SEOUL, June 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Despite South Korea’s unrelenting drive for reconciliation, North Korea is pivoting to brinkmanship tactics with its venomous rhetoric, demolition of a joint liaison office and military steps in anger over propaganda leaflets sent from the South. The deepening Sino-U.S. rivalry is muddling the prospects of cooperation for regional stability, [...]
SEOUL, June 15 (Korea Bizwire) — After threatening military action, North Korea may open fire to shoot down giant balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets flying from South Korea, but major provocations are unlikely, such as the 2010 artillery attack on a border island, experts said Monday. South Korea has been on high alert after Kim Yo-jong, [...]
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — One out of 5 male members of the new National Assembly were exempted from mandatory military service, government data showed Wednesday. Of the 242 newly elected male lawmakers, 47 people, or 19.4 percent, gained exemption for such reasons as imprisonment and illness, according to the data compiled and released [...]
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s National Assembly has begun its four-year term with the highest number of female lawmakers, including the country’s first-ever female vice speaker of the unicameral legislature. Among the 300 representatives, who started their four-year term Saturday, 57 members, or 19 percent, are women, marking the largest number in [...]
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s National Assembly kicked off its new four-year term Saturday amid the urgent task of containing the COVID-19 pandemic and curbing its economic fallout. The ruling Democratic Party dominates the 300-member parliament with 177 seats, while the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) holds 103 seats. But public [...]
SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans picked the health and welfare sector as the best-performing area under the Moon Jae-in administration over the past three years, a poll showed Monday. In a Realmeter poll of 500 adults, 34.3 percent of respondents picked the health and welfare sector as the area where the Moon [...]
SEOUL, May 8 (Korea Bizwire) — A debate has been brewing here over whether to expand the national employment insurance program to cover all working people as the coronavirus pandemic is expected to take a toll on the already strained job market. South Korea’s ruling party and the presidential office raised the need to enhance [...]
SEOUL, May 5 (Korea Bizwire) — One of the fixtures in President Moon Jae-in’s daily schedule in recent months has been to have phone calls with the leaders of foreign countries seeking South Korea’s help in coping with the coronavirus pandemic. The long list includes friends, partners and allies from across the world, such as [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — A North Korea defector elected as a lawmaker in South Korea claimed Friday that he is “99 percent” sure that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un died after surgery amid speculation over his health. Unconfirmed reports about Kim’s ill health have mounted since he has not appeared in public for [...]
BUSAN, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The mayor of Busan, South Korea’s largest port city, on Thursday resigned and apologized for sexual harassment. “In a short meeting that lasted five minutes, there was unnecessary physical contact with a person. I realized that this could be recognized as an indecent assault, (something) that should not have [...]