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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Korea to proceed with two new reactors
The government is going ahead with two new reactors even as citizen groups oppose more use of atomic energy in the wake of a local plant failure and the Fukushima Dai-Ichi disaster in Japan.State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. had a ground breaking ceremony Friday in Uljin, 315 kilometers (196 miles) southeast of Seoul, to commence building the two 1,400-megawatt reactors after the government awarded licenses in December, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.President Lee Myung-bak attend
May 4, 2012
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Former speaker pleads guilty
Former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae reportedly pleaded guilty to charges that he ordered his aide to give money to a lawmaker before a ruling party leadership election.Park resigned in February after lawmaker Koh Seung-duk alleged that Park’s secretary left an envelope containing 3 million won in his office, possibly seeking his vote for Park in an election to choose the chair of the then-Grand National Party in 2008. He and two aides were indicted in the same month for violation of th
May 4, 2012
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‘Eternal chief of staff’ takes DUP helm
New leadership faces complicated challenges ahead of presidential raceThe new leadership of the main opposition Democratic United Party has finally begun to take shape upon the election of Rep. Park Jie-won as the new floor leader on Friday.If Park’s bid to become the next floor leader was tough, the challenges ahead will be even tougher, observers said, as he needs to regroup the factionalized party voices, realign party polices and advocate for a presidential candidate to go up against the rul
May 4, 2012
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DUP elects new floor leader amid criticism
The main opposition Democratic United Party elected a veteran lawmaker, who leads one of its biggest factions, as the new floor leader Friday despite criticism he ran for the post after a backroom power-sharing deal with another faction.Rep. Park Jie-won beat rival candidate Yoo Ihn-tae in a run-off with 67 votes against Yoo's 60. Two other contenders, Reps. Lee Nak-yon and Jun Byung-hun, were eli
May 4, 2012
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Lawmaker-elect of left-wing minor party to quit over election scandal
The left-wing minor opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP), disgraced by an election fraud scandal, appears to be plunging deeper into crisis as one of its lawmakers elected through the proportional representation system offered to resign Friday.Yoon Geum-soon, who was ranked first of the UPP's proportional representation candidates, said she will take responsibility for suspected vote rigging
May 4, 2012
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Former speaker Park pleads guilty
Park Hee-tae (Yonhap News)Former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae reportedly pleaded guilty to charges that he ordered his aide to provide money to a lawmaker before a ruling party leadership election.Park resigned in February after lawmaker Koh Seung-duck alleged that Park’s secretary left an envelope containing 3 million won in his office, possibly seeking his vote for Park in an election
May 4, 2012
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UPP in tatters, prosecutor’s probe looms
The Unified Progressive Party is facing its biggest crisis ever following revelations of vote-rigging and other irregularities in its candidate selection process, which it once touted as an example of grassroots democracy.With rival factions still fighting and a prosecutorial probe looming, leaders of the far-left minority party on Thursday offered a public apology. “Whatever the reason, or the circumstance may have been, we have let voters down,” Lee Jung-hee, one of the party’s four co-chairs,
May 3, 2012
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Carbon trading among 60 last-minute laws
The National Assembly late Wednesday passed a much-delayed bill to introduce an emissions trading scheme in 2015 after a years-long tug of war between the government and industry over how best to cope with global warming. The outgoing parliament also approved about 60 pending legislative proposals including the sale of over-the-counter drugs at convenience stores and police’s new right to trace the locations of crime victims through their mobile phones without a warrant. Emissions trading scheme
May 3, 2012
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National Assembly passes bill to prevent floor violence
The outgoing National Assembly passed the contentious bill aimed at preventing violence from disrupting the legislative process, along with about 60 other proposals during its last plenary session late Wednesday.The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party reached a last-minute agreement on a watered-down version of the revision to the National Assembly Act that introduces a filibuster and tightens the quorum for votes.Of the 192 attending lawmakers, 127 approved the
May 2, 2012
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Progressives admit massive primary fraud
Fraud and irregularities prevailed in the United Progressive Party’s process to select its proportional representative candidates, the far-left minority party said Wednesday. “Problems found (in the primary) are grave enough to judge that the whole process and its results have lost legitimacy and credibility,” Cho Jun-ho, one of the four co-chairs of the party, told a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul. Announcing the results of a three-week internal investigation, he concluded t
May 2, 2012
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U.S. citizenship sought for children of U.S. war veterans
