National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug has met with the leaders of Egypt's parliament and requested their support for Seoul's push for an end-of-war declaration with North Korea, his office said Tuesday. Park, who is on an official visit to Italy and Egypt, met separately with Egypt's President of the Senate Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razeq and Speaker of the House of Representatives Hanafy Ali El Gebali in Cairo on Monday. In the meetings, Park explained Seoul's wish to build peace and co-prosperity

The chief of the ruling Democratic Party said Tuesday there will be no change in the party's nomination of Gyeonggi Gov. Lee Jae-myung as its presidential candidate, despite an appeal from the runner-up over whether votes cast for dropouts from the primary should be counted. On Sunday, Gov. Lee Jae-myung was named the DP's standard-bearer for the March presidential election after he won 50.29 percent of the vote in a primary, followed by former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon with 39.14 percent. Lee

President Moon Jae-in’s top security adviser, Suh Hoon, is expected to meet with his US counterpart and make his case for signing a declaration to end the 1950-53 Korean War armistice as a way to facilitate North Korea’s denuclearization. “This week, a discussion will take place between Suh and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The agenda is denuclearization,” a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said Sunday referring to Suh’s trip, without elaborating, though ma

Daejang-dong scandal lingers as Lee’s key contender objects to primary election results

Prosecutors on Monday questioned the owner of an asset management firm at the center of a snowballing regional development corruption scandal over allegations that his firm received massive business favors in exchange for bribes. Kim Man-bae, a former journalist, is facing a series of allegations in connection with how his previously little-known firm, Hwacheon Daeyu, was selected as a civilian partner for the 2015 development project in the city of Seongnam, south of Seoul, and reaped astronom

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung was announced on Sunday as the ruling party nominee for the upcoming presidential election. Lee has gained a total of 719,905 votes (50.29 percent), defeating his chief rival Lee Nak-yon, former prime minister, who received 560,392 votes (39.14 percent), in the party’s primary elections. Former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and Rep. Park Yong-jin received 129,035 votes (9.01 percent) and 22,261 votes (1.55 percent), respectively. The ruling party held

South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party will confirm its presidential candidate Sunday, with Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung maintaining the top spot in the cumulative votes. 　 Starting at 3:30 p.m. on the day, the ruling party holds its last regional primary in Seoul and the third Super Week -- national electoral vote -- to choose a final candidate at SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul.　 At 6 p.m., the results of about 140,000 votes from party members in the Seoul pr

Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug appealed for support for the declaration of the end of the war on the Korean Peninsula in a bilateral meeting with the speakers of the UK’s two houses of Parliament. Park made the request at a meeting with Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle and House of Lords Speaker John McFall at the 7th G20 National Assembly Speakers Meeting. According to a news release from the Korean speaker’s office, Park told Hoyle, “South Korea is pushi

Investigations into a key suspect in the snowballing corruption scandal surrounding a lucrative land development project near Seoul are expected to make progress, as police said Friday they have secured his mobile phone. The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency in Suwon, south of Seoul, said its investigators have discovered a mobile phone of Yoo Dong-gyu, former acting president of Seongnam Development Corp., which went missing during a prosecution raid on the suspect's home in Yongin, also south of

The main opposition People Power Party on Friday shortlisted four contenders heading toward the primary’s second elimination round to pick a candidate for next year’s presidential election. The party announced Friday morning that former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min and former Jeju Island Gov. Won Hee-ryong are the remaining contenders in the People Power Party’s primary. The four candidates were chosen based on results f

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug stressed international cooperation while meeting with global leaders and promising cooperation and support with his counterparts from other nations in his trip Thursday to Europe for G-20 diplomatic talks. Upon attending the opening ceremony of the 7th G-20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in Rome, Park held bilateral talks with Germany’s President Reiner Haseloff and South Africa’s National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqukula. Pa

The presidential field for the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) was shortlisted to four candidates Friday, with former Jeju Province Gov. Won Hee-ryong making the cut in the primary's second elimination round. Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, former opposition lawmaker Yoo Seong-min and Won were announced as the four remaining contenders in the main opposition's presidential primary. Friday's result was based on a survey that combined a national poll and a se

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the leading presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), saw his lead over opposition rival Yoon Seok-youl narrow slightly amid a swirling development corruption scandal, a poll showed Thursday. Lee was leading Yoon of the People Power Party (PPP) 26 percent to 17 percent, according to the joint poll by four pollsters -- Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research. In the same poll last week, Lee was leading Yoon 29

President Moon Jae-in called Thursday for greater efforts to curb global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, saying the Earth is getting warmer at a much faster speed than expected. Moon made the remark in a video message to a forum of environment ministers from Asia-Pacific countries held in Suwon, 46 kilometers south of Seoul, saying the Asia-Pacific is an environmentally vulnerable region where 40 percent of all natural disasters, such as typhoons and drought, took place in 2019. "Pl

Yoon Seok-youl, the leading opposition presidential candidate, has increasingly faced questions about superstitious or unscientific beliefs, this time over his alleged ties to an anal acupuncture specialist that he claims to have no knowledge of. The allegation surfaced Tuesday during the sixth TV debate among presidential contenders of the main opposition People Power Party, when one of Yoon's competitors, former Rep. Yoo Seong-min, asked him if he has met someone "known to perform acupun