The government is reportedly supportive of a bill that would allow South Koreans seeking to contact North Korean residents to do so by simply giving prior notice to the government, rather than obtaining its prior approval. The bill in question to revise the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act was proposed by Rep. Kim Joon-hyung of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party in June last year. Under the current law, the Minister of Unification may reject an application for prior approval of contact wi

A presidential press conference is supposed to demonstrate command. President Lee Jae Myung’s 100-minute session on Friday instead exposed how difficult command has become. With his approval rating at 37 percent and disapproval at 56 percent, the event addressed concerns over the Strait of Hormuz, housing, personnel choices and political controversy. Yet it offered more explanation than evidence of a change in direction. Lee did provide one clarification. He said unequivocally that he would not

Cheap money has enjoyed a remarkably long run. Its retirement is now harder to deny, forcing South Korea to rethink policies built around the assumption that capital will remain cheap. This week, the 10-year US Treasury yield broke above 5 percent while the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 to 4 percent, its first increase since July 2023. For more than two decades, cheap capital, energy and labor helped economies absorb inefficiencies that otherwise would have

President Lee Jae Myung recently ordered additional vetting of Kim Ji-yong, whom he nominated to head the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which is scheduled to launch early next month. It is necessary to clarify whether there were any problems with the initial vetting, though it had already been completed; above all, the circumstances raise suspicions that Lee's order may have been influenced by strong backlash from hard-liners in the ruling party. Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Park J

Artificial intelligence has reached an awkward stage. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called on the AI industry to “slow the pace.” Other AI company bosses, including Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis, have all backed a more cautious approach to frontier development. This is an unusual show of restraint from companies whose fortunes depend on pushing their technology forward. The concern is becoming harder to dismiss as science fiction. In July, OpenAI systems breached the open-sou

Rep. Yong Hye-in's resignation as nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family is ultimately the result of Cheong Wa Dae's vetting failure. Yong did not even make it to the National Assembly's confirmation hearing. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea did not even schedule a confirmation hearing for her, and its leader, Kim Min-seok, reportedly went so far as to send his chief of staff to urge her to step down. Her firm stance that she would retain her seat as a sitting proportional-repres

A president can survive a bad poll when its causes are isolated. Yet President Lee Jae Myung now faces a broader political problem: His approval rating has fallen to 38 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday, slipping below the 40 percent threshold for the first time since he took office in June 2025. The causes are converging across issues the administration has so far handled poorly. The poll shows that Lee’s Cabinet nominations have become key liabilities. In addition, the

A nation can cross a $40,000 income threshold without a single dollar reaching the average kitchen table. That uncomfortable contradiction now captures the dilemma at the heart of South Korea’s economy. The Bank of Korea on Tuesday projected that per capita gross national income will exceed $40,000 in 2026, assuming exchange rates hold steady and external shocks stay at bay. After 12 years in the $30,000 range since first crossing that threshold in 2014, the country is finally poised to move up.

A Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson said Tuesday that President Lee Jae Myung nominated lawyer Kim Ji-yong to be the first head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which is scheduled to launch alongside the Prosecution Service on Oct. 2. Kim is a former chief of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and will lead the agency for two years following a confirmation hearing. A revision to the Criminal Procedure Act pushed through by the Democratic Party of Korea and pro

The world has crossed a demographic threshold that no amount of fiscal tinkering can reverse. Adults aged 65 and older now outnumber children under 5 worldwide for the first time, according to the US Census Bureau. While this structural pivot affects every major economy, South Korea is accelerating through it faster than any other nation. The country entered the super-aged category in late 2024, when seniors reached 20 percent of the population. Their share rose to 20.3 percent in 2025 and is pr

Suspicions surrounding Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won continue to mount after it was revealed following his nomination that he had previously been investigated by prosecutors. In October 2021, Kim, then a first-term Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, was investigated for allegedly requesting the then head of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to approve clinical trials for a COVID-19 drug developed by Genencell, at the request of a female broker surnamed Yang, who was also an acquaint

A maritime bottleneck carrying most of South Korea’s energy imports is a perilous arena for symbolic alliance gestures. Yet Seoul faces mounting pressure to deploy forces to the Strait of Hormuz, where deepening conflict threatens vital commercial shipping. The presidential office said Friday that no decision had been made and that various options remained under review. Any contribution, it said, would have to preserve the nation’s defense readiness on the Korean Peninsula and comply with domest

In South Korea, the basic pension has a curious tendency to become less ambitious as it approaches the ballot box. The closer a proposed overhaul gets to voters, the smaller it seems to become. The Lee Jae Myung administration began with an ambitious promise to make the basic pension “heavier at the bottom and lighter at the top” in terms of benefits. On Tuesday, however, the government delivered a much narrower change. It kept the politically convenient 70 percent coverage rule and made only li

The government’s budget proposal for next year, totaling 820.9 trillion won ($599 billion), is the largest ever. The 12.8 percent year-on-year rise and the 92 trillion won increase are also the largest on record. The government’s ability to ramp up spending so substantially is due above all to an exceptional tax revenue windfall brought about by the semiconductor supercycle. The ambitious 162 trillion won Future Response Fund, too, would not have been possible without the surge in corporate tax

Economic recoveries tend to look better from a distance. South Korea is enjoying a semiconductor boom and is heading for its fastest annual growth in five years, yet many households are living in a far less forgiving economy. On Thursday, the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark rate by another 25 basis points to 3 percent, and lifted its 2026 growth forecast to 3.3 percent. For indebted households, neither figure offers much consolation. The problem is the uneven way inflation and interest rates