Left-leaning figures have come under fire for making comments about Kim Keon-hee’s appearance, with some calling the remarks “misogynous.” The latest comments on Kim, the wife of People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, came after she publicly apologized for embellishing her career history. On Wednesday, former lawmaker Sohn Hye-won once again took to social media to comment on ...

Main opposition People Power Party’s presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl has come under fire over a comment he made on Tuesday that “most South Koreans, especially young people, dislike China.” Following the comment, a spokesperson of the ruling Democratic Party’s campaign committee said the comment was “shocking” and “low” to reduce diplomatic relations between countries to whether who likes ...

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, appears to be taking a head-on tactic to tackle controversies. In a radio interview Wednesday, Lee admitted to academic plagiarism and reiterated that Gachon University should revoke his master’s degree. “I did not provide citations in my thesis, and it is plagiarism. I gave up on my degree,” Lee said in the in...

The ruling Democratic Party and the government agreed Wednesday on the need to extend the current virus curbs and allocate funds for the purchase of a fourth shot of vaccines, a DP spokesperson said. The two sides reached the consensus during a meeting on the COVID-19 response, noting that key indicators, such as the operation of ICUs and the numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients and death...

President Moon Jae-in pledged Wednesday to step up efforts to give students with disabilities equal rights to education so as to help them better integrate into society. Moon made the remarks at a ground-breaking ceremony of the nation's first vocational school affiliated with a state-run university for students with disabilities in Gongju, 160 kilometers south of Seoul. "We must have equal opp...

About 42 percent of South Koreans think that President Moon Jae-in did a good job in handling state affairs over the past five years, an approval rating slighly higher than the vote he received in the 2017 presidential election, a poll showed Wednesday. Moon, who was elected president with 41.1 percent of the vote, has enjoyed relatively high approval ratings through his term so far, compared wi...

The state anti-corruption investigation office has checked the phone logs of 60 lawmakers of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), the party said Wednesday, accusing the powerful investigative agency of illegal surveillance. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has come under fire following revelations that it obtained the phone records of journalists, pol...

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential nominee of the ruling Democratic Party, on Tuesday expressed opposition to granting a pardon to former President Lee Myung-bak, saying it could hamper national unity in the long term. After the government decided to pardon former President Park Geun-hye last week, some conservative supporters have been demanding that Lee, currently serving a 17-year prison term ov...

Most South Koreans, especially younger people, don't like China even though the administration of President Moon Jae-in has pursued pro-China policies, main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday. Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) made the remarks during a discussion hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in South Korea (AMCHAM) in his answer to a question about the ...

South Korea called Tuesday for Japan's retraction of a push to list a former mine linked to wartime forced labor as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, calling it "very deplorable." Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs has reportedly been pushing to register the Sado mine on the coveted list where Koreans were forced into hard labor during Tokyo's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. The move...

North Korea hit back Tuesday at a recent US decision to retain it on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, accusing Washington of having engaged in terrorist acts under the pretext of "counterterrorism." Earlier this month, the State Department unveiled its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2020, which kept the North on the list, along with Iran and Syria. In a post on its foreign ministry...

With less than three months to go before the presidential election, slips of the tongue by candidates and election committee bigwigs are continuing to cause problems for their campaigns. The Korea Herald rounded up some of the more notable times the presidential candidates and politicians around them have put their respective feet in their mouths. Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate for rul...

People Power Party election committee chief Kim Chong-in stepped in Tuesday to calm the conflict between the party’s presidential candidate and its chairman. Discord in the conservative main opposition party has continued since it chose Yoon Suk-yeol, a former prosecutor general, as its flagbearer in November. Acknowledging internal disputes made public by remarks of the party members, Kim said...

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday he feels sorry for former President Park Geun-hye over a corruption probe he conducted as a senior prosecutor a few years ago that eventually led to her impeachment. "Even though the investigation of former President Park was my job as a public official, I feel truly sorry politically and emotionally as a human being," Yoon of the...

The annual salary of President Moon Jae-in for 2022 was set at 240.6 million won ($202,815) as the Cabinet approved the personnel and management ministry's pay raise plan for public servants Tuesday. According to the plan, public servants will get a 1.4 percent raise for their salary for 2022. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum will get an annual salary of 186.5 million won, while deputy prime minister...