The prosecution investigating the Optimus fund scam dismissed suspicions that the hedge fund’s advisers had lobbied politicians and officials working for finance-related authorities. It dropped charges against three former advisers: Yang Ho, a former chairman of Nara Bank; Lee Hun-jai, a former finance minister; and Kim Jin-hoon, a former chief of the Military Mutual Aid Association. It did not book another ex-adviser, former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook.　 Nearly 20 prosecutors inve

Seoul appears to be moving to reduce the scale and duration of the South Korea-US joint military exercise set to kick off next week. The regular summertime exercise, along with other major annual combined drills between the allies, has taken the form of computer-simulated war games since 2018, with no outdoor field training. Further scaling it down and cutting it short may well raise concerns that it is a matter of time before the allies’ joint military exercises are reduced to a skeleto

The recent bust of a suspected spy ring based in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, raises concerns that not a few espionage agents may be lurking in South Korean society and working to benefit North Korea. The authorities on Monday detained three of four activists who had organized protests opposing the purchase of F-35A stealth fighters from the US. They were charged under the National Security Act. They allegedly took orders from Pyongyang when they staged street gatherings and a series o

Concerns are being raised over the recent steep rise in the country’s consumer prices, adding to the suffering of households hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic. South Korea’s consumer prices rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier in July, accelerating from a 2.4 percent on-year gain the previous month, according to data released by Statistics Korea this week. The country has seen its consumer inflation rate climb more than 2 percent for four straight months since April, wi

The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry and the National Assembly Research Service expressed concerns over a media arbitration bill pushed by the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, according to related parliamentary stenographic records disclosed belatedly by an opposition party lawmaker.　 In a related closed-door subcommittee meeting on July 27, First Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Oh Yeong-woo said that there are no precedents for a clause of the bill that awards punitive compen

South Korea’s exports increased 29.6 percent on-year in July to $55.4 billion, the highest monthly figure since the country began compiling related data in 1956, according to data released Sunday by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In the first seven months of this year, outbound shipments from Asia’s fourth-largest economy reached $358.7 billion, also a record high for the January-July period. The steep increase in exports is partly attributable to the low base effect f