Free-for-all forum fails to reach agreement on cutting cost of college Lawmakers, government officials, university presidents, professors and students gathered on Wednesday for a forum on tuition cuts hosted by the Grand National Party but failed to reach any agreement. “We are running against the clock as the Education Ministry is to submit its budget bill to the Finance Ministry by the end of...

Students of the prestigious Seoul National University favor opposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu as the next Korean president, but think female conservative politician Park Geun-hye is most likely to win the race, a poll released Tuesday shows. According to the survey of 660 students conducted by the Seouldae Journal, a student newspaper at the university, Sohn, the chairman of the Democratic Party, w...

China has made a “terrible strategic error” by failing to rein in North Korea, a former U.S. Forces Korea commander said Monday, stressing the need for it to assume a responsible role for regional peace and stability. In a meeting with reporters in Seoul, Burwell B. Bell, who served as USFK commander from February 2006-June 2008, also said that the risk of military provocations by the North rema...

Opposition says president’s call for patience an attempt to derail fee reductions Parties in Tuesday’s parliamentary education committee general meeting quarreled over the president’s call for more time on the controversial university tuition fee cuts. Lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party accused the presidential office of attempting to pressure the National Assembly to abandon the...

Protests over tuition cuts signal partisan race to woo voters with populist policies Opposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu hoped that his party’s plan to cut college tuition fees would appeal to students when he attended their rally early last week. “I am not here to add fuel to your anger but to share your concerns,” Sohn told about 200 university students holding a candlelight vigil in downtown Seou...

The opposition leader and president may meet in an inter-party summit as early as this month to discuss pending economic issues concerning people’s livelihoods here. “Students and parents are out in the streets, asking for a tuition cut, and we may not blame them because they are indeed under great economic strain,” said the main opposition Democratic Party chairman Sohn Hak-kyu at the party’s S...

With next year’s general election looming, rival parties appear unsure over policies to ease the burden of university tuition. The ruling Grand National Party, which had preemptively raised the issue of halving tuition, has changed its policy on how much to cut tuition by, while the main opposition Democratic Party has turned drastically toward the expansion of scholarships to differentiate itse...

Lawmaker leads parliamentary forum for a multicultural Korea The key to multiculturalism lies in reciprocal integration, according to the chairwoman of the National Assembly forum on multiculturalism. “When it comes to multiculturalism, people generally think of immigrant wives from Southeast Asia, but the term should be taken to a higher plane,” Rep. Kim Hye-seong told The Korea Herald. “Not ...

A rookie lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party lost his parliamentary seat as the top court Friday upheld his conviction for accepting illegal political donations. Rep. Hyun Kyoung-byoung of the GNP became the 21st member of the 18th National Assembly to lose his seat for violation of the election or political fund laws. Hyun was indicted on charges of accepting a total of 130 million won...