The parliaments of South Korea and Turkmenistan agreed to build closer ties, proposing a new channel of dialogue and exchange. According to information provided by the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Republic of Korea, Kim Jin-pyo, the speaker of South Korea’s National Assembly, made an official visit to Turkmenistan on July 20-21 at the invitation of his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the National leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of Halk Maslakhaty of Turkmenistan. In a

Politics Aug. 23, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s political opponents on Tuesday mounted an attack on his “leniency with Tokyo,” as Japan announced it would begin releasing treated radioactive water stored at the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant in two days. The Democratic Party of Korea blasted Yoon and his policy toward Tokyo as having given Japan the impetus to go forward with its plan to discharge the treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant ruined by a tsunami in 2011. Yoon’

Politics Aug. 22, 2023

South Korea will penalize carrying weapons openly in public in the wake of a series of mass stabbings that erupted across the country over the past month. The ruling People Power Party said it would be proposing a number of legislations to deter mass attacks in a policy meeting Tuesday with the national police and the ministries in charge of justice and public safety. Tuesday’s meeting follows calls from President Yoon Suk Yeol for policy solutions and action to address mass attacks in pub

Politics Aug. 22, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s domestic political opponents have blasted the trilateral agreement reached at a summit at Camp David, saying it would deepen the country’s alignment with Japan. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which has traditionally taken a hard-line stance toward Tokyo, slammed the outcomes of the summit as a “de facto military alliance with Japan.” The party’s chief spokesperson Rep. Kwon Chil-seung said over the weekend that the document

Politics Aug. 20, 2023

South Korea’s intelligence agency believes North Korea is planning a number of military provocations around this week’s trilateral summit with the US and Japan, or the joint drills with US troops later this month. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary of the National Assembly intelligence committee, told reporters Thursday signs of North Korea preparing an imminent ICBM launch were detected by the National Intelligence Service. There has been an unusual increase in activities ar

Politics Aug. 17, 2023

A blame game is brewing over the World Scout Jamboree, as Korea’s state auditor said it would look into how the event was organized from the day Korea was announced as the host country. “The inspection will look into the entire event, from the bidding stage to the planning process to the actual operation until the last day. All of the concerned parties, including central and municipal governments, will be subject to inspection,” an official at the Board of Audit and Inspection

Politics Aug. 16, 2023

In the sweltering heat of South Korean summers, even the most powerful figures in Korea -- its presidents -- yearn for summer respite. Delve into the history of presidential summer vacations, their reading rituals that give the public a sneak peek into their minds and the seemingly unbreakable jinx of interrupted summer breaks. Obligatory reading list South Korean presidents like to reveal their summer reading lists, and their book picks often become bestsellers for the season. From these summ

Politics Aug. 12, 2023

Over 40,000 young scouts have gathered at a stadium in western Seoul for a K-pop concert, marking the conclusion of this year's World Scout Jamboree, which encountered difficulties due to a heat wave, a tropical storm and insufficient preparations. The closing ceremony is set to commence at 5:30 p.m., before a K-Pop show from 7-9 p.m. The Jamboree campground was abandoned as Typhoon Khanun approached the site, which had already struggled to cope with a scorching heat wave and insufficient amenit

Politics Aug. 11, 2023

The daughter of Cho Kuk, who served as justice minister for former President Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea, was indicted on Thursday in the college admissions scandal that jailed her mother, Chung Kyung-shim. According to the prosecution, the former minister’s daughter Cho Min colluded with her mother in fabricating her own credentials as she applied for a medical school in Busan. Following the news of her indictment, Cho’s daughter said in a social statement on this d

Politics Aug. 10, 2023

South Korea’s major public housing corporation is facing multiple probes into its residential buildings found to be missing steel reinforcement that is needed to yield higher strength and protect against corrosion. After the safety violations surfaced, the ruling People Power Party and the Yoon Suk Yeol administration vowed a crackdown on unsafe or illegal building practices in the construction industry. The ruling party lawmakers on Tuesday visited an apartment building in Gyeonggi Provin

Politics Aug. 8, 2023

South Korea, terrorized by a series of stabbing sprees all over the country in the past month, is pondering if its police need more liberty in deploying force when confronting a suspect. Earlier this month President Yoon Suk Yeol said that the country’s “entire police force would be mobilized” to prevent the recurrence of stabbing attacks at random. But police officers on the front lines complain they are being held liable for use of force even when judged to be necessary on th

Politics Aug. 6, 2023

South Korea’s main opposition party on Thursday apologized after a lawmaker and key official suggested older people are not as deserving of the right to vote on decisions about the future. Kim Eun-kyung, who heads the Democratic Party of Korea’s reform committee, visited the office of the senior citizens’ association in Seoul’s central Yongsan district and apologized for saying earlier that older people’s votes should not count as much as votes from younger people.

Politics Aug. 3, 2023

When parties are competing for public approval, the outcome is usually rushed bills that backfire with unintended consequences once they take effect as law, according to Je Bang-hoon, a legislative aide of more than 15 years. “All bills, whether introduced by a lawmaker or submitted by a ministry, come to the Assembly to be considered. Lawmakers author and sign bills, all of whose process is prepared and assisted by aides like myself,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Politics Aug. 2, 2023

South Korean Rep. Ji Seong-ho, who fled North Korea in 2006, proposed a bill that protects North Korean escapees from having their cash assistance taken away by “brokers.” The bill, which seeks an amendment to the existing laws on the protection and resettlement of North Korean escapees, would allow them to open bank accounts for cash assistance that cannot be seized by a third party. The South Korean government has been providing financial assistance to people on basic income suppor

Politics July 31, 2023

The older brother of Lee Dae-jun, a fisheries official killed by North Korean troops at sea in September 2020, is on a two-day trip to Japan from Friday to meet with families of Japanese who were abducted by North Korea. The brother, Lee Rae-jin, told The Korea Herald on Friday that he hoped the meeting with Japanese families would be a new opportunity for a joint response to human rights violations perpetrated by North Korea. “In Korea and Japan the pain the families (of victims) shares i

Politics July 28, 2023