Na Kyung-won, one of the leading contenders in the ruling party's leadership race, decided not to attend a local party event Wednesday, her aide said, an indication she is contemplating deeply whether to officially declare her leadership bid despite opposition from the presidential office. Na had previously planned to attend a New Year's event that the Daejeon branch of the People Power Party wi...

First lady Kim meets with Dubai princess, continues cultural promotion

Father who lost his son to the Itaewon crowd crush in October of last year collapsed Tuesday as the last day of the National Assembly probe turned into a row between the ruling and opposition parties. The father of late Lee Ji-han, who died at age 24 on the night of the disaster in central Seoul, was taken to a nearby hospital by an ambulance after collapsing near the end of the final plenary se...

The presidential office said South Korea is seeking to export nuclear power plants to the UK in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates on the occasion of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s visit to the UAE. A senior official of the presidential office told reporters on Monday evening (local time) on the condition of anonymity that President Yoon said during his visit to the Barakah nuclear power plant...

UAE’s $30 billion investment to Korea stated in declaration; two leaders call for complete denuclearization of N. Korea

The Democratic Party of Korea held a series of emergency meetings Monday, accusing the Yoon Suk Yeol administration of “being subservient” to Japan with its apparent plan for compensating victims of colonial forced labor. “The Yoon administration is willing to give up everything if it means mending ties with Japan,” Democratic Party head Rep. Lee Jae-myung said at the meeting convened by the par...

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell below 40 percent for the first time in five weeks in the wake of hard-line remarks he made on North Korea and a row with a potential candidate to become leader of the ruling People Power Party, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 2,508 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday of last week, 39.3 percent positively assessed Yoon's performa...

The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Rep. Lee Jae-myung, plans to head the party's new committee on enhancing public welfare, party officials said Sunday. The move is understood to indicate Lee's resolve to focus on seeking ways to improve the people's livelihoods amid controversies over whether it is appropriate to keep his post in the face of widening probes by state prosecutors...

The former head of the National Intelligence Service of Korea, Park Jie-won, ordered the deletion of all intelligence reports on North Korean troops killing South Korean government official Lee Dae-jun on Sept. 22, 2020 at sea, according to an indictment submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday. Park “had officials at the National Intelligence Service delete intelligence reports related to...

President Yoon Suk Yeol dismissed the vice chair of the of the presidential committee on low birthrates Friday, his office said, after she offered to resign following a clash over birth promotion policies. Na Kyung-won, a former four-term lawmaker, was relieved from the posts of vice committee chair and ambassador for climate and environment, senior presidential secretary for press affairs Kim E...

The US said Thursday it is still committed to a completely denuclearized Korean Peninsula and that South Korea has made it clear it is not seeking nuclear weapons, a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol openly backed a nuclear buildup if North Korea poses a bigger threat than now. Yoon’s remarks about South Korea arming itself with nuclear weapons against North Korea, a nuclear state, were made pub...

The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol has allowed local broadcaster MBC's reporters to board the presidential jet for his upcoming overseas trip, officials said Friday, after banning them earlier over controversial coverage. MBC reporters were informed of the decision late Thursday ahead of Yoon's trip to the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland, which starts Saturday. "It was President Yoon's ...

The head of main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, Rep. Lee Jae-myung asked for a meeting with President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday, saying the conservative administration was not making an effort to bring the parties together. The party chair repeated his request for a meeting with the president at the press conference held just two days after he was summoned by prosecutors in an investigati...

Despite opposition pressure for first lady Kim Keon Hee to keep to a more supporting role, eyes are on whether she would continue to strike out on her own when she accompanies Yoon Suk Yeol on his first presidential trip this year Saturday. She and Yoon will go on a state visit to the United Arab Emirates and attend the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for six days. “There is ...

South Korea's foreign ministry plans to hold a public hearing Thursday on ways to resolve the thorny issue of how to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor during World War II in line with the Supreme Court's ruling. The hearing, co-organized by the ministry and Rep. Chung Jin-suk, head of the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union, is scheduled to be held at the National Assembly...