President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday urged Japan to face history and sympathize with the wounds of its neighboring countries in a ceremony to mark the March 1st Movement on Tuesday. Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook attended the 103rd anniversary ceremony of the March 1st Movement at the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul. The memorial hall, which was created as part of Moon’s presidential pledge, opened for the first time on the day. “Coopera

South Korean presidential candidates’ stances on national security and foreign policy are emerging as key issues in the upcoming election as East-West tensions escalate over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Each candidate has insisted that their security views are the best for the country, while some of their attacks on rivals have backfired. The two frontrunners, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and the main opposition People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeo

Liberal leaning presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Sim Sang-jeung of the minor progressive Justice Party bombarded Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition conservative People Power Party over security issues, citing the Ukraine crisis in a televised debate on Friday night. Over the topic of establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula and unification with North Korea, Sim criticized Yoon’s stance on South Korea’s possible participation in

South Korea and the United States have reached an agreement for the US to return 165,000 square meters from the Yongsan US Base in Seoul and Camp Red Cloud, a US Army camp located in Uijeongbu city, officials said Friday. Im Sang-woo, director of the North American Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and joint chairperson of the Korea-US Status of Forces Agreement, and Scott Pleus, deputy commander of the US Forces Korea, adopted a joint statement containing these details by phone on the

As Russia has launched a full-scale military attack on Ukraine despite global condemnation, President Moon Jae-in urged officials to check the situation and take a preemptive response through the Ukraine emergency response task force, the presidential office said Friday. Moon delivered these instructions at the Cheong Wa Dae meeting in the morning, spokesperson Park Kyung-mi said in a written briefing on the day. His remarks are related to the safety of Korean residents in Ukraine and the ec

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo of the main opposition People Power Party said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was caused by Ukraine’s lack of nuclear weapons. Other opposition politicians criticized the invasion, calling for more active support from the Korean government to support Ukraine. When asked by a supporter how he would have reacted to the current situation if he had been President of Ukraine, the senior politician and former presidential candidate replied, “The Ukraine crisis was

Regarding the issue of sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday that it would not consider independent sanctions considering relations with Russia as well as Korean residents and businesses in Russia. Park Soo-hyun, senior presidential secretary for public communication, said in a local radio interview, “This is not an era in which we can do things (sanctions) independently. If the US and European countries impose sanctions on Russia, we will naturally

President Moon Jae-in on Thursday said that the country will cooperate with the international community, including measures such as sanctions against Russia, following Russian attack on Ukraine. Tensions between Moscow and Kyiv are at their highest in years after Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine on the day. “The use of force that causes innocent casualties cannot be justified under any circumstances,” Moon said in the afternoon after receiving a repor

South Korea is not considering military support or sending troops over the Ukraine crisis, top officials said Wednesday. “The government is reviewing what we can do by predicting what the situation will be like in the future and looking at how it will affect us,” a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters amid escalating tensions over the Ukraine-Russia crisis. “We are considering various possibilities, but not military support or dispatch of troops.” “What we are r

As the 20th presidential election for overseas Koreans begins on Wednesday, presidential candidates compete to win over expat voters, pledging to establish the overseas Korean office and improve the current inconvenient election system. Overseas elections take place at 219 polling stations at 177 diplomatic missions in 115 countries worldwide. There are 226,152 registered overseas voters. First voting starts with the New Zealand Embassy and Auckland branch at 4 a.m. on Wednesday. In the case

Amid mounting fears of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected and Korea will actively participate in peace efforts for the nation. “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial preservation must be respected and peaceful solutions should be actively sought through dialogue,” Moon said, presiding over an unscheduled joint meeting of the National Security Council and the Foreign Economic Security Strategy

The inheritance tax bill faced by Samsung Group’s leader Lee Jae-yong was again mentioned in the televised debate among key presidential candidates on Monday as People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol and Justice Party’s Sim Sang-jung quarreled over Yoon’s pledge to abolish capital gains tax on stocks. Sim first asked Yoon, “Do you know why the tax was introduced?” When Yoon said no, Sim said, “The introduction of the tax stems from Samsung Lee Jae-yong&rs

Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, apologized to small business owners and self-employed people who sustained losses from the social distancing measures, drawing a clear line with the Moon Jae-in administration’s quarantine policies. “The first duty of the state is to protect the lives and safety of the public, and protecting the lives of the people from infectious disease is also a part of the state’s responsibility,” Lee said in a te

Even on weekends when COVID-19 testing drops, the number of new confirmed cases surpassed 100,000 for three consecutive days and is expected to rise further in the coming weeks. The government expects the pandemic to peak at the end of this month or early next month. It predicted that the new cases would rise to 180,000 in early March. As of Saturday midnight, there were 104,829 new infections and the number of critically ill patients increased by 31 from the previous day to 439. The numbe

Despite its importance, Korea-Japan relations do not usually stand out as a major issue during the Korean presidential election, with low voter interest and candidates‘ reluctance to speak on sensitive topics. Two frontrunner presidential candidates, the Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and the People Power Party’s Yoon Suk-yeol, have not made concrete promises on mending Korea’s strained relations with Japan. But at times, they revealed how they view the nei

President Moon Jae-in invited a number of foreign investor companies to Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday to express his gratitude for making hefty investments in the Korean market and encouraged them to invest further. Last year, South Korea attracted $29.5 billion in investments, the largest ever. A foreign investor company -- usually a multinational company headquartered overseas -- is defined as one with more than 50 million won ($47,700) in foreign investment capital and a 10 percent stake in sto

President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered government ministries to prepare for the safe evacuation of Koreans in Ukraine, and draw up measures to mitigate damages to Korean companies, citing the threat of a looming Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We need to implement what we can do right away and prepare closely for the worst,” Moon said, presiding over an external economic security strategy meeting. “In case of emergency, it is necessary to make every effort to evacuate and with

Chung Mong-joon, honorary chairman of Asan Institute for Policy Studies, has donated $1 million to honor the work of Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, a renowned scholar in international relations, the institute said Wednesday. Half of the fund was given to the Center for Strategy and International Studies in Washington, DC, and the other half to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. An influential realist scholar

Kim Hyun-kyu, 43, who lives in Rotorua, New Zealand, recently registered to vote in the upcoming presidential election in March. But he is still not sure whether he could vote on the day. “To go to the polling station, I need to drive for three hours. When calculating the round trip, I’d need to take a day off. I will see whether I can do that during election day,” Kim said. Kim said the three-hour drive is already a relatively short distance to a polling station there -- m

President Moon Jae-in on Monday warned against panic in face of the spike in COVID-19 cases saying that it could be the “last hurdle” in returning to normalcy. “They say it’s always the darkest before dawn,” Moon said, referring to the record number of COVID cases in Korea. “I think this is the last hurdle on the way to recovery. If we believe in the government and work together, we will be able to progress toward normal life more quickly.” Moon made t