Extra Cabinet meeting set for Friday over veto against contentious bills

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will preside over an extraordinary Cabinet meeting this week over proposals requesting President Yoon Suk Yeol exercise his veto power against four contentious bills unilaterally passed by opposition parties earlier this month, his office said Thursday. The meeting, scheduled for Friday, is expected to handle the motions asking Yoon to reject a pro-labor bill, commonly known as the "yellow envelope bill," and three other bills on broadcasting laws. The &

Nov. 30, 2023

FM Park says 'govt. gave its best' after failure to host 2030 World Expo

Foreign Minister Park Jin on Thursday said South Korea "gave its best" in its campaign to host the 2030 World Expo, after the southeastern city of Busan lost to Saudi Arabia's Riyadh in a vote earlier this week. Park made the remarks responding to reporters at the 5th International Conference on Action with Women and Peace in Seoul amid speculation he could be replaced in an upcoming reshuffle. "The government gave its best," Park said when asked whether he had heard any

Nov. 30, 2023

Yoon revives policy chief of staff position, reshuffles all senior secretaries

President Yoon Suk Yeol revived the presidential office for policy which he ditched last year and replaced all of his senior secretaries, effective on Monday, the presidential office announced Thursday. Yoon promoted Lee Kwan-sup, the incumbent senior presidential secretary in charge of state affairs coordination, to become the first chief presidential secretary for policy in Yoon's term. Yoon abolished the post to reduce the team of presidential advisers upon his inauguration in May 2022.

Nov. 30, 2023

Yoon apologizes for Busan's Expo bid failure; Mayor open to 2035 rebid

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday extended an apology for the South Korean port city Busan's failure to host the World Expo 2030. "I feel that we greatly missed our prediction target, which was based on what we've felt from meetings (to ask for support for Busan's bid)," Yoon said in a 10-minute speech to South Korean citizens at his office. "The blame is all on me." Yoon expressed his appreciation for the all-out efforts of those involved in Busan's bi

Nov. 29, 2023

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

Nov. 28, 2023

New NZ minister takes oath in English and Korean

A member of New Zealand’s new National Party-led government took her oath in English and then in Korean, the language of her native country. Melissa Lee, whose Korean name is Lee Ji-yun, was named the minister for economic development, ethnic communities, media and communications, making her the first person of Korean heritage to hold a ministerial position in New Zealand’s government. Lee alternated between English and Korean while reading the oath in the official ceremony Monday. L

Nov. 28, 2023

Yoon orders increased defense of public digital infrastructure

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday ordered the Cabinet to look into possibilities of a cyberattack on public digital infrastructure amid a series of administrative network breakdowns that caused inconveniences to the public in the past week. According to Yoon at a Cabinet meeting held in his office in Seoul, the presidential National Security Office has launched a pangovernmental investigation to inspect any potential vulnerabilities in South Korea's administrative networks, adding the lack of c

Nov. 28, 2023

S. Korea's Busan making last-ditch efforts to bring World Expo on voting day

The vote for the host city of the 2030 World Expo is set to take place in Paris on Tuesday, with South Korea's southeastern city of Busan making last-ditch efforts to pull off an upset in the competition against two other candidates. The host country will be selected by the member states of the Bureau International des Expositions, the body responsible for overseeing the global event that can generate economic benefits and jobs, during its general assembly later in the day. Busan is contend

Nov. 28, 2023

Speculation grows over Yoon's looming Cabinet shakeup

Speculation is growing over how the reshuffle of President Yoon Suk Yeol's Cabinet will play out with less than five months left before the parliamentary elections, widely seen as a litmus test of public support for the conservative leader. More than half of the 19 members of the Cabinet are likely to be replaced over the course of the next month, according to ruling party sources cited by media reports Monday. The Cabinet reshuffle will be carried out along with a presidential office shake

Nov. 27, 2023

[Bills in Focus] Windfall tax on banks and urban infra refurbishment

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers Proposed by Rep. Kim Sung-joo (Democratic Party of Korea) ● Persisting high prices and interest rates have benefited certain financial companies at the expense of financially vulnerable people and small-business operators. This amendment requires financial companies with a net interest margin exceeding 120 percent of their average net interest income over the past five years to pay up to 40 percent of the excess

