President Park Geun-hye made a politically perilous decision Thursday to scale down a new state pension plan as her lofty welfare goals faced harsh reality six months into office. She made a public apology for failing to keep one of her key pledges that helped her sweep senior citizens’ votes in the presidential election last year. She is seemingly on a path to further disappoint the public as her other welfare programs are being pushed into retreat amid growing fiscal woes and a still lackluste

Health Minister Chin Young remained ambiguous on Wednesday over rumors that he would step down from the post to assume responsibility for the Park Geun-hye government’s failure to keep its original plans on bigger welfare benefits.Chin, who came back from a five-day business trip to Saudi Arabia Wednesday morning, said he had thought about leaving office but declined to confirm whether he would do so. “Two weeks ago, I thought that I would no longer fulfill the duty of a health minister who sati

Chae demands retraction, accuses the Justice Ministry of jeopardizing prosecution’s neutrality

Korea spent only 0.8 percent of its gross domestic product on family benefits in 2009, placing the country at 32nd among 34 OECD member states in child welfare spending, according to a report by the Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs.OECD countries spent on average 2.3 percent of their GDP on child and family benefits in the same year.