President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating slipped to a six-month low of 34.2 percent, hit hard by the snowballing development scandal involving Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, a recent poll found Monday. According to Realmeter, his approval rating in the first week of November was 34.2 percent, down 4.5 percent from the previous week, while his disapproval rating increased 5.3 percent to 62.9 percent during the same period. The approval

Politics Nov. 8, 2021

President Moon Jae-in expressed high hopes for battery partnerships with Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia at a first business forum held between South Korea and the Visegrad Group nations in Budapest on Wednesday. The forum was held on the sidelines of Moon’s state visit to Hungary and a series of summit meetings with the leaders of the four Central European nations during his stay. “The Visegrad Group has become South Korea’s largest investment destination

Foreign Affairs Nov. 4, 2021

President Moon Jae-in arrived in Budapest on Tuesday to hold a series of summit talks with the leaders of the so-called Visegrad Group: Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. It will be the second gathering between South Korea and the four Eastern European countries. On Thursday, the president will hold multilateral and bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of the Visegrad nations. On the sidelines of the meetings, a business forum, a first of its kind, also will be held to explo

Foreign Affairs Nov. 3, 2021

Korea Aerospace Industries, South Korea’s sole aircraft manufacturer, is in talks with the Slovakian government to sell 10 FA-50 homegrown trainer jets in a $500 million deal, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Wednesday. KAI is set to sign a deal with Slovakian aircraft repair company LOTN on Wednesday in Hungary upon President Moon Jae-in’s European tour this week. The president, who arrived in Budapest on Tuesday for a state visit, will hold a summit Thursday

Defense Nov. 3, 2021

President Moon Jae-in made another overture toward North Korea at a UN climate summit Monday, suggesting planting trees together to reduce carbon emissions on the Korean Peninsula and pledging to make good on a 3-year-old promise in an apparent bid to reengage Pyongyang. “The Republic of Korea will take a leading role in cooperation for reforestation,” Moon said in his keynote speech at the 26th Conference of the Parties or COP26 held in Glasgow, Scotland, calling tree planting one

North Korea Nov. 2, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday attended a global supply chain summit that was convened by US President Joe Biden in an apparent move to rally allies in reshaping the global supply ecosystem less dependent on China. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the gathering of the G-20 leaders in Rome. A total of 14 countries, mostly the US’ key allies like Italy, Germany, Canada, India and Australia, attended the meeting, with China being absent.  Biden stressed the urgent need for a

Foreign Affairs Nov. 1, 2021

President Moon Jae-in met with Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of Democratic Party of Korea, at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday, marking the ruling liberal bloc’s formal consolidation for next year’s presidential election. Their tea meeting that lasted for about 50 minutes early in the day started as the president congratulated Lee for being elected the party’s presidential nominee.  “After finishing a fierce competition, it is also important to heal the scars and

Politics Oct. 26, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Monday pledged a last-ditch effort to bring normalcy back and cement the economic recovery in his final address at the National Assembly before he leaves office in May. “With six months left for my presidency, I’m deeply impressed by this final speech,” the president said as he opened his seventh parliamentary speech earlier in the day. “I’ll make an all-out effort until the very end for a complete return to normalcy and an economic recove

Politics Oct. 25, 2021

President Moon Jae-in will embark on a nine-day trip to Europe next week that will include a Vatican meeting with Pope Francis, Cheong Wa Dae announced Friday. The president will hold a bilateral meeting with the pope in Vatican City on Oct. 29 before heading to Rome to attend the G-20 summit on Oct. 30-31. For Moon, the nation’s second Catholic president, it will be his second visit to the Vatican. North Korean issues, including a possible papal visit to Pyongyang, are expected to top

Foreign Affairs Oct. 22, 2021

There will be no immediate breakthrough in the ongoing discussions toward an end-of-war declaration without a change of attitude not just from North Korea, but also from the US, experts here said Tuesday. President Moon Jae-in proposed declaring a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in his UN speech last month, a last-ditch effort to resume stalled diplomacy with North Korea before he leaves office in May. Seoul officials have held a series of high-level meetings in recent weeks, wooing sup

North Korea Oct. 19, 2021

Intelligence chiefs of South Korea, the US and Japan convened in Seoul on Monday to discuss North Korean issues amid a flurry of diplomacy among the three allies aiming to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. According to government sources, Park Jie-won, head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, are said to have held bilateral meetings with Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, and Hiroaki Takizawa, Japan’s cabinet intelligence director,

North Korea Oct. 18, 2021

The top national security advisers of South Korea and the US on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to engaging with North Korea, pledging to work together to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. Suh Hoon, South Korea’s director of national security at Cheong Wa Dae, was visiting Washington to hold a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, amid North Korea’s conflicting messages involving back-to-back missile tests and diplomatic overtures, including the

North Korea Oct. 13, 2021

The first phone call between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is being delayed, with Japanese media saying the new Japanese leader has little incentive to rush ahead of a major election later this month, his first test in domestic politics. According to Japan’s Nikkei business daily on Tuesday, Kishida’s office and Japan’s foreign ministry have agreed not to prioritize South Korea for the new prime minister’s first phone calls with foreign

Foreign Affairs Oct. 12, 2021

Seoul Olympic Park in Songpa District, southern Seoul, was built in preparation for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympic Games. Korea hosting its first summer Olympics in 1988 was seen as a culmination of the nation’s rapid growth over a few short decades.  When construction work started, a massive Baekje Dynasty earth fortification, called Monchontoseong, was excavated and then restored to allow visitors to enjoy a historic stroll in harmony with the newly-built park.   Now

Travel Oct. 9, 2021

President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook on Wednesday test-drove their new car, the Hyundai Casper, renewing awareness for the first private-public experiment to create jobs at a car manufacturing plant.  “Despite its compact size, it is a sturdy car. I like the spacious interior, too,” the president said as the couple was briefed on the car structure and function from a Hyundai Motor official upon the car’s delivery at Cheong Wa Dae. 　 The Casper is a 1-liter m

Politics Oct. 6, 2021