Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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[KH Explains] Will alternative trading platform shake up Korean stock market?
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Presidential race down to the wire
The last survey released ahead of next week’s presidential election showed the race too close to call as Moon Jae-in gained on frontrunner Park Geun-hye. According to a poll conducted Wednesday by Real Meter and commissioned by Herald Corp., Park of the Saenuri Party was seen losing her edge against her Democratic United Party challenger, with 47.8 percent against 47.7 percent, respectively.The surge in support for Moon was most apparent among respondents in their 30s and 40s who have been consi
Dec. 13, 2012
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New 8th U.S. Army commander nominated
U.S. President Barack Obama has nominated Army Maj. Gen. Bernard S. Champoux for appointment as commanding general of the 8th U.S. Army stationed in South Korea, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Once his duty assignment is confirmed, Champoux will be promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and succeed current commander Lieut. Gen. John D. Johnson. He currently serves as deputy commanding general of the EUSA.The nomination for the top army post based in South Korea comes at a cruci
Dec. 13, 2012
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Some election pledges short on substance
With the presidential campaign entering the home stretch, two main candidates are pouring out promises to win an upper hand in the neck-and-neck race.Many proposals in their manifestos, however, failed to suggest detailed means of implementation or collecting the necessary financial resources, giving rise to concerns that they may end up as empty words.Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, in her recent televised speech, pledged to double the monthly pension for all elderly citizens and the
Dec. 13, 2012
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Concern rises as N. Korea seen turning to bolder hardline policy
As North Korea inches toward its goal of de-facto nuclear power status, its fledgling leadership is expected to pursue a more aggressive, bolder external policy, experts warned Thursday.To cope with this, Seoul needs to map out a smart strategy through multilateral diplomacy, they said. It should also remain mindful that Pyongyang will continue to shun Seoul as a negotiating partner and seek greater-scale deals only with nuclear-power states such as the U.S. and China.“The North will be in a psy
Dec. 13, 2012
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Saenuri's Park holds narrow lead over DUP hopeful in last polls before election
Ruling Saenuri Party's presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye maintained a narrow lead over main opposition rival Moon Jae-in in the last nationwide polls that can be made public ahead of this year's presidential election, political watchers said Thursday.The five surveys taken from Monday through Wednesday showed Park's approval rating between 42.8 percent and 48.9 percent, compared to 41.4 percent to 47.5 percent for the Democratic United Party (DUP) candidate.Among the surveys released by broadca
Dec. 13, 2012
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Experts split on rocket’s impact on election
North Korea’s successful long-range rocket launch on Wednesday thrust the issue of peninsula security into the center of next week’s presidential election in Seoul.The surprise provocation could tilt the electoral balance in either direction, analysts say. Rival candidates engaged in a blame game, with the Saenuri Party citing liberals’ leniency toward the nuclear-armed North Korea and the Democratic United Party trying to highlight the conservative incumbents’ intelligence and security inabilit
Dec. 12, 2012
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Gap narrows in polls
With a week remaining until the election day, Democratic United Party presidential candidate Moon Jae-in further narrowed the gap with his Saenuri Party rival Park Geun-hye, some of the last polls to be released showed Wednesday.The survey by Munhwa Ilbo and Korea Research conducted on 1,000 respondents on Tuesday showed that Park was leading Moon by 0.9 percentage point, at 42.8 percent to 41.9 percent. Of the respondents, 13.9 percent said they either had no specific preference or did not give
Dec. 12, 2012
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Political dogfight moving onto SNS
Social networking services have emerged as a valuable campaign machine, arousing interest in politics among young people and rallying them to polling stations. But amid raging negative campaigning, Facebook and Twitter are now becoming another platform for political dogfights, rumor-mongering and slander.On Tuesday, the Internet was abuzz with rumors that Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye had cheated during the presidential debate the night before by peeking at an iPad. The ru
Dec. 12, 2012
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Ahn stays low-key in campaign
Former candidate Ahn Cheol-soo joined Democratic United Party nominee Moon Jae-in’s campaign late last week, boosting hopes of an opposition victory in the Dec. 19 presidential election. But the former software entrepreneur remained low-key on the campaign trail, disappointing many of their supporters and prompting speculation that he may be eyeing his chances in the next presidential election. On Tuesday, the two canvassed in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area, Moon mainly in Gyeonggi
Dec. 12, 2012
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Welfare pledges lack consistency, viability
Welfare has emerged as a key issue on the campaign agenda of main presidential candidates Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in, but experts have criticized their pledges for lacking consistency and financial viability.According to Herald Corp.’s manifesto review panel, comprised of leading academics, candidates have painted rosy pictures of Korea becoming a welfare state, but they have listed only fragments of pledges in an attempt to woo voters without presenting realistic ways to implement their plan
