President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook will receive COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday next week ahead of their planned trip to the UK for the G-7 summit in June, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday. The presidential couple will be given the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccines like other citizens here, the presidential office added. “Their planned vaccination also aims to eradicate safety and efficacy concerns surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Moon’s spokesperson Kang Min-seok s

President Moon Jae-in on Monday vowed to root out corruption in the housing market, calling real estate speculation another form of “deep-rooted evil” that has long been prevalent in society. “Eradicating deep-rooted evil and restoring order in the real estate market will become one of the key goals in the remaining time of the administration,” Moon said in a weekly meeting with his key aides at Cheong Wa Dae. “We should keep in mind that this is the most import

President Moon Jae-in’s push to revive denuclearization talks is expected to gain fresh momentum as he plans to hold in-person talks with senior US officials next week to discuss pending issues, including Washington’s ongoing policy review on North Korea. On Wednesday, the two governments announced that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit Seoul on March 17-18 after a three-day visit to Tokyo in their first overseas trip since the launc

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday denounced the alleged speculative purchases of land by officials of the state-run housing developer, calling the snowballing insider trading scandal “unacceptable.”  “It is unacceptable that officials at public organizations or public servants make speculative land purchases based on related information. This is an act of undermining our society’s integrity and trust,” Moon said before a luncheon meeting with floor leaders o

South Korea-Japan ties long strained over wartime history are showing few signs of recovery, with Seoul’s new Tokyo envoy facing almost open hostility from local authorities. According to diplomatic sources Tuesday, Korea’s new ambassador to Japan, Kang Chang-il, has yet to meet with Japanese leaders, a rarity in light of diplomatic protocol. Kang arrived in Japan on Jan. 22 and started work on Feb. 14 after a two-week quarantine. But his request for a courtesy visit to the prime m

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

South Korea’s North Korea Human Rights Act remains of little real consequence five years after its enactment, with the ruling liberal bloc showing no particular urgency in dealing with human rights violations in the North amid stalled peace talks. On Wednesday, the law marked its fifth anniversary since it was enacted on March 3, 2016, more than a decade after similar laws took effect in the US and Japan in the early 2000s. But little progress has been made in carrying out the concrete

President Moon Jae-in’s top security advisor Suh Hoon and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan held their second phone call Tuesday to share views on the current Korean Peninsula situation and Washington’s ongoing review of its North Korea policy, Cheong Wa Dae said. “The two nations agreed to continue joint efforts in tackling COVID-19 and other regional and global issues, while pledging to further strengthen the Korea-US alliance,” said Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for Se

President Moon Jae-in on Monday reaffirmed his willingness to mend ties with Japan long strained over wartime history and trade, saying issues of the past should not drag down the forward-looking cooperation between the two neighbors. “Our government is ready to sit down and have talks with the Japanese government anytime,” he said in his speech at a ceremony marking the 102nd anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. “I am confident that if we put our heads togeth

North Korea recently appointed a former trade minister as its new ambassador to China, entrusting him with the crucial mission of reviving trade with the country’s closest ally amid deepening COVID-19 woes. According to the North’s Foreign Ministry on Feb. 19, Ri Ryong-nam, 61, will be replacing Ji Jae-ryong, 79, who has served as the top envoy to Beijing since 2010. Ri served as trade minister from 2008 to 2016, during which time the Trade Ministry was renamed the External Econo

President Moon Jae-in’s senior secretary for civil affairs and justice Shin Hyun-soo has withdrawn his resignation after the president turned it down last week, putting a tentative end to a weeklong dispute over possible internal conflicts within the presidential office. “Shin has returned to work, entrusting his future to the president’s decision,” said Chung Man-ho, senior presidential secretary for public communication, during a media briefing Monday, adding that he

A new instant line of communications has been launched between Seoul and Washington to further boost cooperation on economic, trade and other global issues such as climate change, Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday. Though the allies already have a long-established hotline to discuss security issues, this is the first time they have set up a separate line for direct communications to address economic and policy issues. The new communications line followed the first phone call between Kim San

President Moon Jae-in on Monday hinted at further easing of the nation’s COVID-19 social distancing rules to boost the pandemic-battered economy, especially hardest-hit small business owners. “We can no longer ignore the urgent appeals (from small businesses). The government will come up with new social distancing measures in March when full-fledged vaccinations start,” the president said during a weekly meeting with his key aides. He stressed a strategic shift in the nat

President Moon Jae-in, whose job approval rating fell again this week, is striving to win back public support, making more frequent on-site contact with the public ahead of the Lunar New Year’s holiday that starts Thursday. According to a recent poll by Realmeter on Monday, his approval rating marked 39.3 percent, down 3.2 percentage points from a week ago. The fall came after his approval bounced back starting this year to remain in the 40 percent range for weeks. Realmeter said polit

After an official phone call last week, Cheong Wa Dae is pushing for an early summit between President Moon Jae-in and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, in an attempt to breathe life back into the Korean Peninsula peace negotiations, with a virtual meeting emerging as one possibility to advance the date. During the 32-minute conversation early Thursday morning, the two leaders agreed to hold summit talks as soon as possible once the COVID-19 situation has stabilized, according to Seoul’s re