[70th Anniversary] Congratulatory messages from government leaders

Recognition from prominent figures in the government inspires The Korea Herald to strive for excellence in the publication’s reporting and the commitment to our readers. – Ed. Choo Kyung-ho, Deputy prime minister and finance minister I extend my warmest congratulations on the 70th anniversary of The Korea Herald. Born in the ruins of the Korean War in 1953, The Korea Herald has made a great contribution to raising the country’s profile worldwide while serving as a window to a

Aug. 13, 2023

[70th Anniversary] Congratulatory message from President Yoon Suk Yeol on the 70th Anniversary of The Korea Herald

I offer heartfelt congratulations to The Korea Herald on the 70th anniversary of its founding. My profound appreciation goes to Mr. Jung Won-ju, chairman of Herald Corp., as well as its management and staff. I also extend congratulations to its readers. Founded in 1953 on Liberation Day, Aug. 15, The Korea Herald has served as a bridge between Korea and the international community while vividly reporting the Republic of Korea’s progress as the country overcame the ruins of war and impoveri

Aug. 13, 2023

[Weekender] Retreats and reads: Glimpse into Korean presidential summers

In the sweltering heat of South Korean summers, even the most powerful figures in Korea -- its presidents -- yearn for summer respite. Delve into the history of presidential summer vacations, their reading rituals that give the public a sneak peek into their minds and the seemingly unbreakable jinx of interrupted summer breaks. Obligatory reading list South Korean presidents like to reveal their summer reading lists, and their book picks often become bestsellers for the season. From these summ

Aug. 12, 2023

K-pop to the rescue: Troubled Jamboree to wrap up with concert

Over 40,000 young scouts have gathered at a stadium in western Seoul for a K-pop concert, marking the conclusion of this year's World Scout Jamboree, which encountered difficulties due to a heat wave, a tropical storm and insufficient preparations. The closing ceremony is set to commence at 5:30 p.m., before a K-Pop show from 7-9 p.m. The Jamboree campground was abandoned as Typhoon Khanun approached the site, which had already struggled to cope with a scorching heat wave and insufficient amenit

Aug. 11, 2023

Ex-justice minister’s daughter indicted in college admissions scandal

The daughter of Cho Kuk, who served as justice minister for former President Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea, was indicted on Thursday in the college admissions scandal that jailed her mother, Chung Kyung-shim. According to the prosecution, the former minister’s daughter Cho Min colluded with her mother in fabricating her own credentials as she applied for a medical school in Busan. Following the news of her indictment, Cho’s daughter said in a social statement on this d

Aug. 10, 2023

Opposition leader Lee summoned for prosecution questioning over land development project

Prosecutors have summoned opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to appear for questioning over suspicions surrounding a land development project in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, during his previous term as the city's mayor, according to legal sources Thursday. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office is investigating allegations that Lee, the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, provided administrative favors to a private developer for the massive property project in Seongnam&#

Aug. 10, 2023

S. Korea to participate in working group for Ukraine Peace Formula

South Korea will participate in a working group tasked with implementing a peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a presidential official said Wednesday. The decision came while National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong was visiting Saudi Arabia last weekend to take part in multinational peace talks concerning Ukraine. The meeting was attended by the national security advisers of 45 nations, with most of them expressing their commitment to ending the war in Ukraine and quic

Aug. 9, 2023

Presidential office on 24-hour emergency duty over approaching typhoon

The office of President Yoon Suk Yeol was on 24-hour emergency duty Wednesday as a powerful typhoon was set to make landfall on the southeast coast and travel northward across the country. Typhoon Khanun has been forecast to arrive Thursday morning before moving slowly northward on a path that could bring it near the capital area and cause damage on a massive scale. Yoon might stay up overnight to oversee the response to the approaching typhoon, officials said. "The typhoon, which was initi

Aug. 9, 2023

Bomb threat email against opposition leader prompts police search for explosives

A bomb threat email against South Korea's opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has led police to search the National Assembly, officials said Tuesday. The email, which threatens to bomb a library in Seoul if Lee is not killed by 3:34 p.m. Wednesday, was sent to a number of people, including officials in the Seoul municipal government, according to the police and the secretariat of the National Assembly. Police received the report around 4:45 p.m. and dispatched a bomb disposal team to conduct a

Aug. 8, 2023

Korean public housing developer probed over shoddy safety

South Korea’s major public housing corporation is facing multiple probes into its residential buildings found to be missing steel reinforcement that is needed to yield higher strength and protect against corrosion. After the safety violations surfaced, the ruling People Power Party and the Yoon Suk Yeol administration vowed a crackdown on unsafe or illegal building practices in the construction industry. The ruling party lawmakers on Tuesday visited an apartment building in Gyeonggi Provin

