Survey results released by two pollsters Monday showed that the opposition could win the Seoul mayoral election next month, but only if they unify their candidacies. The same day People Power Party’s Oh Se-hoon and minor opposition People’s Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo revealed they had begun talks on doing so. Oh and Ahn said in radio interviews Monday morning that they met Sunday night over beer and agreed that unifying the candidacy was a must, and that it should be done before o

The prosecutor general who rose to prominence by standing firm against pressure from the Moon Jae-in administration, shook political minds as he resigned Thursday over moves to deprive the prosecution of its investigative rights, a month ahead of the local by-elections. Yoon Seok-youl had adhered to the customary reticence of a chief prosecutor, limiting his public speech to parliamentary sessions, until he took his first media interview this week, four months before his two-year term was to ex

Chief prosecutor Yoon Seok-youl’s outcry against the ruling party’s move to deprive the prosecution of investigative rights by creating a new crime agency drew mixed reactions Wednesday, with Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun saying he was acting like a politician. Following a yearlong brawl with former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae over investigative rights, the prosecutor general strongly criticized the plan to launch a new agency for “serious crimes,” modeled after Britain&

Chief prosecutor Yoon Seok-youl blasted the ruling party’s move to create a separate agency to investigate six types of crime such as abuse of power and corruption, calling it an attempt to “disband the prosecution” and “annihilate the rule of law.” The prosecutor general, who fought a yearlong battle against former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae over investigative rights, said the move amounted to “regression of democracy and destruction of the spirit of the Co

Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, the former Catholic archbishop of Seoul, has been hospitalized since Feb. 21, the office of the Seoul archdiocese said Sunday. The 90-year-old Catholic leader was admitted to the Catholic University of Korea Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital days after reporting pain, but he can converse, the office said in a statement. The cardinal has refused to be put on life support, and had signed papers in 2006 to donate his organs and corneas upon his death. Days after h

A US federal court ordered North Korea to pay over $2.3 billion in damages to the crew and their families of the naval spy ship USS Pueblo, for torturing them for 11 months upon capturing the vessel in 1968 in the East Sea. It is the most in damages a US court has ordered North Korea to pay, raising the chances of further US actions to seize North Korea-related assets overseas in a bid to collect damages from the destitute country. The Washington court said in its decision handed down on Feb.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors beat teachers in an annual survey of elementary schoolchildren on what they want to become when they grow up. In an online poll conducted for three months through Oct. 15 last year by the government, 7.6 percent of first through sixth graders said they want to be medical doctors, making it the second most popular career after professional athletes. Content creators such as Youtubers and professional gamers were also among the top five careers chosen by the

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday reaffirmed the US position that the country would continue to focus on North Korea’s denuclearization and closely cooperate with its allies and partners. He briefly mentioned North Korea during a speech at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, where he also said the US would demand greater transparency from China on its weapons development program. During the prerecorded speech, Blinken warned against Russia, referring to i

Forest fires that began in Andong and Yecheon in North Gyeongsang Province on Sunday swept an area the size of 357 soccer fields, fire and local authorities said Monday, as dry weather and strong winds continue. Over 2,600 personnel including civil servants, expert fire fighters, dozens of helicopters and fire trucks were mobilized as firefighting work resumed early Monday. No casualties have been reported, but residents in the area were told to evacuate. As of 7 a.m. Monday, about 30 percent

The US Justice Department indicted three North Koreans in December on charges related to cyberattacks to steal over $1.3 billion in crypto and traditional currencies from banks and companies. The indictment, filed in December and disclosed Wednesday, alleges that the three -- Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36 -- were members of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a North Korean military intelligence agency that engages in criminal hacking. Wednesday’s indictment builds

A new five-star hotel on Jeju Island is under fire for saying its sauna windows were mirror coated when they weren’t. Naked guests in the shower booths and bathrooms in the sauna on the second floor could be seen from the first floor at Grand Josun Jeju, which opened last month in Seogwipo. According to a complaint posted on a portal site Tuesday, a man who stayed at the hotel on his honeymoon said his wife had used the sauna several times because she was told the windows were mirror c

An opposition lawmaker refuses to let up on President Moon Jae-in’s son, artist Moon Joon-yong, demanding that a Seoul City foundation disclose why it decided to fund him as part of its program to support artists suffering due to COVID-19. In a Facebook post on Monday, Rep. Kwak Sang-do of the People Power Party called on the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture to explain in detail how it selected the artists it sponsored under the program. In response to news reports in favor of Kwak

Reports of child abuse made to the police over the past two weeks nearly doubled compared with a year ago amid heightened awareness, the police said Monday. Police said they had run a Lunar New Year’s security campaign from Feb. 1 through Sunday and that the daily average number of child abuse reports during the period was 47 cases, compared with 24 cases a year ago. “Child abuse reports rose sharply upon growing awareness,” an official with the National Police Agency said.

Park Young-sun, one of the two ruling Democratic Party preliminary candidates, was ahead of all other Seoul mayoral hopefuls in poll results released by Realmeter on Wednesday. In a survey of 1,016 Seoul citizens aged 18 and above, conducted by the pollster on Sunday and Monday, and commissioned by YTN and TBS, 38.9 percent said they would vote for Park against Ahn Cheol-soo, if the two were in a two-way race. Some 36.3 percent said they would vote for Ahn, a centrist tech entrepreneur-turne

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un chastised self-protectionism and the passiveness of state agencies during a full session of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party on Monday, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday. The meeting was convened to discuss economic projects for this year, the first of its five-year national development plan presented at the eighth party congress held early last month, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. Kim presided over the meeting, dur