Yoon to preside over disaster response meeting upon return from overseas trip

President Yoon Suk Yeol was set to preside over a disaster response meeting Monday upon his return from a weeklong trip to Europe that included visits to Lithuania and Poland and an unannounced stop in Ukraine. The planned meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters comes as the number of people dead or missing in recent downpours has risen to 49 after four more bodies were recovered from a once-flooded underground road in the central city of Cheongju. Yoon's thre

July 17, 2023

Yoon holds meeting on govt. response to heavy rains

President Yoon Suk Yeol held a meeting with his aides on the government's response to heavy rains and flooding in South Korea, his office said. The meeting was held as Yoon was en route to Warsaw on Saturday after making a surprise visit to Ukraine, where he held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Yoon is also scheduled to be briefed on the damage from the heavy rains in a video conference with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and relevant ministers before he returns home, accor

July 16, 2023

In Kyiv, S. Korean leader pledges increased military aid to Ukraine

WARSAW, Poland -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged increased military aid as well as humanitarian support to Ukraine, a nation ravaged by war, during his surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday. Yoon had a 65-minute private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss pending issues between the two countries and a 45-minute extended meeting with key officials from both governments. At a joint press conference held following the summit, Yoon vowed to increase Korea&rsquo

July 15, 2023

Bipartisan bill eyed to toughen penalty for infant abandonment

A bill to increase the penalty for the criminal offense of abandoning an infant passed a preliminary review of the National Assembly’s legislation committee on Thursday with bipartisan support, following revelations on a series of deaths of abandoned infants that fanned public outrage. The criminal code currently mitigates the penalty for abandoning an infant or an infant dying as a consequence of abandonment in cases where there is a reasonable cause to believe the offender -- more specif

July 14, 2023

Net migration to Korea spikes in 2022

South Korea saw a net in-migration of 168,000 people in 2022, on the back of a 87 percent spike in the total number of foreign arrivals, government data showed Friday. Migration to Korea, or the number of people of foreign nationality moving here, came in at 192,000, while those moving out of the country stood at 19,000, resulting in a net inflow of 168,000 foreign nationals. “With the impact of COVID-19 fading, the numbers of people both leaving or arriving in the country have increased d

July 14, 2023

Prosecutors raid home of ex-schedule manager of former opposition leader Song

Prosecutors raided the home of a former schedule manager of Song Young-gil, an ex-leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, on Friday in connection with a cash-for-vote scandal involving the party's 2021 leadership election. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent investigators to the home of the ex-aide, surnamed Lee, to seize evidence. The scandal centers on allegations that Song's campaign distributed cash envelopes totaling 94 million won ($74,161) to 20 main oppos

July 14, 2023

Yoon orders all-out govt. response to heavy rains

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government on Thursday to make all-out efforts to prevent damage from the recent heavy rains, his office said. Yoon gave the instruction in a phone call with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo while on an official visit to Poland, saying the interior ministry and other relevant agencies, including the police and firefighting authorities, should activate an all-out response system led by the prime minister, according to senior presidential secretary for press affai

July 13, 2023

S. Korea pledges to expand partnership with ASEAN, bolster cooperation with Japan, China

South Korea seeks to strengthen its partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) under the goal of elevating their ties into a comprehensive strategic partnership next year, Seoul's top diplomat said Thursday. In a meeting with the foreign ministers of ASEAN in Jakarta, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said Seoul plans to "deepen and expand our partnership with ASEAN" through KASI, or the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative. KASI is a diplomatic initiati

July 13, 2023

UN Security Council to hold meeting on NK missile launch

The United Nations Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Thursday to discuss North Korea's latest missile launch and South Korea will join the session as an observer, Seoul officials said. The announcement came after the North test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday. It marked the North's second solid-propellant ICBM launch following its first test-firing on April 13. The missile launch came amid rising tensions afte

July 13, 2023

North Korea seeing South Korea as separate nation ‘worrying’: defector-lawmaker

North Korea may be beginning to officially re-define its relations with South Korea as two separate nations, according to Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the ruling People Power Party on Thursday. Tae said that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, referring to South Korea by its official name, Republic of Korea, in recent statements may be an attempt to recognize it as an independent nation. Speaking at a plenary session of the National Assembly’s unification committee, Tae said

