Cyberattack feared in series of South Korean government website outages

Another South Korean government-run online service suffered an outage Friday, marking the fourth such failure within the past week. A website and mobile applications providing online ID services went down, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety. Friday’s breakdown in the government’s e-ID service comes a day after a website run by the Ministry of Economy and Finance-affiliated Public Procurement Service crashed on Thursday. The PPS website used by all government institution

Nov. 24, 2023

Nonregular workers discriminated by financial firms: labor ministry

South Korean financial institutions have been found to treat nonregular workers unfairly, according to the Labor Ministry on Friday. The ministry revealed the results of an investigation it conducted on 14 financial organizations, including banks, securities and insurance companies. A total of 62 cases of discrimination were identified across 12 companies, though the names of these companies were not disclosed. In one case, a sales office failed to provide a monthly lunch allowance of 200,000

Nov. 24, 2023

Opposition leader slams N. Korea for scrapping military deal, urges policy changes

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Friday denounced North Korea's scrapping of a military tension reduction agreement with South Korea, expressing concern that tit-for-tat actions of both sides could lead to tensions getting out of control. The North effectively scrapped the 2018 agreement on Thursday, saying it will restore all military measures halted under the deal. The move came after the South suspended part of the agreement in protest of the North's successful launch of a militar

Nov. 24, 2023

North Korea scraps 2018 military pact with South Korea

North Korea said Thursday it would step away from an inter-Korean military agreement reached on Sept. 19, 2018, vowing to deploy new and more advanced weapons along the shared border. In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, North Korea’s Defense Ministry said its forces “will not be bound by” the agreement that created a buffer zone around the fortified border, and that all military measures “will be restored immediately” in a

Nov. 23, 2023

S. Korea, UK to establish foreign, defense ministerial dialogue, fight cyber threats

South Korea and the United Kingdom on Wednesday agreed to establish a "two plus two" ministerial dialogue where foreign and defense ministers would hold regular bilateral meetings, amid signs of a destabilizing international order that the countries seek to jointly defend. The UK now becomes the third country to establish such ministerial dialogue with Korea, following the United States and Australia, according to Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of the presidential National Securi

Nov. 23, 2023

S. Korea, Britain forge strategic partnership on ODA projects

South Korea and Britain have forged a strategic partnership on official development assistance projects and other areas of sustainable growth, the financial ministry said Thursday. Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho and Foreign Minister Park Jin participated in the signing ceremony of the Strategic Development Partnership with British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in London, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The agreement was reached during President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visi

Nov. 23, 2023

[Full Text] President Yoon Suk Yeol's addreess to the House of Commons: A friendship to turn our challenges to pure opportunity

My Lord Speaker, Mr. Speaker, my lords, members of the House of Commons, ladies and gentlemen, It is my great honor to stand before the British Parliament, the Mother of all Parliaments. The United Kingdom has been the pioneer of modern history. It laid the foundation of liberal democracy. It opened the era of global market economy. The British people’s strong belief in freedom sparked the Glorious Revolution. It was the birth of modern parliamentary democracy. The British parliamentary

Nov. 22, 2023

Yoon, King Charles highlight 140 years of ties, vow to set new milestone

President Yoon Suk Yeol and King Charles III celebrated the 140th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relationship in a series of high-profile events held in London on Tuesday, pledging to set new milestones for their bilateral ties as well as to join hands to promote freedom, peace and prosperity worldwide. Tuesday's grand ceremonial welcome celebrated the centuries-old friendship between South Korea, which rose from the ashes of the Korean War to becoming Asia's fourth-

Nov. 22, 2023

[Herald Interview] Palestinian envoy denies Hamas connection with North Korea

Waleed Siam, the non-resident ambassador of Palestine to South Korea, said Monday that there was no connection between Hamas and North Korea, amid continued speculations of the Palestinian militant group’s alleged ties with the rogue country. “I can say in the name of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian authorities that there is no contact between Hamas and North Korea,” the permanent general mission of Palestine said in an interview with The Korea Herald in

Nov. 21, 2023

Korea, UK to adopt Downing Street Accord to elevate ties: presidential office

South Korea and the United Kingdom are poised to adopt a new bilateral framework called the Downing Street Accord, during the upcoming summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Yoon's office said Tuesday. The adoption of the new agreement will upgrade the relations between the two countries to a "global strategic partnership" from a "broad and creative partnership," emphasizing that the two countries will jointly address geopolitical risks as t

