President Yoon Suk Yeol's fate was hanging in the balance as Koreans went to the polls Wednesday, The exit poll and the early ballot counting of the legislative general election suggested a gloomy outlook for the ruling bloc, which could send the conservative president into an early lame-duck phase, with three years remaining in his term. The exit poll suggested that opposition parties could secure two-thirds or more of the seats in the 300-member National Assembly, which would grant them enough

Politics April 10, 2024

  South Korea's controversy-ridden first lady, Kim Keon Hee, reportedly cast her vote unbeknownst to the public or apparently the presidential office, raising questions and drawing attacks from President Yoon Suk Yeol's political opponents. Liberal YouTube channel "Park Yeol TV" revealed in a post in the channel's community section on Tuesday that Kim had voted during early voting on Friday at a polling station in Itaewon 1-dong of Yongsan-gu, Seoul, which is near the presidential

Politics April 10, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday rolled out a massive spending package to nurture the domestic chip industry and bolster artificial intelligence technology deployment through the AI-Chip Initiative. By 2027, Seoul will spend 9.4 trillion won ($6.94 billion) on AI chips, which are chips sophisticated enough to perform AI tasks and those that use AI technology to achieve greater power efficiency. The country will also introduce a new 1.4 trillion-won fund to spur the development of innovative te

Politics April 9, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday touted his administration's policy efforts as the reason behind the recent signs of the housing market stabilizing. Yoon said his conservative administration will spare no efforts to further stabilize the housing market, as the interest rate and the cost of construction remain high, posing hurdles for the housing supply in Seoul, which is suffering a shortage of affordable housing for prospective homeowners. "Now is the (optimal) time to normalize the housi

Politics April 8, 2024

The green onion, a beloved vegetable among South Koreans, has unexpectedly become the latest political weapon for opposition parties to attack President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling party. It all started with Yoon's visit to a hypermarket in southern Seoul on March 18, just before he rolled out measures to tame food prices in the country. There, Yoon noticed that a bundle of green onions weighing 1 kilogram was selling for 875 won ($0.65), significantly lower than the usual price of between

Politics April 7, 2024

South Korean politics has long been marked by a sharp east-west divide in its southern regions. In the southeast, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan and the Gyeongsang Provinces have been a conservative stronghold for decades, while the country’s southwest, including Gwangju and the Jeolla Provinces, has been a bastion for the left wing. In the 2020 legislative election, the center-left won in 27 out of 28 seats in Korea's southwest, while the conservatives won 56 out of 65 constituencies in the sou

Politics April 7, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered South Korean government ministries to explore ways to help South Korean families hire foreign students and marriage migrants as domestic helpers, doubling down on a troubled program designed to address the country's low fertility rate. Conservatives such as Yoon and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon have proposed hiring foreign nannies at below minimum wage for some time, but faced difficulties in putting the plan into action. Presiding over a meeting at his office to discus

Politics April 4, 2024

South Korea's budget related to technology research and development for 2025 will "reach an all-time high," reversing course from the 14.7 percent budget cut for this year's R&D projects that baffled scientists here, according to the presidential office on Wednesday. Park Sang-ook, senior presidential secretary for science and technology, said in a press briefing in Seoul that Korea will "exponentially increase" the R&D budget, though he did not elaborate on the speci

Politics April 3, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday his administration was moving to establish a new presidential office and a parliament branch in Sejong, the de facto administrative capital of South Korea. The new branch of the presidential office, currently located in Yongsan-gu of Seoul near the Yongsan Garrison of the US Forces Korea, will contribute to "breaking down barriers between the presidential office and the government" and at the same time boost Yoon's public engagement, Yoon said

Politics April 2, 2024

South Korea on Monday unveiled the KTX Cheong-ryong, a new class of bullet train that boasts a maximum speed of 320 kilometers per hour. The new high-speed train is the first domestically designed and manufactured one with a peak speed surpassing 300 kilometers per hour. South Korea launched its homegrown bullet train, the KTX-Sancheon, in 2008 for the first time. Beginning in May, the KTX Cheong-ryong will operate four times a day between Seoul and Busan in southeastern Korea, and twice a day b

Politics April 1, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday that he is open to talks with doctors if they can suggest a more plausible option than his administration's plan of adding 2,000 more medical students a year, seeking a breakthrough in a prolonged medical standoff that has apparently been affecting the ruling party's election campaign. Pointing to doctors' failure to refute his administration's plan to increase the school quota by 2,000 to 5,058 per year starting in 2025, Yoon said in a tel

Politics April 1, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a lecture about the 2023 launch of the Nuri rocket after making a surprise appearance at a class of first graders as a special instructor for the after-school Neulbom program at Ain Elementary School in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, Friday. Yoon's class involved a presentation of a video about the domestically manufactured rocket, reading the children a book about space and rockets and hands-on activities to teach the class about rocket propulsion, according

Politics March 29, 2024

The new high-frequency suburban rail service for commuters named Great Train Express (GTX) is set to begin operation on Saturday, marking a watershed moment in the evolution of Seoul's public transportation. President Yoon Suk Yeol said Friday the GTX network will grow to become the South Korean equivalent of the Crossrail of London and its suburbs in the United Kingdom, and the RER centering around Paris. Those using the commuter rail network to travel from Suseo Station in southern Seoul to Do

Politics March 29, 2024

South Korea shifted into full-scale election mode Thursday, with political parties launching their official campaigns to stretch until the general election on April 10 that is expected to shape the political landscape for the next four years. For the next 13 days, eligible candidates representing their parties are allowed to use loudspeakers and trucks with megaphones for campaigning activities in open spaces from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the National Election Commission on Thursday. The t

Politics March 28, 2024

  South Korea is poised to quintuple its biotechnology industrial output in 15 years, to 200 trillion won ($149 billion) by 2035 from 43 trillion won as of 2020, according to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday. The Ministry of Science and ICT defined life science industrial output as domestic outputs of all types of biopharmaceutical products including biosimilars, medical equipment, supplements, biomass and biotech-related services. Moreover, his administration will nurture an environment

Politics March 26, 2024