SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is exploring ways to permit those in self-isolation over the new coronavirus to cast their ballots in next week’s parliamentary elections while minimizing the risk of infection, officials said Wednesday. The National Election Commission (NEC), the election watchdog, is in talks with the government over ways to [...]
SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Some candidates running in the April 15 parliamentary elections have been running eye-catching campaigns without having close contact with voters, in a bid to maintain social distancing and boost morale amid the coronavirus pandemic. The COVID-19 outbreak has changed conventional methods of campaigning due to concerns that reaching out [...]
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in has used telephone services for his recent summit diplomacy in response to the coronavirus. Over the past several weeks, he has received lots of phone calls from global leaders seeking his quarantine advice or the supply of medical devices, especially test kits. Many view [...]
SEOUL, March 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The coronavirus outbreak and the repeated postponement of the new school year have made it difficult for 18-year-old voters to receive election education at schools, spawning concerns about their apathy toward the April 15 polls. In South Korea, 18-year-old voters, or those born before April 16, 2002, will be [...]
SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is preparing for the April 15 parliamentary elections in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, prioritizing the safety of voters and considering reducing the voting period for overseas Koreans. The outbreak of the new coronavirus has prompted the government to look how to safely hold the [...]
SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Back in North Korea, Ji Seong-ho saw elections as nothing more than a formality, because even a vote against the ruling Workers’ Party-picked candidates, let alone criticism of the government, could land voters in prison. Running for office was an unthinkable privilege reserved for elites and well-connected people. That’s [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The new coronavirus is rattling South Korean politics just a month before the April 15 parliamentary elections, changing the way candidates campaign and shifting the overall focus to how the government has handled the outbreak. With COVID-19 infections totaling more than 8,000, experts say the elections are widely expected [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Candidates for the April elections have stopped conventional campaigning amid the fast spread of the new coronavirus, restricting their campaigns to social media and joining the fight against the virus. The familiar scenes of election campaigning — meeting voters, shaking hands and public speeches — are no longer being [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea remain in limbo a year after their no-deal summit in Hanoi, with their engagement hamstrung by mutual distrust, domestic politics and, most recently, Pyongyang’s focus on fending off an epidemic. The second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — North Korean defectors launched a preparatory committee Tuesday to establish the first-ever political party composed of defectors in South Korea, saying the envisioned party will work for democratization of their communist homeland and better protection of defectors’ rights. Around 200 North Korean defectors came together at the meeting in [...]