South Korea is not considering military support or sending troops over the Ukraine crisis, top officials said Wednesday. “The government is reviewing what we can do by predicting what the situation will be like in the future and looking at how it will affect us,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters amid escalating tensions over the Ukraine-Russia crisis. “We are considering various possibilities, but not military support or dispatch of troops.” “What we are r

Politics Feb. 23, 2022

As the 20th presidential election for overseas Koreans begins on Wednesday, presidential candidates compete to win over expat voters, pledging to establish the overseas Korean office and improve the current inconvenient election system. Overseas elections take place at 219 polling stations at 177 diplomatic missions in 115 countries worldwide. There are 226,152 registered overseas voters. First voting starts with the New Zealand Embassy and Auckland branch at 4 a.m. on Wednesday. In the case

Politics Feb. 23, 2022

Amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected and Korea will actively participate in peace efforts for the nation. “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial preservation must be respected and peaceful solutions should be actively sought through dialogue,” Moon said, presiding over an unscheduled joint meeting of the National Security Council and the Foreign Economic Security Strategy

Politics Feb. 22, 2022

The inheritance tax bill faced by Samsung Group’s leader Lee Jae-yong was again mentioned in the televised debate among key presidential candidates on Monday as People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol and Justice Party’s Sim Sang-jung quarreled over Yoon’s pledge to abolish capital gains tax on stocks. Sim first asked Yoon, “Do you know why the tax was introduced?” When Yoon said no, Sim said, “The introduction of the tax stems from Samsung Lee Jae-yong&rs

Politics Feb. 21, 2022

Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, apologized to small business owners and self-employed people who sustained losses from the social distancing measures, drawing a clear line with the Moon Jae-in administration’s quarantine policies. “The first duty of the state is to protect the lives and safety of the public, and protecting the lives of the people from infectious disease is also a part of the state’s responsibility,” Lee said in a te

Politics Feb. 21, 2022

Even on weekends when COVID-19 testing drops, the number of new confirmed cases surpassed 100,000 for three consecutive days and is expected to rise further in the coming weeks. The government expects the pandemic to peak at the end of this month or early next month. It predicted that the new cases would rise to 180,000 in early March. As of Saturday midnight, there were 104,829 new infections and the number of critically ill patients increased by 31 from the previous day to 439. The numbe

Social Affairs Feb. 20, 2022

Despite its importance, Korea-Japan relations do not usually stand out as a major issue during the Korean presidential election, with low voter interest and candidates‘ reluctance to speak on sensitive topics. Two frontrunner presidential candidates, the Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and the People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol, have not made concrete promises on mending Korea’s strained relations with Japan. But at times, they revealed how they view the nei

Politics Feb. 17, 2022

President Moon Jae-in invited a number of foreign investor companies to Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday to express his gratitude for making hefty investments in the Korean market and encouraged them to invest further. Last year, South Korea attracted $29.5 billion in investments, the largest ever. A foreign investor company -- usually a multinational company headquartered overseas -- is defined as one with more than 50 million won ($47,700) in foreign investment capital and a 10 percent stake in sto

Politics Feb. 17, 2022

President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered government ministries to prepare for the safe evacuation of Koreans in Ukraine, and draw up measures to mitigate damages to Korean companies, citing the threat of a looming Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We need to implement what we can do right away and prepare closely for the worst,” Moon said, presiding over an external economic security strategy meeting. “In case of emergency, it is necessary to make every effort to evacuate and with

Foreign Affairs Feb. 14, 2022

Chung Mong-joon, honorary chairman of Asan Institute for Policy Studies, has donated $1 million to honor the work of Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, a renowned scholar in international relations, the institute said Wednesday. Half of the fund was given to the Center for Strategy and International Studies in Washington, DC, and the other half to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. An influential realist scholar

Social Affairs Feb. 9, 2022

Kim Hyun-kyu, 43, who lives in Rotorua, New Zealand, recently registered to vote in the upcoming presidential election in March. But he is still not sure whether he could vote on the day. “To go to the polling station, I need to drive for three hours. When calculating the round trip, I’d need to take a day off. I will see whether I can do that during election day,” Kim said. Kim said the three-hour drive is already a relatively short distance to a polling station there -- m

Politics Feb. 9, 2022

President Moon Jae-in on Monday warned against panic in face of the spike in COVID-19 cases saying that it could be the “last hurdle” in returning to normalcy. “They say it’s always the darkest before dawn,” Moon said, referring to the record number of COVID cases in Korea. “I think this is the last hurdle on the way to recovery. If we believe in the government and work together, we will be able to progress toward normal life more quickly.” Moon made t

Social Affairs Feb. 7, 2022

After just more than two years of the pandemic, South Korea is considering changing the current quarantine system to manage COVID-19 like a seasonal flu, as severe cases decline despite the rapid increase in the spread. Earlier on Friday, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters said it would fully review the possibility of switching to a medical system similar to seasonal flu while evaluating the capacity of the medical system, the final severity rate and the fatality rat

Social Affairs Feb. 6, 2022

People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday defended his position on "preemptive strike" against North Korea, saying that such a plan would curb war and protect peace in a live broadcast TV debate on Thursday. "The president should exercise leadership to prevent the war itself from happening. I think it’s a rash remark," Sim Sang-jeung of the Justice Party told Yoon in the debate. In response, Yoon said, "We are not trying to wage war, b

Politics Feb. 3, 2022

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party, spent most the seven-minute open topic segment given to him attacking and questioning his key rival Yoon Suk-yeol at the first live broadcast debate for key presidential candidates on Thursday. Regarding pandemic-related supplementary budget to help damaged small business owners, Lee denounced Yoon, saying that he suggested 35 trillion won, but only with "conditions," such as "only if I am elected," or

Politics Feb. 3, 2022