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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

Audit agency mulling probe into former Moon aide over alleged statistics distortion

This undated file photo shows Hong Jang-pyo, a former senior economic secretary to former President Moon Jae-in. YonhapThe state audit agency is considering questioning a former presidential economic aide as part of an inspection into alleged distortion of economic statistics by the previous government, officials said Saturday.The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has been probing government agencies since late September over allegations that the Moon Jae-in administration tweaked official data on income, employment and house prices to support its economic and real estate policies.The agency is considering summoning Hong Jang-pyo, who served as senior secretary for economic policy from 2017-18, to determine whether the presidential office was involved in the alleged manipulation, officials said.Hong, now an economics professor, is known as the architect of Moon's income-driven growth initiative. The agency has recently questioned two former chiefs of Statistics Korea, Hwang Soo-kyung and Kang Shin-wook. Hwang resigned from the post in 2018 after releasing statistics that indicated

Dec 17, 2022
Audit agency mulling probe into former Moon aide over alleged statistics distortion

Presidential office stresses need to cut corporate tax

Kim Eun-hye / Korea Times photo by Ko Young-kwonThe presidential office on Friday stressed the importance of lowering corporate tax, a key sticking point that has hindered the National Assembly from handling the state budget proposal for next year, while calling for bipartisan cooperation over the budget bill. "Our companies cannot compete with global companies while shouldering the burden of a high corporate tax rate," Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, told reporters. Kim's remarks were seen as a dismissal of National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo's compromise offer on the issue.Speaker Kim had proposed lowering the corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point in an effort to persuade the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) to handle the budget plan, which has already missed the legal deadline on Dec. 2.The PPP has pushed for gradually cutting the maximum tax rate to 22 percent to garner more investment in South Korea, while the DP has pushed to keep the current rate of 25 percent, claiming the PPP's proposal

Dec 16, 2022
Presidential office stresses need to cut corporate tax

Korea protests Japan's new security document laying claim to Dokdo

This aerial photo shows South Korea's easternmost Dokdo Islets, taken on Sept. 2, 2021, eight days ahead of the 68th anniversary of Korea Coast Guard Day. Yonhap South Korea issued a "strong" protest Friday over Japan's revised national security strategy repeating its sovereignty claim to the South's easternmost islets of Dokdo, calling for its immediate deletion. Seoul's foreign and defense ministries called in a senior diplomat and a defense attache from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, respectively, to lodge a formal protest over the claims to Dokdo.Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet approved the new strategy that described the East Sea outcroppings as "our inherent territory." It also endorsed two other key defense documents in a move to bolster its security capabilities. "Our government strongly protests the inclusion into the National Security Strategy of its wrongful claim to Dokdo, which is our inherent territory historically, geographically and

Dec 16, 2022
Korea protests Japan's new security document laying claim to Dokdo
  • Pacifist Japan unveils biggest military build-up since World War II
  • Why Japan is boosting its arms capability, budget

Students activists nabbed for trespassing at ruling party headquarters

This image, captured from the YouTube page of the Korean University Progressive Union, shows its members at the headquarters of the ruling People Power Party, Dec. 16. NewsisSix university students affiliated with a progressive group were arrested Friday for trespassing at the headquarters of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), police said.The members of the Korean University Progressive Union were caught at the site for illegally entering the PPP head office, located in Yeouido in Seoul, around 1 p.m., according to police. The students were demanding talks with PPP chief Rep. Chung Jin-suk, police said.The union earlier released a statement, urging the dissolution of the PPP for disrupting a special committee in charge of a parliamentary investigation into the Itaewon tragedy that killed 158 people. The PPP members of the committee offered to leave the committee in protest, shortly after the National Assembly, led by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, passed a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min. (Yonhap)

Dec 16, 2022
Students activists nabbed for trespassing at ruling party headquarters

President Yoon's approval rating inches up to 36%

President Yoon Suk-yeol enters Korea Job World, a youth vocational experience facility in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, to attend a luncheon with the Korean team for the 2022 WorldSkills Competition. Yoon's approval rating inched up to 36 percent, its highest point in five months. YonhapBy Kwon Mee-yooA Gallup survey this week confirmed that President Yoon Suk-yeol's job approval rating has risen slightly. According to the weekly survey conducted by Gallup Korea, the public's positive assessment of Yoon's performance has increased 3 percentage points from the previous week to 36 percent, while those assessing him negatively decreased 3 percentage points to 56 percent.Yoon's approval rating has reached the mid-30-percent range for the first time in five months ― the last time being during the first week of July. His ratings then dropped to 24 percent in September and were under 30 percent throughout November, before picking up slightly in December. The reasons cited by those who assessed his job performance positively were Yoon's response to the cargo truckers' strike (20 perce

