The Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party are mulling steps to restrict groups with a criminal background from staging protests, in an apparent aim at a labor union at the center of a spiraling North Korea spying scandal. At a policy meeting Wednesday, Cabinet officials and party leaders agreed to push an amendment to existing laws to curb criminally involved groups’ abilities to hold assemblies and demonstrations. The latest move follows the indictment of several

Politics May 24, 2023

Political bigwigs on Tuesday flocked to Bongha, a neighborhood in South Gyeongsang Province some 290 kilometers south of Seoul, to honor the late President Roh Moo-hyun who took his own life 14 years ago today. President Yoon Suk Yeol sent flowers, his office said, and the previous President Moon Jae-in attended the memorial ceremony held in Bongha -- Roh’s hometown where he returned after the end of his presidential tenure in 2008. Leaders of both the ruling People Power Party and the Dem

Politics May 23, 2023

The ruling People Power Party said Monday it may consider taking legislative action against the country’s main umbrella labor union, with four of its leaders recently indicted for alleged anti-government activities in collusion with North Korea. In the indictment released Friday, Seoul prosecutors said four of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions members holding leadership positions communicated with North Korean authorities on at least 90 different occasions in the planning and execut

Politics May 22, 2023

North Korean brothers who brought their family members out of the country earlier this month are late millennials, part of the tech-savvy younger generation of North Korea who have increased access to external information. Sources with knowledge of the latest defections told The Korea Herald on Sunday that it was the two brothers in their early 30s who had made the decision to leave North Korea with their family. The sources said that the brothers told Seoul officials here in a screening intervi

Politics May 21, 2023

[코리아헤럴드=김아린 기자] 이달 초 서해 북방한계선(NLL)을 넘어 한국에 온 북한 일가족의 귀순은 30대 초반의 ‘MZ세대’인 두 형제가 주도한 것으로 전해졌다. 21일 코리아헤럴드 취재를 종합하면, 9명의 일가족이 탈북을 감행하는 데에는 90년대생인 두 형제의 역할이 결정적이었다고 한다. 북한의 청년 세대는 이전 세대에 비해 개인주의 성향이 강하고, 휴대 기기를 통한 미디어 콘텐츠 활용에 익숙한 것으로 분석되고 있다. 북한 당국은 주민들의 한국 방송 시청을 강력하게 단속하고 있다. 3월 통일부가 공개한 북한인권보고서에는 북한에서 청소년이 한국 영상물을 봤다는 이유로 총살당한 사례가 소개됐다. 북한인권단체 ‘전환기정의워킹그룹’은 재작년 발간한 보고서에서 김정은 집권 이후 공개 처형된 주민들에게 적용된 죄목 중에서, 한국 방송 시청이 가장 많은 건수를 차지하고 있다고 분석했다. 귀순한 두 형제 역시 평소 USB에 저장된 한국 방송을 몰래

한국어판 May 21, 2023

A popular South Korean talk show featuring North Korea escapees motivated a group of North Koreans to flee their repressive home country earlier this month, they were quoted as telling Seoul officials in a screening interview. Nine North Koreans, who are related to each other, were being investigated here after they crossed a sea border west of the peninsula, Seoul officials said Thursday. Sources with knowledge of the interview told The Korea Herald it was a pair of brothers who took the initia

Politics May 19, 2023

South Korean intelligence authorities believe a Chinese restaurant in Seoul’s central Songpa secretly served as an overseas police station for China, according to a lawmaker. Speaking anonymously to The Korea Herald, the lawmaker said the National Intelligence Service believes the restaurant in Seoul “virtually functioned” as a secret police station for the Chinese government. The NIS declined to comment on the lawmaker's statement. After the restaurant was pegged as a cla

Politics May 19, 2023

A 21-member team of South Korean experts are visiting Japan for six days from Sunday to inspect safety of the waste water from the quake-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant to be released into the Pacific. According to the Prime Minister’s office on Friday, the team comprises experts from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology. Over the course of six days the South Korean experts will meet with Tokyo Electric Power Company officials

Politics May 19, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday called for unity as South Korea commemorates the 43rd anniversary of the clampdown on pro-democracy protests in Gwangju, a city located some 330 kilometers south of Seoul. The civilian-led protests against the military rule of former president and dictator Chun Doo-hwan were met with tanks, bullets and arrests. In the course of 10 days, Chun’s troops crushed the wave of protests, at least 165 were believed to have been killed and thousands more injured

Politics May 18, 2023

The following is the text version of the address given by Justin Trudeau to South Korea’s National Assembly on Wednesday, transcribed and copyedited by The Korea Herald. -- Ed. Hello everyone. Annyeonghaseyo (“Hello” in Korean). Gamsahabnida (“Thank you”). I want to begin by thanking the speaker of the National Assembly, Kim Jin-pyo, and the secretary general of the National Assembly, Lee Kwang-jae, for their warm welcome. All esteemed members, it is an honor for me

Politics May 17, 2023

As the COVID-19 health emergency is due to expire in South Korea, so are the remote medical service policy put in place to allow people access to health care amid physical distancing restrictions. The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Wednesday it was working on a plan to keep such remote care options available beyond the end of the pandemic's emergency status at the start of next month. According to the statistics provided by the ministry, a total of over 14 million people received care

Politics May 17, 2023

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, stressed Ottawa’s commitment to back Seoul’s efforts to bring Pyongyang back to the table for peace discussions in an address to the South Korean National Assembly on Wednesday. “Canada is committed to supporting the Republic of Korea’s efforts towards a denuclearized, peaceful and prosperous Korean peninsula,” he said, adding that stability in the North Pacific is “essential to global stability.” “Cana

Politics May 17, 2023

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Thirty-one years ago, Hur Seon-haeng went to Tashkent to teach children of Korean War refugees the language of their motherland. Then he fell in love with the city and never left. Over the decades, his school bloomed into a landmark for Korean education in Uzbekistan, having taught some 8,000 students of all backgrounds. Hur, 58, landed in the Uzbek capital in March 1992 after graduating college with a degree in education. It was his professor who suggested that he teach

Social Affairs May 16, 2023

COVID-19 will no longer be classified at the highest degree of emergency in South Korea from June, three years and four months after its designation as such. President Yoon Suk Yeol convened a meeting of Cabinet members in charge of the COVID-19 response on Thursday and announced the country would be exiting the state of national emergency. “Today the government COVID-19 response headquarters decided to downgrade COVID-19’s status as an emergency. It is a delight that South Koreans w

Social Affairs May 11, 2023

Rep. Tae Yong-ho stepped down Wednesday from his leadership position in the ruling People Power Party amid political scandals involving one of his staffers and a senior presidential secretary. The resignation comes less than two weeks since the scandals first broke and about two months since Tae -- the first North Korean defector to be directly elected into South Korea’s National Assembly -- was chosen to serve as part of the People Power Party’s leadership at the March 9 party conve

Politics May 10, 2023