Former Environment Minister Yoon Yeo-jun has once again created a stir in the political arena by joining independent Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo’s “new politics” movement. In 2012, Yoon sent ripples across the conservative bloc when he joined the presidential campaign of the Democratic Party’s Rep. Moon Jae-in. The move, unexpected because of his long-running conservative ties, earned him strong criticis...

Chairmen of Korea’s top conglomerates started off the year on Thursday by urging executives and employees to brace for crisis. Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee emphasized that the business behemoth should keep trying to shed old things in running business in order to embrace a new global management system. “To be a leader in an environment that lacks certainty and visibility, we must go beyon...

Korea unveiled a new promotional video on Dokdo on Wednesday, countering Tokyo’s increasing territorial assertions and lambasting Japanese politicians’ visits to a controversial war shrine. The 260-second clip was released at midnight on YouTube and the Foreign Ministry’s website (dokdo.mofa.go.kr). It was an update to a previous piece that was uploaded in late October but taken down shortly due...

President Park Geun-hye enters her second year in office with a mass of tricky domestic issues unresolved and increasingly volatile dynamics in Northeast Asia. Disputes over the National Intelligence Service’s alleged election meddling still haunt her government despite the political parties spending much of 2013 on the matter at the cost of state affairs being delayed. With key elections slate...

Japanese leader Shinzo Abe is struggling to contain a backlash over his recent visit to a controversial war shrine that has sparked a barrage of criticism even from domestic supporters and international allies, notably the U.S. The prime minister’s visit on Thursday to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo honoring war criminals has further aggravated diplomatic tension with South Korea and China, two ma...

The country’s largest Buddhist order Jogye on Thursday took the side of railway workers in their ongoing strike, putting the government in a dilemma after last week’s botched police raid on the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. “(The Jogye Order) cannot look away when laborers have come in to the folds of the Buddha in desperation,” the order said in a statement on Thursday. The statement a...

Thousands of South Sudanese have been killed in over a week of violence, according to the United Nations, with reports of bodies piled in mass graves fueling fears of a worsening of ethnic bloodletting in the world’s newest state. The U.N. Security Council approved plans on Tuesday to almost double the number of peacekeepers in the country in an effort to protect civilians. The top U.N. humanit...

Besides the first female president, Korea has seen another woman break through a glass ceiling, this time in the banking industry. Kwon Seon-joo, the senior executive vice president of the Industrial Bank of Korea, was named the next CEO of the state-run IBK on the approval of the Financial Services Commission on Monday. Before Kwon, no woman had been named CEO of a Korean bank. “We believe th...

Escalating labor strife is giving new momentum to Korea’s major labor group crippled by internal splits and its links with alleged pro-North Korea politicians. On Sunday, police stormed the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Seoul for the first time since its launch in 1995. The raid was conducted to arrest railway strike leaders believed to be holed up inside the build...

Choo Shin-soo of South Korea has agreed to the biggest-ever contract for an Asian player in the U.S. professional baseball free agent market. A report on the Major League Baseball website said Sunday that outfielder Choo agreed to a seven-year, $130 million contract with the Texas Rangers. The deal will be finalized if Choo passes a physical test, which is expected to be done by Christmas. Any ...

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman made his third visit to North Korea on Thursday, drawing keen attention as he is the first high-profile American allowed to stay in the reclusive country in the aftermath of the chilling execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle. Rodman is trotting into the secretive society thanks largely to his special relationship with Kim, who recently surprised the international communi...

Ahn Hee-jung, South Chungcheong Province governor and late President Roh Moo-hyun’s right-hand man, entered the fray in the power-struggle within the opposition Democratic Party on Tuesday. The 49-year-old liberal-minded politician was one of Roh’s closest aides, from 1994 onward. In the years leading up to Roh’s election in 2002, Ahn played the role of top strategist, earning himself the monike...

There’s a new man in the house at KT: Hwang Chang-gyu, a former Samsung executive who, if Cheong Wa Dae has nothing more to say about it, will become the next chairman and CEO of the nation’s second-largest mobile carrier. While the company seemed to have initially hoped for someone with a KT background, most are ready to welcome Hwang and his expertise, according to those close to KT. Hwang se...

Chile welcomed the return of its first female president, Michelle Bachelet, in a landslide run-off election victory Sunday. The Socialist Party candidate is the region’s first reelected female leader. The widely popular 34th president, who served from 2006 to 2010 and was barred by constitution from running for a second straight term, is to succeed the increasingly unpopular Sebastian Pinera in...

Following the demise of Jang Song-thaek, the once-powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the whereabouts of the two’s respective wives, Kim Kyoung-hui and Ri Sol-ju, have come under the spotlight. Kim, the leader’s only aunt, and his wife Ri have been out of the public eye for several months, sparking media speculation about their health and relationships with the increasingly coerci...