The opposition-led National Assembly on Thursday passed a contentious bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the military’s response to a young Marine’s death last year. Of the total 190 lawmakers that participated in the vote, 189 voted in favor of the bill while one was against it. All ruling People Power Party, except two, boycotted and left the premises before plenary voting took place. The contentious bill, which calls for the fo

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday carried out his first Cabinet shake-up following the general election in April, replacing three ministerial posts, including the head of the state broadcasting watchdog. Yoon named Lee Jin-sook, a former journalist at public broadcaster MBC and the nation’s first female war correspondent, as the new Korea Communications Commission chairperson, chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said in a press briefing. “Lee is the country’s first female war corres

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party of Korea submitted a contentious bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s response to the death of a young Marine last year, to a parliamentary plenary session held Wednesday. National Assembly Speaker and Democratic Party Rep. Woo Won-shik officially introduced the bill drafted by his party at the start of the plenary meeting that began at around 3 p.m. The move came a day after the Democrat

South Korea’s main opposition party has proposed a bill that would mandate the establishment of state-run public medical schools, where students would be required to provide 10 years of compulsory medical service upon graduation, lawmakers said Wednesday. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's move comes amid the ongoing mass walkout by some 12,000 trainee doctors since late February, in protest of the government's plan to increase the country’s medical school enro

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Tuesday reaffirmed his country’s stance backing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, stressing its consistent support for peace and stability. “It is Vietnam’s consistent stance to support the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, alongside peace, stability and cooperation,” Chinh said in an opening speech ahead of a closed-door meeting with his counterpart, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, at the Government Complex Se

The controversial luxury Christian Dior bag at the center of the antigraft law violation scandal involving the first lady is currently being managed and stored by the presidential office, an official said Monday. “To my knowledge, the Dior bag that was received by first lady Kim Keon Hee is currently stored in the presidential office building in the state that it was first gifted to her,” presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-seok told a parliamentary hearing at the National Assembly

The two largest political parties here are likely to wrangle over several bills in upcoming months, despite their recent agreement on the formation of parliamentary standing committees. The ruling People Power Party on Thursday officially ended its weekslong boycott of the National Assembly over the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s decision to take 11 out of the total 18 standing committee chair positions, including that of the key legislation and judiciary committee, without th

The rival political parties got the newly launched session of the National Assembly back on track Thursday by officially agreeing on the selection of all 18 committee chiefs for the first two years of the parliamentary term. Twenty-eight days after the 22nd Assembly kicked off its term, the ruling People Power Party and the opposition parties voted in favor of the ruling party’s candidates for seven parliamentary committee chiefs, in a plenary session held in the afternoon. The Assembly me

The massive fire at a lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday has shed light on the irregularities in the hiring system for workers of foreign nationality here, with local employers suspected of abusing loopholes in the labor law for their benefit, to cut costs while avoiding responsibility. Local battery manufacturer Aricell, the operator of the plant, where the deadly fire killed 23 people, among which 18 were foreign national workers, was later found not to be even a

An official from the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday that it would be “difficult” to temporarily waive travelers from Thailand from the requirement to obtain travel authorizations before entering the country. The official’s remarks follow the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s request to the Justice Ministry to temporarily exempt Thailand from the country’s electronic travel authorization system K-ETA, at least until the end of this year, as the number of Th

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Monday stepped down from his position as the party’s chair, a move that is viewed as a step towards running for a second term as the main opposition party's leader at the upcoming party convention. "I have resigned from my position as the chair of the Democratic Party with the wrap-up of today’s party supreme council meeting," Lee told reporters at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul. Lee expressed his concern

The race to become the leader of the nation’s conservative ruling party kicked off Sunday, with three star politicians declaring their candidacies throughout the day. The announcements by former Justice Minister and onetime ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon, judge-turned-five-term lawmaker Rep. Na Kyung-won and former Land Minister Won Hee-ryong follow Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun’s declaration of candidacy on Friday. The race is expected to be a monthlong four-candidate battle with crossfire

South Korea seeks to adopt plans that will make it easier for its some 163,000 international students to live and work here, including expanding the visa types and job options offered to them, officials said Thursday. In a bid to plug job vacancies across key industries here, the government plans to allow foreign students who graduate in Korea to apply for E-9 nonprofessional employment visas, according to the Office for Government Policy Coordination and Prime Minister’s Secretariat. The

South Korea’s political sphere on Wednesday was divided over Russian President Vladimir Putin's first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years, and with it the growing concerns of strengthened military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. The main opposition party leader and ex-unification ministers under previous liberal administrations called for a revival of the inter-Korean dialogue channel to safeguard peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, the ruling party s

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit a monument honoring the former Soviet war dead, attend a concert and have tea with his North Korean counterpart during his first visit to Pyongyang in 24 years, reports said Tuesday. As Putin is scheduled to arrive in the capital on Tuesday evening, most of the main events, including meetings with Kim, are to be held Wednesday, Russia's state-run news agency Tass said, citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. The Russian leader is set to visit

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday amended the party charter to allow its leadership to choose the term of its chair and supreme council members. The party’s decision will allow current Democratic Party of Korea Chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung to run for the 2027 presidential election, if he wishes, even if he is reelected as the party chair at the upcoming convention scheduled for Aug. 18. While the charter states that a party chair or a supreme council member must resign fr

Rival political parties on Monday extended their standoff over picking the chairs of key standing committees of the National Assembly, leading to surging tension in the political sphere. Tensions stemmed from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s unilateral decision last week to snatch 11 of the 18 standing committee chair positions for the first two years of the 22nd National Assembly, which began its four-year term on May 30. The opposition-led Assembly has so far elected mai

Main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is facing another legal dispute now, on top of the three ongoing court battles in which he is currently embroiled, creating more hurdles for his possible reelection victory at the upcoming party convention. On Wednesday, the Suwon District Prosecutor's Office indicted Lee on charges of asking local underwear maker Ssangbangwool Group to illegally transfer $8 million to North Korea between 2019 and 2020, when he was governor of Gyeonggi Province. The then

South Korea’s southern island of Jeju is far more than just a scenic vacation destination. It is becoming a test bed for future industries including aerospace and hydrogen vehicles, according to its governor. “You may not have known this, but Jeju is the closest South Korean territory to the equator,” said Oh Young-hoon, governor of Jeju Special Self-governing Province, told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Tuesday. “This means that it is the perfect spot to l

The ruling People Power Party on Tuesday protested the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally picking the chairs of key standing committees of the National Assembly late Monday. The Democratic Party once again used its majority in the Assembly to convene a plenary session and appoint the chairs of 11 out of the 18 committees without involving the ruling party. Last week, the Democratic Party left out the ruling party in electing the Assembly speaker, marking the first such instance in the histor