Aug. 8, 2023

Korea moves to plan B as Scouts decide on early exit from Saemangeum

All 36,000 scouts remaining at the World Scout Jamboree site in the Saemangeum reclaimed tidal flat area of Buan, North Jeolla Province will be withdrawing from the campsite starting on Tuesday morning as precautionary measure for a strong typhoon approaching the peninsula, the government said Monday. The participants will start withdrawing sequentially from 10 a.m. on Tuesday and move to the metropolitan area, as Typhoon Khanun is likely to hit the east coast of South Korea on Thursday. "A

Aug. 7, 2023

[Bills in Focus] TV license fee, 3rd party calculation of patent damages, more foreign investment benefits

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Broadcasting Act Proposed by Rep. Park Sung-joong (People Power Party) ● Currently, all people who possess a television receiver must pay a TV license fee, which is used to fund the Korea Broadcasting System. However, this regulation has been criticized for being unfair to those who do not subscribe to KBS broadcasts. Accordingly, this amendment sets rational standards for determining who is liable for TV license fees by exempting those who do not receive

Aug. 7, 2023

Yoon's approval inches up for 2nd consecutive week

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating inched up for the second consecutive week to 37.5 percent, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 2,532 eligible voters conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance advanced 0.2 percentage point from the previous week, while the disapproval of Yoon's performance dropped 0.2 percentage point to 59.3 percent. The rise in the positive assessment mostly came from respondents in their 60s a

Aug. 7, 2023

[Newsmaker] Mass stabbings prompt demand for more power among police

South Korea, terrorized by a series of stabbing sprees all over the country in the past month, is pondering if its police need more liberty in deploying force when confronting a suspect. Earlier this month President Yoon Suk Yeol said that the country’s “entire police force would be mobilized” to prevent the recurrence of stabbing attacks at random. But police officers on the front lines complain they are being held liable for use of force even when judged to be necessary on th

Aug. 6, 2023

S. Korea to allow up to 30 biz people each time to Ukraine on exceptions for reconstruction projects

South Korea has decided to allow up to 30 businesspeople to visit Ukraine each time for potential projects for reconstruction and recovery under special travel exceptions, officials and industry sources familiar with the matter said Sunday. Seoul has expressed its intent to actively participate in helping to rebuild the war-torn country in the wake of the war with Russia, with the business community in infrastructure and other sectors also aligning with the move. Earlier this month, officials sa

Aug. 6, 2023

Yoon orders unlimited air-conditioned buses for Jamboree participants

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government to provide an unlimited number of air-conditioned buses and refrigerator trucks to protect participants of the World Scout Jamboree suffering from the heat wave. He also approved using the government’s reserve funds to provide aid for the event, Yoon’s office said Friday. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo chaired an unscheduled Cabinet meeting at Yoon’s request to discuss the budget for the annual Jamboree, which kicked off Wednesday

Aug. 4, 2023

Opposition party apologizes after suggesting elderly shouldn’t vote

South Korea’s main opposition party on Thursday apologized after a lawmaker and key official suggested older people are not as deserving of the right to vote on decisions about the future. Kim Eun-kyung, who heads the Democratic Party of Korea’s reform committee, visited the office of the senior citizens’ association in Seoul’s central Yongsan district and apologized for saying earlier that older people’s votes should not count as much as votes from younger people.

Aug. 3, 2023

LH to launch team to crack down on 'construction cartel'

The state-run Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) said Wednesday it will launch an "anti-cartel" headquarters as part of its effort to overhaul poor construction practices and stamp out the "construction cartel," a matter under scrutiny by the ruling party for potential collusion during the previous Moon Jae-in administration. LH CEO Lee Han-jun made the announcement at an emergency meeting of key officials, after a government-led probe found that the agency had failed to dete

Aug. 3, 2023

[Herald Interview] Bad bills happen when parties compete for popularity, says seasoned Assembly aide

When parties are competing for public approval, the outcome is usually rushed bills that backfire with unintended consequences once they take effect as law, according to Je Bang-hoon, a legislative aide of more than 15 years. “All bills, whether introduced by a lawmaker or submitted by a ministry, come to the Assembly to be considered. Lawmakers author and sign bills, all of whose process is prepared and assisted by aides like myself,” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald.

Aug. 2, 2023

PPP mulls parliamentary inspection into shoddy construction of parking lots

The ruling People Power Party said Wednesday it is considering a parliamentary inspection into what led to the shoddy construction of underground parking lots at apartment complexes built under contracts with the state-run housing developer. A land ministry inspection has found that not enough reinforcing rods were put into columns supporting underground parking lots at at least 15 Korea Land and Housing Corp. apartment complexes, even though the strength of such columns is significant in the fl

Aug. 2, 2023