The Korea Times

Ruling bloc's optimism over housing market stabilization leaves many baffled

Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, speaks during his New Year press conference at a Kia plant in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooThe ruling bloc is confident that soaring housing prices are under control, after the issue has dragged down approval ratings for the Moon Jae-in administration and the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). However, the government's assurances are raising eyebrows among market experts and the general public, because the Moon government's repeated real estate policy failures are to blame for the sky-high housing prices.“Cheong Wa Dae feels sure that housing prices are starting to come under control,” Park Soo-hyun, the senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a radio interview, Tuesday.His remark comes one day after President Moon Jae-in said in his New Year speech that the government would speed up the supply of housing for end-users while maintaining a downward trend in housing prices. “The President vowed not to pass the problem on to the next a

Jan 4, 2022By Kang Seung-woo

Ruling bloc's optimism over housing market stabilization leaves many baffled

Leading presidential candidates face mounting distrust

Politics

Opposition party seeks breakthrough by overhauling presidential campaign

Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, arrives at the party's headquarters in Seoul, Monday, after canceling his afternoon campaign plans. The party said all of his campaign activities will be suspended for now as it revamps the election committee. Yonhap PPP candidate Yoon vows to start over again amid falling support rateBy Kang Seung-wooThe main opposition People Power Party (PPP) and its presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol made a drastic decision Monday to completely overhaul their election committee and campaign, hoping to stop a sharp decline in approval ratings of the candidate and the party with just two months left before the March 9 presidential election.All of the standing chairs of the conservative party's election committee, co-chairs, as well as the heads of divisions and sub-organizations offered to resign as part of the sweeping overhaul, according to the party.The PPP initially said Kim Chong-in, the he

Jan 3, 2022By Kang Seung-woo

Opposition party seeks breakthrough by overhauling presidential campaign

North Korea

North Korea ignores South Korea, US due to domestic issues: experts

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center in the front row, visits the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of state founder and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung and his father, Kim Jong-il, are enshrined, on New Year's Day, Saturday. YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooDiplomatic observers said, Sunday, North Korea's domestic challenges, such as COVID-19 and poor economic conditions, had led its leader to shy away from addressing South Korea and the United States in his closely watched year-end speech, adding that this situation is expected to continue for some time.However, they added that Pyongyang made it clear that it was on course for the development of nuclear and missile programs that may negatively affect South Korea's push to declare a formal end to the Korean War.The Stalinist state wrapped up the five-day, fourth Plenary Meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, Friday, but Kim Jong-un made few references to foreign policy and relations with Seoul and Washington, contrary to expectations that he would unveil the direction of the country's international re

Jan 2, 2022By Kang Seung-woo

North Korea ignores South Korea, US due to domestic issues: experts

Politics

INTERVIEW 'Choosing between US, China is disgraceful,' ruling party's presidential candidate says

Ruling Democratic Party of Korea presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung poses during a joint interview with The Korea Times, Reuters and the South China Morning Post at the party headquarters on Yeouido, Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulLee urges Japan to make sincere apology for forward-looking relationsBy Kang Seung-wooSouth Korea is torn between the United States and China in their intensifying strategic competition, as Washington is a longtime security ally, while Beijing is the nation's largest trading partner.This situation has thereby led South Korea to take a stance of so-called strategic ambiguity, a policy of refraining from any overt actions that would suggest Seoul is taking sides. However, calling into question why South Korea should be the one to bear the pressure of choosing between the two superpowers, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), instead says that it should be the U.S. and China that vie to seek Seoul's closer cooperation for their own interests. He calls this “national interest-cente

Dec 30, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

[INTERVIEW] 'Choosing between US, China is disgraceful,' ruling party's presidential candidate says

North Korea

Inter-Korean summit unlikely at Beijing Olympics: FM

Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong speaks during a press conference at the ministry's headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. YonhapSeoul, Washington agree on draft of end-of-war declarationBy Kang Seung-wooThe South Korean government's hopes to hold another inter-Korean summit and eventually improve its ties with North Korea on the occasion of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics is unlikely to be realized, its foreign minister said, Wednesday.However, he added that South Korea and the United States have practically agreed on a draft version of Seoul's proposed declaration to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. “Although the South Korean government had hoped to take advantage of the Beijing Games to gain momentum in normalizing frayed inter-Korean ties, things are virtually running counter to expectations at this moment in time,” Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong said during a press conference at the ministry's headquarters in Seoul. In the lead-up to the Winter Olympics starting Feb. 4, the Moon Jae-in administration had sought to use the quadrennial sporting eve

Dec 29, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

Inter-Korean summit unlikely at Beijing Olympics: FM

Politics

Rival parties clash over debate between presidential candidates

Lee Jae-myung, left, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, and Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, attend an award ceremony hosted by the Local Press Korea Association at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Monday. Joint Press Corps By Kang Seung-wooLee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and his main opposition rival Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party (PPP) are sparring over when to hold debates. Lee, known as a skilled conversationalist in political circles, is urging Yoon to hold head-to-head debate sessions as often as possible to show voters their respective policies, visions and philosophies, as a way to establish his superiority to Yoon in terms of debating. Yoon, who has often found himself in the hot seat for slips of the tongue, is questioning the validity of debating Lee.The lack of agreement came to the fore following Yoon's S

