President Lee Jae Myung on Monday ordered a thorough investigation into allegations that an automotive battery manufacturer repeatedly injected workers with heavy metal-removing drugs disguised as vitamin shots. Lee had received a report from the Ministry of Employment and Labor on measures taken in response to the allegations and its plans for further action before issuing the instructions, according to senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. Lee instructed the ministry and investigative

President Lee Jae Myung is increasingly turning to social media to reach out directly to the public in face of mounting political headwinds, but with little immediate impact on his approval rating. A Realmeter poll released Monday showed Lee's approval falling for a second consecutive week, with support weakening among both liberal and moderate voters. His ruling Democratic Party of Korea suffered an even sharper setback, losing seven percentage points amid disputes over prosecution reform and j

Just nine days after its launch, South Korea's new Serious Crimes Investigation Agency is set to conduct its first internal inspection, targeting a regional office chief who has repeatedly criticized the nominee to lead the agency. Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung said Sunday he would order an inspection of Im Eun-jeong, head of the agency's Gwangju regional office, over her continued public criticism of Kim Ji-yong, the nominee for the agency's inaugural chief. "Im seems to be mistaking the SCIA f

A man under investigation for domestic violence allegedly killed his mother-in-law and abducted his wife on Sunday after a court-ordered restriction barring him from approaching her expired. The case has renewed scrutiny of gaps in South Korea's system for protecting victims of domestic violence. Seoul's Songpa Police Station said it had arrested the man, in his 20s, on suspicion of fatally stabbing his mother-in-law, in her 50s, and forcibly taking his wife away in a vehicle from her family hom

South Korea has raised its travel advisory for all of Saudi Arabia to Level 3, the second-highest level, urging its citizens to leave the country, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Sunday. The upgraded advisory will take effect at 10 p.m. Sunday, with South Korean nationals currently in Saudi Arabia advised to leave unless their stay is essential and those planning to visit urged to cancel or postpone their trips. Under South Korea's four-tier travel advisory system, Level 3 recommends that cit

President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday cautioned against granting major steelmakers preferential access to low-cost nuclear power. Lee stressed that a handful of large corporations should not be allowed to reap the benefits of nuclear power while the public bears the risks and social costs associated with operating nuclear power plants. "We should be cautious about granting exceptional privileges that would allow just a handful of major corporations in certain industries to monopolize the benefits of

South Korea's spy agency reiterated Sunday that intelligence cooperation with the United States remains active across a wide range of areas, as Seoul seeks to counter the narrative of strained intelligence ties between the allies. The National Intelligence Service has taken the unusual step of issuing a series of detailed and sharply worded rebuttals to local media reports alleging friction between the two countries' intelligence agencies and disruptions in intelligence sharing. The NIS has also

President Lee Jae Myung called Wednesday for a sweeping green transition that would make climate action a driver of industrial growth and national competitiveness, rather than a trade-off between the environment and the economy. Lee presided over a public briefing in Seoul to unveil the government’s Korean Green Transformation, or K-GX, strategy, outlining its policy framework alongside corporate investment plans for flagship projects under the initiative. Lee underscored the urgency of the tran

President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday ordered a fresh review of South Korea’s possible entry into a major trade pact from scratch, noting strong concerns from the agricultural and fisheries sectors. Lee gave the instruction on South Korea’s possible entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, during a closed-door session of a Cabinet meeting, senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said at a press briefing. “President Lee noted that some hav

President Lee Jae Myung will hold a summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Thursday to advance Korea-Egypt ties toward a “strategic partnership,” Cheong Wa Dae said. The summit will take place on the second day of Sissi’s three-day state visit to South Korea, made at Lee’s invitation, and will mark his first visit to the country in a decade, following his previous trip in 2016. The two leaders are meeting again about 11 months since Lee visited Egypt in November last year. “Thro

Prosecution reform is exposing fault lines across the liberal camp as an unprecedented overhaul takes shape, splitting the camp over a cause that has united the bloc for decades. President Lee Jae Myung and the minor progressive Rebuilding Korea Party are locked in an unusually public confrontation over how far the overhaul should go, whether a career prosecutor should lead the new investigative agency and whether the reform can now be considered largely complete. Signs of friction had surfaced

A newly coined word circulating among President Lee Jae Myung’s supporters has come to capture his struggle with managing conflict within the liberal bloc during his presidency. The challenge has grown more urgent as some of the fiercest battles over Lee’s reform agenda, particularly prosecution reform, have increasingly unfolded not across the traditional left-right divide, but among liberals themselves. The Korean term is jwa-ahada — roughly, “leftlegant” in English — a playful political twist

President Lee Jae Myung warned Ukraine of further measures unless Kyiv publicly apologizes for its unilateral disclosure of North Korean soldiers’ transfer to South Korea and subsequent denial of a confidentiality agreement. Lee’s warning marked an escalation in a diplomatic dispute that began after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed the previously undisclosed transfer of the two North Korean prisoners of war during his Sept. 23 address to the UN General Assembly. “If Ukraine conti

President Lee Jae Myung has decided to press ahead with the appointment of Kim Ji-yong as the inaugural head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, despite opposition from within the ruling party and the broader progressive bloc. The presidential office said Thursday it planned to ask the National Assembly to hold a confirmation hearing for Kim as early as Thursday or Friday, reviving an appointment process that had been stalled since mid-September while the nominee underwent additional vet

President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday urged North Korea to return to dialogue and pledged continued efforts to ease military tensions, maintaining a focus on engagement despite tension from two land mine blasts in the Demilitarized Zone last week. Marking Armed Forces Day, Lee opened his address by expressing sympathy for the three South Korean soldiers wounded in the Sept. 21 explosions, before stressing that lasting security ultimately lies in creating “a peace in which there is no need to fight