Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s ambitious yet controversial, projects to beautify the capital city face an uncertain future as he is expected to quit after Wednesday’s failed referendum. For the past five years in office, the conservative mayor has single-handedly pushed some costly works in Seoul, defying strong resistance from liberal opposition and civic groups. They include a project to build a wa...

Prosecutors said on Thursday they have investigated 10 South Koreans of spying for the North Korean regime for more than a decade, leaking political and military secrets in the latest in a long series of espionage cases. Operating in an underground anti-state organization called Wangjaesan, the name of a North Korean mountain, they allegedly dug up current political and military information and ...

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will soon announce when he will resign over the failed free lunch vote after consulting with his ruling Grand National Party (GNP) to minimize its negative impact ahead of next year's major polls, his aides said Thursday. A referendum was held on Wednesday to ask Seoul residents whether they endorsed an opposition-led free lunch program for all, but it was nullified due to...

Voters in Seoul’s three affluent districts ― Seocho, Gangnam and Songpa ― turned out at polling stations in large numbers, but not enough to salvage beleaguered mayor Oh Se-hoon. At Wednesday’s referendum on free school meals, the three districts reported the largest voter turnouts, with Seocho marking the highest at 36.2 percent. The overall participation rate stood at 25.7 percent. Only in tw...

By Bae Hyun-jung Parties are again at odds over the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade bill, despite their hard-reached agreement last week to hold a public hearing on the issue. The parliamentary foreign affairs committee held a public hearing on Wednesday on measures to prevent harm to the local agriculture, fishing and livestock industries. The event, however, took place in the absen...

Korea should seek to rebuild trust with North Korea, while maintaining an unyielding stance on national security, said Rep. Park Geun-hye the highest-polled presidential hopeful, in a contribution to a journal. Park contributed a 2,500-word paper titled “The New Korea: Building trust between Seoul and Pyongyang” to Foreign Affairs, a leading U.S. academic journal, according to Radio Free Asia, a...

President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday left for Mongolia, the first stop in his three-nation tour of Central Asia aimed mostly at boosting economic cooperation. Lee is scheduled to hold summit talks with Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in Ulan Bator to discuss ways to promote bilateral cooperation for development of natural resources, health programs and personnel exchanges during his state...