Public support for Yoon Seok-youl has bounced back sharply to take the lead over other potential presidential candidates in South Korea, a poll showed Monday, following his resignation from the post of prosecutor general last week. The Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) said he has garnered 32.4 percent in the survey of 1,023 likely voters nationwide. Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) ranked second with 24.1 percent followed by the party's leader Lee

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Saturday condemned the violent crackdown on protests in Myanmar and called for the release of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. "Use of violence against the people of Myanmar must stop now. There should not be any more loss of lives," Moon wrote on social media including Twitter. "We condemn the violent suppression of protests by the military and the police forces and strongly call for the immediate release of all those detained, including

With the upcoming Seoul mayoral election only one month away, unifying the candidacies of two rivals from the opposition bloc remains a key factor in shaping the outcome of the high-stakes election. The capital Seoul, home to nearly 10 million of the country's total 52 million population, is set to pick its new mayor in the by-election slated for April 7. The by-election was called after former mayor Park Won-soon died in an apparent suicide in July last year in the face of sexual harassment

Former Oceans Minister Kim Young-choon won the ruling Democratic Party's ticket to run for Busan mayor on Saturday. Kim, a three-term lawmaker and ex-National Assembly secretary general, earned 67.74 percent support in a four-day online and telephone voting, easily beating out two other candidates: acting Busan Mayor Byun Seong-wan (25.12 percent) and former Busan city council chief Park In-yeong (7.14 percent). The mayoral seat in South Korea's second-largest city has been vacant since April

The ruling Democratic Party's approval rating plunged to a record low since the 2017 inauguration of the Moon Jae-in government amid conflict over prosecution reform, a poll showed Friday. The DP's approval rating was at 32 percent, down 4 percentage points from a week ago, according to a survey on 1,002 voters nationwide conducted by Gallup Korea from Tuesday to Thursday. This marks the lowest since Moon took office in May 2017. The corresponding rate for the main opposition People Power P

The state auditor said Friday it found no irregularities in the steps involved in drawing up the Moon Jae-in government's nuclear-free policy. The Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an investigation after a former opposition lawmaker and 546 others asked the agency in June 2019 to look into potential irregularities in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's policymaking process. The group alleged that the ministry bypassed due procedure by revising a power supply plan before amending

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun urged the National Assembly on Friday to swiftly pass the latest extra budget proposal, calling it "medicine" and a "vaccine" amid the coronavirus pandemic. The government has submitted a 15 trillion won ($13.2 billion) supplementary budget plan to finance the fourth round of COVID-19 relief for small businesses and vulnerable groups. The new package is worth 19.5 trillion won, including 4.5 trillion won from this year's budget."This suppl

President Moon Jae-in replaced his senior secretary for civil affairs and justice Thursday, eventually accepting a resignation offer by Shin Hyun-soo, according to Cheong Wa Dae. Kim Jin-kook, an official at the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), has been named to replace him, Chung Man-ho, senior secretary for public communication, said in a press statement. Shin tendered his resignation last month in apparent protest over a recent personnel shake-up at the prosecution that was led by new J

President Moon Jae-in is expected to receive his COVID-19 jab before his planned trip to the UK in June to attend the G-7 summit, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday. “The president’s vaccination plan will be set up based on the disease control agency’s manual and the president’s diplomatic schedule,” presidential spokesperson Kang Min-seok said during a media briefing. “Like ordinary citizens, the president cannot choose the vaccine type. The exact dat

The government will thoroughly investigate the deaths of five people who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines and disclose its findings transparently, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said Thursday. He requested that the public have trust in the vaccination campaign led by the government. South Korea began offering vaccine shots in late February. Two patients at long-term care hospitals in Gyeonggi Province, surrounding Seoul, died within days after being administered the AstraZeneca vaccine.

President Moon accepts resignation immediately; Yoon remains silent about entering politics after resignation 　

The South Korean government launched a task force Thursday to look into allegations that employees of a state housing corporation used secret information on a residential area development project for land speculation. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the interagency team would examine all recent land transactions by officials at the land ministry and Korea Land and Housing Corp. (LH) in areas chosen by the government for the latest massive land redevelopment project. At a press briefing, he

Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Thursday won the main opposition party's ticket to run in the upcoming Seoul mayoral election seen as a barometer of public opinion ahead of the 2022 presidential election.  Oh, who served as Seoul mayor from 2006-2011, won the People Power Party's primary for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election, solely based on a two-day public opinion poll, according to the polling results. He beat former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won, former two-term lawmaker Oh Sh

Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong met with a victim of Japan's wartime sexual slavery Wednesday, as Seoul seeks to defuse persistent historical tensions with Tokyo amid Washington's calls for tighter trilateral cooperation with its key Asian allies. The meeting with Lee Yong-soo, Chung's first with a sexual slavery victim since taking office last month, came as the 92-year-old Lee has stepped up calls for the government to bring the case to the International Court of Justice with no diplomatic s

President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden will discuss climate change at a virtual Earth Day summit on April 22, in their first video conference since Biden took office, a local media outlet reported Wednesday. They had a phone conversation last month. “The US is driving the discussion on the agenda,” a Seoul official said, pointing out the US-hosted gathering will mark Washington’s return to the carbon-cutting commitment. Biden reversed the Trump administration’s