Nov. 27, 2023

Yoon's approval rating up for 2 weeks to 38.1 pct

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating increased for two consecutive weeks to 38.1 percent, according to a poll released Monday. The survey, conducted by the polling agency Realmeter, showed that the positive assessment of Yoon's performance went up by 2.5 percentage points from the previous week, while 58.9 percent of respondents disapproved of his performance, down 3.1 percentage points. Yoon's approval rating, which had previously lingered in the mid-30 percent range since t

Nov. 27, 2023

Yoon replaces spy agency leadership

President Yoon Suk Yeol accepted the National Intelligence Service head Kim Kyou-hyun's offer to step down from the post without naming his successor. Yoon's office said Sunday in a statement that Kim "reestablished NIS' position as the nation's top agency dedicated to security and intelligence, and put in efforts to set up a system for cooperation with allies' intelligence agencies." Kim, former deputy national security adviser, was tapped as the spy agency ch

Nov. 26, 2023

PM departs for Paris as fate of Busan's World Expo bid draws near

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo departed for Paris on Sunday to attend a general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions on Tuesday, where a vote will take place to determine the fate of Busan's bid to host the World Expo in 2030. Accompanying Han at Incheon Airport were Industry Minister Bang Moon-kyu, Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Oh Young-ju, Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon, and Chey Tae-won, who is the head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the chairman

Nov. 26, 2023

First lady explains S. Korea's dog meat ban plan to Queen Camilla

First lady Kim Keon Hee told Queen Camilla about South Korea's legislative moves to ban the consumption of dog meat during their meeting in London last week, according to a presidential spokesperson on Sunday. Touting the move initiated by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling party to ban dog meat sales by 2027, Kim described the proposed legal ban as a constructive step to enhance the awareness of animal rights, spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a written statement. Yoon's t

Nov. 26, 2023

FM Park holds talks with China's Wang ahead of trilateral talks with Japan

Foreign Minister Park Jin held bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Busan on Sunday, hours before the two were set to meet trilaterally with their Japanese counterpart. The talks came days after North Korea said it launched a military spy satellite and successfully placed it into orbit, after two botched launch attempts in May and August, respectively. In response, South Korea scrapped part of a 2018 inter-Korean military tension reduction accord. In a tit-for-tat, North Kore

Nov. 26, 2023

Japan reportedly decides to support S. Korea's World Expo bid: media

Japan has decided to support South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo in the southeastern city of Busan, a local media report said Sunday, as the voting for the mega event is set to take place this week. The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Tokyo has made the decision in consideration of President Yoon Suk Yeol's continued efforts to improve long-frayed ties between the two countries. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had reportedly notified his will to support Busan's

Nov. 26, 2023

Top diplomats of S. Korea, Japan hold bilateral talks ahead of trilateral talks with China

Foreign Minister Park Jin held bilateral talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa in Busan on Sunday, ahead of the trilateral gathering involving their Chinese counterpart. In the talks with Kamikawa, Park was expected to discuss ways to move the bilateral relations forward amid a thaw in the ties after South Korea decided to resolve the issue of compensating Korean forced labor victims during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula without asking for contributions f

Nov. 26, 2023

Yoon returns home from trip to Britain, France

President Yoon Suk Yeol returned home Sunday from a trip to Europe that took him first to Britain for a state visit and then to France for a final campaign to bring the 2030 World Expo to Busan. Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee paid a four-day state visit to London on the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations and received a ceremonial welcome featuring a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace and a state banquet hosted by King Charles III. The visit produced a new bilateral agreement, call

Nov. 26, 2023

Top diplomats of S. Korea, China, Japan to hold talks on resuming trilateral leaders' summit

Top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan were set to hold talks in the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday, with discussions on resuming the long-stalled three-way summit of the three countries' leaders expected to be in focus. The trilateral meeting among Foreign Minister Park Jin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also comes after about a four-year hiatus as the three neighboring countries seek to deepen the tripartite cooperation despite m

Nov. 26, 2023

Top diplomats of China, Japan in S. Korea for trilateral talks

The top diplomats of China and Japan arrived in South Korea on Saturday for trilateral talks with their South Korean counterpart on efforts to resume the long-suspended leaders' summit of the three neighbors. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa each landed in the southeastern port city of Busan, the venue for the gathering, in the afternoon. They will hold separate bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Park Jin on Sunday, before having the three-wa

Nov. 25, 2023