The chief of the Korean parliamentary trade committee on Friday hinted at the possibility of the ruling party going ahead with a vote on the free trade pact with the U.S.The National Assembly was deadlocked for its third consecutive day Friday, as members of the main opposition Democratic Party staged a sit-in protest to stop the Grand National Party from railroading the agreement through. The bill awaits a trade committee vote before heading to the final vote in the 299-member unicameral house

The parliamentary ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement is unlikely for another week at least, after rival parties on Thursday failed to move the bill forward for a floor vote. A plenary session, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, was called off by the National Assembly speaker, amid a tense standoff between ruling and opposition lawmakers. “The FTA issue is too tangled up (to be handled today). Other than that, there are just a few agenda for today’s session,” explained an official

Some regard Park’s election as threat to civic activism, while others as evolutionThe election of activist Park Won-soon as Seoul mayor has brought civic groups into the political arena, raising both expectations and concerns at the same time.Park, Seoul’s first mayor elected as an independent, is considered a leading figure the history of civil activism in Korea.One of the founding members of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a leading liberal watchdog, he also set up and led

Parties fail to send bill for plenary session The parliamentary ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement is unlikely for another week at least, after rival parties on Thursday failed to move the bill forward for a floor vote. A plenary session, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, was called off by the National Assembly speaker, amid a tense standoff between ruling and opposition lawmakers. “The FTA issue is so tangled up (to be handled today). Other than that, there are just a few agend

SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will set up 1,300 gas stations selling cheaper gasoline and diesel by 2015 as part of an ongoing effort to control inflationary pressure, the government said Thursday.The "thrift gas stations" will receive their fuel from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC

Newly elected Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s ambitious dream to halve college tuition is about to take off as the Seoul Metropolitan Government is considering subsidizing the University of Seoul from next year in tuition terms. According to the municipal government, it has recently received a request f

SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- A former legal affairs aide for President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to one and a half years in prison on Thursday for receiving bribes in return for using his influence to gain favor for a scandal-ridden savings bank. The Seoul Central District Court handed down the priso

Ruling, opposition parties heading for showdownThe ruling Grand National Party on Wednesday moved to ratify a free trade agreement with the U.S. on its own, submitting the bill for a committee-level vote, despite strong resistance from opposition members. Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committee and GNP lawmaker, used his authority to put the bill to the table, as opposition members physically obstructed the committee’s session to prevent the deal’s ratif

The public’s approval rate for the ruling Grand National Party has fallen steadily over the past four years, recently hitting its lowest level ever, according to some local public polls.The rate as of Monday was 27.3 percent, a crash from the record high 57.4 percent scored in December 2008, showed a recent survey conducted by Munhwa Ilbo.The rates first took a downturn in the first half of 2008, after the party’s sweeping victory in the general election, and fell visibly, affected by the global

President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed during their summit talks Wednesday in St. Petersburg to closely cooperate to pipe Siberian natural gas to South Korea via North Korea. “The two leaders agreed that if carried out successfully, the project to import Russian natural gas will bring economic benefits for all three countries,” Lee’s office said in a press release.Korea and Russia reached a tentative agreement to start building a pipeline through North Korea in 2013

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korean officials on Wednesday downplayed the significance of a roadmap it had agreed with Russia to build a massive gas pipeline linking the two countries via North Korea, saying the project still has a long way to go.On Tuesday, a senior Russian of