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1. The Bank of Korea raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.5% which is the highest since December 2008. This is the BOK’s 10th rate hike since its rate hike campaign began in August 2021. 2. US president Joe Biden on Friday will highlight in a statement, marking Korean-American Day, the significance of the U.S.-South Korea alliance and the importance of the Korean American commun...

1. According to the director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at South Korea’s foreign ministry on Thursday, the South Korean government is reviewing a method to compensate the victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor through a third party entity. 2. The United States and Japan on Wednesday agreed to reinforce their strategic alliance and outlined actions in a joint statement designed to deter...

1. The World Bank has slashed the global growth outlook for 2023 to 1.7 percent, down from its previous forecast of 3 percent back in June last year. 2. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 62.5% of overseas COVID-19 infections reported on Wednesday, were from China. 3. At the Golden Globes 2023, Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave” lost out to Argentinian contender ‘Argen...

1. According to Seoul's foreign ministry on Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Park offered his congratulations to China's new top diplomat, Qin Gang on his recent inauguration. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, China halted the issuance of short-term visas in South Korea as its first COVID-19 related retaliation. 2. South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party leader, Lee Jae-Myung, attended the extrao...

1. Two out of four conditions that need to be satisfied for the indoor mask mandate to be lifted are currently met. South Korea is the only OECD member state that has an indoor mask mandate. 2. South Korea’s two main political parties clashed on the first day of January’s extraordinary parliamentary session on Monday, as the ruling People Power Party accused the main opposition Democratic Party of...

1. The National Assembly on Friday passed a motion to extend the parliamentary probe into the deadly Itaewon crowd crush by 10 days. 2. The Chinese embassy in Seoul criticized South Korea on Thursday for sending a delegation, led by PPP Representative Cho Kyung-tae, to Taiwan at the end of last year to meet with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-...

1. The floor leaders of the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed on Thursday to vote on Friday on the extension of the parliamentary probe into the Itaewon crowd crush by an additional ten days until January 17. 2. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered officials to review suspending the September 19th inter-Korean military agreement if North Korea carrie...

1. The first parliamentary hearing is being held starting from Wednesday morning to investigate how the Itaewon tragedy happened and to prevent similar future incidents. The second hearing is scheduled to take place on Friday. 2. South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance has vowed on Wednesday to spend more than 60 percent of the budget in the first half of the year. That's the largest proport...

1. The spokesperson of the White House National Security Council said on Monday the U.S. President Joe Biden and S.Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered their militaries to plan for an “effective coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea”. 2. According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Tuesday, South Korea will apply a tax credit rate of up to 25%...

1. In his New Year’s speech on Sunday South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged to remain vigilant regarding the economy and to support exports to make sure South Korea's economy recovers this year. 2. North Korea fired one short-range ballistic missile into the sea on New Year’s Day, after firing three of them on the last day of 2022. 3. According to Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered the South Korean military on Thursday to prepare overwhelming war capabilities for peace on the Korean peninsula. This came as a response to the North Korean drones that crossed into South Korea on Monday. 2. South Korea's Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho said Thursday that the government will seek to frontload about 65% of the next year’s national bud...

1. South Korea on Wednesday unveiled the details of its Indo-Pacific strategy which emphasizes the importance of boosting freedom, peace and prosperity through a rules-based order and cooperation on human rights. 2. According to South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday, the nation’s unmanned space vehicle Danuri successfully entered the moon’s orbit on Tuesday. This success comes aft...

1. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged on Tuesday that he will strengthen the military’s surveillance capabilities by establishing a drone unit after 5 North Korean drones crossed into South Korea on Monday. 2. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol granted special pardons to 1,373 people, including former President Lee Myung-bak. 3. Starting from January 8, 2023, China will remove quaranti...

1. According to the South Korean military, suspected North Korean drones trespassed across inter-Korean borders on Monday. 2. South Korea reported 25-thousand-545 new COVID-19 infections on Monday. Meanwhile, as the government is urging people to get updated variant-specific booster vaccines, an additional Modera vaccine has received emergency approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety,......

1. After a weeks-long impasse, the Yoon administration's first budget plan is to be approved by lawmakers at the National Assembly in the coming hours. 2. The South Korean government has decided to lower the indoor mask mandate from "mandatory" to "advised". However, the timing of the roll-out has yet to be decided. 3. According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea on Friday launche...

1. The two rival parties have agreed on Thursday to pass the budget bill for 2023 and will be put to a vote tomorrow. 2. According to the Finance Ministry on Thursday, S. Korea's economy will grow 1.6 percent next year, as the country faces economic and global uncertainties. The outlook is lower than those previously published by other organizations, including the Bank of Korea and the IMF. 3. Ukr...

1. The National Assembly's special bipartisan probe committee for the Itaewon tragedy has embarked on its first on-site inspection on Wednesday. The on-site inspection comes a day after members of the ruling People Power Party rejoined the committee. 2. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington on Wednesday to meet U.S. President Joe Biden. This is the first time Zelenskyy has...

1. The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that it forecasts inflation to remain at around 5% for the time being, but expects the pace to eventually slow. 2. South Korea reported 87 thousand 559 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday–the highest number in 97 days, putting a pressure on South Korea’s Special Response Center of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters as it plans to announce the re...

1. North Korea said it fired a launch vehicle carrying a "test-piece satellite" at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on Sunday. This contradicts South Korean military's report of mid-range ballistic missile launches detected that day. 2. Japan approved a new national security strategy on Friday. Under the strategy, Japan’s defense spending will boost to about 2% of Japan’s GDP, marking one of t...

1. The UN General Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution condemning grave human rights violations in North Korea. It is the 18th consecutive year the UN has adopted a resolution on the topic. 2. The European Central Bank on Thursday hiked its borrowing costs, by 50 basis points,slowing down the pace of increase, but pledged to keep clamping down on inflation. 3. South Korea's unmanned space vehi...

1. The U.S. Federal Reserve has announced a seventh consecutive rate hike on Wednesday. The Fed slowed the pace to 50 basis points from the 75 basis point hikes in each of the previous four meetings. 2. President Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday presided over a 100-minute-long meeting which was held to assess the key policy tasks of his administration. The meeting was broadcasted live on national televis...

1. The U.S. consumer price index rose 7.1% from a year ago, less than what was expected in November. This is the most recent sign that inflation is starting to loosen up. 2. South Korea reported 84,571 new COVID-19 infections. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said it will give a briefing on its indoor mask mandate readjustment plan on December 23rd. 3. The allies of Ukraine pledged...

1. South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs, Kim Gunn is holding a trilateral meeting on North Korea’s nuclear issues in Indonesia with his American and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi. 2. Starting in January, parents with children less than one year old will receive up to 700-thousand won a month from the South Korean government....

1. The opposition-majority National Assembly passed a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min over the Itaewon tragedy on Sunday. The motion was backed by the Democratic Party which controls the parliament whereas the members of the ruling People Power Party boycotted the vote. 2. South Korea started administering bivalent vaccines designed for Omicron subvari...

1. Striking truckers voted Friday to put their 16-day long strike to an end after 62% voted in favor of ending the strike. This comes after their walkouts caused major supply disruptions across industries and the South Korean government invoked return-to-work orders. 2. The UN General Assembly adopted several resolutions urging North Korea to refrain from additional nuclear tests on Wednesday. Chi...