Free Republic

SEOUL (Reuters) - The liberal politician expected to succeed disgraced Park Geun-hye as South Korea's next president could significantly soften Seoul’s stance toward North Korea and possibly delay deployment of a U.S. missile-defense system that has enraged China. A Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Park from office after upholding her impeachment over a corruption scandal involving "chaebol", the family-run conglomerates that dominate Asia's fourth-biggest economy, and which could also face reform under a liberal leader. A presidential election will be held by May 9 and opinion polls suggest South Koreans will opt for change by electing a liberal into the...

Eight justices of the Constitutional Court have unanimously upheld the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in a historic ruling that will put an end to long-lasting political turmoil and social unrest triggered by a widespread corruption scandal involving Park and her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil.

The U.S. is ready to negotiate with longtime adversary North Korea as it has with Iran, but Pyongyang has to be serious about abandoning nuclear weapons, President Obama said Friday. Obama was speaking after meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, a close ally, who echoed the U.S. leader's view. ·

North Korea reportedly rejected the idea of resuming talks to abandon its nuclear program on Saturday, but said it would welcome negotiations for a peace treaty with Washington. North Korea’s foreign ministry made the statement one day after President Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye said they were ready to open talks with Pyongyang on sanctions if they were serious about dissolving its nuclear program, according to Reuters. “If the United States insists on taking a different path, the Korean peninsula will only see our unlimited nuclear deterrent being strengthened further,” the North said in a statement. North and...

South Korea’s prime minister has offered to resign amid a bribery scandal just two months after he took up the country’s No. 2 post, officials said Tuesday, in the latest political crisis to hit President Park Geun-hye. Lee Wan Koo has been at the center of a corruption scandal that flared after a businessman killed himself earlier this month, leaving a memo listing the names of eight high-profile figures he claimed to have bribed. Most of the eight men, including Lee, are considered as close associates of Park. Businessman Sung Wan-jong told a local daily before his death he gave...

North Korea will "pay" for any attack on South Korea, says president Park Geun-hye North Korea will "pay" if it launches even a small-scale attack on South Korea, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said in an interview with CBS News' Margaret Brennan Monday. Park, the recently elected South Korean president, is in the United States this week for a summit meeting with President Obama, during which she'll lay out her plan for addressing the confrontational North Korean government.

S Korea "regrets" North rejection of dialogue South Korea voiced regret at North Korea's dismissal of its offer for dialogue, as the South's armed forces remained on heightened alert for an expected missile test by Pyongyang. Both President Park Geun-Hye and her Unification Ministry have, in recent days, made tentative proposals for talks in an apparent bid to reduce soaring military tensions on the Korean peninsula. The North's immediate response was negative, calling the offers "empty" and a "crafty trick" to cover up Seoul's aggressive and confrontational policies. "It is very regrettable that the North dismissed our offer for dialogue,...

Her mother was killed by a North Korean devotee, and her father murdered by his spy chief. Yet Park Geun-hye, the first female president of South Korea, was sworn-in just over a month ago promising peace. Harriet Alexander profiles the woman facing Kim Jong-un's nuclear threat. She came to power promising to usher in a new dawn in relations with North Korea. Park Geun-hye, who in February became the first female president of South Korea, was elected on the back of a campaign to establish "trustpolitik" – a break with the previous decades of hostilities, and a new emphasis on...

Republic of Korea: For the record. Pak Ku'n-hye (Park Geun-hye) of the New Frontier Party won South Korea's presidential election on 19 December, media reported. She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee and the first woman elected to be president of the Republic of Korea. That should confound the North! North Korea-Iran: According to a Japanese news service, an Iranian lawmaker told the service that North Korea informed Iran in October of its plan to launch a satellite. The head of an Iranian parliamentary delegation to North Korea, Hamid Reza Taraghi, revealed talks took place mid-October with the North's delegates...