A U.S. lawmaker introduced a bill to provide U.S. citizenship for children of the U.S. servicemen who were born overseas during the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (1955-1975).Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) referred the bill to the House Committee on the Judiciary on April 27, with cosponsors from the Democratic Party including Reps. Gerald Connolly, John Conyers, Michael “Mike” Honda, James “Jim” McDermott and Loretta Sanchez.Conyers is a Korean War veteran. The bill seeks to amend
May 2, 2012
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Assembly committee adopts resolution to halt U.S. beef inspections
The National Assembly's Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Committee on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on the Lee Myung-bak government to halt quarantine inspections on U.S. beef following a case of mad cow disease in California.The resolution signed by both ruling and opposition party lawmakers during a committee meeting urged the Lee administration to immediately suspend quarantine
May 1, 2012
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Rival parties agree to convene parliamentary session Wednesday
The ruling and opposition parties have agreed to convene an extraordinary session of the National Assembly Wednesday to attempt to pass dozens of pending major bills, including one aimed at preventing physical clashes in parliament, a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday.Wednesday’s session is seen as a final chance to pass about 60 pending bills through parliament before the term of the outgoing National Assembly expires on May 29. Any bills still pending at that time will be automatically scrapp
May 1, 2012
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Lee, Bahraini crown prince discuss ties
President Lee Myung-bak and Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa discussed bilateral cooperation in business and development, and ways to enhance friendly ties between the two countries during their talks in Seoul on Tuesday.After coming here on Monday for a two-day visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik, Salman paid a courtesy call to Lee. Lee called on the crown prince to help more Korean firms advance into the Middle East nation, Cheong Wa Dae said. Nine Korean f
May 1, 2012
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Jeju naval base followed law: global body
The Korean government is not violating any domestic or international laws in its push to build a naval base on Jeju, an authoritative international environmental group said Monday.“We trust that the Korean government has complied with all relevant domestic laws in planning and developing this port, as well as international conventions that it has signed,” the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a statement posted on its website. The IUCN, the world’s oldest and largest environ
April 30, 2012
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DUP struggling over shared leadership plan
The main opposition Democratic United Party is reeling from the internal backlash against the agreement by two prominent figures to share the party’s leadership posts.The related controversy may also be a blow to Moon Jae-in, the party’s top presidential potential who approved of their mutual consent.Senior adviser Lee Hae-chan and Supreme Councilor Park Jie-won earlier agreed to an alliance to the positions of party chairman and floor leader, respectively. The elected figures are to lead the pa
April 30, 2012
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Saenuri underdogs line up against Park
Ex-presidential Chief of Staff Yim announces bid for nominationA multitude of Saenuri Party members are declaring their bids for the presidential nomination, upping the ante against frontrunner Park Geun-hye.Yim Tae-hee, a former chief of staff for President Lee Myung-bak, was the latest Saenuri underdog to express his wish to run against Park on Monday. Others include Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Moon-soo, six-term Rep. Chung Mong-joon and Rep. Lee Jae-oh, who leads a faction loyal to President Lee Myung-
April 30, 2012
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Ex-presidential chief of staff to run for top office
A former chief of staff to President Lee Myung-bak announced Monday his intention to run for the top office and demanded a change in how the ruling Saenuri Party selects its candidate for December's presidential election.Yim Tae-hee, a former three-term lawmaker who worked as chief secretary to Lee in 2010-2011, is the latest ruling party member to reveal presidential ambitions. Three others decla
April 30, 2012
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Lee stresses importance of public safety amid mad cow controversy
President Lee Myung-bak instructed aides Monday to handle policies with the “safety and health of the people in mind,” his spokesman said, as the government is under pressure to halt American beef imports following a recent mad cow case in the United States.Lee made the remark during a weekly meeting with senior secretaries after his economic secretary reported that the government is taking steps to dispel public concern about the safety of U.S. beef while placing its top priority on the health
April 30, 2012
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President Lee rejects calls to halt U.S. beef imports
Korea to send beef inspection team to U.S. MondayThe presidential office on Sunday rebuffed increasing calls to halt quarantine inspections on U.S. beef imports after an American dairy cow was found to have mad cow disease last week.“Judging by information that we have it suffices to enhance quarantine inspections,” senior presidential secretary for public affairs Choe Guem-nak told reporters. He was responding to growing pressure from both the ruling and opposition parties to suspend the import
April 29, 2012