A day after canceling a planned debate because a leading presidential contender was unhappy about it, the main opposition party on Wednesday was wrangling over its leader’s comments in a private conversation. Won Hee-ryong, former Jeju governor and a preliminary presidential candidate of the People Power Party, claimed that party leader Lee Jun-seok told him on the phone that Yoon Seok-youl, the...

Main opposition party leader Lee Jun-seok continued to bicker with his own party members supporting former prosecutor general and presidential hopeful Yoon Seok-youl despite concerns that internal fighting will not help the party win next year’s election. The People Power Party plans to hold a debate between the party’s preliminary presidential candidates on Aug. 18, which members of Yoon’s camp...

The main opposition party has set its primary schedule, but is hit by an internal feud, as some presidential contenders expressed discontent over how it’s going to be done. Former prosecutor general and currently the People Power Party’s strongest presidential hopeful Yoon Seok-youl is unwilling to take part in the first debate among preliminary candidates on Aug. 18. Yoon, who has not yet regi...

Chocolate in a shoe polish can, carbonated drinks in a marker ink bottle, candy in a glue stick and a lipstick container -- foods that resemble familiar non-food products -- will no longer be sold in South Korea under a legal revision. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Tuesday it has issued an advance notice for revised ordinances under a revised bill on labelling and advertising of food...

Civic activists detained last week for allegedly receiving orders from Pyongyang to organize protests against the purchase of F-35A stealth fighters from the US had received at least $20,000 from North Korean agents for their operation, warrant applications by the authorities showed. The National Intelligence Service and the police searched the homes of four activists in Cheongju, North Chungche...

Main opposition People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok warned the minor opposition People’s Party to not treat him like a kid as the two parties blamed each other for failing to discuss a merger. “I recommend to the People’s Party, ‘Salute the rank, not the man,’” Lee wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, quoting a line from the American war drama miniseries “Band of Brothers,” with a link to a scene ...

The provincial government of Gangwon began a major crackdown on COVID-19 rule violations in hotels and guesthouses on the eastern coast Tuesday, as young people flock to pool parties and other gatherings over the peak summer holiday season. The biggest hotel in northern Gangneung has been suspended for 10 days from Sunday, after authorities walked in on a pool party attended by dozens of people ...

Former prosecutor general and presidential frontrunner Yoon Seok-youl is under fire for saying during a media interview last month that poor people should be allowed to eat foods that don’t meet legal standards, as long as they don’t kill you. Yoon made the remarks as he spoke about economist Milton Friedman’s book “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement,” in a video clip of the interview released...

South Korea’s main opposition party leader said Thursday that if former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl does not join the party next month, party members who have joined his camp will be expelled. People Power Party Chairman Lee Jun-seok said that as the party has finalized the primary in late August, he expects Yoon to join the PPP in August. “The No. 1 opposition party’s primary is like a p...

The number of foreigners in South Korea decreased for a consecutive 19 months amid the pandemic to its lowest in five years and six months in June, according to statistics released by the Korea Immigration Service under the Justice Ministry. The foreign population in Korea stood at about 1.98 million in June, 0.3 percent less compared to May, and the lowest since December 2015 (1.89 million). T...

The leader of the main opposition party said Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung was easier than former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon as a presidential candidate to compete against in next year’s election. Asked during a radio interview Monday evening which of the two ruling party presidential contenders he thought was “more comfortable to deal with,” People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok chose t...

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung is fighting back criticism from all across the political spectrum of his presidential campaign pledge to provide a universal basic income of up to 2 million won ($1,730) per year to all citizens. Lee, currently the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential front-runner, announced last week that if he is elected president, the government will start givin...

Revised media guidelines on reporting of celebrity suicides resulted in reduced rate of suicides among the general public in South Korea, research results showed. A team of researchers led by Dr. Jeon Hong-jin in the psychiatry department of Samsung Medical Center analyzed the suicide rates from 2005 through 2017, and found that after media guidelines were revised in 2013, there was a significan...

Members of the ruling Democratic Party continued to slam former prosecutor general and presidential contender Yoon Seok-youl on Wednesday for saying that people should be allowed to work 120 hours in a week if they need to. As Yoon criticized the 52-hour work week system as a failed policy in a recent newspaper interview, he said he met people in start-ups who said there should be exemptions to ...

With heat wave warnings issued nationwide Tuesday, Korea is likely to see temperatures near 40 degrees Celsius this week, and possibly a return of the record-breaking heat in 2018 due to a “heat dome” phenomenon, the chief of a nongovernmental weather agency said. “Korea saw the hottest day ever recorded on Aug. 1, 2018, when temperatures hit 39.6 degrees in Seoul and 41 degrees in Hongcheon, Ga...