The National Administrative Legislation Committee has been launched as an advisory body on the administrative legal system at the national level, officials said Friday. The joint public-private committee, which belongs to the Ministry of Government Legislation, will be jointly chaired by Minister Lee Kang-seop and private chairperson Hong Jung-sun, a former professor at Yonsei University. It has a total of 38 members. Members from the private sector include various administrative law expert

Top Chinese Communist Party diplomat Yang Jiechi said the nation supports President Moon Jae-in’s push for the declaration of the end of the Korean War during talks with Korea’s national security adviser Suh Hoon in Tianjin, China, officials said on Friday. Suh’s visit to China was made as a follow-up to Yang’s visit to Seoul in August 2020. They discussed bilateral relations, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and other regional issues. Cheong Wa Dae said Suh ex

President Moon Jae-in hopes to declare the end of the Korean War during his term, but such a declaration without corresponding denuclearization does not guarantee peace on the Korean Peninsula and time is too short to untangle complicated interests of all involved parties, experts say. Moon revived the issue, which had remained dormant since the failed 2019 US-North Korea summit -- at the United Nations in September. Since then, Seoul and Washington have discussed the issue, and are reportedly

President Moon Jae-in ordered the government to immediately implement stricter immigration quarantine measures to block the inflow of the omicron variant after receiving a report that a suspected case was found here, officials said Tuesday. Authorities said on the day that a Korean couple, who visited Nigeria, was suspected of having the omicron variant, and is currently conducting a genome test. The results will be confirmed later on Wednesday evening. “The analysis of the new variant

As infections surge and the capacity for beds reaches its limit, the government decided that COVID-19 patients should be treated at home -- with hospital treatment the exception. “New confirmed patients, critically ill patients and deaths are all increasing, and the capacity for beds is getting tighter,” President Moon Jae-in said at the COVID-19 special quarantine inspection meeting Monday. It is the first such meeting in the Seoul metropolitan area since July 12. He said Korea c

The Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung appears to have ditched his dogmatic views and hard-line stance, instead opting to woo voters with apologies and tears. On Wednesday, he apologized on behalf of his party for failing to empathize with the “painful hearts of the people,” and got down on his knees, saying he will apologize at every opportunity and bring about changes in the party. A day earlier, Lee apologized for using abusive language against his s

A Korean woman had a stillbirth after being confirmed with COVID-19 and the deceased fetus tested positive, officials said Wednesday. It is the first COVID-19 death in Korea in a child under the age of 19. “The route of infection has not been confirmed,” authorities said. “It was a stillbirth case before birth registration, so we decided to separate it from the confirmed cases.” The mother’s gestation period was 24 weeks and she was not vaccinated against COVID-

With Korea’s daily tally rising above 4,000 for the first time since the pandemic began last year, the prime minister said the wider Seoul area might return to stricter restrictions if cases continue to surge. As of Tuesday midnight, the number of new daily cases marked 4,116, with 4,088 locally transmitted. The number of severely ill patients increased by 37 from the previous day to 586, and the number of deaths was 35, the highest since the implementation of phased daily recovery. Pri

South Korea and Costa Rica will upgrade relations and boost their partnership in various fields, the two sides revealed after a summit between President Moon Jae-in and Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada in Seoul on Tuesday. At the summit, the two leaders agreed to develop bilateral relations into an “action-oriented comprehensive partnership” from the current comprehensive partnership and adopted a joint declaration to promote collaboration. “Next year is a speci

Chun Doo-hwan, who was president of South Korea from 1980 to 1988 after seizing power in a military coup and whose reign was marked by the brutal repression of pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju in 1980, died Tuesday. He was 90 years old. He died less than a month after Roh Tae-woo, one of his closest aides in the 1979 coup, who was elected president after democracy protests forced Chun to stand down. Chun, who had multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, died at 8:40 a.m. at his home in Y

President Moon Jae-in cited issues surrounding real estate as the most regrettable during his term in a live conversation with the public Sunday night. During a live talk with around 300 people attending for over 1 1/2 hours, Moon answered questions on the response to the pandemic, people's livelihoods and post-pandemic tasks. Moon said, "The most regrettable thing is that we did not give enough opportunities for people who don’t own homes, ordinary people and young people and new

The main opposition People Power Party’s presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl on Sunday finalized the leadership of his election committee, reaching across the aisle to shape his campaign. Former interim leader Kim Chong-in will head the election committee, and current and former party leaders Lee Jun-seok and Kim Byong-joon become standing committee chairmen. Former Democratic Party leader Kim Han-gil serves as chairman of the so-called New Era Preparatory Committee. Yoon revealed

The spouses of key presidential candidates have been making headlines for days and are finding themselves at the center of allegations, rumors and even mockery. Kim Kun-hee, wife of the main opposition People Power Party’s candidate, Yoon Seok-youl, has been mired in allegations of stock price manipulation related to the used car dealership Deutsch Motors. The prosecution arrested Deutsch Motors CEO Kwon Oh-soo on Tuesday. Kwon is suspected of playing a leading role in manipulating th

Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung’s pledge to introduce a “public land ownership tax” is raising controversy, with some hailing it as a means to narrow social inequality while others say it would infringe on private property rights. Lee’s envisioned tax is similar to the nation’s comprehensive real estate holding tax, which is levied on high-priced real estate. But Lee hopes to impose taxes on all land, meaning homeowners would pay taxes on the

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Thursday that the government would cut tariffs on urea and directly manage domestic supply and demand to ease the ongoing supply crunch. Urea solution is used in diesel vehicles and for industrial facilities to reduce emissions. South Korea relies on China for 97 percent of its urea. But China’s recent clampdown on exports due to a lack of coal -- the raw material in urea production -- and consequent power shortages have sent jitters across Korea. &

As key presidential candidates competitively promise pandemic relief funds to win over voters, the government is saying the pledges are unfeasible. Other candidates accuse them of populism and of trying to buy support. The ruling Democratic Party presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung, is seeking to provide additional national disaster support funds to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic. His contender Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party has a plan to invest

People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl appears to be speeding past his contender, Lee Jae-myung, with various polls placing him more than 10 percentage points ahead. A Realmeter poll carried out between Sunday and Monday showed that Yoon recorded 46.2 percent in approval ratings, up 11.8 percentage points from the previous week. The ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung fell 0.4 percentage points from the last survey to 34.2 percent. The People’s Party lea

Political conflict in South Korea reaches sharp and sometimes violent extremes, with politicians on either side of the aisle accusing each other of “ruining” the country and bringing unrecoverable disaster. The left-right clash often reaches down to the individual level, with families and friends divided, and branding each other naive. Korea’s short history of democracy and how it has shaped personal experiences are a source of tension between generations. But some experts

The four-month presidential campaign has fully begun in earnest, but both the ruling and main opposition candidates face a series of hurdles ranging from a lack of appeal outside party supporters to allegations that could potentially bring them under the scrutiny of law enforcement. For both the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and main opposition People Power Party’s Yoon Seok-youl, winning over younger generations and female voters are critical tasks, amid unprece

The number of new COVID-19 patients continues to top 2,000 daily, with more than half being teenagers and senior citizens, casting a pall over the nation’s plans for a step-by-step transition to normalcy. At Wednesday midnight, the number of new daily cases that day marked 2,482, with 2,457 of them locally transmitted. Among them, 29.5 percent were aged 60 or older and 22.4 percent were teenagers or younger. Over the past week, the daily average of confirmed patients under the age of 1