Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung is fighting back criticism from all across the political spectrum of his presidential campaign pledge to provide a universal basic income of up to 2 million won ($1,730) per year to all citizens. Lee, currently the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential front-runner, announced last week that if he is elected president, the government will start giving 2 million won a year to citizens aged between 19 and 29, and 1 million won to all other citiz

President Moon Jae-in on Monday touted last week’s bipartisan approval of a 34.9 trillion won ($30.2 billion) extra budget, pledging prompt execution of a new round of COVID-19 relief funds for people in urgent need. Parliament on Saturday endorsed the extra budget larger than the government’s proposed budget of 33 trillion won as the country plans to provide stimulus checks totaling 11 trillion won to people in the bottom 87.7 percent income bracket. About 20.3 million household

President Moon Jae-in sent congratulatory messages Monday to the members of South Korea's female archery team and a judo player, who won medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Moon lauded the archery squad for its ninth consecutive Olympic gold in a message also posted on his social media accounts. "Since archery was adopted as an Olympic program, the women's team has been at the top, showing the power of the archery of the Republic of Korea," Moon wrote on his message for each member of the

President Moon Jae-in has canceled his summer holiday for a third consecutive year as COVID-19 cases surged again recently, according to Cheong Wa Dae sources on Sunday. “The president had planned to take his holiday in early August but the plans were canceled,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said on condition of anonymity. Even though Moon might take time off “later,” she said, that seems unlikely for now with COVID-19 showing no immediate signs of abating here. This is the

Jeju Province Gov. Won Hee-ryong announced Sunday that he will run for presidency in the election slated for March next year. In a video speech, Won, a former three-term opposition lawmaker, vowed to upend "everything" the Moon Jae-in government has done. "I declare my bid for the 20th presidential election to make the Republic of Korea a country of a different class and different dimension," he said in the virtual press conference. "I would like to propose a vision o

Rumors that former President Park Geun-hye and Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong may receive presidential pardons or paroles are increasingly making the rounds in political circles as of late amid growing calls for amnesty for the two figures jailed over corruption-related charges. Such speculations are being circulated widely with the Aug. 15 Liberation Day, an anniversary on which South Korea's presidents have often used their right to special pardon as part of efforts for promoting national un

Local police have cleared charges against three lawmakers who had been suspected of illegal real estate dealings, officials said Saturday. The Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency in Suwon, just south of Seoul, said it dropped charges against Rep. Yang Hyang-ja, an independent lawmaker, and two ruling Democratic Party members -- Rep. Kim Kyung-man and Rep. Seo Young-suk -- in relation to alleged property speculation. Yang was under probe over a violation of the anti-corruption law and the Farmland Ac

The National Assembly on Saturday gave the nod to a 34.9 trillion-won ($30.3 billion) extra budget bill aimed at propping up the economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill was passed at a plenary parliamentary meeting in a 208-17 vote, with 12 abstentions. The second extra budget this year came as the country is in a semi-lockdown under the toughest Level 4 social distancing rules amid the worst, fourth wave of mass COVID-19 infections nationwide. Through the supplementary budget,

President Moon Jae-in will chair an interagency meeting on COVID-19 this weekend to be joined by the heads of 17 local governments, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday. He plans to preside over the session at Cheong Wa Dae on Sunday via video links, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. It is the first time for the president to chair a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters in seven months. It is usually done by Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum. Earlier Frid

Cheong Wa Dae said Friday its Chunchugwan press center will remain closed for two more weeks in line with extended social distancing restrictions against COVID-19. Earlier in the day, the government announced the extension of the highest level of regulations by two weeks in Seoul and nearby regions amid no tangible progress in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Chunchugwan has been shut temporarily since July 12. It is the first time that the facility has closed as a precautionary measu

South Korea seeks unification with North Korea through peaceful means and based on agreement between the two sides, a unification ministry official said Thursday after the chief of the main opposition party expressed his wish for unification "by absorption." In a TV debate on Wednesday, Lee Jun-seok, chairman of the People Power Party (PPP), said that he is an advocate of "unification by peaceful absorption" with North Korea. He also renewed calls for scrapping or adjusting

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, the front-running presidential contender for the ruling Democratic Party, made a campaign pledge Thursday to distribute universal basic income of up to 2 million won ($1,736) per year to all citizens. "Within the (five-year) term of the next administration, (I) will provide 2 million won in basic income to each young person every year and 1 million won each to the rest of the citizens" Lee said in a press conference at the National Assembly in Seo

Members of the ruling Democratic Party continued to slam former prosecutor general and presidential contender Yoon Seok-youl on Wednesday for saying that people should be allowed to work 120 hours in a week if they need to. As Yoon criticized the 52-hour work week system as a failed policy in a recent newspaper interview, he said he met people in start-ups who said there should be exemptions to the work hour rule as game developers often need to work 120 hours for a couple of weeks and then hav

President Moon Jae-in has reprimanded his Cheong Wa Dae aides over reports of errors in the online reservation system for COVID-19 vaccine shots, his office said Wednesday. Moon called for "strong" measures to address the problems, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. With regard to the issue, the president pointed out that it is not commensurate with South Korea's stature as an information and technology powerhouse, she said. The government opened a vaccination b

The top court upheld the opinion rigging conviction of South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, a close aide to President Moon Jae-in, on Wednesday, a decision that will strip Kim of his governorship and potentially deal a political blow to the president. The Supreme Court maintained the verdict by the appeals court in November that Kim colluded with a team of online bloggers, including Kim Dong-won, widely known by his alias Druking, to illegally generate favorable opinions about the pre