Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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Defense chiefs of US, Australia, Japan decry NK-Russia military cooperation
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Rivals brand Ahn’s campaign costs call ‘naive’
Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s appeal to halve campaign costs was met with less than enthusiasm from his liberal ally and was derided by conservative adversaries as naive.The man without a party has called for the costs of presidential campaigns to be cut by up to 50 percent. But it is being met with skepticism from both main parties.Ahn pledged on Sunday to keep the price tag of his presidential campaign at half the maximum allowed by law as part of his political reform prog
Nov. 13, 2012
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‘China’s leadership securer than thought’
People tend to judge others through the lens of their own social, cultural and political fabrics, often making rash, uninformed conclusions. This is particularly risky when talking about a vast, complex society like China, said a leading China expert. It is undeniable that China’s incoming leader Xi Jinping will face people’s deepening grievances about social inequality, which some argue could precipitate a crisis of the central government’s legitimacy.But Kim Heung-kyu, a politics and diplomacy
Nov. 13, 2012
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Ahn-Moon merger talks on bumpy ride
The process of selecting the unified presidential candidate to represent the progressive bloc in the Dec. 19 election is facing delays as the two sides differed over political reform.In announcing the plans to merge their campaigns on Nov. 6, Democratic United Party presidential candidates Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo said that the process would begin with drawing up joint political reform measures.The joint declaration, which DUP officials had projected to be completed within three
Nov. 13, 2012
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Gov't secures testimony on Japan's massacre of Sakhalin Koreans
Two people have come forward to reveal that Japanese soldiers during World War II slaughtered Koreans who were forced into overseas labor under Japanese colonialism, the first testimony to give details of a massacre that has been vague until now, a government agency said Tuesday.According to the National Archives of Korea (NAK), an agency charged with preserving government records, two Koreans living in Sakhalin, off Russia's east coast, have testified they heard accounts from eyewitnesses at th
Nov. 13, 2012
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Moon, Ahn kick off talks on merger rules
The talks for a single opposition candidacy got off to a rough start Monday with the campaigns trumpeting their own advantages in the December presidential race.The main opposition Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo named the members of their negotiating teams which would set the rules for their competition to become the preferred candidate.As the negotiations began, Moon’s camp stressed that his approval ratings have been on the rise since they announced an agre
Nov. 12, 2012
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Cheong Wa Dae squares up to special counsel on Lee’s home
President Lee Myung-bak on Monday refused an independent counsel team’s request to extend the period of its inquiry into his retirement home scandal.Cheong Wa Dae also refused to let the team search the Presidential Security Office.“We believe the probe team has already investigated the case enough to reach their conclusion,” Choe Geum-nak, Lee’s chief public relations secretary, told reporters.A prolonged investigation would impede Lee’s management of state affairs, undermine national prestige,
Nov. 12, 2012
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Past candidate mergers leave lessons for Moon, Ahn
Since Korea ended the military-backed dictatorship and restored a direct presidential vote in 1987, a candidacy merger ― or the lack thereof ― has been the biggest electoral game changer. A failure of alliance between two pro-democracy leaders, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, that year split the liberal vote and resulted in rule by general-turned-politicians being extended. The two magnates separately joined forces with conservatives and gained power in 1992 and 1997, respectively. In 2002, anot
Nov. 12, 2012
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Ex-President Kim Dae-jung’s son joins Moon campaign
Former President Kim Dae-jung’s third son Kim Hong-gul joined the campaign for Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in on Monday, vowing to help uphold his late father’s legacy.“I come forward to help the DUP confront the forces that threaten the peace on the Korean peninsula and democracy by upholding the wishes of my late father,” Kim said at the election committee meeting.Kim’s participation is expected to strengthen Moon’s campaign in the politically crucial Jeolla Provinc
Nov. 12, 2012
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Court OKs special counsel’s search of presidential office
The independent counsel probing President Lee Myung-bak’s retirement home scandal has reportedly secured a court warrant to search the presidential security office. The special inquiry team, led by counsel Lee Kwang-bum, is said to be coordinating with the presidential office over the method and the time for what will be the first raid of a Cheong Wa Dae office.It remains to be seen whether the action can actually performed as the team, in principle, must secure approval from high-level governme
Nov. 11, 2012
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Moon, Ahn to start merger talks
Two opposition candidates agreed Sunday to broaden their joint policy manifesto to security and economic issues and accelerate negotiations to merge their candidacy.Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo made the proposal while announcing his key campaign pledges. Later in the day his Democratic United Party counterpart Moon Jae-in accepted the suggestion.The agreement was reached as representatives of the two campaigns neared a conclusion in their ongoing talks on political reform, the foremost pr
