on

June 4, 2023

[Exclusive] North Korean leader ‘terrorized’ by South Korea’s closer ties with US, Japan

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is unstable and intimidated by deepening trilateral security ties between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, a South Korean National Intelligence Service analysis found. The NIS attributed Kim’s feelings of anxiety and terror to Yoon push to beef up the alliance with key security partners, the US and Japan, according to sources with knowledge of the analysis. The NIS has intelligence from multiple sources that the three count

June 3, 2023

Yoon meets East Timor leader

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Friday and agreed to upgrade the bilateral ties between the two nations in the fields of development, labor, education and forestry. Yoon was quoted by his office as saying that he had explained the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s projects in the health, medical and educational field and environmental projects in East Timor. The presidential office added that Yoon has also sought aid and support from the Eas

June 2, 2023

Approval ratings of Yoon, ruling party inch down slightly: poll

The approval ratings of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling People Power Party inched down slightly this week, amid continued opposition attacks on the government's diplomacy with Japan, a poll showed Friday. In the poll of 1,002 adults aged 18 and over conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance inched down 1 percentage point from the previous week to 35 percent. Yoon's disapproval rating was 57 percent, up 2 percentage poi

June 2, 2023

Election watchdog's probe shows 4 additional suspected hiring corruption cases

Children of four retired senior officials at the National Election Commission were additionally found to have been employed by the election watchdog, an investigation showed Friday, raising suspicions that the individuals secured the positions through their fathers' influence. The children of the four former officials were hired for experienced positions at three different regional offices, where their fathers had previously worked, according to the results of the investigation conducted by

June 2, 2023

North Korea satellite launch failure likely caused by ‘unforeseen’ error: lawmaker

North Korea's satellite launch failure on Wednesday was likely to have happened because of an unexpected technical error, rather than leader Kim Jong-un’s impatience to improve surveillance capabilities, according to defector-turned-Assemblyman Rep. Tae Yong-ho. Tae, who was a senior diplomat for North Korea before defecting to Seoul in 2016, said in a press release that the spy satellite’s attempted launch was a key military milestone that has been a long time in the making. Fo

May 31, 2023

Yoon meets with ex-Japanese PM Suga

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday and discussed the recent improvement in the bilateral relationship, his office said. Suga was visiting Seoul in his capacity as the new chief of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union following an invitation from Yoon during their previous meeting in Tokyo in March. "The president said a complete restoration of the bilateral relationship was achieved through the three South Korea-Japan summit

May 31, 2023

Kim Jong-un having trouble sleeping, drinking heavily: lawmaker

South Korea’s intelligence authorities suspect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is suffering from insomnia, and drinking and smoking heavily. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary for the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the National Intelligence Service believes Kim “may be experiencing a serious sleep disorder and engaging in excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption.” He said the spy service found North Korean authorities were “ho

May 31, 2023

[Reporter’s Notebook] Political tussle hinders establishment of Korea’s new space body

Applause filled the press briefing room at the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province on the evening of May 25 as government officials, business representatives and reporters lauded the successful launch of South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket. The mission validated the country’s capability to place a satellite into targeted orbit, upgrading Korea’s space competency from the previous launch which had succeeded in delivering a dummy satellite into orbit in June last year. Dan

May 31, 2023

Korean team delays conclusion on Fukushima wastewater safety

A South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they will be conducting an additional review after a visit to the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant that was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, leading to three nuclear reactor meltdowns, in 2011. Speaking at a briefing, Yoo Guk-hee, the government nuclear safety commission’s chairperson who is leading the review efforts, said his team will be acquiring extra data to look into facilities that treat the radioactive wastewater, dilut

May 31, 2023