Dec 16, 2022By Kwon Mee-yoo
President Yoon's approval rating inches up to 36%

Yoon renews promise to support technically skilled people

President Yoon Suk-yeol gives remarks during a luncheon with participants of the WorldSkills Competition at Korea Job World in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, Dec. 16. YonhapPresident Yoon Suk-yeol held a luncheon with participants of this year's WorldSkills Competition on Friday and lauded their achievement in placing second overall.Korea sent 51 contestants to the WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition, which was held from September to November in 15 countries and regions, and won 11 gold medals, eight silver and nine bronze, to place second after China.The gold medals were won in the categories of information technology, web technology, molds and cybersecurity, among others."The government plans to vastly reform the education system and greatly activate Meister high schools in order to produce large numbers of technical experts trained in the field and properly establish a system whereby these technicians can receive proper and just compensation, as they would in advanced nations," Yoon said in his remarks at the luncheon at Korea Job World in Seongnam, just south of Seoul.Me

Dec 16, 2022
Yoon renews promise to support technically skilled people

Ex-Seoul district prosecution chief questioned over justice ministry's inspection of Yoon

Lee Sung-yoon, former chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, attends a court hearing, Sept. 2. YonhapProsecutors questioned a former chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office on Friday as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities involving the justice ministry's 2020 inspection of then Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol.The probe centers on allegations that the justice ministry under former Minister Choo Mi-ae conducted an internal inspection of Yoon in 2020, with an intention to dismiss him as prosecutor general.As the result of the inspection, Yoon was suspended from his duty for two months in late 2020 for multiple alleged misdeeds, including meddling in a politically sensitive investigation case. Lee Sung-yoon, who was serving as the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office at the time, was accused of involvement in the transfer of key prosecution evidence in a separate case to the justice ministry's inspection committee for use in Yoon's case. Lee, currently a researcher at the Institute of Justice, appeared at the Seoul Centr

Dec 16, 2022
Ex-Seoul district prosecution chief questioned over justice ministry's inspection of Yoon

Yoon's approval rating rises to 36%: poll

President Yoon Suk-yeol attends an inaugural meeting with 100 members of the public to check the progress on the Yoon administration's key policy tasks at the guesthouse of Cheong Wa Dae, the former presidential office, in Seoul, Dec. 15. YonhapPresident Yoon Suk-yeol's approval rating rose to 36 percent, a poll showed Friday, breaking through the mid-30 percent range for the first time in five months.Positive assessment of Yoon's performance added 3 percentage points from the previous week, rising for a fourth consecutive week, while negative assessment fell 3 percentage points to 56 percent in the same period.The poll was conducted on 1,001 people aged 18 or older between Tuesday and Thursday by Gallup Korea.It marked the first time in five months that Yoon's approval rating exceeded the mid-30 percent range. After hitting 37 percent in the first week of July, the figure dipped to 24 percent twice in August and September and came in at an average of 29 percent in October and November.Yoon's insistence on principles and the rule of law, demonstrated during his response to a recent t

Dec 16, 2022
Yoon's approval rating rises to 36%: poll

Yoon considering replacement for KDCA chief

Peck Kyong-ran, head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, attends a plenary session of the health and welfare committee at the National Assembly in Seoul, Aug. 2. Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geunPresident Yoon Suk-yeol is considering nominating an infectious disease expert to head the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) following the resignation offer of its current chief, an official said Friday.Jee Young-mee, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea, is being considered to replace Peck Kyong-ran as commissioner of the public health agency after Peck reportedly tendered her resignation after allegations her shares in several bio firms posed a conflict of interest.Peck no longer owns the shares."Jee's nomination hasn't been finalized, but there will probably be a decision soon," a presidential official told Yonhap News Agency.Jee is an infectious disease expert with more than 20 years of experience at health and research facilities in and outside the country.Her husband, Lee Chul-woo, is a law professor at Yonsei University and a longtime friend of the president. (

Dec 16, 2022
Yoon considering replacement for KDCA chief

2022 top national news Wounds of Itaewon tragedy still fresh

Foreign nationals lay flowers to pay their condolences to the victims of Itaewon crowd crush at a makeshift memorial altar near Itaewon Station on Oct. 31. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulSouth Korea faces calls to choose between US, China as diplomatic gray zone disappears By Kang Hyun-kyungEvery year is eventful. But 2022 was tragically eventful as the nation was shocked by a crowd crush that killed 159 people who gathered in Itaewon, Seoul, on Oct. 29 to celebrate Halloween. The families of the victims still live in pain as the tragedy haunts them. Less than two months since the tragedy, the wounds from losing their loved ones remain fresh. Survivors are also going through the torment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The deadly crowd crush came some five months after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office on May 10. Yoon's job in the presidency is poised to be an uphill battle, as he took the helm at a time when two opposing blocs ― nations that support Russia and nations that are trying to defend freedom and democracy from autocracy ― are set to clash in nearly every issue area

Dec 16, 2022By Kang Hyun-kyung
[2022 top national news] Wounds of Itaewon tragedy still fresh
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