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

Proposed Bill: Partial Amendment to the Act on the Promotion of Newspapers Proposed by Rep. Yoon Doo-hyun (People Power Party) ● An increasing number of people have begun using online news services to read the news, implying that public opinion can be significantly influenced by the positioning of news articles. Accordingly, there have been calls to prescribe the duties and public responsibility of online news service providers. This amendment aims to require online news services to uphold their

President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered a stern crackdown on corruption involving government subsidies to civil organizations and a full recovery of misused funds, his spokesperson said Monday. Yoon issued the instruction after an audit of government subsidies given to about 12,000 civil organizations over the past three years found a total of 1,865 cases of irregularities involving about 31.4 billion won ($24 million), presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said. The ruling People Power Party heaped cri

National Election Commission hit by nepotism in hiring, refuses inspection into North Korean hacking scandal

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions is considering whether to pull out of negotiations with the government following what it calls excessive use of force by police on one of its members. At around 5:31 a.m. last Wednesday, Kim Joon-young, an executive of the Federation of Korean Metalworkers' Trade Unions, sustained injuries from a police baton wielded by an officer while resisting a crackdown. Kim has been staging a sit-in rally since May 29 on a 7-meter-high steel structure installed on

Fearful Kim Jong-un may act out with “more venturous military provocations”

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Friday and agreed to upgrade the bilateral ties between the two nations in the fields of development, labor, education and forestry. Yoon was quoted by his office as saying that he had explained the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s projects in the health, medical and educational field and environmental projects in East Timor. The presidential office added that Yoon has also sought aid and support from the Eas

The approval ratings of President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling People Power Party inched down slightly this week, amid continued opposition attacks on the government's diplomacy with Japan, a poll showed Friday. In the poll of 1,002 adults aged 18 and over conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance inched down 1 percentage point from the previous week to 35 percent. Yoon's disapproval rating was 57 percent, up 2 percentage poi

Children of four retired senior officials at the National Election Commission were additionally found to have been employed by the election watchdog, an investigation showed Friday, raising suspicions that the individuals secured the positions through their fathers' influence. The children of the four former officials were hired for experienced positions at three different regional offices, where their fathers had previously worked, according to the results of the investigation conducted by

North Korea's satellite launch failure on Wednesday was likely to have happened because of an unexpected technical error, rather than leader Kim Jong-un’s impatience to improve surveillance capabilities, according to defector-turned-Assemblyman Rep. Tae Yong-ho. Tae, who was a senior diplomat for North Korea before defecting to Seoul in 2016, said in a press release that the spy satellite’s attempted launch was a key military milestone that has been a long time in the making. Fo

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Wednesday and discussed the recent improvement in the bilateral relationship, his office said. Suga was visiting Seoul in his capacity as the new chief of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union following an invitation from Yoon during their previous meeting in Tokyo in March. "The president said a complete restoration of the bilateral relationship was achieved through the three South Korea-Japan summit

South Korea’s intelligence authorities suspect North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is suffering from insomnia, and drinking and smoking heavily. Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the executive secretary for the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the National Intelligence Service believes Kim “may be experiencing a serious sleep disorder and engaging in excessive alcohol and tobacco consumption.” He said the spy service found North Korean authorities were “ho

National Assembly’s science committee yet to find common ground on Korea AeroSpace Administration Act

A South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they will be conducting an additional review after a visit to the now-defunct Fukushima nuclear power plant that was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, leading to three nuclear reactor meltdowns, in 2011. Speaking at a briefing, Yoo Guk-hee, the government nuclear safety commission’s chairperson who is leading the review efforts, said his team will be acquiring extra data to look into facilities that treat the radioactive wastewater, dilut

President Yoon Suk Yeol met with a group of religious leaders Tuesday to thank them for their efforts to promote social unity and seek advice on state affairs, his office said. The meeting was held over lunch at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae, with the attendance of nine faith leaders: respective representatives of the Jogye and Chontae orders of Buddhism, the United Christian Churches of Korea, Myungsung Church, the Catholic Church, Won Buddhism, Confucianism, Cheondoism an