South Korea has filed an appeal against a ruling by a Hague-based arbitration court ordering it to pay $32 million to a US hedge fund to compensate for its intervention in the merger of two Samsung affiliates in 2015, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The appeal to the ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration follows the tribunal’s decision in April to side with Mason Capital Management, though the compensation ordered was much less than the $200 million the hedge fund had sought. Ma

Foreign Affairs July 11, 2024

Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday officially announced he will run again to be the leader of the main opposition here, with observers saying he is likely to be reelected at the party's convention next month. The announcement comes two weeks after Lee resigned as chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party. Lee had taken office as the party leader in 2022 after winning 77.77 percent of the vote at the national convention in August that year. At a press conference

Politics July 10, 2024

Rumors that former ruling party interim leader Han Dong-hoon ignored a total of five text messages from first lady Kim Keon Hee have opened a new rift within the conservative bloc, with some questioning the intention behind the alleged texts by the wife of the president, who is expected to remain politically neutral. The intra-party rift intensified after the Telegram text messages reportedly sent by Kim to former ruling party interim leader and ex-Justice Minister Han, ahead of the April 10 gen

Politics July 9, 2024

A loud, booming voice bellowed throughout the room in the National Assembly members’ office building in western Seoul. As he spoke with The Korea Herald, switching between fluent English and Korean, Rep. Ihn Yohan of the ruling People Power Party pointed to a Hanja idiom framed and hung on the wall of his office that translates as: “There is no place where more milk and honey flows than Suncheon.” The city of Suncheon, the largest in South Jeolla Province, holds a special place

Politics July 8, 2024

Partisan gridlock is expected to dominate the National Assembly in upcoming weeks, fueled by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s expected veto of a contentious bill that mandates a special counsel investigation into the death of a young Marine last year. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which railroaded the bill that was passed by the opposition-led Assembly on Thursday, is gearing up to respond to a presidential veto that is likely to be announced by July 19, according to its acting c

Politics July 7, 2024

The opposition-led National Assembly on Thursday passed a contentious bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the military’s response to a young Marine’s death last year. Of the total 190 lawmakers that participated in the vote, 189 voted in favor of the bill while one was against it. All ruling People Power Party, except two, boycotted and left the premises before plenary voting took place. The contentious bill, which calls for the fo

Politics July 4, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday carried out his first Cabinet shake-up following the general election in April, replacing three ministerial posts, including the head of the state broadcasting watchdog. Yoon named Lee Jin-sook, a former journalist at public broadcaster MBC and the nation’s first female war correspondent, as the new Korea Communications Commission chairperson, chief of staff Chung Jin-suk said in a press briefing. “Lee is the country’s first female war corres

Politics July 4, 2024

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party of Korea submitted a contentious bill mandating a special counsel investigation into the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s response to the death of a young Marine last year, to a parliamentary plenary session held Wednesday. National Assembly Speaker and Democratic Party Rep. Woo Won-shik officially introduced the bill drafted by his party at the start of the plenary meeting that began at around 3 p.m. The move came a day after the Democrat

Politics July 3, 2024

South Korea’s main opposition party has proposed a bill that would mandate the establishment of state-run public medical schools, where students would be required to provide 10 years of compulsory medical service upon graduation, lawmakers said Wednesday. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea's move comes amid the ongoing mass walkout by some 12,000 trainee doctors since late February, in protest of the government's plan to increase the country’s medical school enro

Politics July 3, 2024

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Tuesday reaffirmed his country’s stance backing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, stressing its consistent support for peace and stability. “It is Vietnam’s consistent stance to support the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, alongside peace, stability and cooperation,” Chinh said in an opening speech ahead of a closed-door meeting with his counterpart, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, at the Government Complex Se

Politics July 2, 2024

The controversial luxury Christian Dior bag at the center of the antigraft law violation scandal involving the first lady is currently being managed and stored by the presidential office, an official said Monday. “To my knowledge, the Dior bag that was received by first lady Kim Keon Hee is currently stored in the presidential office building in the state that it was first gifted to her,” presidential chief of staff Chung Jin-seok told a parliamentary hearing at the National Assembly

Politics July 1, 2024

The two largest political parties here are likely to wrangle over several bills in upcoming months, despite their recent agreement on the formation of parliamentary standing committees. The ruling People Power Party on Thursday officially ended its weekslong boycott of the National Assembly over the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s decision to take 11 out of the total 18 standing committee chair positions, including that of the key legislation and judiciary committee, without th

Politics June 28, 2024

The rival political parties got the newly launched session of the National Assembly back on track Thursday by officially agreeing on the selection of all 18 committee chiefs for the first two years of the parliamentary term. Twenty-eight days after the 22nd Assembly kicked off its term, the ruling People Power Party and the opposition parties voted in favor of the ruling party’s candidates for seven parliamentary committee chiefs, in a plenary session held in the afternoon. The Assembly me

Politics June 27, 2024

The massive fire at a lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday has shed light on the irregularities in the hiring system for workers of foreign nationality here, with local employers suspected of abusing loopholes in the labor law for their benefit, to cut costs while avoiding responsibility. Local battery manufacturer Aricell, the operator of the plant, where the deadly fire killed 23 people, among which 18 were foreign national workers, was later found not to be even a

Social Affairs June 26, 2024

An official from the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday that it would be “difficult” to temporarily waive travelers from Thailand from the requirement to obtain travel authorizations before entering the country. The official’s remarks follow the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s request to the Justice Ministry to temporarily exempt Thailand from the country’s electronic travel authorization system K-ETA, at least until the end of this year, as the number of Th

Social Affairs June 25, 2024