The Yoon Suk Yeol administration on Monday launched an audit looking into all available administrative records to determine which government entity should be held responsible for failing to take adequate safety measures against flooding in South Korea, namely the deadly submerging of a tunnel in North Chungcheong Province. The Office for Government Policy Coordination announced Monday it had learned about emergency calls to police calling for swift evacuation and closure of the underpass hours b

Social Affairs July 17, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to depart for Seoul on Sunday, concluding a weeklong visit to Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, with an emphasis on global security, business reinforcement with NATO members and Ukrainian reconstruction. Yoon made an unexpected stop in Ukraine on Saturday, where he promised military supplies and financial aid. Yoon’s journey involved a mix of air, land and train travel, totaling 27 hours for the round trip. He stayed in Ukraine for 11 hours. Th

Foreign Affairs July 16, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged increased military aid as well as humanitarian support to Ukraine, a nation ravaged by war, during his surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday. Yoon had a 65-minute private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss pending issues between the two countries and a 45-minute extended meeting with key officials from both governments. At a joint press conference held following the summit, Yoon vowed to increase Korea&rsquo

Politics July 15, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee are in Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a highly secretive visit made after the Korean president's official visit to Poland, the presidential office said Saturday. The couple arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning, and traveled to Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv where Russian troops carried out atrocities early on in the war. He also visited nearby Irpin, where civilian areas were subjected to c

Foreign Affairs July 15, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- South Korean and Polish businesses formalized 33 memorandums of understanding across the high-tech, energy and service industries during a business forum held in Poland's capital Warsaw on Friday. The deal was reached in the presence of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who also committed to bolstering the private sector's involvement in Ukraine's post-conflict reconstruction efforts. The South Korean and Polish firm's 33 deals include 11 within high-t

Foreign Affairs July 14, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- South Korea will offer comprehensive support from both the public and private sectors for Ukraine reconstruction projects valued at $52 billion, according to the presidential office. "Ukraine has requested the involvement of Korean companies in approximately 5,000 construction projects, estimated at $20 billion, through an intergovernmental cooperation channel in May," said Choi Sang-mok, economic secretary for President Yoon. According to Choi, the government will b

Foreign Affairs July 14, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- The first ladies of South Korea and Poland visited an exhibition on Mexican artist Frida Kahlo at Warsaw's Royal Lazienki Museum and met scout members in the country as part of friendly engagements, the presidential office said Thursday. Kim Keon Hee and her Polish counterpart, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, have met twice at NATO summits since last year. Thursday was their third meeting, during President Yoon Suk Yeol's official visit to the European country. "I hope th

Foreign Affairs July 14, 2023

WARSAW, Poland — Korean companies are expected to formalize nuclear power collaborations with their Polish counterparts, taking the South Korean leader's official visit to the country as an opportunity, according to the senior presidential secretary on the economy on Thursday. "Nuclear-related firms such as Doosan Enerbility, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Daewoo Engineering and Construction are poised to sign six memoranda of understanding with Polish companies tomorro

Foreign Affairs July 14, 2023

WARSAW, Poland -- President Yoon Suk Yeol said South Korea will continue to support Ukraine's reconstruction in partnership with Poland, while also expanding strategic cooperation with Warsaw in defense and high-tech sectors including clean energy, next-generation batteries, electric vehicles and information technology. In a summit with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda on Thursday, the two leaders discussed cooperation on a wide range of issues between the two countries, which have see

Foreign Affairs July 13, 2023

  VILNIUS, Lithuania/SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk Yeol has requested from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to halt the discharge of wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant if radiation levels remain over the line even after filtering out radioactive elements. At their meeting held on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Wednesday, Yoon also asked his Japanese counterpart to share monitoring information over the discharge process in real time, and to allow Korean experts to

Politics July 12, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol's visit to Poland, the first by a South Korean leader in 14 years, is expected to strengthen further the strategic partnership between the two nations, which has seen significant progress on the back of recent arms deals amounting to multiple billions of dollars, according to the European country's top envoy in Seoul. In an interview with The Korea Herald conducted in prior to Yoon's visit to Poland on Wednesday, Polish Ambassador to Korea Piotr Ostaszews

Foreign Affairs July 12, 2023

VILNIUS, Lithuania/SEOUL -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol condemned North Korea's latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch and urged a stronger collective message from NATO in a summit held Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania. Yoon decried the launch as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and a threat to global peace, calling on the international community to stand firmly against such provocations. Hours before the summit of NATO and its partners, North Korea launched

North Korea July 12, 2023

  VILNIUS, Lithuania – President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled for a summit Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit. This Korea-Japan summit marks the first meeting in approximately two months since their bilateral discussion during the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. This will be their sixth official meeting. A high-ranking official from the presidential office, who spoke on condition of a

Politics July 12, 2023

VILNIUS, Lithuania – President Yoon Suk Yeol has met with leaders from NATO nations the Netherlands, Portugal and Norway to discuss enhancing cooperation and addressing regional issues. The conversations took place at a recent summit and focused on mutual efforts in fields such as national defense, security, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and nuclear power, according to a statement from the presidential office. During their summit on Tuesday, Yoon and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rut

Foreign Affairs July 11, 2023

VILNIUS, Lithuania – South Korea and NATO agreed on Tuesday to upgrade their partnership by expanding the scope of cooperation from traditional areas such as counterterrorism, disarmament and cyber defense to emerging technologies in artificial intelligence, space and missiles. At a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed the need to "institutionalize the framework" to bolster cooperation with the US-led alliance. &ldq

Foreign Affairs July 11, 2023