President Yoon Suk Yeol and the freshly elected chairperson of the ruling People Power Party, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, will meet twice a month. Yoon hosted Kim and the rest of the new People Power Party leadership for dinner at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on Monday to celebrate their election at the party convention last week. Over the private dinner, the president and the party chairperson agreed to “meet regularly, about twice a month” for coordination on policies

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed officials to come up with projects aimed at bolstering relations with Japan, ahead of the two-day summit starting Thursday with his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo. The push for closer ties is meant to foster a “future-oriented Seoul-Tokyo relationship,” Yoon’s office said Monday. Yoon’s remarks came at a time when South Korea is looking to use the recent thaw in ties not only to build on the momentum for cooperation, but to also strengthe

Ahead of summit, main opposition party goes on offensive against Yoon's compensation plan for wartime forced labor victims

Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung on Sunday pointed to those practicing "black magic" as being responsible for the desecretion of his parents' grave site in Bonghwa-gun, North Gyeongsang Province. “According to (an expert’s) observation, it is a ritual of black magic to dig holes on all sides of a grave and bury evil objects in them. The practice is meant to block the energy of the grave and curse the descendants in order to annihilate them

Rep. Lee Chul-gyu will be named the ruling People Power Party's new secretary general, officials said Monday, as the party fills key posts with those close to President Yoon Suk Yeol after Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon was elected new leader last week. Reps. Park Seong-min and Bae Hyun-jin, who are also considered part of the pro-Yoon faction, will take over as vice secretary-general for strategic planning, and as vice secretary general for organizational affairs, respectively, officials said. Party le

President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating fell to 38.9 percent, dropping below 40 percent for the first time in four weeks, a poll showed Monday. In the poll of 2,508 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance declined 4 percentage points from the previous week. The figure had stayed in the low 40 percent range for three straight weeks. Yoon's disapproval rating rose 5.7 percentage points to 58.9 percent in the same

SEONGNAM, South Korea -- A former chief of staff to opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who was found dead in an apparent suicide, urged the Democratic Party (DP) chair to quit politics in his suicide note, informed officials said Friday. The deceased, surnamed Jeon, is also said to have complained about being investigated by prosecutors in connection with Lee's corruption allegations. Jeon had served as Lee's chief secretary during his term as the mayor of Seongnam, just south of Seoul

Former National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon pushed to repatriate two North Korean men who attempted to defect to the South in a bid to restore ties with Pyongyang, according to Seoul prosecutors. In an indictment released Thursday, prosecutors said that then-NIS director Suh ordered the two fishers from North Korea to be sent back, going against the policy that requires any decision to repatriate North Korean defectors to be backed by their intentions to return home. Prosecutors found

Parliamentary speakers from MIKTA -- an informal middle power partnership between Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Austria – gathered in Istanbul on Thursday and issued a joint declaration making a case for strengthening the role of parliaments. In the declaration, speakers highlighted the importance of national parliaments in diplomacy in the face of the complex security challenges. The declaration was issued at the MIKTA Speakers’ Consultation, a forum for member countrie

President Yoon Suk Yeol doubled down on bolstering extended deterrence, a US pledge to use all resources including nuclear weapons to deter and respond to attacks on its allies, amid deepening Seoul-Washington ties to counter North Korea’s nuclear threats The two allies are pursuing a more united front on Pyongyang, as they return to full-scale military exercises Monday following a five-year hiatus meant to give room for diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearization. The efforts had yi

Choi Dae-ho, the mayor of Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, has specific ideas for the future of the city. “I aim to continue to promote projects to create a city that will prosper for over 100 years,” Choi proclaims. The agenda pursued by Choi focuses on more initiatives for the city's young people. Choi said over his term he hopes to build a city that is women-friendly and safer for children to grow up in. “Anyang is first in the country to increase rewards to couples that have

The first message from the ruling People Power Party’s freshly elected leaders highlighted stronger ties with other democracies, most notably Japan, with which the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration is determined to mend relations. Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, who won the chairpersonship with 52.9 percent of the votes from registered party members, said in a first meeting of the new party leaders on Thursday that Yoon’s plan to compensate South Koreans enslaved by colonial Japan with lo

President calls $7b Shaheen project "symbol of trust" between Korea, Saudi Arabia

Elite North Korean defector wins seat on supreme council

Yoon's visit after thaw with Tokyo seen as step to consolidating trilateral security cooperation