Jailed former President Park Geun-hye was admitted to a hospital on Monday for an unspecified illness, officials said. According to the justice ministry, Park was transferred from the Seoul Detention Center, where she is serving her 22-year prison term, to the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul earlier in the day and was receiving treatment. It marked her third hospitalization this year. Park, 69, was previously hospitalized in January and July in connection to her left shoulder surgery

Both candidates kick-start revamped campaigns

Yoon Seok-youl, the presidential nominee of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), and his opponent Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) are neck and neck in a hypothetical multicandidate race, a survey showed Monday. Yoon garnered 40 percent support, while Lee trailed by only 0.5 percentage point at 39.5 percent, within the survey's margin of error, according to the survey of 1,007 adults conducted Friday and Saturday by the Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI). Yoon's r

Universal disaster subsidy unlikely

President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that he is worried about a recent jump in new COVID-19 cases as the nation eased some social-distancing rules and urged people to strictly comply with containment rules despite higher vaccination rates. "The number of confirmed patients is on the increase as vaccination rates rise. Containment rules, including mask wearing, must be followed," Moon told a nationally televised town hall meeting. The nation's new coronavirus cases stayed above 3,000 fo

Yoon faces task of recruiting former rival; Lee seeks to revamp committee to recover popularity

A former interim leader of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) was named Sunday to lead the election campaign committee for the party's presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl. Yoon said Kim Chong-in, a veteran politician who resigned in April after heading the PPP as a caretaker leader, will be in charge of his campaign committee for the 2022 presidential election. Incumbent PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok will serve as a co-standing chairman for the election campaign committee along with Ki

Former President Lee Myung-bak on Friday lost a lawsuit aimed at reversing the prosecution's sell-off of his home in southern Seoul as part of fines handed down to him for corruption charges, officials said. Lee, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, is currently serving a 17-year jail sentence over embezzlement and bribery convictions. He was also handed a fine of 13 billion won ($11 million) and an additional forfeiture of 5.7 billion won. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against Le

A National Assembly committee passed the unification ministry's 2022 budget proposal on Friday despite a boycott by the main opposition party. The ministry had requested 1.27 trillion won ($1.07 billion) for the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to finance various humanitarian, economic and social projects between the South and the North. The ruling Democratic Party added an extra 10.7 billion won on top and passed the proposal during a meeting of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unificat

Prosecutors on Friday raided an office of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) over allegations government officials were illegally involved in the party's policy development process for the upcoming presidential election. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office dispatched a team of investigators to search the party's policy research office at a building inside the National Assembly compound in Yeouido, western Seoul, earlier in the day, according to judicial sources. The search came after

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum called Friday for efficient hospital bed management as the country continued to see a rising number of critically ill COVID-19 patients amid no signs of letup in daily infections. Kim said the government's priority will be swiftly adding hospital beds and supporting medical resources needed at hospitals as quickly as possible. "There are concerns that our journey to return to normalcy may stop for a while if we cannot overcome this crisis," Kim said duri

Spouses of ruling and opposition parties’ key candidates face allegations, rumors and mockery

Lee calls on Yoon to stop backpedaling, as rival parties clash over effectiveness of inter-Korean military agreement

The ruling Democratic Party said Thursday it has agreed with the minor Open Democratic Party to seek their merger, a move that comes less than four months ahead of the presidential election. The agreement was reached during a meeting between DP Chairman Song Young-gil and his Open Democratic Party counterpart, Choe Kang-wook, according to Koh Yong-jin, a senior DP spokesperson. The minor party is considered a "satellite party" of the DP, as it was launched by former DP lawmakers ahea

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum will hold a meeting with hospital chiefs in the Seoul metropolitan area to discuss operations of intensive care beds amid a rising number of critically ill coronavirus patients, his office said Thursday. Kim will have an emergency meeting with heads of 22 tertiary hospitals in the capital area on Friday to discuss the bed situation for serious COVID-19 patients following concerns over the region's medical capacity. The Seoul metropolitan area, including the surround