President Moon Jae-in’s honeymoon with the public isn’t over yet. One month into the job, the liberal president scored 82 percent job approval rating, far higher than any of his recent predecessors, the latest Gallup Korea poll showed Friday. From a week ago, Moon’s public support has dropped slightly -- by 2 percentage points.  President Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)Only 10 percent held a negative view of the president, while 8 percent were so far undecided. “Compared to previous presidents, President M

Yet another Oval Office conversation was delving into yet another president’s determined wish to shut down yet another FBI investigation that had gotten way too close.But this was 2017, not 1972. And the art of this deal was cutting out middle men entirely. This time, the artful deal-master, President Donald Trump, chose to do all the deal-making himself.And that is one big difference between the stunning, detailed revelations fired FBI Director James Comey made this week regarding his one-on-on

South Korea is not seeking to alter its agreement with the US on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile here, said a senior security adviser to President Moon Jae-in on Friday, apparently seeking to soothe growing concerns both in Seoul and Washington over the project’s delay. “THAAD was decided as a means to protect the South Korean military and the US troops here amid increasing provocations from the North,” Chung Eui-yong, chief of Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security

President Moon Jae-in on Friday appointed Kim Dong-yeon as deputy prime minister cum finance minister and appealed for the opposition-dominated legislature’s approval of Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha, citing an imminent Korea-US summit. The appeal came as the National Assembly cleared Kim’s confirmation process, while leaving out nominees for three other key posts.  President Moon Jae-in (left) and deputy prime minister cum finance minister Kim Dong-yeon (right) (Yonhap)“As we all know

Amid prolonged sales of South Korea‘s second-largest tiremaker Kumho Tire, Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo has further complicated the process by pitching new terms.Kumho Industrial, the de facto holding company of Kumho Asiana Group, has officially approved Double Star, a Chinese state-run tiremaker and preferred bidder, to use the Kumho Tire trademark for 20 years and in return has suggested changes to the contract, the company said Friday.  Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo (Yonhap)New te

President Moon Jae-in’s first month in office has been marked by reform, change and taking ordinary but significant actions.As promised in his campaign, Moon has made himself more approachable and his office more communicative than the previous administration. The changes Moon had in mind were visible from his inauguration speech on May 10, which he kept short and much less formal than his predecessors. President Moon Jae-in (Yonhap)During the past month, Cheong Wa Dae briefed the media on 65 oc

Former President Park Geun-hye’s sister is facing a criminal trial of her own, accused of fraud. The Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday it has arraigned Park Geun-ryoung, the younger sister of the former leader, for receiving 100 million won ($89,100) in total from the head of a social welfare organization on a false promise of helping them land governmental contracts in 2014.  Park Geun-ryoung (Yonhap)The prosecution, however, did not seek her physical detention.  The 63-year-old

The number of applicants for “unemployment credit” has surpassed 300,000 in the past 10 months since its launch last August, said the National Pension Service Friday.The unemployment credit is a program for job-seekers in which the government pays up to 75 percent of their national pension fees. This enables the jobless to maximize the amount of pension they receive in the future since their unemployment period is recognized as the duration of entitlement to the national pension just

STX’S NEW SHIP -- STX Offshore & Shipbuilding has successfully constructed a new liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel 6,500 square meters large, the company said. The ship had been ordered by global energy and petrochemical company Shell in 2014. (Yonhap)

Koreans are avid users of emoticons on mobile chats, and an interesting trend here is that popular emoticons are mostly characters with made-up life stories behind each of them.According to Kakao Corp, the operator of the country’s largest mobile messenger with around 42 million users, the most consumed emoticon series features Kakao Friends -- a group of eight different characters led by Ryan the lion. As of early June, a total of 28 emoticon packages featuring Kakao Friends are available for p

Some are flashy, some move, and some even make sounds. Emoticons have become an inseparable means of delivering feelings and messages for mobile messenger and online users worldwide.Some 92 percent of the world’s online community are estimated to use emoticons, increasingly known by their Japanese name emoji, with over 6 billion of them sent every day, according to the 2015 Emoji Report released by marketing platform Emogi.They have developed alongside wireless telecommunications devices. The or