Most Popular
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Korean industries gauge impact of Biden's steep tariffs on China
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Do Korean doctors make too much money?
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Is FTC's conglomerate listing a boon or bane for Hybe?
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NewJeans to headline palace show
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Coupang's Kim Bom escapes chaebol chief designation again
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Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
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Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
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CIO chief nominee to explain allegations at confirmation hearing
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Yoon vows to run country 'rightly' on Buddha's birthday
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Debate on 'no-seniors zones' heats up
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Parliament hits budget deadline
The National Assembly approved next year’s government budget Tuesday, ending weeks of partisan bickering in time for a constitutional deadline that has rarely been followed.The 2015 budget is approximately 375.4 trillion won ($340 billion), an increase of about 5.7 percent from last year. Lawmakers cut about 600 billion won from the government’s original draft budget submitted in September.Taxes on cigarettes will rise by 2,000 won per pack, while funds related to a free child care program calle
Dec. 2, 2014
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[Newsmaker] Ex-Park aide shrouded in speculation
The scandal centered on Chung Yoon-hoi continues to expand and threatens to bring rival parties to a headlong clash, but little is known about the man himself. It has been alleged that Chung is at the core of an unofficial group of advisors to President Park Geun-hye, and that he has colluded with three presidential secretaries on a regular basis to exchange classified information on her state management. Chung and his supposed collaborators are also alleged to have tried to pull strings to repl
Dec. 2, 2014
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Seoul, Washington seek to put N.K. rights on UNSC agenda
South Korea and the United States are moving to put North Korea’s dismal human rights conditions on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council within this year in a bid to continue U.N. discussions on the issue and turn up the heat on Pyongyang, government sources said Tuesday.North Korea’s human rights situation has been in the spotlight as a U.N. General Assembly committee last month passed a resolution calling for the referral of the country’s human rights violations to the Internation
Dec. 2, 2014
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Assembly restarts work on anticorruption bill
Lawmakers on Tuesday resumed reviewing the draft of an anticorruption bill that has been stalled in the parliament since May due to a series of summer elections and ongoing partisan strife over other pieces of legislation.The so-called Kim Young-ran bill aims to end influence peddling in officialdom by making it a crime to receive any kind of unofficial monetary payment. It was first proposed in 2011 by the then-head of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission, after which the bill is named
Dec. 2, 2014
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Park calls on N. Korea to improve human rights conditions
President Park Geun-hye called on North Korea on Tuesday to address its dismal human rights record as she proposed a series of projects meant to lay the groundwork for potential unification with North Korea."The issue of North Korea's human rights must be improved to not only protect the universal values of mankind but for the future of a unified Korea," Park said in a meeting of a blue-ribbon committee established to make preparations for reunification.North Korea's human rights record has emer
Dec. 2, 2014
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Gov't mulls measures to ease inflexibility in employment: sources
The government is considering measures aimed at easing "inflexibility" in employment at large businesses and public companies as part of its structural reform, a key policy objective to be included in its economy management plan for next year, government sources said Tuesday.The measures will be focused on making it easier for companies to adjust salaries and working hours for regular workers. An extension of the current two-year contract period for irregular workers to three years will also be
Dec. 2, 2014
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Park urges probe into leak
President Park Geun-hye on Monday condemned the disclosure of documents regarding Chung Yoon-hoi, a former aide, calling for a thorough investigation. “(I) do not know what the intention behind leaking the documents was, but it is an act that damages national order,” Park said at a meeting with senior presidential staff. President Park Geun-hye speaks at a meeting with senior aides at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)Saying that real and false information accumulated at the presidential
Dec. 1, 2014
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Bickering over budget plan continues as deadline looms
Rival parties Monday attempted to iron out last-minute disagreements over next year’s government budget in order to meet the constitutional deadline, set on Tuesday, as the last legal day for examining the spending plan.Lawmakers appeared intent on meeting the due date, despite the lingering disagreements on income tax reforms threatening to derail the budget’s approval by midnight, Wednesday. But a timely budget ratification won’t mean the beginning of the Christmas vacation season for lawmaker
Dec. 1, 2014
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Ex-first lady Lee to visit North Korea next year
The widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung plans to visit North Korea next May or June when the weather is milder and more favorable to her health, her nonprofit organization said Monday.Lee Hee-ho, 92, expressed her wish to travel to North Korea for humanitarian purposes when she met with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in late October.Pyongyang accepted the request last month.“(Lee) wished to visit the North this year, but at the earnest advice of her doctors, she postponed t
