Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Newsmaker] Chavez to take office without taking oath
Hugo Chavez may not be capable of participating in his own swearing in ceremony on Jan. 10, but he will start an unprecedented third term as the democratically elected president of Venezuela. He has been president since his election in 1998.Chavez supporters say the inauguration date is not set in stone, and argue that the president should be given more time to recover from surgery.Chavez, 58, has not been seen in public since arriving in Cuba for his fourth cancer operation on Dec. 11, which ha
Jan. 6, 2013
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Park to send senior lawmaker as special envoy to Davos
South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye will send a senior ruling party lawmaker as her special envoy to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later this month, her office said Saturday.Park decided to send Rep. Rhee In-je as her envoy from Jan. 23-26 after Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the “Davos Forum,”invited her in a letter sent a day after her election on Dec. 19, spokesman Park Sun-kyoo told a news briefing.Rhee, a six-term lawmaker, served as one of co-chiefs for Park’s
Jan. 6, 2013
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Park’s transition team regrets opposition criticism
President-elect Park Geun-hye’s transition team rejected opposition criticism Saturday that she has picked rightist scholars with biased views and others unfit for the committee, saying that the opposition party should mind its own business first.Park finalized the make-up of the transition team on Friday with the selections of about two dozen top members, laying the groundwork for launching her five-year term as South Korea’s first female president. She will be inaugurated on Feb. 25.The main o
Jan. 6, 2013
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Park’s transition team sets sail
Incoming President Park Geun-hye’s transition team was officially launched on Sunday, laying the groundwork for the new government and the major agenda items it will pursue over the next five years.After holding a signboard hanging ceremony in front of the committee’s headquarters in central Seoul, the transition team was scheduled to meet with Park and receive their certificates of appointment.Later in the day, the team will hold its first general meeting, which will be presided over by its chi
Jan. 6, 2013
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Park's transition team expresses regret over opposition criticism
President-elect Park Geun-hye'stransition team expressed regret on Saturday over opposition criticism that the team is filled largely with conservatives.Park finalized the lineup of her transition team on Friday, laying the groundwork for launching her five-year presidency set to begin on Feb. 25."It is deeply regrettable that some opposes the formation of the transition team for opposition's sake," Yoon Chang-jung, chief spokesman for the transition team, told a news briefing.He rejected opposi
Jan. 5, 2013
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Park finalizes team lineup
President-elect Park Geun-hye on Friday finalized the personnel lineup of her transition team, setting in motion the process to lay the groundwork for her five-year state governance to begin on Feb. 25.The lineup for the committee consisting of nine subcommittees was announced by committee chairman and former Constitutional Court chief Kim Yong-joon.Park appointed Kim Jin-sun, the head of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics organizing committee, as her inauguration preparation chairperson.As a
Jan. 4, 2013
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Cheong Wa Dae awaits new occupant
Lee Hee-won, a 54-year-old taxi driver, still remembers the fear that he felt while passing by Cheong Wa Dae three decades ago, when the country was under the yoke of military authoritarianism.Ordinary people dared not even look at the presidential office-residence, he recalled, which was a dreadful symbol of the dictatorial rule, surrounded by military operatives and police officers wearing guns on their hips, and a hotbed of backdoor politics.“But now things have changed a lot, with greater ac
Jan. 4, 2013
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Big changes with Park, the first single, female president
Cheong Wa Dae faces some major changes as Park Geun-hye is slated to take office Feb. 25 as the country’s first female president.The division handling affairs concerning the presidential family may be scaled down or closed temporarily as the incoming leader is unmarried and has a younger brother and sister who live separately.Park’s family background will affect the “second secretarial office” currently in charge of aiding the first lady. Former President Park Chung-hee, her father, set up the o
Jan. 4, 2013
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Presidential house boasts many landmarks
Cheong Wa Dae boasts a variety of historical buildings and monuments to interest foreign and local visitors.Among them is Chunchugwan, the two-story press center where presidential secretaries and spokespeople communicate with journalists. It can accommodate more than 300 people. The center is also where the president delivers nationally televised addresses. Its first floor consists of a press room, archives and a small briefing room for journalists. The second floor hosts a large briefing room
Jan. 4, 2013
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Cheong Wa Dae steeped in history
Cheong Wa Dae has been at the center of Korea’s modern history, from Japan’s colonial rule, through a succession of dictatorships and to the grueling struggles for industrialization and democratization.The site for today’s presidential complex in central Seoul was once occupied by Japan’s colonial governor and then by the U.S. military administrator before South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, took it for his official residence in 1948.Its history dates back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918-139
Jan. 4, 2013
