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...

The government will buy 200,000 tons of locally produced rice this year to help stabilize the market price of the staple grain, the ruling party said Tuesday following a meeting with agriculture authorities. "Of the surplus amount of 270,000 tons of rice, the government will isolate 200,000 tons from the market in the near future," said Rep. Park Wan-joo, the chief policy maker of the ruling Dem...

Late former President Chun Doo-hwan described a military document recommending a crackdown on the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju as a “good idea,” a fact-finding panel said Monday. Marking the second anniversary of its launch, the May 18 Democratization Movement Truth Commission released interim results of a probe into the clampdown that led to the deaths of ...

Main opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol visited the city of Seongnam on Monday to demand an independent investigation into a corruption scandal tied to a development project overseen by his ruling party rival Lee Jae-myung. Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) renewed his demand for the appointment of a special counsel after arriving on the grounds of the apartment complex built in ...

President Moon Jae-in said Monday the life of South Africa's late Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be "remembered in the mind of humanity forever," paying his tributes to the passing of the anti-apartheid icon. In a statement, Moon praised Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, for showing the power of "forgiveness and reconciliation" throughout revelations of the truth on apartheid-era crimes. Mo...

South Korea said Monday it will inject 642.4 billion won ($541.1 million) on research and development (R&D) in strengthening safety of the country's nuclear reactors by 2029. The budget is part of a five-year plan for 2022-2026 that is focused on reinforcing safety of the country's nuclear industry and to create new strategic business based on accumulated technology. The plan was finalized at a...

Ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung asked Tokyo's top envoy to Seoul on Monday to help arrange a meeting between him and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a campaign official said. The Democratic Party nominee expressed the wish during a meeting with Ambassador Koichi Aiboshi at the party's headquarters, Kim Joon-hyung, a foreign policy adviser for Lee's campaign, told reporte...

Yoon’s wife: ‘I inflated my career to look good’

The wife of Yoon Suk-yeol, presidential candidate of South Korea's main opposition party, apologized Sunday over allegations of past misdeeds that have continued to plague Yoon's campaign for the March 9 election. Kim Keon-hee, wife of Yoon who is running in the election as candidate of the People Power Party, has faced allegations that she falsified her credentials when applying for teaching po...

President Moon Jae-in will meet with leaders of South Korean conglomerates, including Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong, to thank them for their efforts in participating in government-led job creation projects for young people and discuss implementation plans on Monday, Cheong Wa Dae confirmed Sunday. The meeting will be attended by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, Hyundai Motor Chairman...

The ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the splinter minor Open Democratic Party announced their merger agreement Sunday, in a move meant to strengthen unity in the liberal political bloc ahead of the March 9 presidential election. DP leader Song Young-gil and Choe Kang-wook, the head of the satellite party, signed the agreement, including a decision to use the ruling party's name as that of the me...

President Moon Jae-in has pointed out the need for South Korea to have defense capabilities not only to deter North Korean threats but also to cope with its geopolitical position "stuck between great powers," his aide said Sunday. Moon made the remarks during a meeting with his secretaries last month while commenting on the country's project to acquire a light aircraft carrier by 2033, Park Soo-...