Starting Jan. 30, wearing face masks will no longer be required indoors in Korea -- a move that comes three years after the mandate was introduced. Prime Minister Han Duk-soo told a government meeting Friday that with the exception of some high-risk places including hospitals, pharmacies and public transit, face masks will cease being mandatory. “COVID-19 cases have been on the decline for three weeks in a row, and the situation has remained stable in Korea,” he said, adding that he

Social Affairs Jan. 20, 2023

Rep. Tae Yong-ho, who was a North Korean diplomat before he defected in 2016, on Thursday announced his bid to run for the Supreme Council member of the ruling People Power Party. Speaking at a press conference, he said as someone who has known the North Korean regime from the inside, he believes he has a “historical responsibility” to put his experience to greater use. “Sooner or later, North Korea’s regime will find itself in an existential crisis. If we are prepared, w

Politics Jan. 19, 2023

Three years ago on Friday, South Korea detected its first case of COVID-19 or novel coronavirus disease as it was known then. Since then, the total count of cumulative cases here reached 29,927,958, as of midnight Wednesday. This means that about 58 percent of the population in South Korea have tested positive for the virus, public health authorities say. The country is now readying to move on from the pandemic. As the threat of a winter surge abates, public health authorities are now debating w

Social Affairs Jan. 19, 2023

Father who lost his son to the Itaewon crowd crush in October of last year collapsed Tuesday as the last day of the National Assembly probe turned into a row between the ruling and opposition parties. The father of late Lee Ji-han, who died at age 24 on the night of the disaster in central Seoul, was taken to a nearby hospital by an ambulance after collapsing near the end of the final plenary session of the parliamentary probe. He had to be escorted out of Tuesday’s session, after crying u

Politics Jan. 17, 2023

The Democratic Party of Korea held a series of emergency meetings Monday, accusing the Yoon Suk Yeol administration of “being subservient” to Japan with its apparent plan for compensating victims of colonial forced labor. “The Yoon administration is willing to give up everything if it means mending ties with Japan,” Democratic Party head Rep. Lee Jae-myung said at the meeting convened by the party’s committee on peace and foreign affairs. “The administration m

Politics Jan. 16, 2023

The former head of the National Intelligence Service of Korea, Park Jie-won, ordered the deletion of all intelligence reports on North Korean troops killing South Korean government official Lee Dae-jun on Sept. 22, 2020 at sea, according to an indictment submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday. Park “had officials at the National Intelligence Service delete intelligence reports related to Lee Dae-jun’s case, which is not part of their duty,” and “destroyed records

Politics Jan. 13, 2023

The head of main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, Rep. Lee Jae-myung asked for a meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday, saying the conservative administration was not making an effort to bring the parties together. The party chair repeated his request for a meeting with the president at the press conference held just two days after he was summoned by prosecutors in an investigation into allegations that he solicited bribes while he was mayor of Seognam, Gyeonggi Province. In Sept

Politics Jan. 12, 2023

Suh Hoon, an ex-national security and intelligence chief, ordered the cover-up of the killing of a South Korean official by North Korean troops at sea in 2020 over concerns the incident would prompt criticism of then-President Moon Jae-in, according to an indictment Seoul prosecutors submitted to the National Assembly. Seoul prosecutors said in the indictment written Dec. 9 that while Suh was the top national security adviser at Cheong Wa Dae, he told staff to keep the death of the official disc

Politics Jan. 11, 2023

Experts called for giving emergency doctors more authority and the government more responsibility at the scene of major disasters. Speaking at the parliamentary probe hearing into the Halloween disaster in Itaewon last year, emergency medicine professor Dr. Lee Kyung-won of Yonsei University said first responders should be supported by an expert at the scene. “Large public hospitals get aid from municipalities so they have their own disaster medical assistance team. But most hospitals can&

Politics Jan. 10, 2023

Seoul prosecutors on Tuesday raided police and municipal offices in an investigation into the Halloween tragedy in Itaewon, a neighborhood in the capital city’s central district of Yongsan. The searches took place at the headquarters of the Seoul Metropolitan Police, the district police and the office of Yongsan, prosecutors said. The prosecutors also searched the detention center where some of the key suspects are detained. Police on Nov. 1 set up an independent team to investigate the di

Social Affairs Jan. 10, 2023

North Korea’s elite and younger generations are growing increasingly disillusioned with the Kim Jong-un regime, according to emigre-turned-assemblyman Rep. Tae Yong-ho. In recent interviews with The Korea Herald, Tae said the purging of former North Korean foreign affairs minister Ri Yong-ho would “instigate a further divide between Pyongyang’s elite and the leadership.” “The fall of Ri would estrange members of the North Korean elite further from Kim Jong-un,&rdquo

Politics Jan. 9, 2023

With the party convention approaching, the race for a new leadership of the ruling People Power Party is heating up. President Yoon Suk Yeol is unlikely to issue a public endorsement, but contenders’ closeness with the president is considered a major factor that can sway the outcome. Over the weekend, the presidential office and Na Kyung-won, four-time lawmaker and not a pro-Yoon contender for party’s chair, clashed over her remarks regarding government loans for young married couple

Politics Jan. 8, 2023

Lawmakers on Thursday shared the South Korean spy agency’s assessment that former North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho appears to have been purged. The lawmakers of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee said in a closed-door briefing that the National Intelligence Service was able to confirm that Ri was purged by the regime The closed-door briefing was held after the spy agency briefed the parliamentary intelligence committee during Thursday’s plenary session. Demo

Politics Jan. 5, 2023

Police chiefs said they did not know about the Halloween crowd disaster at Itaewon in Seoul’s Yongsan as it was unfolding on the night of Oct. 29 last year, appearing as witnesses at a National Assembly hearing on Wednesday. At the hearing, the police chiefs and senior officers of Seoul, Yongsan and the national police were grilled about their lack of presence on the night of the incident, leaving the fire department to respond by itself. “I wasn’t briefed or contacted by anyon

Politics Jan. 4, 2023

BUSAN/YANGSAN, South Gyeongsang Province -- In one of his first steps in the new year, Democratic Party of Korea chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Monday visited the residence of former President Moon Jae-in, skipping President Yoon Suk-yeol’s New Year event held on the same day. Monday’s meeting took place behind closed doors, with at least hundreds of meters from the vicinity of the ex-president’s residence barricaded, barring access to dozens of reporters who were there. Lee left

Politics Jan. 2, 2023