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Lee’s court appointment faces stiff opposition
President Lee Myung-bak’s appointment of Lee Dong-heub, a former Constitutional Court justice, to head the top judicial body, is facing stiff opposition from the main opposition Democratic United Party for his past rulings and alleged ideological bias.“Appointing Lee Dong-heub, who exhibits far-right conservatism, as head of the Constitutional Court is inappropriate,” Yoon Gwan-seok, a DUP spokesperson, told reporters in a briefing at the National Assembly on Friday. Yoon accused Lee of exhibiti
Jan. 4, 2013
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Park’s team filled with experts, aides
President-elect Park Geun-hye finally completed her much-awaited lineup for the transition committee that faces a slew of tasks over the next seven weeks, before the government handover.Apparently aiming at stability, the transition team is a mixture of experts such as social science professor Yoo Min-bong of Sungkyunkwan University (planning and coordination of state affairs), and key members of Park’s presidential campaign team, such as former Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo (foreign affairs and
Jan. 4, 2013
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Park urges Japan to face up to history
President-elect Park Geun-hye on Friday called on Japan to face up to history and make joint efforts to forge a future-oriented bilateral relationship during her meeting with the special delegation sent by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.“It is important to face up to history and strive for a future of reconciliation and cooperation, and for the two countries to consistently accumulate trust,” she told the four-member delegation, including Japan’s Ambassador to Seoul Koro Bessho and former Fin
Jan. 4, 2013
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Ex-defense minister Kim Jang-soo named to head foreign policy team in Park's transition committee
President-elect Park Geun-hye named former defense minister Kim Jang-soo to lead a transition team handling external affairs, security and North Korea policies Friday as she finalized the selection of about two dozen top committee members.The long-awaited announcement paved the way for the transition committee to begin work -- more than two weeks after Park was elected South Korea's first female president in the Dec. 19 vote.The committee is made up of nine smaller teams and their 23 leaders wer
Jan. 4, 2013
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Park to meet with special envoys of Japan's Abe
South Korea's incoming President Park Geun-hye was to meet with special envoys of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday in her first diplomatic test amid concern relations between the two neighbors could worsen further under the right-wing Abe.Aides say Park's meeting with the delegation, led by former Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, is unlikely to take up hard issues and turn testy as it will be their first meeting. Still, the meeting has drawn attention to see whether Park w
Jan. 4, 2013
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Park seeks to curtail presidential power
President-elect Park Geun-hye’s government overhaul plans prioritize decentralizing presidential power to craft a more accountable, transparent and efficient government. The reform steps being discussed include granting more power to the prime minister and the head of each government ministry, strengthening the role of Cabinet meetings, and reinstating the post of vice prime minister.During the early phase of the presidential campaign, Ahn Dae-hee, Park’s chief political reform strategist and fo
Jan. 3, 2013
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Budget committee lawmakers under fire for overseas trip
A group of lawmakers criticized for back-door deals to insert pork-barrel projects into the national budget has again come under fire for leaving on costly overseas trips using taxpayers’ money.On Tuesday, the Saenuri Party’s Rep. Chang Yoon-seok, the chair of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, and fellow Reps. Kim Jae-kyung and Kweon Seong-dong, along with Reps. Ahn Gyu-baek and Min Hong-chul of the Democratic United Party left for an 11-day trip to Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama.On t
Jan. 3, 2013
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More N. Korean escapees receive asylum in U.S.
The total number of North Korean escapees who received asylum in the United States reached 23 in 2012, up by seven from the year before, a news report said Thursday.Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that there was a trickle of North Korean nationals who won legal refugee status in the U.S. with numbers peaking at five and six in June and July, respectively.The total is a gain from 16 people accepted by Washington for the whole of 2011 and 17 in 2010, but it is still a small number
Jan. 3, 2013
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Korean diplomat in Saudi Arabia dies in car accident
A South Korean diplomat in Saudi Arabia died earlier this week in an apparent car accident, a senior official at Seoul’s foreign ministry said Thursday. The body of the consular official, who was only identified by his surname Kim, was found inside his car on Wednesday on a motorway in Riyadh, the Seoul official said on the condition of anonymity. “Local police are investigating into the exact cause of the apparent car accident,” the official said. The consular official was working at the South
Jan. 3, 2013
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Lee names former justice to head Constitutional Court
President Lee Myung-bak on Thursday tapped Lee Dong-heub, former Constitutional Court justice, to head the top judicial body.Lee, 61, is the first former justice of the court to be nominated for the top post, Cheong Wa Dae said. All the presidents, including current chief Lee Kang-kook, were from outside the court. Lee’s six-year term ends on Jan. 21.“While serving as a Constitutional Court justice, Lee made stable legal judgments based on his strong resolve to preserve the democratic constituti
Jan. 3, 2013