A tug-of-war continued Thursday over whether to form a coalition against the ruling party before the April parliamentary election, as the two main opposition parties remained at odds over the idea that might be crucial to their election victory. With the third-biggest People’s Party being adamant about their rejection of nominating single opposition candidates in constituencies nationwide, the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea urged them to consider unifying candidates at least in tough

Politics March 31, 2016

  South Korea will elect new National Assembly members in a general election on April 13. The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles on candidate agendas, election trends and notable runners leading up to the race. This is the ninth installment. --Ed　At the April 13 general election, voters here will see a significant change in the balloting process, with an improved system to guarantee reliability and accuracy.　The National Election Committee announced that it would be implementing new

Politics March 27, 2016

 　With mere days left to the official election campaign period, mainstream parties are poised to elect this week the interim leadership tasked with spearheading the race leading to the April 13 parliamentary polls.　The ruling Saenuri Party and The Minjoo Party of Korea, both of which have been marred by factional strife over the candidate nominations, scrambled to win sufficient parliamentary seats and seize political momentum until the 2017 presidential race. 　　The Saenuri Party plans to announ

Politics March 27, 2016

The race for the April general election gained momentum Thursday with the start of the official candidate registration, leaving behind brutal internal nomination fights and stepping up the fierce battle for seats in the next National Assembly.The prospective candidates will register for the election until Friday. The election law requires candidates from political parties to be endorsed by their leaders and independent candidates to be endorsed by between 300 and 500 supporters.Since the law ban

Politics March 24, 2016

Minjoo Party chief Kim Chong-in announced on Wednesday he has decided to stay on for the sake of the party’s victory in the April elections, allowing the main opposition to avert a leadership crisis but leaving a dent on the party’s reputation.　“After much thought, I decided to stay,” said Kim in a press conference at the National Assembly. “We have almost 20 days left before the elections. That makes me feel a sense of responsibility about my decision on whether to leave the office,” he said. 　

Politics March 23, 2016

 The ruling party’s parliamentary majority was put at stake on Wednesday as an increasing number of incumbents who had been excluded from the nomination list decided to leave the party and run as independents in the April general election. Reps. Yoon Sang-hyun and Joo Ho-young announced their defection from the Saenuri Party earlier in the day. A total of eight incumbent lawmakers have left the party, bringing its number of parliamentary seats to 149. It is just two seats short of losing the maj

Politics March 23, 2016

The fate of a former floor leader of  the ruling Saenuri Party hung in the balance Monday as the party’s nomination committee ratcheted up pressure against him to voluntarily give up his bid to run in next month’s general election. With the Saenuri Party’s Supreme Council and nomination committee failing to reach a consensus over whether to select Rep. Yoo Seong-min as a parliamentary candidate, the committee’s key members noted that the only way to solve this gridlock would be if the third-term

Politics March 21, 2016

A factional battle continued to engulf the ruling Saenuri Party on Friday over the candidate nomination for the April general election, with senior lawmakers defecting from the party in protest.Reps. Ahn Sang-soo and Cho Hae-jin said in the morning that they would leave the Saenuri Party to run as independents. They follow in the footsteps of Rep. Chin Young, former health minister, who left Thursday. Third-term lawmaker Rep. Joo Ho-young also indicated he is contemplating leaving. Most of those

Politics March 18, 2016

Since taking his post in January, the main opposition party’s interim leader Kim Chong-in has been doing something that his predecessors have avoided in the past: driving out the elderly power brokers and outspoken liberal fightersFirst on Kim’s list was Rep. Moon hee-Sang, who had chaired the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the predecessor to the Minjoo Party of Korea, from 2013 to 2014. Kim forced him to withdraw his bid to run for the April general election. Moon accepted the decision, t

Politics March 16, 2016

　South Korea will elect new National Assembly members in a general election on April 13. The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles on the candidate agendas, election trends and notable runners leading up to the race. This is the sixth installment. --EdPark Jong-ung, a chief publicist for Korea’s Labor Party, stood with his coworkers at the front gate of the National Assembly on Tuesday to hold a press conference urging lawmakers to abandon the controversial counterterrorism bill.　“It i

Politics March 15, 2016

　The focus of the election battle has shifted to the welfare scheme for senior citizens as rival parties stepped up their appeal to older voters in the final month before the April general elections. 　The ruling Saenuri Party and main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea have rolled out series of election manifestos targeting voters over 60 years old -- a group projected to emerge as the most influential electorate due to its high demographic volume and turnout rate. 　According to statistics fro

Politics March 13, 2016

　The main opposition party announced Thursday that it had excluded five incumbent lawmakers from its nominations, accelerating efforts to reinvigorate the party and reach out to moderates ahead of the April general election. 　　Reps. Jung Chung-rae, Yoon Hu-duk, Kang Dong-won, Boo Jwa-hyun and Choi Kyu-sung were barred from running in their constituencies as The Minjoo Party of Korea decided to send out “more competitive” candidates on the campaign trail.  　　The party said the excluded representa

Politics March 10, 2016

　A former presidential aide’s derogatory comment about the ruling party’s leader sent ripples through the political community Wednesday, intensifying factional infighting over the party’s nominations for the April general elections. 　In a taped telephone conversation leaked to local media on Tuesday, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the Saenuri Party, who had served as a presidential adviser on political affairs in 2015, said that he would “eliminate” his party leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung to block his attemp

National March 9, 2016