Focus on Headline

1.Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong on Wednesday announced a national pension reform plan. The government proposed raising the pension contribution rate from the current 9 percent to 13 percent, and upwardly adjusting the nominal replacement rate to 42 percent. 2.The Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea started sending balloons into South Korea again on Thursday morning. North Korea sent around...

1.Main opposition Democratic Party floor leader Park Chan-dae strongly criticized the Yoon administration for its handling of the prolonged medical vacuum caused by doctors' collective action during a speech at the National Assembly on Wednesday. 2.President Yoon Suk Yeol and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Wednesday held Summit talks in Seoul and agreed to accelerate discussio...

1.The South Korean government on Tuesday designated Armed Forces Day on October 1st as a temporary holiday this year to boost troop morale and domestic consumption. 2.According to data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, South Korea's consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, increased 2 percent on-year last month. August's figure marked the slowest increase since March 2021, on easing pric...

1.The leaders of the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party agreed Sunday to form a joint consultative body to discuss matters concerning people’s livelihoods where both parties share common ground. 2.South Korea’s health ministry on Monday started holding daily briefings on the situation in emergency rooms. Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong tried to soothe concerns saying...

1. According to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Friday, South Korea's industrial output fell for the third consecutive month in July due to sluggish production in the semiconductor and automobile sectors. 2.The Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy said Friday the government will evaluate progress made by each government ministry in policies aimed at tackling the...

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that the government will pursue gradually increasing the pension premiums for the younger generation and the middle-aged generation at a different pace, as well as introduce mechanisms to enhance the pension system's financial stability. 2.South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the government's failure to set greenhouse gas red...

1.The National Assembly on Wednesday passed several bills aimed to improve people’s livelihoods, marking the first time the rival parties showed bipartisan support in advancing legislation since the 22nd Assembly started its four-year term in late May. Among the bills passed was a nursing act that calls for nurses to play greater roles. 2.The Finance Ministry announced Wednesday that the governmen...

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged on Tuesday to uphold fiscal soundness in next year’s budget proposal while prioritizing the welfare of vulnerable groups and fostering economic growth. President Yoon presided over a Cabinet meeting to approve the government's 2025 budget proposal of 677-point-four trillion won, or about 509 billion U.S. dollars. 2.Rival political parties are reportedly in tal...

1.The government plans to provide over 40 trillion won, or around 30 billion U.S. dollars, in financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises, and micro business owners as part of measures to support them ahead of the Chuseok holiday. 2.The presidential office said that it is in consultation with Japan regarding a possible visit by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to South Korea, amid...

1.Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company on Thursday suspended preparation work for the test removal of nuclear fuel debris from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, due to a technical error, and it is unclear when the work may resume. 2.Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Thursday that South Korea will push to expand free trade agreements with emerging markets in Asia and Africa to...

1.South Korea's central bank froze its key rate at 3.5% for the 13th straight session on Thursday as household debts continue to increase and inflation keeps slowing down. 2.Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo announced Thursday during a briefing that the government will redirect mild medical cases to local hospitals to reduce gaps in critical care, raise emergency room fees, and strength...

1.The finance ministry said Wednesday it will extend the tax cut on fuel for automobiles by another two months until the end of October amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. 2.The chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Wednesday that health authorities plan to focus on treating COVID-19 in high-risk patients, as this year's summer wave is expected to peak by the e...

1.The Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that a North Korean soldier crossed the border into South Korea early Tuesday. The South Korean military detected the soldier from north of the Military Demarcation Line within the Demilitarized Zone in the eastern section of the border and conducted an operation to help him arrive in the South. 2.During a policy consultation meeting regarding next year’s gove...

1.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield Exercise began Monday and will be held until the 29th with increased field training to enhance South Korea’s and the U.S.’ joint defense posture against North Korea. 2.Lee Jae-myung won his second term as the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party with a record-high vote share of over 85 percent at a nat...

1.The Ministry of Economy and Finance on Friday made an assessment in the Green Book, its monthly economic report, that the South Korean economy continues to show signs of improving domestic demand for four straight months, with consumer prices maintaining a stable trend. 2.The Korea Meteorological Agency reported that Seoul experienced its 26th consecutive tropical night on Friday, marking the lo...

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol unveiled a vision for unification with North Korea on Thursday during an address marking the 79th Liberation Day, pledging to expand outside information on North Korea and proposing an official dialogue channel that can "take up any issue." 2.Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said on Wednesday during a discussion hosted by the...

1.According to data compiled by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, South Korea added more than 100-thousand jobs for the first time in three months in July. The number of employed people came to 28-point-86 million last month, up 172-thousand on-year. Jobs in the construction sector, however, fell by the most in 11 years. 2.The Korea Children's Hospital Association said Wednesday that the number o...

1.President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday reinstated the civil rights of former South Gyeongsang Governor Kim Kyung-soo under Liberation Day special pardons. The pardon was endorsed after it was recommended by a justice ministry panel last week and approved during a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day. 2.The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday that the ongoing wave of COVID-19 is fo...

1.The Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that South Korea and the United States will begin the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise from August 19th to 29th to strengthen their joint defense readiness in the face of evolving North Korean military threats. 2.President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday named Presidential Security Service chief Kim Yong-hyun as the new defense minister, while Defense Minister S...

1.Multiple military sources said Friday that a North Korean defected to South Korea early on Thursday by crossing "neutral waters" between the two Koreas. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said relevant authorities are investigating the details, including how the defection took place. 2.According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Friday, the number of patients hospitalized fo...

1.Rival political parties on Thursday agreed to pass pending bills with little difference between the two sides during the August extraordinary session, including a revision bill stripping parents of the right to inherit their deceased child's assets if they had neglected parental duties, and a legislation for physician assistants. 2.The environment ministry said Thursday that it plans to unve...

1.The Korea Development Institute said in a monthly economic assessment report that the South Korean economy is on a recovery track on strong exports, but subdued domestic demand has limited the overall economic improvement. 2.Policy chiefs from the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday agreed to swiftly handle key livelihood bills that have been pending a...

1.South Korean stocks rose more than 3 percent Tuesday, rebounding from the previous day's massive market sell-off, sparked by fears over a U.S. recession and the sluggish performance of big tech firms. The benchmark KOSPI gained 3.3 percent to close at 2,522-point-15 points. 2.Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok on Tuesday unveiled policy measures for e-commerce vendors. Under the measures, the go...

1.South Korea's benchmark KOSPI and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ both plunged over eight percent on Monday, prompting authorities to activate a circuit breaker to temporarily suspend trading. The Korea Exchange said it was halting trading on the KOSPI for 20 minutes starting at 2:14 p.m. 2.The opposition-controlled National Assembly on Monday passed the revision to the Trade Union and Labor Relations...

1.According to data from Statistics Korea on Friday, consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 2.6 percent on-year last month. Inflation in July was led by high prices of farm produce, while prices of petroleum products climbed 8.4 percent on-year in July. 2.Seoul's unification ministry said Friday that North Korea has not yet responded to South Korea's proposal made a day earlier to...