Korea Times Politics & City Reporter
Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
An incident involving BTS member Suga driving an electric scooter under the influence of alcohol has ignited a debate over whether social service workers — who serve as an alternative to mandatory military service — should receive more lenient treatment compared to those undergoing compulsory military service, according to military officials and citizens, Thursday.
Since Han Dong-hoon, the chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), joined the party late last year, the "fandom politics" phenomenon has surfaced within the ruling conservative party.
A controversy has arisen over the prosecution's review of the telecommunication user information of several opposition politicians and journalists, including former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung, according to legal and political circles Monday.
The National Assembly passed a controversial cash handout bill during a plenary session, Friday. The bill stipulates that every Korean citizen, as well as qualified foreign residents of Korea, would receive at least 250,000 won ($180) worth of cash vouchers to support the recovery of people's livelihoods.
Former three-term lawmaker and two-term Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moon-soo has been named to lead the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the presidential office announced Wednesday.
The presidential office will reinstate the office tasked solely with managing the first lady's activities, it said Tuesday.
South Korea, the U.S., and Japan have signed their first formal agreement institutionalizing trilateral security cooperation, aimed at strengthening their joint responses to regional security threats, Seoul's defense ministry announced, Sunday.
Chinese online shopping platform AliExpress has been fined by the Korean government for providing the private information of Korean customers to overseas vendors without taking proper protective measures.
The prevalence of internet-only banks in Korea continues to grow each year, highlighted by KakaoBank surpassing 23 million customers, while Kbank and Toss Bank each boast over 10 million customers.
The ASEAN-Korea Centre is set to host a community-based tourism development workshop for three days from Thursday to Saturday in Malaysia, in cooperation with the Southeastern Asian country's Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.