Nov. 21, 2023

Rising political stars, big names likely to run for 2024 general election

As the April 2024 general election approaches, a crowded field of well-known names and familiar faces is anticipated to vie for a National Assembly seat. Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon is widely considered a powerful card to play in the ruling People Power Party’s deck in the upcoming election, according to news reports and observers. Before he was appointed minister in President Yoon Suk Yeol's Cabinet, Han was a celebrated prosecutor who led criminal investigations into corruptio

Nov. 20, 2023

Yoon heads to UK for state visit, eyes deeper security relations

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday began a four-day state visit to the United Kingdom, invited by King Charles III, to mark the 140th anniversary of relations between the two countries this year. During the visit, Yoon is poised to strengthen bilateral security and economic ties with the UK in the face of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He will meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during the four-day trip, according to the presidential office on Sunday. "Korea will serve as a nonpermanen

Nov. 20, 2023

[Bills in Focus] Worksite emergency alarms, stricter construction supervision

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Customs Act Proposed by Rep. Jin Sun-mee (Democratic Party of Korea) ● The alarming increase in the degree of brokerage fees paid by duty-free shop operators to promote the sales of their bonded goods has caused concern over the profitability and competitiveness of the duty-free industry. This amendment limits such brokerage fees to a level set by presidential decree, but within 30 percent of the total sales, and grants the Korea Customs Service Commission

Nov. 20, 2023

Yoon says China would not benefit from trilateral cooperation with Russia, N. Korea

President Yoon Suk Yeol has said that China would not benefit from trilateral cooperation with North Korea and Russia because the three countries have "divergent interests." Yoon made the remarks in an interview with The Telegraph, a British daily, published Sunday local time ahead of his state visit to London, stressing that China has an important role in "promoting freedom, peace and prosperity in East Asia." "China is likely to take into consideration that pursuing tr

Nov. 20, 2023

Ex-PPP leader Lee vows to form new party ‘if Yoon doesn’t change’

Lee Jun-seok, an estranged former leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), said Sunday that he will set up a new party to push for political reform if President Yoon Suk Yeol does not change his way of doing politics by the end of this year. Lee made the pledge during a meeting with the public, saying Yoon has not sought any changes even after the party lost to the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) in the crucial by-election for chief of Seoul's Gangseo Ward last month. "I cl

Nov. 19, 2023

South Korea’s digital reputation dented by government network outage

South Korea, which boasts of being a world leader in digital government strategy and services, underwent a system failure of an unprecedented scale lasting nearly two days until Saturday. The outage forced the government operate manually while civil services were paused. The Ministry of Interior and Safety, which oversees the e-government systems, said Sunday that the operations should be able to get back to normal on Monday. The ministry added that “glitch in the network” was believ

Nov. 19, 2023

Democratic Party banners targeting young voters stir controversy

Ruling party lawmakers on Sunday blasted the main opposition party for releasing new political banners that contain phrases it called "demeaning to the youth." On Friday, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s election campaign committee revealed new political banner designs aimed at young voters in their 20s and 30s ahead of the upcoming general elections in April. The new banners included controversial phrases such as, "The party for me," “I don't

Nov. 19, 2023

Prospects of Yoon's formal meeting with Xi uncertain: Yoon's office

While time is running out, there are still no clear prospects of a formal meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping. "We have a day left (before departing from the United States) and discussions (over an arrangement of the Yoon-Xi meeting) are ongoing," a presidential official told reporters on condition of anonymity Thursday. "We cannot guarantee that the meeting of the two leaders would actually happen due to the leaders' packed schedules.&quo

Nov. 17, 2023

Yoon, Biden, Kishida meet for first time in 6 months

President Yoon Suk Yeol met US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Moscone Center in San Francisco on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' week on Thursday, according to Yoon's office on Friday. It was their first trilateral meeting in six months. They last met in Hiroshima, Japan, during the Group of Seven meeting in May. The talks lasted for about 10 minutes, according to Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of the presidential Nati

Nov. 17, 2023

Seoul, Washington agree to deepen cooperation in disaster response

South Korea and the United States have agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of disaster and climate change response during their safety-related ministerial talks in Washington, D.C., the interior ministry here said Friday. The agreement was reached between Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday, the ministry said. This is the first time that South Korea's interior minister has met with the US homeland security

Nov. 17, 2023