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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.

Gov't uncovers 182 hiring irregularities at public firms

Pak Un-jong, chairperson of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, announces the joint inspection results on hiring irregularities at public firms and its countermeasures at Government Complex Seoul, Wednesday. / YonhapBy Park Ji-wonThe government announced Wednesday it had found 182 suspected hiring irregularities at  1,205 public companies and institutions, pledging to come up with comprehensive measures to root out corruption there.The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission said it conducted a joint inspection with the finance, interior and labor ministries on employment irregularities at the public entities from November to January, and found 182 cases requiring punishment or police investigation. In 16 cases, favors appeared to have been given to relatives of sitting executives and employees at the public institutions, the commission said.The commission added that it will request investigations into 36 cases including at the Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service and Seoul National University Hospital and demand disciplinary punishment in the

Feb 20, 2019By Park Ji-won
Gov't uncovers 182 hiring irregularities at public firms

Ruling party all-out to save jailed Moon confidant

Rep. Park Ju-min of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) steps into the DPK leader's room to participate in a press conference to analyze the court ruling against South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo at the National Assembly, Tuesday. YonhapBy Park Ji-wonThe ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is going all-out for the sake of South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, a jailed confidant of President Moon Jae-in.The party is organizing press conferences and forums to blame what it calls a court's “biased” decision to imprison him immediately after finding him guilty of opinion rigging charges. Critics, however, say there moves are publicity stunts to save Kim, who is considered a possible presidential contender.“I was briefed Monday by a taskforce on Kim's case that said there were many faults in the court ruling,” DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan said during a party meeting Tuesday.“It is fair for an incumbent governor to have his appeal heard without being taken into custody as he needs to serve as a public servant. In principle,

Feb 20, 2019By Park Ji-won
Ruling party all-out to save jailed Moon confidant

Abe gets no answer from North Korea

President Donald Trump welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2018. Korea Times fileBy Kim Bo-eunJapanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is continuing to offer to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but the North has remained silent.Experts say Abe’s efforts are intended on getting to play a role in the denuclearization process, as Tokyo has largely remained excluded so far.The Japanese leader vowed to take action to resolve the abductee issue, and said he needs to meet with the North Korean leader to enable this, in a meeting with ruling party lawmakers, Japanese media reported Tuesday. Abe also had a meeting with relatives of the abductees the same day.As a means to keep its alliance with Washington tight, Tokyo is also reportedly seeking for Trump to be the first foreign head of state to meet with Emperor Naruhito, who in May will succeed his father Akihito, the current emperor.The Sankei Shimbun reported Japan is planning to invite Trump to visit the new emperor in May, ahead of a scheduled visit for the G20 summit t

Feb 20, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Abe gets no answer from North Korea
  • Trump likely to visit Japan for state visit in May, G20 in June

Seoul pushing inter-Korean projects as summit agenda

President Moon Jae-in enters room inside Cheong Wa Dae for luncheon with seniors who fought for democracy during the “Gwangju uprising” happened during the military rule in early 1980, Wednesday. YonhapBy Kim Yoo-chulSouth Korea is pushing hard to get an early resumption of joint inter-Korean economic projects recognized as a key issue to be dealt with when U.S. President Donald Trump meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Vietnam, next week.Expectations are high here about a possible consensus between the leaders about the cross border projects after Moon spoke with Trump via telephone, late Tuesday (KST).Moon asked Trump to offer the projects as “incentives” for the North to speed up its denuclearization process, “widely and verifiably,” according to Cheong Wa Dae. Presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said Moon “directly stated” that “if President Trump asks, South Korea will be ready to do its part, lessening the United States' burden.” On Wednesday, Cheong Wa Dae officials said Washington was “studying and revie

Feb 20, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul
Seoul pushing inter-Korean projects as summit agenda
  • North Korea downplays South Korea-US alliance ahead of Hanoi summit
  • Trump cautious about progress in Hanoi summit

Trump cautious about progress in Hanoi summit

By Lee Min-hyungU.S. President Donald Trump The United States will be in “no rush” to denuclearize North Korea as long as tough sanctions on the regime stay in place, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday (local time).“I have no pressing time schedule,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I am in no particular rush. The sanctions are on.”The remarks came about a week before the beginning of the second landmark summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Feb. 27 and 28 in Hanoi, Vietnam.“As long as there is no testing, I am in no rush. If there is testing, that is another deal. But there has been no testing.”As the summit approaches, preparations for the pre-summit dialogue are in full swing in the Vietnamese capital city.On Wednesday afternoon, North Korean nuclear negotiator Kim Hyok-chol, who leads the regime’s working-level pre-summit delegation, arrived in Hanoi for talks with his U.S. counterpart Steve Biegun.The leaders of each delegation will likely start having talks as early as Thursday to fine

Feb 20, 2019By Lee Min-hyung
Trump cautious about progress in Hanoi summit
  • Seoul pushing inter-Korean projects as summit agenda

