Articles by Jung Min-kyung
Jung Min-kyung
mkjung@heraldcorp.com-
Gloomy outlook for joint Olympics team, with NK IOC member’s skepticism
The outlook of Seoul’s suggestion to form an inter-Korean team for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics appears bleak, with the North’s International Olympic Committee member displaying skepticism toward the plan.Chang Ung, the only North Korean member of the IOC and former International Taekwondo Federation chief, expressed his doubts toward Seoul’s Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan’s proposal of a joint women’s hockey team and holding skiing games on North Korean slopes. President Moon Jae-in make
North Korea June 26, 2017
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Ex-dictator requests court change over memoir lawsuit
Former President Chun Doo-hwan, responsible for the bloody suppression of the 1980 pro-democracy movement in Gwangju, has requested that the petition for an injunction against the publication of his memoir be reviewed in Seoul. According to the Gwangju District Court and the May 18 Memorial Foundation on Sunday, Chun has requested the case to be reviewed in Seoul, saying that the Gwagnju court may be influenced by public sentiment. According to court records, Chun filed a motion seeking to trans
Social Affairs June 25, 2017
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Taekwondo event may spark ‘sports diplomacy’ with NK
A North Korean-led taekwondo organization will participate in a world taekwondo championship in South Korea opening Saturday, amid the Moon Jae-in administration seeking “sports diplomacy” to repair its relationship with North Korea. A 36-person delegation of the North Korean-led International Taekwondo Federation will arrive in Seoul by plane via Beijing on Friday and is scheduled to stay until July 1, the ITF and the South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said Thursday. The delegation includes
North Korea June 22, 2017
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Hiker rescued 12 days after going missing in Philippines
A South Korean traveler who went missing for 12 days on a mountain near Baguio city in the Philippines was rescued Tuesday, said the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. The hiker, whose name was not disclosed, was worn out from starvation and exposure, but he was not in a critical condition and was able to speak. He had been stranded on Mount Pulag since June 9, but managed to call the Korean community in Angeles on June 13 when he found a signal on his mobile phone. His cellphone battery died shortl
Social Affairs June 21, 2017
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NK hoards operational nuclear and advanced chemical weapons: think tank
North Korea may already possess operational nuclear and advanced chemical weapons, a US think tank said, amid heightening tensions on the peninsula over the communist state’s relentless military provocations. “During the past 40 years and more, North Korea has consistently pursued expanding its nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) programs with impressive single-mindedness and determination and fully in line with its national philosophy of juche,” wrote Joseph Bermudez Jr., chief analytics off
North Korea June 19, 2017
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Female army officer bashed for not covering for sex offender
A female Army major was ordered to intervene to settle a sexual harassment case on behalf of a male officer by pretending to be the suspect’s sister, reports from the South Korean Army and National Human Rights Commission showed Sunday.According to a petition filed by the major who was unnamed, she had worked as a professor at the Korea Army Academy at Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, and faced career disadvantages after defying a colonel’s request in 2015 to settle a sexual harassment cas
Social Affairs June 11, 2017
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No defector return, no family reunions: NK
North Korea has demanded South Korea return a group of its citizens who defected while working at a restaurant in China last year as a precondition for reunions of families separated by the Korean War, in another move that casts a cloud over President Moon Jae-in’s pursuit of a cross-border thaw. Kim Yong-chol, a senior official in the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Unification of Korea told the AFP in Pyongyang that the South Korean government should repatriate the 12 former restaurant work
North Korea June 8, 2017
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Korea to apply strong measures to contain bird flu
Despite the government being on the highest alert, more suspected cases of bird flu were found in South Korea on Wednesday, raising the specter of another massive outbreak of the virus in just two months. “It looks like a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus is becoming an indigenous animal epidemic here. The government must devise fundamental measures,” Rep. Lee Kai-ho, a member of President Moon Jae-in‘s de facto transition team, said during a briefing by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food a
Social Affairs June 7, 2017
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[Newsmaker] Foreign minister nominee’s prospects darken
Kang Kyung-wha, nominated to become South Korea’s first female foreign minister, is considered the embodiment of an “alpha female,” with a resume that includes time as a special policy adviser to the United Nations secretary-general.Still, the country’s most prominent female diplomat faces an uphill confirmation battle. Opposition lawmakers are determined to grill the 62-year-old nominee over allegations of wrongdoing at a hearing Wednesday. (Yonhap)Even before the parliamentary process opened
Politics June 6, 2017
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Foreign teachers entitled to severance pay: court
A Seoul court said Monday that a group of foreign teachers employed by a private language institute here were entitled to receive severance benefits that their employer refused to pay because it considered them to be independent contract workers. The Seoul Central District Court partially ruled in favor of five English teachers who filed a suit in September 2015 against their former employer, a private language education chain in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province which refused to acknowledge them as regu
Social Affairs June 5, 2017
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Public Safety Ministry may close in reorganization
As the new administration’s government reorganization plans take shape, South Korea’s Ministry of Public Safety and Security is facing a shutdown, three years after its establishment in 2014.The plans would see the Ministry of Interior absorbing the Public Safety Ministry’s role as the country’s disaster response control tower.Ministry of Public Safety and Security (Yonhap)The Moon Jae-in administration is scheduled to hold its first high-level meeting with the ruling Democratic Party of Korea o
Politics June 2, 2017
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S. Korea greenlights efforts to revive pro-unification event
Seventeen years ago in mid-June, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il, then-leaders of the divided Koreas, shook hands at the first inter-Korean summit aimed towards peaceful reunification. On Wednesday, South Korea approved a local civic group to contact North Korea hoping to reinitiate a joint event honoring the historic meeting, for the first time in nine years. The Ministry of Unification’s approval of the June 15 South Korean Committee contacting its North Korean counterpart follows a permit last w
North Korea June 1, 2017
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Rocky road ahead for Cabinet nominees
Moon Jae-in’s pick for prime minister is likely to pass the parliamentary confirmation vote on Wednesday, but the prospects for other position nominees are becoming increasingly unclear. Among them is Foreign Minister candidate Kang Kyung-wha. The National Assembly is poised to clear Lee Nak-yon’s appointment for the nation’s No. 2 job when it holds a plenary vote at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Over a majority of the current 299-member parliament is expected to cast a vote in favor of Lee, while some 120
Politics May 30, 2017
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Government plans full compensation for Kaesong complex firms
South Korean firms that operated factories at the inter-Korean industrial complex will receive full compensation for their losses from the previous government’s decision to halt its operation, said the Ministry of Unification on Sunday. “The government has decided to provide additional compensation to the local companies that were financially damaged by the shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” a ministry official was quoted as saying by the local media. “The full compensation plan will b
North Korea May 28, 2017
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Cold cases unfrozen
A defining cold case that left a bloody stain in South Korean history is the Hwaseong murders -- a series of rapes and murders that happened in the late 1980s, when the country did not even have a lab capable of DNA analysis. “The Hwaseong killings is the most devastating cold case South Korea has failed to solve,” said Kwon Il-yong, considered South Korea’s first criminal profiler. “I wish I was a part of its investigative process, so I could have solved it.” Police authorities investigating t
Social Affairs May 26, 2017
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