Most Popular
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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Will tug-of-war between doctors, government end soon?
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Climate impacts set to cut 2050 global GDP by nearly a fifth
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Trilateral talks acknowledge ‘serious’ slumps of won, yen
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[Graphic News] More Koreans say they plan long-distance trips this year
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[KH Explains] Hyundai's full hybrid edge to pay off amid slow transition to pure EVs
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North Korea removes streetlights along cross-border roads with South
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Farming households dip below 1m for first time in 2023
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
President Yoon Suk Yeol has invited main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to their first one-on-one meeting through a brief phone call, the presidential office said Friday. In a surprise 5-minute phone call between the two, Yoon asked Lee to meet him next week at Yongsan, where the presidential office is located, an official at the presidential office told reporters. In his first phone call to Lee, Yoon added that he hoped to frequently meet from now on to discuss national affairs “over tea
April 19, 2024
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Main opposition seeks to railroad more pending bills ahead of new parliament
The main opposition said Friday it was looking to railroad more contentious bills before the new parliament members are sworn in, a day after it passed an amended version of the revision to the Grain Management Act that was vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol last year. Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung emphasized the urgency of passing key bills, including an amendment to the law that strengthens protection for victims of real estate fraud, before the current assembly term concludes
April 19, 2024
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating was at 23 percent to mark the lowest figure since he took office, a poll showed Friday, as the ruling party struggled to recover from its crushing defeat in the general elections held last week. The Gallup Korea poll, conducted on April 16-18 on 1,000 adults across the country, showed that positive assessment of Yoon's performance dropped 11 percentage points from the previous survey, which was taken at March 26-28 before the parliamentary election. The
April 19, 2024
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Yoon's approval rating sinks to all-time low following election loss
President Yoon Suk Yeol's job approval rating hit an all-time low in the third week of April, as the ruling bloc reels from the repercussions of massive losses in the April 10 general election, a poll showed Thursday. Yoon's approval rating came to just 27 percent, the lowest since Yoon took office in May 2022, according to a poll conducted by the National Barometer Survey. The previous low was 28 percent in the second week of August 2022. The president's popularity plunged by 1
April 18, 2024
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Contentious grain bill put directly to plenary meeting for vote
A main opposition-controlled parliamentary standing committee on Thursday unilaterally passed a total of five contentious bills, including a watered-down version of the revision to the Grain Management Act that was vetoed by President Yoon Suk Yeol last year. The move aims to expedite their consideration, intending to usher them directly into a plenary session at the National Assembly for voting. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has accelerated the passage of contentious bills follo
April 18, 2024
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Democratic Party of Korea pushes universal cash subsidies to ‘save economy’
The Democratic Party of Korea on Wednesday proposed doling out monetary subsidies of some 14 trillion won ($10.1 billion) in total to boost consumption, reiterating the party’s key general election pledge. During a leadership meeting, the Democratic Party’s leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung said his party would put forward an official proposal for adopting what he called “emergency measures” to “restore livelihoods and save the economy.” Making a case for universal ca
April 17, 2024
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
The presidential office on Wednesday denied rumors that President Yoon Suk Yeol, in his search for candidates for a new prime minister and key aides, reached out to liberal figures who formerly worked for his predecessor Moon Jae-in. The presidential office "has not considered any plans to hire former SMEs and Startups Minister Park Young-sun or Yang Jung-chul, former head of the Institute for Democracy," it said in a statement Wednesday. The Institute for Democracy is the main opposit
April 17, 2024
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Conservative bloc divided over Han’s role in election defeat
Several members of the conservative bloc have exchanged blows among themselves in recent days, locking horns over whether the ruling party’s former interim leader is to blame for the devastating defeat in last week’s general election. Daegu Mayor and five-term conservative lawmaker Hong Joon-pyo kicked off a round of intense debate Friday by blaming Han for the People Power Party’s latest loss through a Facebook post. “(The People Power Party), which has survived the rive
April 16, 2024
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Yoon sorry for shortcomings but insists policies were right
President Yoon Suk Yeol said he and his administration will humbly accept the result of last week's general election, which renewed the main opposition's firm grip over the National Assembly for the next four years, stressing that he sees it as a reflection of public sentiment. "I will take heed of the public sentiment and communicate more with people with humility and flexibility," Yoon said in a Cabinet meeting held in his office in Seoul, with his opening remarks televised
April 16, 2024
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Ex-PPP member attends police questioning for receiving donations via YouTube