Dec 28, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

Rival parties clash over debate between presidential candidates

Defense

Conflict between Korea, USFK simmers

President Moon Jae-in poses with outgoing U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Robert Abrams after conferring the Tongil Medal of the Order, the highest national security merit, on Abrams at Cheong Wa Dae in this July 1 photo. Joint Press CorpsBy Kang Seung-wooDeep-seated tension between the South Korean government and U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) is coming into public view, as a former American four-star general has belittled the Moon Jae-in administration's security pledges, struck back by Cheong Wa Dae and the defense ministry. Robert Abrams, who led the USFK from 2018 to 2021, told Voice of America, Saturday (local time), that South Korea's military capabilities were not sufficient to take over wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces from the United States, while questioning the intentions of the Moon administration's push for an end-of-war declaration. In 2014, Seoul and Washington agreed upon a conditions-based OPCON transition, and President Moon had sought to complete the task before his term ends in May 2022, although the plan has fallen through due to a lack of a

Dec 27, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

Foreign Affairs

South Korea reiterates 'no Beijing Olympics boycott' stance

Officials from Korea's security and foreign affairs-related ministries hold a joint press conference at the Inter-Korean Dialogue Office in Seoul, Thursday, to give a briefing on the government's policies on diplomacy, security and North Korea for next year. From left are Yeo Seung-bae, the deputy minister for political affairs at the foreign ministry, Yoo Dong-joon, a senior official at the defense ministry, and Vice Unification Minister Choi Young-jun. YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooSouth Korea reaffirmed its position, Thursday, to continue strengthening its strategic partnership with China, as part of its efforts to gain Beijing's support for North Korean nuclear talks, despite the U.S.' continuing pressure on Seoul to join its anti-China campaign. Amid the intensifying strategic competition between the U.S. and China, South Korea finds itself caught between a long-standing security relationship and an economic behemoth. Thus, Seoul has refrained from picking a side through maintaining a difficult balancing act.However, the Moon Jae-in administration is currently showing signs of backing

Dec 23, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

South Korea reiterates 'no Beijing Olympics boycott' stance

Foreign Affairs

US ambassadorial vacancy could send bad message: experts

President Moon Jae-in presents outgoing U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris with a farewell gift of Andong soju at Cheong Wa Dae, Jan. 19. Courtesy of Cheong Wa DaeAmbassador appointment after South Korean presidential election would be mistake By Kang Seung-wooAmid a lengthy absence of a U.S. ambassador to South Korea, diplomatic observers are expressing disappointment that U.S. President Joe Biden, who is moving fast to reinvigorate its alliances and partnerships after the tumult of Donald Trump's presidency, has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, adding that the vacancy could deliver a negative message in terms of South Korea-U.S. relations. In addition, they also concurred that it would not be desirable for the U.S. to push back the appointment until after the South Korean presidential election in March after which the stance of a new administration will be more clearly defined.According to the American Foreign Service Association, Biden has appointed officials to 80 out of 190 U.S. ambassadorial posts since his inauguration, Jan. 20.Since the last U.S. ambassa

Dec 23, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

US ambassadorial vacancy could send bad message: experts

Foreign Affairs

Incheon airport signs $503 mil. Indonesian deal

Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) President Kim Kyung-wook, third from left, poses with Muhammad Rudi, second from left, head of the Batam Indonesia Free Zone Authority, during a signing ceremony between the IIAC and the authority in Batam, Indonesia, Tuesday. Courtesy of Incheon International Airport Corp. By Kang Seung-wooThe Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) announced, Tuesday, that it reached a 600 billion won ($503 million) deal to develop and operate an airport in Indonesia, according to the nation's main airport operator.Under the deal, the IIAC will renovate the existing passenger terminal and build a second terminal at Hang Nadim International Airport on Batam Island and run the airport for 25 years until 2047. It is Korea's first overseas airport development and operation deal, it said. Construction is scheduled to begin in June 2022.Earlier this year, the IIAC, which formed a consortium with Indonesia's state-run airport operator PT Angkasa Pura 1 (AP1) and local construction firm PT Wijaya Karya Tbk (WIKA), was picked as the final bidder for the project

Dec 21, 2021By Kang Seung-woo

Kang Seung-woo

Read more

Ruling bloc's optimism over housing market stabilization leaves many baffled

Opposition party seeks breakthrough by overhauling presidential campaign

North Korea ignores South Korea, US due to domestic issues: experts

INTERVIEW 'Choosing between US, China is disgraceful,' ruling party's presidential candidate says

Inter-Korean summit unlikely at Beijing Olympics: FM

Rival parties clash over debate between presidential candidates

Conflict between Korea, USFK simmers

South Korea reiterates 'no Beijing Olympics boycott' stance

US ambassadorial vacancy could send bad message: experts

Incheon airport signs $503 mil. Indonesian deal

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