South Korea Elects First Female President: Park Geun-hye. Park Geun-hye is headed back to the Blue House. On Wednesday, South Koreans chose the daughter of South Korea’s Cold War strongman Park Chung-hee as the country’s next President. Park, the 60-year-old leader of the conservative Saenuri Party, defeated 59-year-old liberal challenger Moon Jae-in — once jailed for opposing her father’s rule — by a margin of about 3.5%. She will now move back to the presidential residence where she lived as a child and where she served as de facto First Lady after her mother’s death. Park has spent much of...

South Korea's Park seen winning tight presidential election By Jane Chung and Jack Kim SEOUL | Wed Dec 19, 2012 6:56am EST (Reuters) - The daughter of the South Korea's former military ruler appeared to be leading in Wednesday's presidential vote, putting her on track to become the country's first woman head of state although her narrow advantage meant the race was set to go to the wire. A win for the 60-year old conservative Park Geun-hye would see her return to the presidential palace where she served as her father's first lady in the 1970s after Park's mother was...

Park Keun-hye(right), former head of Hannara Party(note: a largest conservative opposition party in S. Korea) receives bullet-proof vest from his loyal supporters as a present for her 55th birthday in her residence at Samsung-dong, Kang-nam District, Seoul. (note: She is one of frontrunners for presidential election in coming December. Last year, she was attacked by a box-cutter wielding man, suffering from a cut in her neck, which could have been critical.)

S. Korea: Huge Conservative Rally Is Back On Sept. 2, there was a huge rally organized by conservative groups. Veteran's organizations and Protestant church groups made up the back bone of the rally. It was to oppose government's hasty drive to dismantle joint wartime command, which was on the N. Korea's longtime wish list. What is noticeable this time is that sizable number of opposition conservative lawmakers joined the rally. In the past, only a couple of lawmakers attended. This time some two dozen showed up. Presidential hopeful, Park Geun-hye, the former head of opposition Grand National Party, and Lee...

Opposition looks to landslide in S.Korea elections By Jack Kim Mon May 29, 7:14 AM ET South Korea's opposition Grand National Party (GNP) appears headed for a landslide victory in local elections on Wednesday, suggesting an electoral shift to the right ahead of next year's vote for the presidency. The vote for nearly 3,900 posts is unlikely to affect South Korea's economic and national security policies, but it will be watched closely by both neighbors and Washington as a barometer of support for President Roh Moo-hyun and the ruling Uri Party. South Korea and the United States, Seoul's most important...

Assailant slashes South Korea's main opposition leader with box cutter Sat May 20, 09:56 AM EST SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A man attacked the leader of South Korea's main opposition party with a box cutter Saturday, leaving a long but not life-threatening wound on her face, a party official and police said. Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of the Grand National Party, was campaigning in the South Korean capital, Seoul, for upcoming local elections when she was attacked, said Lee Jung-hyun, a spokesman for the party. Park suffered a 10-centimetre cut on her face and was undergoing surgery in a Seoul...

In a move that demonstrates that the South Korean opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is comfortable flexing its international muscles, dynamic GNP leader Park Geun Hye announced an official trip to the Peoples Republic of China. This could be a dramatic new development in unraveling the Gordian knot of North Korean nuclear negotiations that have been stalled by convoluted machinations by all sides. Till now South Korean spokesmen came mostly from President Roh Moo Hyun’s hard left-leaning Uri Party. Recall that Roh, as was his predecessor Kim Dae Jung, is a born-again appeaser who is willing to cut any possible...

In a move that demonstrates that the South Korean opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is comfortable flexing its international muscles, dynamic GNP leader Park Geun Hye announced an official trip to the Peoples Republic of China. This could be a dramatic new development in unraveling the Gordian knot of North Korean nuclear negotiations that have been stalled by convoluted machinations by all sides. Till now South Korean spokesmen came mostly from President Roh Moo Hyun’s hard left-leaning Uri Party. Recall that Roh, as was his predecessor Kim Dae Jung, is a born-again appeaser who is willing to cut any possible...