SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Thae Yong-ho, a high-profile North Korean defector, said Sunday he will run in April’s parliamentary elections under a different name, one that he has used in his passport and all other official documents to evade Pyongyang’s tracking since his 2016 defection. Thae, a former No. 2 diplomat at North [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Rival political parties and lawmakers are attempting to capitalize on the popularity of Oscars-winning “Parasite” in their campaigning for the April 15 parliamentary elections. The ruling Democratic Party (DP) unveiled pledges Wednesday to set up a state-run cinema museum to bolster South Korean films’ forays into overseas markets. The [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — A high-profile North Korean defector officially announced his bid to run in the April parliamentary elections Tuesday, vowing to work for inter-Korean unification if elected. Thae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat, joined the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and will run in a constituency in Seoul [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Politicians are on alert as the coronavirus outbreak is expected to continue as they prepare for the upcoming general elections on April 15. Political campaigns are at risk at a critical time when candidates need to raise local support if they hope to dislodge incumbents. The situation is particularly [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Lee Woong-jin, chief of South Korean matchmaking company Sunoo, has an ambitious plan to set up a political party this month, focused on addressing the nagging problem of the low birth rate. Lee has publicly vowed to tackle young people’s reluctance to tie the knot and the country’s low [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Handshakes and business cards have traditionally been part of election campaigning in South Korea. But this might change if the new coronavirus continues to spread in the days leading up to the April 15 parliamentary election. South Korea has confirmed eleven cases of infection in the past two weeks, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The office of President Moon Jae-in openly reproached U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris for his remark on Moon’s stated plans to resume inter-Korean cooperation, calling it “very inappropriate.” “It’s very inappropriate for the ambassador to make such a mention for media over remarks by the president of the hosting nation,” [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A ruling party heavyweight in South Korea strongly criticized U.S. Ambassador Harry Harris on Friday for his remarks on President Moon Jae-in’s push for inter-Korean cooperation. “It’s good to express his personal view, but if South Korea follows whatever a foreign ambassador says, he or she would be like [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — A Seoul court on Friday ruled in favor of a main opposition party lawmaker accused of illegally asking a former KT Corp. chief to hire his daughter as a regular worker in exchange for favors. The Seoul Southern District Court found Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the conservative Liberty Korea [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is considering allowing its people to travel to North Korea on an individual basis as part of efforts to move the stalled inter-Korean relations forward, but chances are low of the drive bearing fruit due to many intractable challenges, experts said Friday. On Tuesday, President Moon Jae-in [...]