South Korean lawmaker Rep. Ji Seong-ho attended this year’s summit of the Inter-parliamentary Alliance on China in Prague on Thursday to call on Beijing to stop forcibly deporting North Korean defectors. While South Korea is not a member of the IPAC, Ji was invited to attend the summit to deliver a keynote speech on the situation facing North Korean defectors in China. The IPAC is composed of more than 240 lawmakers from 24 countries and aims at working on approaches to Beijing. With North

Politics Aug. 31, 2023

South Korea’s legally troubled main opposition leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung announced he was going on an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday, his first anniversary in office as chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying President Yoon Suk Yeol was “ruining the country.” At a press conference, Lee said stopping Yoon from “undermining democracy, destroying the Korean middle class and failing to stand up against the Japanese government” was a “life or death

Politics Aug. 31, 2023

A row has broken out in South Korea over how to describe the water being discharged from the crippled nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukushima. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea says the water from the plant is “nuclear waste,” while the ruling People Power Party would rather call it “treated wastewater,” as does the International Atomic Energy Agency. The People Power Party on Wednesday said that the wastewater from Fukushima, while still slightly radio

Politics Aug. 30, 2023

After a series of seemingly random stabbings swept across South Korea in the past month, a bill was proposed on Wednesday to reduce liability for police officers when they use force at certain crime scenes. Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the ruling People Power Party said he would introduce a bill to reduce liability for police officers should they cause harm to another individual while engaging in physical interactions with offenders if there is no intent or gross negligence on the part of the officer.

Politics Aug. 30, 2023

With the 2024 elections approaching, South Korea’s ruling party on Monday vowed to spread of misinformation in an apparent aim at the opposition’s attacks on the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s response to the ocean release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by the Japanese government. The People Power Party said it would expand efforts to curb "fake news" and conspiracy theories in a resolution adopted at the end of a two-day session to make

Politics Aug. 29, 2023

INCHEON -- South Korea’s two major parties each embarked on two-day preparation sessions from Monday, to plan for the last regular session of the National Assembly before legislative elections in April. The ruling People Power Party’s retreat in Incheon was attended by the entire party, as well as President Yoon Suk Yeol and some members of the Cabinet. Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho gave the lawmakers a special lecture on challenges facing the country’s economy and policy mile

Politics Aug. 28, 2023

South Korea’s main opposition party warned it would take a series of actions condemning the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s policies on Japan as Tokyo began a phased release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant on Thursday afternoon. Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the head of the Democratic Party of Korea, said in an emergency meeting gathering all of the party’s lawmakers that Yoon, with his “leniency with Japan,” was “no less responsible for the

Politics Aug. 24, 2023

Rep. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, has been named a suspect in an investigation into illicit transfers of money to North Korea in 2018. This makes Lee, who is already facing separate trials over corruption controversies from his time as head of Gyeonggi Province and the city of Seongnam, a possible defendant in yet another criminal case. According to prosecutors in Gyeonggi Province’s Suwon, Lee is suspected of having played a major role in paying

Politics Aug. 23, 2023

The parliaments of South Korea and Turkmenistan agreed to build closer ties, proposing a new channel of dialogue and exchange. According to information provided by the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Republic of Korea, Kim Jin-pyo, the speaker of South Korea’s National Assembly, made an official visit to Turkmenistan on July 20-21 at the invitation of his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the National leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of Halk Maslakhaty of Turkmenistan. In a

Politics Aug. 23, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s political opponents on Tuesday mounted an attack on his “leniency with Tokyo,” as Japan announced it would begin releasing treated radioactive water stored at the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant in two days. The Democratic Party of Korea blasted Yoon and his policy toward Tokyo as having given Japan the impetus to go forward with its plan to discharge the treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant ruined by a tsunami in 2011. Yoon’

Politics Aug. 22, 2023

South Korea will penalize carrying weapons openly in public in the wake of a series of mass stabbings that erupted across the country over the past month. The ruling People Power Party said it would be proposing a number of legislations to deter mass attacks in a policy meeting Tuesday with the national police and the ministries in charge of justice and public safety. Tuesday’s meeting follows calls from President Yoon Suk Yeol for policy solutions and action to address mass attacks in pub

Politics Aug. 22, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s domestic political opponents have blasted the trilateral agreement reached at a summit at Camp David, saying it would deepen the country’s alignment with Japan. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which has traditionally taken a hard-line stance toward Tokyo, slammed the outcomes of the summit as a “de facto military alliance with Japan.” The party’s chief spokesperson Rep. Kwon Chil-seung said over the weekend that the document

Politics Aug. 20, 2023

South Korea’s intelligence agency believes North Korea is planning a number of military provocations around this week’s trilateral summit with the US and Japan, or the joint drills with US troops later this month. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary of the National Assembly intelligence committee, told reporters Thursday signs of North Korea preparing an imminent ICBM launch were detected by the National Intelligence Service. There has been an unusual increase in activities ar

Politics Aug. 17, 2023

A blame game is brewing over the World Scout Jamboree, as Korea’s state auditor said it would look into how the event was organized from the day Korea was announced as the host country. “The inspection will look into the entire event, from the bidding stage to the planning process to the actual operation until the last day. All of the concerned parties, including central and municipal governments, will be subject to inspection,” an official at the Board of Audit and Inspection

Politics Aug. 16, 2023

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

Politics Aug. 12, 2023