Articles by Kim Arin
Kim Arin
arin@heraldcorp.com-
Grace period sought for workplace safety law at small businesses
South Korea’s ruling party is seeking an amendment to laws that punish employers for serious industrial accidents that would give workplaces with fewer than 50 employees an exemption for another two years. In a statement issued after a high-level meeting with the concerned ministries on Sunday, the People Power Party said that smaller workplaces were not yet prepared to keep up with the laws enacted in January 2021. The party said that applying the laws indiscriminately could lead to closu
Politics Dec. 3, 2023
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North Korea threatens consequences after South Korea launches 1st spy satellite
North Korea said Sunday a clash and even war with South Korea was only a “matter of time,” about a day after Seoul’s first military reconnaissance satellite was launched into orbit. The satellite, the first of the five South Korea is planning to send into space by 2025, lifted off from the US Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX rocket at 10:19 a.m. Friday and reached orbit soon after, according to the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. The National Defense Ministry s
North Korea Dec. 3, 2023
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Hanwha Ocean developing submarine stealth technology
Hanwha Ocean is leading a government research project on defense and security technology for building stealthy warships, according to the company on Wednesday. The 50-year-old shipbuilding company, acquired this year by Hanwha Group, said in a press release it signed the contract with the government’s Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement. The project, which is to be completed by May 2028 under the contract, aims to design new demagnetizing equipment for
Defense Nov. 29, 2023
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South Korea warns tit-for-tat action over North Korea’s border buildup
Adding to renewed tensions between the two Koreas, North Korean soldiers guarding the truce village appeared armed Tuesday, as Seoul expressed its willingness to reciprocate Pyongyang’s redeployment of surveillance posts and heavy weapons along the shared border. Reports said Tuesday that North Korean soldiers stationed in the Joint Security Area were armed with pistols, in the latest in a string of moves by Pyongyang to resume military activities paused by the 2018 inter-Korean agreement
Politics Nov. 28, 2023
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South Korea to host trilateral meeting with top diplomats of Japan, China
South Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin is to meet with his Japanese and Chinese counterparts in Busan on Sunday. The upcoming meeting in the South Korean port city will mark the first gathering of the top diplomats of the three countries in four years and three months. The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said in a release Friday that Park will be speaking with Tokyo’s Yoko Kamikawa and Beijing’s Wang Yi over the weekend to discuss a possible trilateral summit of the count
Politics Nov. 24, 2023
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Cyberattack feared in series of South Korean government website outages
Another South Korean government-run online service suffered an outage Friday, marking the fourth such failure within the past week. A website and mobile applications providing online ID services went down, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety. Friday’s breakdown in the government’s e-ID service comes a day after a website run by the Ministry of Economy and Finance-affiliated Public Procurement Service crashed on Thursday. The PPS website used by all government institution
Politics Nov. 24, 2023
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North Korea scraps 2018 military pact with South Korea
North Korea said Thursday it would step away from an inter-Korean military agreement reached on Sept. 19, 2018, vowing to deploy new and more advanced weapons along the shared border. In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, North Korea’s Defense Ministry said its forces “will not be bound by” the agreement that created a buffer zone around the fortified border, and that all military measures “will be restored immediately” in a
Politics Nov. 23, 2023
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[Herald Interview] Palestinian envoy denies Hamas connection with North Korea
Waleed Siam, the non-resident ambassador of Palestine to South Korea, said Monday that there was no connection between Hamas and North Korea, amid continued speculations of the Palestinian militant group’s alleged ties with the rogue country. “I can say in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian authorities that there is no contact between Hamas and North Korea,” the permanent general mission of Palestine said in an interview with The Korea Herald in
Politics Nov. 21, 2023
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Rising political stars, big names likely to run for 2024 general election
As the April 2024 general election approaches, a crowded field of well-known names and familiar faces is anticipated to vie for a National Assembly seat. Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon is widely considered a powerful card to play in the ruling People Power Party’s deck in the upcoming election, according to news reports and observers. Before he was appointed minister in President Yoon Suk Yeol's Cabinet, Han was a celebrated prosecutor who led criminal investigations into corruptio
Politics Nov. 20, 2023
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South Korea’s digital reputation dented by government network outage
South Korea, which boasts of being a world leader in digital government strategy and services, underwent a system failure of an unprecedented scale lasting nearly two days until Saturday. The outage forced the government operate manually while civil services were paused. The Ministry of Interior and Safety, which oversees the e-government systems, said Sunday that the operations should be able to get back to normal on Monday. The ministry added that “glitch in the network” was believ
Politics Nov. 19, 2023
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New third parties in works to court floating voters
As the 2024 general election looms, new third parties are emerging in Seoul as potential challengers to the established parties. The nascent third parties say they are launching their bids to challenge the country’s two major political parties -- the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea -- and to woo a considerable niche of voters who identify as independents. According to polls, support for the two main parties is hardly 50 to 50, with around a quart
Politics Nov. 16, 2023
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In France, PM rallies support in final push for Busan Expo 2030
South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo made a final push to woo support for South Korea to host the World Expo 2023 during his trip to Paris, his office said Wednesday. The prime minister, who was in Paris from Sunday, met with 61 representatives from 50 countries to ask them to back Busan, the South Korean port city bidding to be host of the expo, with the vote less than two weeks away. “Unlike sporting events like the Olympics where countries compete for medals, expositions shou
Politics Nov. 15, 2023
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Bill seeks to let South Korea list Hamas as foreign terrorist before UN
Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the ruling People Power Party said Wednesday he submitted a bill allowing the South Korean government to place groups and individuals on the foreign terrorist list in the absence of a United Nations designation. Ha said the proposed amendment to the laws on counter-terrorism would let the prime minister, whose role is largely administrative and ceremonial, designate Hamas as a terrorist organization without having to wait for a designation by the UN. Hamas is an Islamist mil
Politics Nov. 15, 2023
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[Up close in Yeouido] Spy-turned-lawmaker on why NIS needs reforming
Since its establishment in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has not only collected intelligence on cases related to North Korea, but also investigated them. Come January, the South’s most important intelligence headquarters will be barred from investigating cases related to North Korea. Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, a former high-ranking official at the NIS, says prohibiting the intellig
Politics Nov. 14, 2023
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Ruling party reform committee under pressure to disband
South Korean ruling party’s reform committee is facing the possibility of an early disbandment amid an internal backlash over its unpopular demands. The People Power Party’s reform committee was formed on Oct. 26 to lay out a vision for realigning the party for the 2024 general election, and headed by a party outsider -- Yohan Ihn, a third-generation descendant of a US missionary who gave humanitarian aid during Japanese colonial times. Ihn has announced a series of reform measures i
Politics Nov. 14, 2023
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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