With Lee’s announcement, race among ruling bloc’s ‘Big Three’ begins in earnest

The leaders of South Korea and the Netherlands will hold virtual summit talks this week on bilateral ties and global issues, Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday. President Moon Jae-in plans to have the summit with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. The summit, the first between the two sides in three years, comes amid an increasing need for them to cooperate, especially on semiconductors, renewable energy and other future industries

President Moon Jae-in stressed the need Monday for his administration to maintain political neutrality, as South Korea's political parties have effectively entered the presidential election season, according to his office. The president issued the message during a meeting with his Cheong Wa Dae aides, according to his spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. Moon was quoted as saying that Cheong Wa Dae and the government should "thoroughly" maintain political neutrality. He called on them to co

Ex-Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon officially launched his presidential bid Monday, pledging to recover the country's dwindling middle class. Lee, also a former five-term lawmaker and ex-chief of the ruling Democratic Party, announced that he will join the race to win the party's ticket to run in the March 9 presidential election. With the slogan of "a country that safeguards my life," Lee focused his campaign message on his pledges to relieve the country's growing economic disparity and

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung garnered more support than former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl in the latest poll on prospective presidential contenders released Sunday. In the survey by Global Research, Lee received 44.7 percent of support, while Yoon had 36.7 percent in a hypothetical one-on-one battle. The gap was larger than the poll's margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. It was conducted from last Wednesday to Friday on 1,000 people aged 18 and older and had a 95 percent co

SEJONG -- The Green Climate Fund (GCF), the South Korea-based United Nations climate fund aimed at helping poor nations fight global warming, has approved $500 million in funding for new projects and programs, according to Seoul's finance ministry Sunday. During a virtual meeting held from June 28 to July 2, the GCF's board discussed new funding and accreditation proposals. Launched in late 2010, the GCF aims to channel money from industrialized nations to developing countries to help them tac

A high-profile criminal investigation into an early shutdown of the country's second-oldest nuclear reactor has wrapped up, along with indictments of former Cheong Wa Dae and energy ministry officials on power abuse charges. State prosecutors have looked into the circumstances surrounding the closure of Wolsong-1, which was shut down some three years earlier than scheduled in late 2019, by the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. based on an economic viability survey. The decision wa

Presidential hopeful Lee Jae-myung expresses confidence about bringing housing prices down

A new poll on prospective presidential contenders released Friday showed former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl with a slight edge over his ruling party rival, Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung. In the survey by Gallup Korea, Yoon received 25 percent of support, up 4 percentage points from a month before. He overtook Lee, whose rating stayed put at 24 percent. The survey conducted from Tuesday to Thursday was the first opinion poll after Yoon, with no party allegiance, announced his inte

Top presidential contender went from poor factory worker to one of the most influential figures in S. Korean politics

The mother-in-law of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a leading presidential hopeful, was sentenced to three years in prison Friday, kicking off a political firestorm ahead of the 2022 election. The local district court in Uijeongbu, 23 kilometers north of Seoul, convicted the 74-year-old, surnamed Choi, of collaborating with three business partners to establish a medical foundation and open a long-term care hospital for senior citizens in February 2013, despite having no medical quali

President Moon Jae-in attended an event Friday to commemorate South Korea's successful response so far to Japan's unilateral export curbs. He described Tokyo's measure, launched in early July 2019, as tantamount to a "surprise attack." It restricted exports of three key industrial materials -- photoresist, etching gas and fluorinated polyimide -- to South Korea, apparently in protest against its handling of diplomatic issues related to shared history. The Moon administration soon opt

From spokesperson to chief policy adviser, a bunch of presidential aides have stepped down over housing issues

Yoon Seok-youl, a former top prosecutor and leading presidential hopeful, has said he may join the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) if it is deemed necessary for the opposition block's win in next year's presidential election. "It is possible (for me) to ally with the PPP, and even enter the party if necessary for a change of government," Yoon said during a TV interview Wednesday. Lacking powerful presidential contenders, the conservative party has urged the former prosecutor

Vowing to alleviate unfairness and inequality, Lee promises to turn crisis into opportunity with powerful policies