Dec. 12, 2012
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Controversy over spy agency’s alleged election intervention
The ruling Saenuri party and main opposition Democratic United Party remain at loggerheads over whether state-run intelligence agency tried to illegally intervene in the presidential election slated for Dec. 19.On Tuesday, the DUP claimed that a National Intelligence Service employee was posting slanderous comments about the party’s presidential candidate Moon Jae-in on the Internet. “Recently we received a tip-off that NIS-affiliated psychosomatic information team had been reorganized into ps
Dec. 12, 2012
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Candidates’ economic plans short of viable solutions
Following is the first in a series of articles based on the assessment of the presidential manifestos by the Herald expert panel. ― Ed.The main presidential candidates Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in have dedicated much of their time to economic pledges, but experts say that their plans fall far short of being viable solutions. According to Herald Corp.’s manifesto review panel comprised of leading academics, the plans put forward by the Saenuri Party’s Park and the Democratic United Party’s Moon
Dec. 12, 2012
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Candidates battle it out to woo votes
In an increasingly close race to Cheong Wa Dae, candidates Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in rallied in the metropolitan region on Tuesday as they made their last minute pitches to the country’s biggest electorate ahead of the final public polls on Wednesday. Back at their campaign headquarters, their key economic policymakers took their cues from their television debate a night before and locked horns over their economic democratization pledges.Former independent candidate and professor-turned-poli
Dec. 11, 2012
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Turnout among overseas voters exceeds 70 percent
Over 70 percent of South Korean voters living overseas have cast ballots in the presidential election during a weeklong voting period, the National Election Commission said Tuesday.Of a total of 222,389 registered voters overseas, 158,235 or 71.2 percent have voted at polling stations set up at South Korean diplomatic missions Tuesday. The overseas voting began Wednesday last week and the final polling station closed at noon Korean time in Honolulu, Hawaii.The turnout was much higher than 44.8 p
Dec. 11, 2012
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U.S. half-heartedly accepted 1979 military coup
Dec. 12 marks the 33th anniversary of a military coup that gave power to then military strongman Chun Doo-hwan. ―Ed. It was a meeting that forever changed the course of South Korean history.On the afternoon of Dec. 12, 1979, a group of military officers from South Gyeongsang Province gathered in the office of a man who called South Jeolla his home. The office was located inside Gyeongbok Palace, which had housed the royalty of the Joseon Dynasty for over 600 years until it was conquered by the
Dec. 11, 2012
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‘Obama won’t budge unless N.K. acts first’
This is the 10th in a series of articles on the growing rivalry between the U.S. and China and its implications for the two Koreas and East Asia. ― Ed.The Barack Obama administration during its second term may not make any major shift in its policy toward North Korea unless the communist state “acts first in a positive fashion,” according to foreign policy expert Balbina Hwang.Pointing to Washington’s dismay over the North breaching the so-called Leap Day deal, Hwang, a professor at Georgetown U
Dec. 11, 2012
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Nearly 80% of voters to cast ballot in presidential election: poll
Nearly 80 percent of all voters in the country said they will vote in this year's presidential race, a poll conducted by the state election watchdog said Tuesday. The survey carried out by Korea Research Center on behalf of the National Election Commission on 1,500 people nationwide late last week showed 79.9 percent of all respondents saying they will definitely vote on Dec. 19. By age group, 74.5 percent of people in their 20s, 71.8 percent in their 30s and 78.3 percent in their 40s said t
Dec. 11, 2012
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Ex-P.M. Chung declares support for Moon
Former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan declared his backing for opposition presidential candidate Moon Jae-in on Tuesday, saying he believes he and the liberal contender can share his vision that bigger and smaller firms should seek shared growth.Chung held the country's No. 2 post in 2009-2010 under President Lee Myung-bak before serving as head of the National Commission for Corporate Partnership until earlier this year, a post that promotes "shared growth" between conglomerates and smaller busin
Dec. 11, 2012
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Lee keeps up verbal rampage against Park
Not even the car accident the day before could stop her. Lee Jung-hee of the left-wing Unified Progressive Party was back in her recalcitrant form on Monday night’s presidential debate. But this time, the 42-year-old Seoul National University-educated labor lawyer added more targets to her hit list.“Above the president exists the constitution, and above the constitution exist Lee Kun-hee and Chung Mong-koo,” Lee said in her opening statement, referring to the chairman of Samsung Electronics and
Dec. 10, 2012
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Rivals clash over chaebol reform
Three presidential candidates squared off over the conglomerate-led Korean economy in the second television debate Monday, as their campaigns revolve around economic democratization and government accountability, which are considered key to helping low-income citizens.Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party locked horns over whether the worsening polarization, growing household debt and squeezing of livelihoods were the result of the former Roh Moo-hyun
Dec. 10, 2012