An unsuccessful candidate in last week's parliamentary elections appeared before police Monday for questioning on charges of receiving political donations through payments via a YouTube broadcast last year. Jang Ye-chan, a former ruling People Power Party member who quit the party and ran as an independent, has been accused of accepting payments through YouTube's Super Chat function during live streaming in August in violation of the Political Funds Act. Viewers sent as little as 2,000
April 15, 2024
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Yoon flounders after election defeat
The main opposition party's attack on President Yoon Suk Yeol intensified on Monday, while his approval rating took the biggest weekly plunge since July 2022 in the wake of a crushing election defeat. With the 21st session of the National Assembly set to end its four-year lifetime in about 1 1/2 months, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea doubled down on the besieged Yoon administration's political vulnerability. The party demanded that the National Assembly pass a bill calli
April 15, 2024
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[Bills in Focus] Network usage fees, consumer protection from foreign online platforms
Pending Bill: Partial Amendment to the Telecommunications Act Proposed by Rep. Jun Hye-sook (Independent) ●Recently, concerns have been raised over the low network usage fees paid in Korea by global IT firms, such as Google and Facebook, compared to what these operators pay in other countries, such as those in the EU. Critics argue that this discrepancy constitutes discrimination against domestic value-added telecommunication business operators. The networking provision relationship between netw
April 15, 2024
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Opposition victory upends ruling party's plans
The South Korean opposition's landslide victory in the latest parliamentary elections is likely to upend the conservative ruling party's push for key proposals and initiatives, observers said Sunday. One of the ideas that the ruling People Power Party had vowed to pursue, administratively merging Gyeonggi Province's Gimpo city into Seoul, otherwise known as the so-called “Megacity Seoul" project, could be scrapped, an expert said. “Discussion on the Megacity proje
April 14, 2024
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Presidential office says it will take time to name new PM, chief of staff after election defeat
A senior official at the presidential office said Sunday it will take time to name candidates for a new prime minister and chief of staff, after the resounding defeat of the ruling party in last week's parliamentary elections. The official told Yonhap News Agency that some media outlets have reported that the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol may announce a personnel reshuffle as early as Sunday, but "it is not physically possible." "It needs a minimum amount of time to find
April 14, 2024
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Yoon likely to soon name new chief of staff after election defeat
President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to name a new presidential chief of staff Sunday at the earliest in what would be his first move to overhaul state affairs after a resounding defeat in this week's parliamentary elections, sources at the presidential office said Saturday. After his party's crushing defeat in Wednesday's parliamentary elections, Yoon has delivered a message through his chief of staff that he will "humbly uphold the people's will" shown in the opposition's landslide vi
April 13, 2024
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Seoul, London to co-host summit to discuss potential of AI in innovation, inclusion
South Korea and the United Kingdom will jointly host a summit in Seoul in May to discuss artificial intelligence technology's potential to achieve innovation and inclusion at an international level, and its safe development, the presidential office said Friday. The hybrid event "AI Seoul Summit" is scheduled to take place from May 21-22. On day one, leaders will hold virtual discussion sessions co-chaired by President Yoon Suk Yeol and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The next day,
April 12, 2024
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Medical standoff enters 2nd stage after election, failed dialogue
The two-month medical standoff between the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and medical circles will likely enter its second stage, amid no signs of initiating talks over the government's medical school admission plan and the looming medical crisis following defiant doctors' mass resignations. The ruling bloc's crushing defeat in Wednesday's general election was a testament that voters "had brought judgment" to the ruling bloc, which pushed to increase the medical school admission quota be
April 12, 2024
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Cho Kuk urges probe of first lady’s Dior bag scandal
Cho Kuk, the former justice minister-turned-leader of a rising third party urged prosecutors Thursday to investigate first lady Kim Keon Hee, just a day after the National Assembly election. “This is a final warning to the country’s prosecutors,” he said in a press conference held outside the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Seoul. He said the ruling People Power Party defeat in the Assembly election was “the people’s warning to the president and his dictatorial
April 11, 2024
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The weight of likely union of Democratic Party, rising third power
Cho Kuk, onetime justice minister under former President Moon Jae-in, is once again in the political limelight, nearly five years after he was dragged down by a corruption scandal in late 2019. His Rebuilding Korea Party, or the “Cho Kuk Revolution Party” as its Korean name suggests, emerged as the party with the highest number of proportional representation seats from the results of the National Assembly election on Wednesday, behind only those affiliated with the two major parties.
April 11, 2024
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What led to ruling party’s defeat?
The ruling party’s bitter loss at Wednesday’s parliamentary elections was expected, with the majority of the voters hoping to "bring judgment" upon President Yoon Suk Yeol for failing to curb soaring food prices, end a prolonged doctors’ strike and quell a slew of scandals, critics said Thursday. The main opposition Democratic Party and its satellite party secured a total of 175 seats, while the ruling People Power Party and its sister party only won 108 seats of the
April 11, 2024