The motion, anticipated to be put to a vote at Wednesday’s plenary session, will likely pass as the National Assembly majority is controlled by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. If passed, the motion will head to the Constitutional Court for review. Since their first public appearance, the bereaved families of the crowd crush victims have consistently called for removing the safety ...

Speaking at Sunday’s ceremony, Lee Jong-chul, the father of the late Lee Ji-han, a 24-year-old actor who lost his life in the crush, pleaded for keeping the memorial altar in place at Gwanghwamun. “We just want to mourn our children, with lots and lots of flowers,” he said, choking up. On Oct. 29, 2022, crowds of people crammed into a narrow alleyway in Itaewon, a Seoul neighborhood known for i...

North Korea is already prepared to conduct another nuclear test, but is biding its time to gain leverage in negotiations with China and other powers, according to Rep. Tae Yong-ho, a former North Korean diplomat who was elected into the South Korean parliament after defecting in 2016. At a press conference on Thursday, Tae said that whether North Korea decides to test its nuclear weapons for the...

The push by the administration of previous President Moon Jae-in to take away investigative powers from the National Intelligence Service is being rolled back under President Yoon Suk Yeol, Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers claimed Wednesday. Opposition party Reps. Youn Kun-young and Kim Eui-kyeom of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee reiterated in a conference that the top spy ser...

An arrest warrant is being sought after four individuals accused of operating a spy ring for North Korea, according to a Seoul court on Tuesday. The Seoul central district court opened a hearing at 3 p.m. to determine whether to issue an arrest warrant requested by prosecutors for the four accused spies for North Korea. The court may take longer than a day to make a decision on the prosecutors’ ...

Lee Shin-wha, South Korean ambassador for international cooperation on North Korean human rights, said the situation of women and girls in North Korea “deserves a special focus” ahead of a Seoul conference on Monday. “The state of human rights is alarming in North Korea, and especially so for women,” she told The Korea Herald. “More North Korean women now contribute to the household economy as b...

South Korea’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has come under fire for withdrawing plans to expand the legal definition of rape to non-consensual sex on the same day it was announced. The move would have ended the requirement in South Korea for the threat or use of force to be in evidence in order for an act to count as rape. Park Ji-hyun, who was briefly interim chair of the opposition D...

President Yoon Suk Yeol is rethinking the new law that will let police handle espionage cases, according to the ruling People Power Party spokesperson Yang Kum-hee. In December 2020, the laws on the National Intelligence Service were amended to forfeit the intelligence agency of the authority to investigate crimes related to North Korean espionage and other foreign meddling. The controversial a...

The opposition Democratic Party of Korea went after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s national security strategy on Thursday in a bid to keep the ruling People Power Party on the defense. Democratic Party floor leader Rep. Park Hong-keun convened an emergency meeting, in which he said that the “incompetence of the administration was threatening the security of the country.” “North Korean drone...

Dilemma for Xi? The pandemic likely served as a trigger for the Chinese public to express their already existing woes with intensifying repression, according to Moon Heung-ho, head of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Hanyang University in Seoul. “Before this point, public discontent rarely translated into tangible expressions like protests due to the state’s harsh crackdown,” he said in a ph...

Former top intelligence and security officials of the previous Moon Jae-in administration denied at the first hearing held Friday that they tried to cover up North Korean troops killing a South Korean government official at sea in 2020. Appearing at court, the lawyer representing former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won said he “denies all that is written in the indictment.” A...

Park Jie-won, former head of the National Intelligence Service, on Friday denied criticism that the intelligence agency was lax on counterespionage investigations under the previous Moon Jae-in administration. People Power Party Rep. Sung Il-jong claimed in Friday’s meeting of the ruling party leadership that the Moon administration “let spy activities slide” and “tried to debilitate the NIS by ...

Starting Jan. 30, wearing face masks will no longer be required indoors in Korea -- a move that comes three years after the mandate was introduced. Prime Minister Han Duk-soo told a government meeting Friday that with the exception of some high-risk places including hospitals, pharmacies and public transit, face masks will cease being mandatory. “COVID-19 cases have been on the decline for thre...

Rep. Tae Yong-ho, who was a North Korean diplomat before he defected in 2016, on Thursday announced his bid to run for the Supreme Council member of the ruling People Power Party. Speaking at a press conference, he said as someone who has known the North Korean regime from the inside, he believes he has a “historical responsibility” to put his experience to greater use. “Sooner or later, North ...

The explosive omicron surge by comparison dwarfed any waves that came before. South Korea took more than two years to reach 1 million cumulative cases on Feb. 6, 2022. It took less than two months for the country to reach 10 million cumulative cases on March 23, 2022. The process of undoing policies and practices protecting against COVID-19 began long before omicron came around. “Return to norma...