President Yoon Suk Yeol stressed the United States Indo-Pacific Command's role in taking the alliance between Seoul and Washington to a new level, amid growing geopolitical tensions beyond the Korean Peninsula. Yoon on Tuesday local time visited the headquarters of the Indo-Pacific Command at Camp H. M. Smith in Halawa, Hawaii, near Honolulu. The last time a South Korean head of state visited the base was then-President Kim Young-sam 29 years ago. "Among many other important missions,

Politics July 10, 2024

The Legislation and Judiciary Committee at the National Assembly approved a plan to hold two rounds of hearings later this month on the online petition on the parliament's website calling for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The committee, controlled by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, also decided to summon Yoon's wife, Kim Keon Hee, to testify before the National Assembly on July 26. This is the first time in modern Korean history that the parliament has summoned a fir

Politics July 9, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday again vetoed the Democratic Party of Korea-led bill to launch a special counsel to investigate allegations that the Yoon administration, including the president himself, exerted external pressure on an internal military probe into the death of young Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun in July 2023. Yoon's veto is his 15th since his inauguration in May 2022, as he has exercised his constitutional power to block the passage of bills pushed by the opposition parties who

Politics July 9, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol is poised to address military cooperation between North Korea and Russia that the West believes is aggravating the war situation in Ukraine, as he departed for the United States to visit the US Indo-Pacific Command and attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit during his five-day trip. South Korea's approval of weapons for Ukraine will be determined at "the level and substance of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea," Yoon was quot

Politics July 8, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Washington next week and visit the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, the presidential office announced Friday. Principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo informed reporters that President Yoon would arrive in Washington on Wednesday to meet leaders of NATO member countries and the NATO leadership. The discussions will focus on the war in Ukraine and the cooperation between the transatlantic secu

Politics July 5, 2024

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday motioned a set of bills to impeach a high-level Yoon Suk Yeol government official and four prosecutors who investigated cases affecting party figures, including former party Chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung. The Democratic Party, which holds the majority of seats in the Assembly, put the impeachment bills to the floor without the ruling People Power Party’s support. The series of impeachments pushed by the Democratic Party leads to impeachin

Politics July 2, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday ordered his administration to come up with "scientific safety measures," in a follow-up to the deadly blaze in a lithium battery factory last week in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. At a Cabinet meeting he presided over Tuesday in his office, Yoon ordered the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Science and ICT to strengthen their collaboration to develop relevant risk detection technologies and firefi

Politics July 2, 2024

The government will propose new legislation next month to create a deputy prime minister post dedicated to population planning, marking a major organizational shift to address the nation's aging population and low birth rate, the presidential office announced Monday. The proposed reorganization will have Education Minister Lee Ju-ho hand over his deputy prime minister role -- overseeing social affairs-related issues in education, labor and welfare -- to the newly created position of populat

Politics July 1, 2024

High-ranking officials of the government and the ruling party on Sunday agreed on the need to increase efforts to bust voice phishing scammers by the end of October and to strengthen cooperation with Interpol and Chinese state security authorities to crack down on organized crime overseas. Officials in President Yoon Suk Yeol's office, his administration and the ruling People Power Party also agreed to inspect messaging service providers to look into security vulnerabilities by the end of J

Politics June 30, 2024

Rival parties are expected to bicker in the coming weeks, as the opposition parties are mulling reintroducing contentious bills that President Yoon Suk Yeol had vetoed. South Korea's National Assembly is ready to float a bill calling for a special counsel probe into alleged state interference in a Marine Corps investigation into the cause of a young Marine's death during a rescue operation last summer. Rep. Park Chan-dae, acting chief of the Democratic Party of Korea, said during a ral

Politics June 30, 2024

South Korea may propose a budget related to state-backed scientific research and development amounting to nearly 30 trillion won ($21.6 billion), according to the presidential office on Thursday. "The total amount of the state R&D budget could certainly reach 30 trillion won, but the final proposal will be handed in (to the Finance Ministry) in late August," Park Sang-ook, senior presidential secretary for science and technology, told reporters. Park revealed that what is included

Politics June 27, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday announced picks for four vice-ministerial officials including chiefs of the tax, fire and weather agencies, as well as first vice minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination amid reports that he might carry a major Cabinet reshuffle soon. Kang Min-soo, who heads the Seoul Regional Tax Office, was nominated as the new chief of the National Tax Agency. Kang, 56 is the only vice-ministerial official out of four named Thursday to go through the parli

Politics June 27, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol is likely to retain Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, according to local reports over an imminent Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday. Prime Minister Han has served in his post since Yoon's inauguration over two years ago. Han has stayed in the post even after he offered his resignation following the ruling bloc's defeat in the April general elections. The Cabinet reshuffle "will unlikely take place before end-June, and will likely be done after mid-July," a sen

Politics June 26, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday vowed an overhaul of the nation's mental health policy as he presided over the first meeting of a presidential committee dedicated to expanding state support and changing the general perception toward mental illness. The government will start injecting an expanded state budget to address people's mental health starting next year. According to a senior official from the presidential office who declined to be named, the state support package is estima

Politics June 26, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday denounced a pact signed between North Korea and Russia last week as "an anachronistic act" that goes against the progress of history and Pyongyang's repeated provocations as "despicable and irrational." During his televised speech to mark the 74th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, Yoon said the pact, which forges stronger military and economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, "blatantly violat

Politics June 25, 2024