The summit talks between President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden last week helped the two countries further deepen their alliance in a "comprehensive, constructive and mutually beneficial" manner, the foreign ministry said Friday. The ministry made the assessment in a report to the parliament, saying that the May 21 summit "brought achievements encompassing political, economic cooperation and global issues, while expanding and deepening the realms of cooperation."

Foreign Affairs May 28, 2021

South Korea plans to take into account tax revenue situations and demand for increasing public finances before it decides on whether to draw up another extra budget in the latter half of 2021, a senior government official said Friday. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon also said the government will focus its economic policy on underpinning an accelerating economic recovery in the second half. Talk of another extra budget emerged from the ruling party after President Moon Jae-in said Thur

Economy May 28, 2021

The government and the ruling Democratic Party (DP) on Friday agreed on the need to restart dialogue with North Korea to restore inter-Korean relations as early as possible based on last week's Seoul-Washington summit deal that reaffirmed the allies' peace commitment toward the Korean Peninsula. "We have agreed that Seoul should facilitate conversations and exchanges with Pyongyang to ease the strained inter-Korean relations," DP spokesperson Rep. Koh Yong-jin said after a policy cons

Politics May 28, 2021

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker, is seeking to sell an idle plant site in China to a local district government, industry sources said Friday. Hyundai Motor plans to sell the site of the No. 1 Beijing plant, which has been suspended since April 2019, to the Shunyi administrative district, a person familiar with the matter told Yonhap News Agency over the phone. The plant's suspension came after Hyundai suffered years of sluggish sales in China due to the lingering impact of po

Industry May 28, 2021

Seoul will address Tokyo's renewed claim to sovereignty of South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo on the Tokyo Olympic website as strongly as possible, Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said Friday. Japan described Dokdo as part of its territory on a map posted on the Tokyo Olympic website to show the route of the torch relay, its latest claiming of the islets. The move has prompted mounting calls to revise it and concerns that the inclusion of the islets could undermine the Olympic spirit

Foreign Affairs May 28, 2021

South Korean banks' lending rates edged down in April amid a slight decline in deposit rates, central bank data showed Friday. The average interest rate charged on new bank loans came to 2.74 percent in April, down 0.03 percentage point from the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The BOK cut the key interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent in May last year after delivering an emergency rate cut of half a percentage point in March to cushion the impa

Economy May 28, 2021

South Korean institutions' investment in foreign securities fell 1.7 percent in the first quarter as they reduced their holdings of foreign sovereign bonds, central bank data showed Friday. The combined value of foreign securities held by institutional investors came to $363 billion as of end-March, down $6.1 billion from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). Foreign securities include stocks, bonds and so-called Korean paper, which refers to foreign currency-denominated

Market May 28, 2021

The top nuclear envoys of South Korea and the United States held their second phone talks in less than a week on Friday to discuss cooperation to achieve denuclearization and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, the foreign ministry said. Noh Kyu-duk, the ministry's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, and his US counterpart, Sung Kim, discussed follow-up efforts to last week's summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden, where the leaders stressed d

Foreign Affairs May 28, 2021

President Moon Jae-in has named Park Soo-hyun, a former lawmaker, as new senior secretary for public communication, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. Park succeeds Chung Man-ho, who has been in the post for less than 10 months. Park worked as Moon's first Cheong Wa Dae spokesman starting in May 2017 after serving as lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party for four years from 2012. He left Cheong Wa Dae in 2018 in a failed bid to become governor of South Chungcheong Province. He was defeated in last ye

Politics May 28, 2021

Jeju Island, South Korea's most popular holiday destination, will raise itsanti-COVID-19 social distancing measures by one notch to Level 2 at the end of this month to cope with growing local transmissions of the coronavirus, the provincial government said Friday. The Level 2 posture, the third highest in the country's five-tier COVID-19 alert system, will be enforced for two weeks beginning Monday, the government said, noting the operating hours of facilities used by the general public will be

Social Affairs May 28, 2021

The unification ministry said Friday it will seek to restore communication lines and dialogue with North Korea based on "sufficient conditions" for engagement created by last week's summit between President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump. In a report to the National Assembly, the ministry also said that Pyongyang must be now thinking hard about its next steps after Moon and Biden agreed to take diplomatic and pragmatic approach in denuclearization efforts. "The leader

North Korea May 28, 2021

Three Army soldiers and two airmen have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the defense ministry said Friday. The Army officers based in Hongcheon, some 100 kilometers east of Seoul, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after one of them first developed symptoms, according to the ministry. On follow-up tests at the unit, 156 people have tested negative, while 16 are waiting for their results. In Osan, 55 km south of Seoul, two Air Force officers have tested positive while in quaran

Defense May 28, 2021

Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician with no experience as a lawmaker, swept to victory Friday in the primary for the upcoming election to pick the new chairman of the main opposition party. Lee was among the final five candidates selected through opinion polls to compete in the People Power Party's (PPP) chairman election on June 11, according to the party's election management committee. The former member of the party's supreme council was followed by former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won

Politics May 28, 2021

South Korea plans to extend a cut in the consumption tax on passenger cars by another six months in a bid to boost domestic demand hit by the pandemic, the finance minister said Friday. A 30 percent cut in the consumption tax on the purchase of passenger cars is supposed to expire at the end of June, but the country will extend it until the end of this year, according to Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki. In July 2018, the government slashed the auto consumption tax to 3.5 percent from 5 percent an

Economy May 28, 2021

Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu offered to resign Friday, after he was embroiled in a controversy over unpunished assault against a taxi driver. The justice ministry announced the news, without detailing reasons for his abrupt resignation. In a short statement sent to reporters, Lee said he was resigning because he believed the ministry "badly" needed a "new worker" who could help the ministry to reinvent itself for the remaining one year of the Moon Jae-in government.

Politics May 28, 2021