Nov. 11, 2012
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Liberal candidates release wide-ranging policy platforms
Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo pledged Sunday to reconsider a set of high-profile government projects to privatize state corporations such as Incheon International Airport.Democratic United Party candidate Rep. Moon Jae-in also promised to review whether to push for ongoing state construction programs including President Lee Myung-bak’s four-river refurbishment project.Amid talks to unify their candidacy, Ahn and Moon unveiled comprehensive policy pledges on a wide range of iss
Nov. 11, 2012
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Ad hoc inspection team launches probe into senior prosecutor on bribery
An ad hoc inspection team of prosecutors on Saturday began its investigation into their disgraced colleague who has been under a police probe for allegedly taking tens of millions of won in bribes from a notorious swindler and a mid-sized conglomerate, which renewed tension between police and the prosecution.The senior prosecutor, identified only by his surname Kim, has been under police investigation on suspicion of taking 200 million won (US$183,908) in 2008 from the side of Cho Hee-pal, the c
Nov. 10, 2012
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Korea to annul scores of 155 college aspirants for cheating
The education ministry will annul scores of 155 college aspirants for cheating during this week's state-administered college entrance exam, an official said Friday.Jang Hong-jae, an education ministry official, said 81 out of the 155 applicants were caught carrying mobile phones, MP3 players and other electronic devices during the standardized College Scholastic Ability Test held on Thursday across the country.All test takers had been informed before the test that they were banned from carrying
Nov. 9, 2012
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Moon and Ahn agree on reducing presidential power
Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo on Friday agreed to reduce the president’s power and reinforce the prime minister’s role should one of them become president next year. “We will pour our genuine hearts into our agreement and reflect what the people of Korea want,” said Yoo Min-young, Ahn’s spokesperson, after the eight-hour meeting. The two sides have been negotiating over a merger of candidacy. The other is expected to become the prime min
Nov. 9, 2012
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Ahn-Moon merger plagued by difference of priorities
The camps of progressive presidential candidates Ahn Cheol-soo and Moon Jae-in are struggling to arrange the campaign merger, but the priorities of the two sides remained at odds two days into the negotiation Friday.Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in and his camp are turning up the pressure to pick the method of single candidate selection, the focus of Ahn’s camp remains on the fundamentals of the agreement to form the coalition. Moon’s aides, despite the candidate’s earl
Nov. 9, 2012
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Korea extends troop dispatch in UAE
The National Assembly’s Defense Committee on Friday passed a bill allowing a time extension for South Korean troops stationed in the United Arab Emirates.Some 150 Korean soldiers will continue to carry on their duty of assisting their counterparts in anti-terrorism training in the UAE until the end of 2013.Korea sent its troops to the UAE in 2011 for a year in line with efforts to boost strategic partnerships between the two sides after Korea won its biggest nuclear power project deal.The Korean
Nov. 9, 2012
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Lee, Thai P.M. to discuss upgrading of partnership
BANGKOK (Yonhap News) ― South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in Bangkok on Friday for summit talks with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra expected to center on ways to expand trade, investment and other substantial cooperation between the two countries.Lee is the first South Korean president to make an official bilateral visit to Thailand in 31 years. Some of his predecessors have visited the country in between, but all of those trips were to attend multilateral conferences, such as ASE
Nov. 9, 2012
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Troubles grow at Park GH camp
Flaws in teamwork are being exposed at the campaign for Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, as she butted heads with her chief policymaker while her team members seemingly suffer from miscommunication.As Park faces a growing threat from her opponents’ budding alliance, the widespread miscommunication among her members is seen as likely to spell more trouble for the marginalized frontrunner.On Thursday, in her meeting with Korea’s five biggest business organizations, Park indicate
Nov. 9, 2012
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North's newspaper forecasts improved cooperation with South
The Choson Sinbo, a Japan-based pro-North Korean newspaper, gave an unusual prediction of improved economic relations with South Korea amid optimism that the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama and election of a new South Korean president in December may help thaw Pyongyang's relations with the two countries."Domestic (North Korean) economic officials ... are predicting that South-North economic cooperation projects will take off at a high speed only if objective conditions are met," the
Nov. 8, 2012
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Candidates turn to business leaders
Presidential candidates Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party and independent Ahn Cheol-soo each met with major industrial representatives Thursday, making a conciliatory gesture to the business community disgruntled by their economic democratization drives.Park held a meeting with the five major business organizations representing the nation’s large industrial groups and asked for their cooperation in weathering the economic crisis.Ahn met with the executive members of the Federation of Korean Ind
Nov. 8, 2012