Dec. 1, 2014
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‘Nominee played golf after N.K. attack’
An opposition lawmaker on Monday chastised Safety Minister nominee Park In-yong for playing golf two days after North Korea’s deadly shelling of a front-line South Korean island, saying he had “acted inappropriately during a time of national crisis.”The former Navy admiral had used a military-owned golf facility on Nov. 25, 2010, after Pyongyang’s shelling of Yeonpeyong Island left four dead, according to Rep. Lim Su-kyung of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy.In South Korea, golf is consid
Dec. 1, 2014
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(Photo News) Korea-Japan business ties
GS Group chairman Huh Chang-soo (second from left), who also chairs the Federation of Korean Industries, speaks at the Korea-Japan Financial Conference, held at the FKI’s head office in Yeouido, Seoul, Monday. (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald)
Dec. 1, 2014
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FM to visit Britain for first strategic dialogue
South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will visit Britain this week to hold the inaugural meeting of the two countries' strategic dialogue, the foreign ministry said Monday.Yun will depart for London on Tuesday for a three-day trip during which he will attend the first South Korea-British Strategic Dialogue with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday, according to the ministry.Yun will discuss a range of issues including the current situations of the Korean Peninsula and the N
Dec. 1, 2014
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Parliamentary panel adopts resolution against anti-Korean movement in Japan
South Korea's parliamentary committee for foreign affairs adopted a resolution Monday calling for specific action against anti-Korean hate speech by rightist groups in Japan. The resolution, submitted by the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, urges the Japanese government to recognize hate speech as "violence and acts against humanity" threatening the safety and livelihoods of Koreans living in Japan. It also calls on the Japanese government to take specific action to end the
Dec. 1, 2014
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Park calls for thorough probe over document leak
President Park Geun-hye called Monday for a thorough probe into allegations that a former aide with no position in the government interfered in state affairs.The move came three days after the Segye Times, a local newspaper, reported that Jeong Yun-hoe, who served as chief secretary to Park during her term in parliament, tried to mastermind a plot to oust Kim Ki-choon, the current chief of staff to Park, citing an internal document from the presidential office dated Jan. 6.Jeong holds no officia
Dec. 1, 2014
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'Eurasia Initiative' gets boost from Koreas-Russia cooperation
The South Korean government vowed full support Monday for the nascent Rajin-Khasan project, saying it would help spur the "Eurasia Initiative" proposed by President Park Geun-hye.The unification ministry described the logistics program, which is on a test run, as the "starting point" for economic cooperation among the two Koreas and Russia."It is meaningful as a project to lay the foundation for realizing the Eurasia Initiative, peace in Northeast Asia and the renovation of our economy," ministr
Dec. 1, 2014
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Officer denies leaking information, lays accusations of bigger plot
The police superintendent accused of leaking Cheong Wa Dae documents concerning former presidential aide Chung Yoon-hoi denied all allegations Monday, saying that the documents were stolen while he was working at the presidential office. The officer, identified by the surname Park, has been banned from leaving the country as the prosecution rolls out its investigation. (Yonhap)Park is accused of removing intelligence reports on Chung, once a close aide to President Park Geun-hye, when he was rea
Dec. 1, 2014
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S. Korea, U.S. to hold defense IT meeting this week
South Korea and the United States plan to hold a working-group meeting in Washington this week to boost exchanges and secure interoperability between their defense information and technology arena, Seoul's defense ministry said Monday.The fifth round of the Enterprise Architecture Working Group (EAWG) meetings will begin on Tuesday for a three-day run to discuss how to make the two countries' defense framework and system more interoperable and ways to boost cooperation in the defense IT field, a
Dec. 1, 2014
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Gov't to intensify crackdown on cigarette hoarding before price hike
The government said Monday that it will intensify its crackdown on those hoarding cigarettes in a bid to stabilize the market ahead of an imminent sharp price hike in tobacco. The stepped-up crackdown comes days after the ruling and opposition parties tentatively agreed to raise the prices of cigarettes by 2,000 won (US$1.8) per pack starting next year, which is equivalent to almost an 80-percent increase.The finance ministry said that it will beef up its monitoring until the end of this year on
Dec. 1, 2014
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Parties clash over Park’s former aide
The controversy over President Park Geun-hye’s former aide Chung Yoon-hoi grew Sunday, as the prosecution prepared to launch an investigation. On Friday, the Segye Ilbo claimed that the presidential office conducted a probe into Chung early this year and found that he had met with three presidential secretaries on a regular basis to exchange classified information on Park’s state management. According to the news report, the document also states that Chung and the presidential staff also tried t
Nov. 30, 2014
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Assembly extends budget review
The ruling and main opposition parties on Sunday agreed to extend their budget review until Tuesday, when the budget will be processed on schedule.If the parties follow through with the agreement, it will be the first time in 12 years in which the budget bill is approved within the deadline set by the Constitution. Under the revised National Assembly Act, the parties must complete the budget review by midnight Nov. 30 or the budget proposed by the government will be put to a vote unmodified. How
Nov. 30, 2014