A South Korean victim who was forced to work for a Japanese company during World War II said Monday she would refuse to accept locally funded compensation as proposed by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. Testifying before the National Assembly foreign affairs committee, Yang Keum-duk, who was conscripted in her early teenage years to work at a plant in Japan’s Nagoya, said she would “never accept” South Korean money as compensation. “I would rather starve to death than re

Politics March 13, 2023

Former National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon pushed to repatriate two North Korean men who attempted to defect to the South in a bid to restore ties with Pyongyang, according to Seoul prosecutors. In an indictment released Thursday, prosecutors said that then-NIS director Suh ordered the two fishers from North Korea to be sent back, going against the policy that requires any decision to repatriate North Korean defectors to be backed by their intentions to return home. Prosecutors found

Politics March 10, 2023

Parliamentary speakers from MIKTA -- an informal middle power partnership between Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Austria – gathered in Istanbul on Thursday and issued a joint declaration making a case for strengthening the role of parliaments. In the declaration, speakers highlighted the importance of national parliaments in diplomacy in the face of the complex security challenges. The declaration was issued at the MIKTA Speakers’ Consultation, a forum for member countrie

Politics March 10, 2023

Choi Dae-ho, the mayor of Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, has specific ideas for the future of the city. “I aim to continue to promote projects to create a city that will prosper for over 100 years,” Choi proclaims. The agenda pursued by Choi focuses on more initiatives for the city's young people. Choi said over his term he hopes to build a city that is women-friendly and safer for children to grow up in. “Anyang is first in the country to increase rewards to couples that have

Politics March 10, 2023

The first message from the ruling People Power Party’s freshly elected leaders highlighted stronger ties with other democracies, most notably Japan, with which the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration is determined to mend relations. Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, who won the chairpersonship with 52.9 percent of the votes from registered party members, said in a first meeting of the new party leaders on Thursday that Yoon’s plan to compensate South Koreans enslaved by colonial Japan with lo

Politics March 9, 2023

Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, who campaigned on his ability to work closely with President Yoon Suk Yeol, was elected to lead the People Power Party on Wednesday. Kim, who earned 52.9 percent of more than 460,000 votes cast, said in an acceptance speech that he would commit to lead the party to victory in next year’s general election. “To do that our party has to work for the people, and show that we are making the lives of South Koreans better,” he said. The runner-up to Kim was Rep. Ahn

Politics March 8, 2023

The lawmakers on the National Assembly’s intelligence committee said Tuesday that North Korea may hold large-scale military exercises between March and April, in response to planned joint drills between South Korea and the US. More specifically, intelligence committee member Rep. Youn Kun-young of the Democratic Party of Korea told reporters in a closed-door briefing that North Korea may conduct an ICBM test on a normal trajectory as well as test-fire a new solid fuel-based ICBM sometime t

Politics March 7, 2023

South Korea National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo is heading to Turkey on Wednesday for the eighth MIKTA parliamentary speakers’ meeting. MIKTA is the informal grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia. In a release on Tuesday, the National Assembly speaker’s office said that at the MIKTA meeting, Kim would “seek joint responses at the parliamentary level” on issues such as sustainable development. The office also said the speaker would “appea

Politics March 7, 2023

South Korean opposition lawmakers on Tuesday signed a statement welcoming the re-introduction of the US House of Representatives bill calling for efforts to achieve a formal end to the Korean War. “We, 166 lawmakers of South Korea, thank the members of the US Congress for their insight on and dedication to building peace on the Korean Peninsula,” the South Korean lawmakers from the main opposition Democratic Party and the minor progressive Justice Party said in the statement. “

Politics March 7, 2023

The race to be the new chairperson of the ruling People Power Party is turning into a contest between candidates who have President Yoon Suk Yeol’s apparent backing and those who do not. Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, the three-time presidential contender who is now vying to lead the People Power Party, said Sunday he was competing on an “uneven playing field,” citing the latest allegations of the presidential office’s behind-the-scenes push for another leading candidate, Rep. Kim G

Politics March 5, 2023

The recent indictment of former President Moon Jae-in’s top officials in the investigation of the forced return of two North Korean fishermen in 2019 is “nothing more than political revenge,” an ex-Moon aide and sitting lawmaker said. “This is political revenge against the last administration -- nothing more, nothing less,” Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Youn Kun-young, who served as the state affairs monitoring director in Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae, told The Korea

Politics March 2, 2023

The South Korean government once again held firm in its stance that Russians coming to the country to avoid being drafted in the war in Ukraine would not qualify as refugees. In a message to reporters on Wednesday, the Ministry of Justice said it would appeal Incheon District Court’s Feb. 14 decision that two of the three Russian men who arrived here in October should be allowed the chance to apply for refugee status here. “The Justice Ministry has decided to appeal the court’s

Social Affairs March 1, 2023

The narrow defeat of a National Assembly motion to arrest Democratic Party of Korea chairperson Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Monday has angered supporters, while the party continued to rally behind its legally embattled leader. The vote, which proceeded anonymously at the Monday plenary session, split 139 in favor to 138 against, below the minimum threshold of 149 votes required for the motion to pass. Nine votes were abstentions and 11 were deemed as invalid. The Democratic Party, which holds 169 seat

Politics Feb. 28, 2023

Democratic Party of Korea leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung avoided facing an arrest warrant by a close margin in a National Assembly vote on Monday, despite earlier pledges from the party that the motion will be defeated by “an overwhelming majority.” The motion to allow a judge to consider an arrest warrant for Lee, submitted to the National Assembly last week by the Seoul Central District Court, was rejected in an anonymous vote. The vote split 139 in favor to 138 against, failing to meet

Politics Feb. 27, 2023

A large crowd turned out at a series of vigils and rallies held outside the Russian Embassy in Seoul on Friday and Saturday to show support for Ukraine, one year since Russia’s invasion of the country. Chants denouncing Russia -- “Withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine! If Russia stops fighting, there is no war!” -- rung around the square near the embassy, as Ukraine supporters and anti-war demonstrators gathered. One of them was Andrei Litvinov, a Ukrainian teacher at a school i

Social Affairs Feb. 26, 2023