President must respect workers as dialogue partner, union emphasizes

The ruling People Power Party referred an opposition lawmaker to the parliamentary ethics committee Thursday for making insulting remarks about the captain of the warship Cheonan sunk in a 2010 North Korean attack. Rep. Kwon Chil-seung, senior spokesperson of the main opposition Democratic Party, said earlier this week that the Cheonan's captain, Choi Won-il, knows no shame even after "killing all his subordinates," accusing him of failing to fend off the North Korean attack. Kwon

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was to visit the residence of Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming on Thursday for a dinner meeting expected to discuss Japan's planned release of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The meeting comes as the administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol has been seeking to bring South Korea closer to the United States and Japan in a key policy departure from the preceding Moon Jae-in administration. During Thursday's meeting, Lee an

The government and the ruling People Power Party decided Wednesday to significantly toughen punishment of conglomerates stealing ideas or technology from smaller companies, a lawmaker said. The two sides agreed to revise relevant laws to increase the limit of punitive damages from the current three times to five times the actual amount of damages caused, Rep. Park Dae-chul of the People Power Party said after a meeting with startups and government officials. "The Yoon Suk Yeol administratio

Authorities in Vladivostok, a port city in the far eastern region of Russia, have launched an investigation into the disappearance of two North Koreans, Russian news outlets reported Tuesday. The missing North Koreans are believed to be wife and son of an official working at the North Korean consulate general there, according to the Arguments & Facts weekly owned by the Government of Moscow. The two -- 43-year-old Kim Kum-sun and 15-year-old Park Kwon-ju -- were last seen leaving the North K

President Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged to enhance transportation accessibility in North Chungcheong Province, saying “robust transportation is indispensable to foster a livable province” at the groundbreaking ceremony of a double-track high-speed railway connecting Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province and Osong in North Chungcheong Province, on Wednesday. The double-track high-speed railway project is aimed at constructing 46.9 new kilometers of underground high-speed railway connecting Pyeo

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, one of the two major labor umbrella groups here, announced on Wednesday it will suspend its participation in a trilateral consultative body which has served as a dialogue between labor, management and the government. The decision, which could also affect talks over next year's minimum wage, came in protest of the government's use of force against one of its members, it said. The FKTU -- the more moderate umbrella labor union relative to the more m

Song Young-gil, a former leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, was turned away Wednesday after he voluntarily appeared at a prosecutor's office for questioning over a cash-for-vote scandal involving his campaign ahead of the party's 2021 leadership election. Upon arriving at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, Song asked for a meeting with prosecutors investigating the scandal, but was denied. Song plans to stage a standalone protest in front of the prosecution off

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating stands at 36.3 percent, a survey Yonhap News Agency conducted jointly with Yonhap News TV showed Wednesday. The ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party would win 31.2 percent and 33.1 percent of the vote, respectively, if the parliamentary elections set for next year were to take place tomorrow, the poll also showed. Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV jointly commissioned the survey to gauge public sentiment ahead of ne

President Yoon Suk Yeol praised a recent deal between South Korea and the US that allows for a joint nuclear response to North Korea’s potential nuclear attacks, at an annual Memorial Day ceremony Tuesday, as he called the change an upgrade to the 70-year-old alliance. The Washington Declaration, announced at a White House summit in April between Yoon and President Joe Biden, dramatically reinforces a US pledge to deliver on deterring North Korea amid its growing nuclear threats, according

Lee's past remarks over sunken navy ship, origin of COVID-19 spark controversy

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Motor Vehicle Management Act Proposed by Rep. Han Jun-ho (Democratic Party of Korea) ● Amid the series of recent car accidents involving suspected sudden unintended acceleration, car accident victims have found it difficult to prove the causality between a car defect and the accident, as highly specialized knowledge and access to core information held by the car manufacturer is required to establish such connections. This amendment aims to protect car acci

A new agency that will be exclusively in charge of representing the interests of 7.5 million overseas Koreans will help Incheon rise as a global business hub, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday, launching the body he promised a year ago to advance the country’s business ties. The Overseas Koreans Agency offers one-stop services for Koreans who have acquired permanent residency in a foreign country, who once held Korean nationality or who are lineal descendants of someone who once held Kor

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea has appointed Lee Rae-kyung, the honorary chair of progressive non-profit media platform The Tomorrow, as the head of the new committee launched to renew and innovate the party. Party leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung announced at a Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly Monday that Lee Rae-kyung will be in charge of leading the party's new innovation committee. "We will leave all decisions, such as the names and roles of new innovat

Police seized the mobile phone of Rep. Choe Kang-wook of the main opposition Democratic Party on Monday in a raid conducted as part of an investigation into the alleged leak of personal information of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon. Investigators from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confiscated Choe's phone in front of his home in the city of Yongin, south of Seoul, and were trying to search his office at the National Assembly, officials said. Investigators are looking into the alleged