The main opposition People Power Party on Friday shortlisted four contenders heading toward the primary’s second elimination round to pick a candidate for next year’s presidential election. The party announced Friday morning that former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min and former Jeju Island Gov. Won Hee-ryong are the remaining contenders in the People Power Party’s primary. The four candidates were chosen based on results f

Politics Oct. 8, 2021

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug stressed international cooperation while meeting with global leaders and promising cooperation and support with his counterparts from other nations in his trip Thursday to Europe for G-20 diplomatic talks. Upon attending the opening ceremony of the 7th G-20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in Rome, Park held bilateral talks with Germany’s President Reiner Haseloff and South Africa’s National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqukula. Pa

Politics Oct. 8, 2021

Ruling party lawmakers on Wednesday raised pressure on the opposition bloc and the son of Rep. Kwak Sang-do for receiving unreasonably large severance pay in relation to a growing land development scandal. During the annual parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Employment and Labor held Wednesday, lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea pressed Labor Minister An Kyung-duk to provide answers on whether the amount Kwak’s son received from his former employer had been reasonable.

Social Affairs Oct. 6, 2021

Autumn is here, and so are the minefields of rotting ginkgo berries. Ginkgo trees are the most commonly found trees lining Seoul’s streets, accounting for nearly 35 percent out of 305,086 street trees planted throughout the city. The female trees, about a quarter of ginkgo trees in Seoul, produce berries from mid-September, and through early November, they produce berries that fall and rot on the ground. Ko Yoon-ho, a 29-year-old resident of Nowon-gu, northern Seoul, says that autumn i

Social Affairs Oct. 5, 2021

Encouraged by his continued victory in the ruling bloc’s presidential primary race, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung is looking to solidify his position by targeting voters in Seoul with a promise to make it a global city on par with cities like New York and London. The leading presidential candidate for the ruling bloc said in a press conference Monday that he will turn Seoul into a global economic capital and a global center of business and finance. He envisions putting Yeouido, in

Politics Oct. 4, 2021

The Korea International Cooperation Agency’s project on improving water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia is gaining global attention, after it was featured in renowned international journals. The government agency dedicated to providing grant aid programs said Monday that its official development assistance project has been introduced in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in June and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in July. For si

Social Affairs Oct. 4, 2021

Calls are growing for Rep. Chang Je-won of the main opposition People Power Party to step down from his lawmaker post after critics accuse him responsible for his son driving without a license and assaulting a police officer. An open petition to the Blue House asked Rep. Chang to be stripped of his lawmaker post as his son Chang Yong-jun, better known by his stage name NO:EL is under police investigation on charges of unlicensed driving and assaulting a police officer on Sept. 18 in Seoul. Acc

Social Affairs Oct. 3, 2021

After the National Assembly passed a bill last week to open a regional branch of the legislature in Sejong, eyes are watching to see how the plan will unfold and whether the long-debated capital relocation plan will finally get a boost. Lawmakers on Tuesday passed a revision to the National Assembly Act approving the establishment of a regional branch of the parliament in Sejong, the special self-governing city that serves as a second administrative capital for South Korea. Its passage comes n

Politics Oct. 3, 2021

South Korea’s plan to step into a phased recovery back to normal life in November is gaining support with positive clinical test results of an experimental COVID-19 oral medication overseas. Leading global drugmaker Merck & Co announced Friday that its experimental antiviral pill dubbed molnupiravir was shown to halve the chances of hospitalization or death for those infected with COVID-19. Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics reported that 7.3 percent of patients who rece

Social Affairs Oct. 2, 2021

The ruling party walked back from its plan to put a controversial media bill for a final vote in face of strong opposition and stalled negotiations with the opposition bloc on Wednesday. The Democratic Party of Korea said in a press briefing on Wednesday evening that its senior party officials decided to give up trying to put the media bill up for a final vote at Wednesday’s plenary session of the National Assembly, the last one to be held in September. “We ruled that it would be d

Politics Sept. 29, 2021

Rival parties continue to clash over a controversial media bill that faces criticism for potentially undermining the freedom of press, signaling a chance for the ruling party to unilaterally use its dominant position in the legislative branch to pass the bill on a final vote. Floor leaders of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and main opposition People Power Party met Wednesday morning for a meeting chaired by National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug where they discussed making amendments

Politics Sept. 29, 2021

The fallout from a controversial land development project authorized by Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung is expanding, threatening to bog down parties on both sides of the aisle. The case came to light just weeks earlier after it was reported that Lee allegedly gave business favors to Hwacheon Daeyu Asset Management in 2015 to help the firm take part in a land development project in Seongnam’s Daejang-dong when he was mayor of the city. Lee was accused of unlawfully aiding Hwacheon

Politics Sept. 28, 2021

An unspoken “caste” system based largely on race and skin color persists in South Korean society. In a matter of decades, Korea has grown into a popular destination for tourists, with iconic features like K-pop, culinary delights and cultural heritage items drawing travelers from all corners of the globe. Yet the number who come here to live is relatively small, and foreigners and experts point to an invisible ranking system based largely on race and ethnicity as one of the factors

Social Affairs Sept. 27, 2021

President Moon Jae-in’s promise to halve the annual number of fatal industrial accidents by the end of his term seems unlikely to materialize. According to data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the number of industrial accident deaths in the first six months of this year reached 474, meaning 2.6 deaths per day. That is four more than the figure for the same period a year earlier. If workplace deaths continue at their current pace through the remainder of this year, the yearly

Social Affairs Sept. 23, 2021

South Korea will provide more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam next month as the two countries emphasize cooperation as strategic partners, the presidential office said Tuesday. The commitment was made during President Moon Jae-in’s summit with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. It was not disclosed which COVID-19 vaccines would be provided. It was Korea

Foreign Affairs Sept. 22, 2021