President Moon Jae-in’s senior secretary for civil affairs and justice Shin Hyun-soo has withdrawn his resignation after the president turned it down last week, putting a tentative end to a weeklong dispute over possible internal conflicts within the presidential office. “Shin has returned to work, entrusting his future to the president’s decision,” said Chung Man-ho, senior presidential secretary for public communication, during a media briefing Monday, adding that he

A new instant line of communications has been launched between Seoul and Washington to further boost cooperation on economic, trade and other global issues such as climate change, Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday. Though the allies already have a long-established hotline to discuss security issues, this is the first time they have set up a separate line for direct communications to address economic and policy issues. The new communications line followed the first phone call between Kim San

President Moon Jae-in on Monday hinted at further easing of the nation’s COVID-19 social distancing rules to boost the pandemic-battered economy, especially hardest-hit small business owners. “We can no longer ignore the urgent appeals (from small businesses). The government will come up with new social distancing measures in March when full-fledged vaccinations start,” the president said during a weekly meeting with his key aides. He stressed a strategic shift in the nat

President Moon Jae-in, whose job approval rating fell again this week, is striving to win back public support, making more frequent on-site contact with the public ahead of the Lunar New Year’s holiday that starts Thursday. According to a recent poll by Realmeter on Monday, his approval rating marked 39.3 percent, down 3.2 percentage points from a week ago. The fall came after his approval bounced back starting this year to remain in the 40 percent range for weeks. Realmeter said polit

After an official phone call last week, Cheong Wa Dae is pushing for an early summit between President Moon Jae-in and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, in an attempt to breathe life back into the Korean Peninsula peace negotiations, with a virtual meeting emerging as one possibility to advance the date. During the 32-minute conversation early Thursday morning, the two leaders agreed to hold summit talks as soon as possible once the COVID-19 situation has stabilized, according to Seoul’s re

President Moon Jae-in and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, held their first phone call Thursday, signaling a fresh restart of the South Korea-US alliance, the most critical strategic partnership in bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula. The phone call, which started at 8:25 a.m. local time and lasted 32 minutes, came two weeks after Biden was sworn in as the 46th US president Jan. 20. “The whole conversation was held in a friendly and professional mood, with the leaders sometimes shari

President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook are sending out gifts to some 15,000 people, including front-line health care workers fighting COVID-19, ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays next week, Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday. Possibly in reflection of the president’s wish for national unity, the gift box consists of specialties from across the nation. These include Andong soju, a distilled liquor from the city in North Gyeongsang Province; fried rice cakes from Yeoju, Gyeonggi P

Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday ruled out disclosing the contents of a flash drive containing a broad cross-border economic cooperation vision that President Moon Jae-in handed over to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their first summit meeting in 2018. “It is an irresponsible request,” Choi Jae-sung, the president’s senior secretary for political affairs, said in a radio interview in response to the opposition bloc’s demand for a full disclosure of the contents of the

Cheong Wa Dae condemned what it called an outdated ideological offensive surrounding documents the Energy Ministry deleted, which allegedly indicated plans to help North Korea build a nuclear power plant at the time of the 2018 inter-Korean summit. “They crossed the line,” a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official said Monday in response to main opposition People Power Party leader Kim Chong-in accusing the government of “benefiting the enemy.” “It is a ridiculous insti

President Moon Jae-in and his Uzbek counterpart, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, declared the kickoff of free trade talks between the two countries to further strengthen their strategic partnership during an online summit Thursday. Uzbekistan is one of the key partners in the South Korean government’s New Northern Policy, which aims to explore ways to step up economic cooperation with Central Asian countries under a vision of peace and prosperity in Eurasia. If the pact, called the Agreement for Su

A phone call between President Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping underscored again South Korea’s tough job of striking a delicate balance between the US and China, whose relations enter a new phase under the Joe Biden administration. The South Korean and Chinese presidents held the phone conversation Tuesday night to discuss a slew of topics ranging from Xi’s delayed visit to Seoul to Moon’s role in the frosty US-North Korea diplomacy and coronavirus respons

A former unification minister called for a prompt decision from the Moon Jae-in government on whether to hold joint military drills with the US this spring, saying the resolution of this issue would be an important turning point in inter-Korean relations. “North Korea is shameless enough to raise questions about the South’s strategic assets and military training while advancing its own nuclear weapons and missiles. But the ball is in the South’s court now,” Jeong Se-hyun

President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for thorough readiness among government offices as the nation prepares to start COVID-19 vaccinations with the imminent arrival of the first batch of vaccines, possibly early next month. “The coronavirus response is entering a new phase. If the past year was a time when we protected ourselves from the virus through social distancing measures, now is a time to fight the virus with vaccines and treatments,” Moon said before receiving a policy br

A powerful new anti-corruption watchdog has officially kicked off, with President Moon Jae-in swearing in Kim Jin-wook, a former judge, as the inaugural chief of the agency Thursday. Kim immediately started his three-year term with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which is tasked with handling corruption cases involving ranking government officials, including senior prosecutors and police officers. “You should have pride and responsibility to lead the n

President Moon Jae-in’s longtime aide who has served as his top security adviser since the presidential campaign, Chung Eui-yong, 74, has been nominated to serve as foreign minister. Chung has long helped shape Moon’s engagement policy for North Korea as well as his vision for the peace process on the Korean Peninsula. When Moon took office in 2017, Chung was picked to lead the presidential National Security Office at Cheong Wa Dae and held the post for three years.

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday named three ministerial nominees, including his former top security adviser Chung Eui-yong as foreign minister, in the first Cabinet reshuffle this year. Chung, 74, replaces Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, the nation’s first female foreign minister and the longest-serving minister in Moon’s Cabinet. Kang’s replacement comes as a surprise, as she had been widely expected to stay until the end of Moon’s presidency in May 2022. A C

Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday was busy correcting President Moon Jae-in’s recent comments about adoption as civic groups and opposition lawmakers called for an official apology. On Monday, the president was hosting a New Year’s press conference when a reporter asked him what the government was doing to prevent child abuse, in light of the recent death of a 16-month-old toddler who allegedly suffered months of abuse at the hands of her adoptive parents. After unveiling a new set of gui

President Moon Jae-in on Monday expressed high expectations in working with the upcoming Joe Biden administration, saying the launch of the new US government will become a “turning point” in resuming the stalled US-North Korea and inter-Korean talks. “I think the launch of the Biden administration is a turning point for beginning US-North Korea, inter-Korean talks anew. The talks should inherit and develop from the achievements from the Trump administration,” Moon sai

President Moon Jae-in’s New Year’s press conference is going virtual for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Friday. The live event will be held Monday at the Chunchugwan press center of Cheong Wa Dae from 10 a.m. for one hour and 40 minutes. A total of 120 journalists will be in attendance for the press conference, with 100 of them joining via video link. Just 20 journalists who were picked by lottery will meet face-to-face with the preside

With Thursday’s final verdict delivered on former President Park Geun-hye, President Moon Jae-in is now under increased pressure to clarify his stance on possible pardons for the two former jailed presidents. Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison term for Park in an influence-peddling trial that started more than three years ago. Now Park will have to serve a total of 22 years in prison, including a two-year prison term for her 2018 conviction in illegal meddlin