Doctor prepares for era of inter-Korean medical exchanges

By Kim Bo-eunKim Young-hoonKim Young-hoon, 61, performed pacemaker surgery in Pyongyang in 2000, a time when inter-Korean exchanges flourished amid the detente under the Kim Dae-jung administration.There he was able to see for himself the gap in medical systems and technologies between the South and North. Yet medical aid to the North was reduced significantly in the following years, as conservative presidents came to power. He has not had an opportunity to return to the North since.Kim served as a doctor in the South for more than 30 years and has also been teaching. “The issue of the poor medical situation in North Korea hit me again when an American friend asked me why medical personnel in South Korea were not interested in the health of North Koreans,” he recalled. He then began to think about the matter again.“It occurred to me that the paradigm of medical assistance to the North needed to change, from humanitarian assistance to training North Korean medical personnel,” he said.The Inter-Korea Foundation for Health and Medical Education was founded for th

Feb 20, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
Doctor prepares for era of inter-Korean medical exchanges

Denuclearization will be long process: 38 North founder

Joel Wit, center, founder of the U.S. website 38 North, speaks during a morning meeting on the prospects of the upcoming second North Korean-U.S. summit with ruling Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers at the National Assembly, Tuesday. YonhapBy Park Ji-wonDenuclearizing North Korea will be a long process, even if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agrees to give up his nuclear arsenal in his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Joel Wit, founder of the North Korea-monitoring website 38 North, Tuesday.He stressed the world should be realistic about what will happen between the U.S. and North Korea.“I have an eye on whether their agreement will include dismantling all North Korean facilities making fissile materials. North Korea agreed to dismantle all of their fissile material production facilities, including those beyond the Yongbyon nuclear facility and more,” Wit said during a breakfast meeting with lawmakers at the National Assembly. “However, those are North Korea's words, not ours.”On whether he is optimistic or pessimistic about the

Feb 19, 2019By Park Ji-won
Denuclearization will be long process: 38 North founder

North Korea leader may fly to Hanoi on aged official jet

By Kim Yoo-chulNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam, for his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump using his aged official jet instead of a rented Air China plane, diplomatic sources in Seoul said, Tuesday.“The more important picture is that Kim hopes to transform his regime into a normal state that no longer sees the need to pursue nuclear armament for deterrence, survival or any other means. From that perspective, Kim is most likely to fly on the state jet, codenamed Chammae-1, this time on his trip to the Vietnamese capital,” one source said.Despite the claim, how the North Korean leader will travel to Hanoi for another meeting with his U.S. counterpart will likely remain a mystery until his actual arrival.But it's highly unlikely that Kim will use his signature green and yellow train through China to Hanoi given the complexity of the travel route, the source said. If Kim takes the train, then he should travel all the way to the Southeast Asian country through China, which many say is a “time-consuming process.”A good ref

Feb 19, 2019By Kim Yoo-chul
  • 'US may offer sanctions relief to North Korea'
  • Trump says he expects 'great progress' at 2nd summit with Kim
  • 'Seoul ready to resume inter-Korean cooperation to help denuclearization'

A look into US-NK entourage to Hanoi

From left, North Korea's top official Kim Yong-chol, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun at a hotel in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18. YonhapBy Kim Bo-eunAlong with agreements to be reached at the summit, attention is also growing over the officials who will accompany leaders of the U.S. and North Korea to Hanoi for the summit to take place Feb. 27 and 28.Key officials expected to aide U.S. President Donald Trump are Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton and the State Department's Special Representative for North Korea Steve Biegun. Pompeo has led ministerial-level talks with North Korea, the most recent of which was held in Washington last month. As the point man of denuclearization talks with North Korea, he held multiple meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. Biegun has engaged in working-level negotiations, the last of which took place in Pyongyang earlier this month. The second round of talks is set to begin in Hanoi soon.National Security Council Korea Spe

Feb 19, 2019By Kim Bo-eun
A look into US-NK entourage to Hanoi
  • 'US may offer sanctions relief to North Korea'
  • Trump says he expects 'great progress' at 2nd summit with Kim
  • 'Seoul ready to resume inter-Korean cooperation to help denuclearization'

TV guidelines on 'look-alike' K-pop singers spark controversy

Minister of Gender Equality and Family Jin Sun-mee speaks at the government complex building in central Seoul, last December, about her countermeasures against school sex crimes. / YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunThe government's new guidelines for local broadcasters and TV show producers have sparked controversy here over a suggestion to refrain from showing too many K-pop stars that have similar appearances. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) released the revised guidelines Saturday in an effort to prevent “lookism,” which TV can appear to promote.One of the clauses in the guidelines recommends restricting the number of idol singers appearing on a TV show at any given time, saying they all look alike which suggests narrow beauty standards for young viewers who admire K-pop groups.“Are the singers on TV music shows twins? They seriously look identical. Most are idol group members,” the guidelines say. “Most of them are skinny and have similar hairstyles and makeup with outfits exposing their bodies.”Regarding the guidelines, people asked why

Feb 18, 2019By Kim Jae-heun
TV guidelines on 'look-alike' K-pop singers spark controversy
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