July 13, 2023

NIS seeks steps compensating for loss of power to investigate North Korea spying

The National Intelligence Service of Korea is seeking steps to make up for the pending loss of its authority to investigate espionage and other crimes against the state, such as anti-communism investigations. The state intelligence agency on Wednesday proposed a presidential decree that will allow it to continue to have a role in investigations of espionage and national security-related crimes. Starting next year, the intelligence agency will lose its investigative authority as a result of a set

July 13, 2023

Airplane emergency exit seats to be assigned to uniformed personnel first

Airplane emergency exit seats of four Korean airlines will be initially assigned to uniformed personnel, including police officers and firefighters, in an effort to prevent the reoccurrence of an incident in which a passenger opened an emergency exit door before landing, the ruling party said Thursday. During a consultation meeting between the ruling People Power Party and the government, Rep. Park Dae-chul, the head of the party’s policy committee, said his party has agreed to introduce t

July 13, 2023

Jeju's youngest provincial councilor expelled from party over alleged sex trade

A 29-year-old councilor of the southern island province of Jeju has been expelled from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, amid allegations that he bought sex. Kang Gyeong-hm, who began his four-year term as councilor last year, is being investigated by the police for allegedly buying sex services at a Jeju bar. The police, while probing the bar’s sex trafficking of four foreign women, have unearthed records of money transactions between the councilor and the establishment. A Je

July 13, 2023

Yoon requests Kishida to halt wastewater discharge if radiation levels exceed standard

  VILNIUS, Lithuania/SEOUL -- President Yoon Suk Yeol has requested from Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to halt the discharge of wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant if radiation levels remain over the line even after filtering out radioactive elements. At their meeting held on the sidelines of the NATO summit on Wednesday, Yoon also asked his Japanese counterpart to share monitoring information over the discharge process in real time, and to allow Korean experts to

July 12, 2023

Ahead of Yoon-Kishida summit, Korean opposition ups offensive on Fukushima water release plan

The South Korean opposition’s escalation of combative rhetoric on Japan’s plan to release treated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is “unseemly,” the ruling party's floor leader said Wednesday, Eastern European Time. “My colleagues across the aisle have chosen to abandon the longstanding courtesy of stepping back from domestic political attacks on the president while he is on a trip meeting foreign leaders,” Rep. Yun Jae-ok of th

July 12, 2023

Ruling party leader says China cannot be excluded in economic matters

The leader of the ruling People Power Party said he has met with White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell during a visit to Washington and discussed bilateral and regional issues. During the meeting held Tuesday, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said he talked about the importance of maintaining relations with China, and Campbell agreed to his point. "Both South Korea and the US have numerous economic issues related to China," Kim told reporters after the meeting. Kim said he also emphasize

July 12, 2023

Yoon, Kishida summit planned; Fukushima wastewater likely on agenda

  VILNIUS, Lithuania – President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled for a summit Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit. This Korea-Japan summit marks the first meeting in approximately two months since their bilateral discussion during the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. This will be their sixth official meeting. A high-ranking official from the presidential office, who spoke on condition of a

July 12, 2023

N. Korea denounces US decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs

North Korea's foreign minister on Tuesday urged the United States to immediately scrap its decision to provide Ukraine with controversial cluster bombs, calling it a "dangerous criminal act to bring a new calamity to the world." The US defense ministry announced Friday it is supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine to help defend its territory against Russia, despite concerns from human rights groups that the deployment of such weapons endangers civilians. "I, on behalf of the

July 11, 2023

Yoon, Norway PM discuss cooperation in renewable energy, defense

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Tuesday and discussed bilateral cooperation in renewable energy and defense, among other sectors, the presidential office said. The two leaders met on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit here, which brought together leaders from the 31 member states and other countries, including the four Asia-Pacific partner nations -- South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Yoon thanked

July 11, 2023

Cabinet approves revision separating collection of public broadcaster's license fee

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to collect license fees for KBS separately from electricity bills, a move that could potentially impact the fiscal resources of the state broadcaster. The approval of the revised Enforcement Decree of the Broadcasting Act was made in a Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. It is expected to take effect as early as Wednesday, following presidential approval. Since 1994, KBS has charged a monthly fee of 2,500 won ($1.93) to all hou

July 11, 2023