The leader of South Korea’s opposition party was indicted on Wednesday for an array of corruption charges following a year-and-a-half-long investigation. According to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, the Democratic Party of Korea chairperson Rep. Lee Jae-myung will be sent to trial over his suspected role in a controversial real estate project during his time as the mayor of Seongnam, a city in Gyeonggi Province. Seoul prosecutors said in a release that as mayor, Lee l

Politics March 22, 2023

The issues of “comfort women” -- South Korean women and girls who were forced into Japanese military brothels -- and the disputed islets of Dokdo were not discussed at President Yoon Suk Yeol’s talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korea’s foreign minister said Tuesday. Speaking at the National Assembly foreign affairs committee’s plenary session, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin reiterated that there was no mention of “comfort women” or Dok

Politics March 21, 2023

The families of South Korean and Japanese victims of North Korea’s atrocities will meet in Japan next month and plan to work together to seek justice and reparations. The family of Lee Dae-jun, the South Korean government official slain by North Korean soldiers in 2020, will get together for the first time on April 8 with a support group for families of the Japanese abducted by North Korea in Tokyo, according to the Lee family’s lawyer Kim Ki-yun. Kim said in a phone call with The Ko

Politics March 21, 2023

Philip Goldberg, US ambassador to South Korea, on Monday praised South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s efforts to restore ties with Japan. “We greatly value Korea’s commitment to promote trilateral and bilateral ties with Japan as witnessed in the ROK-Japan summit last week,” the ambassador said in the opening remarks ahead of his first meeting with the newly elected chair of the ruling People Power Party, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon. “We admire the actions and statements th

Politics March 20, 2023

North Korean propaganda outlet Tongil Voice on Sunday blasted South Korea’s ruling People Power Party over an elite defector-lawmaker being elected to a top leadership position in the party earlier this month. “The People Power Party appointed a runaway piece of trash to an important position as the frontman for anti-(North Korean)regime propaganda,” the North Korean outlet said in a statement. “Runaways to South Korea are trash who gave up on being humans. They betrayed

Politics March 20, 2023

South Korea and Japan agreeing to mend ties at the Tokyo summit on Thursday does not build on what is embodied in the Kim-Obuchi declaration in 1998, according to former President Kim Dae-jung’s longtime aide Park Jie-won. Speaking to The Korea Herald on Saturday, Park said he “would not liken” the deal reached by South Korea and Japan in the recent summit to the declaration signed by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Current South Ko

Politics March 19, 2023

South Koreans who were mobilized for forced labor by Japanese colonizers filed an asset collection suit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, rejecting the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's plan for locally funded compensation. The forced labor victims and their families, who won the damage suit against Mitsubishi at South Korea's top court in 2018, filed the suit to seize the Japanese company’s assets here, their lawyers said Thursday. The plaintiffs in the suit are one surviving vi

Politics March 16, 2023

Four South Korean “unification activists” met with North Korean agents overseas over several years and helped them carry out intelligence activities and other missions, according to Seoul prosecutors. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said in a release Wednesday afternoon that they indicted the four South Koreans for violating the laws on national security. The four formed an underground organization called the People’s Unification Front and together worked w

Politics March 16, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed deep concerns over the latest North Korean spying scandal during a dinner with the newly elected leaders of the ruling People Power Party on Monday, according to sources familiar with the matter Wednesday. Several ruling party sources said that the president was looking at the counter-North Korean meddling investigations seriously, referring in particular to the country’s main umbrella labor union -- the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions -- and a number

Politics March 15, 2023

South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo met with Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik on Monday at the residence of the South Korean ambassador to the Holy See. Kim’s visit to Italy comes as South Korea and the Holy See mark their 60th anniversary of forming diplomatic ties. In a release, the speaker’s office said that the Assembly speaker and the Cardinal Lazzaro discussed South Korea’s bid to host the next World Youth Day, a global event for young people organized

Politics March 14, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol and the freshly elected chairperson of the ruling People Power Party, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, will meet twice a month. Yoon hosted Kim and the rest of the new People Power Party leadership for dinner at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Monday to celebrate their election at the party convention last week. Over the private dinner, the president and the party chairperson agreed to “meet regularly, about twice a month” for coordination on policies

Politics March 13, 2023

A South Korean victim who was forced to work for a Japanese company during World War II said Monday she would refuse to accept locally funded compensation as proposed by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. Testifying before the National Assembly foreign affairs committee, Yang Keum-duk, who was conscripted in her early teenage years to work at a plant in Japan’s Nagoya, said she would “never accept” South Korean money as compensation. “I would rather starve to death than re

Politics March 13, 2023

Former National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon pushed to repatriate two North Korean men who attempted to defect to the South in a bid to restore ties with Pyongyang, according to Seoul prosecutors. In an indictment released Thursday, prosecutors said that then-NIS director Suh ordered the two fishers from North Korea to be sent back, going against the policy that requires any decision to repatriate North Korean defectors to be backed by their intentions to return home. Prosecutors found

Politics March 10, 2023

Parliamentary speakers from MIKTA -- an informal middle power partnership between Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Austria – gathered in Istanbul on Thursday and issued a joint declaration making a case for strengthening the role of parliaments. In the declaration, speakers highlighted the importance of national parliaments in diplomacy in the face of the complex security challenges. The declaration was issued at the MIKTA Speakers’ Consultation, a forum for member countrie

Politics March 10, 2023

Choi Dae-ho, the mayor of Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, has specific ideas for the future of the city. “I aim to continue to promote projects to create a city that will prosper for over 100 years,” Choi proclaims. The agenda pursued by Choi focuses on more initiatives for the city's young people. Choi said over his term he hopes to build a city that is women-friendly and safer for children to grow up in. “Anyang is first in the country to increase rewards to couples that have

Politics March 10, 2023