House byline
Politics correspondent
Hana Im is a house byline for InfoHandle’s Politics desk.
PPP lawmakers demand a closed-door intelligence briefing after Seoul recalled its Ukraine envoy over leaks about transferred North Korean detainees, straining wartime diplomacy.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Ambassador Park Hee-chang would return from Kyiv after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly discussed the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers Seoul had wanted kept confidential.
The National Assembly Welfare Committee began its October audit with youth pension premium subsidies, mifepristone rules, and warehouse-pharmacy oversight on the witness list.
South Korea’s Seoul High Court overturned former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conviction for receiving unpaid opinion polls from political broker Myung Tae-kyun, ruling there was no agreement to accept the surveys as illegal gifts.
The Legislation and Judiciary Committee opens the 2026 national audit Tuesday with the Court Administration and Supreme Court registry, while Chief Justice Jo Hee-dae declined lawmakers' request to appear in person.
Democratic Party senior spokesman Park Sung-joon ridiculed the People Power Party’s Gaecheonjeol rally as habitual street theater, urging the opposition to bring security and livelihood fights into Tuesday’s inspection hearings instead.
People Power Party leaders rallied at Sungnyemun on Gaecheonjeol, claiming roughly 200,000 attendees demanded an end to land probes, ETF scrutiny, and the pause in President Lee Jae-myung’s criminal trial.
The Interior Ministry hosts the 4,358th National Foundation Day ceremony at 10 a.m. in the Sejong Center main hall with about 1,200 guests.
Appeals arguments ended Friday in Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s political-funds case after judges admitted a phone recording in which an aide says the mayor did not know who paid for opinion surveys.
South Korea opened the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency on Friday and pared prosecutors to an indictment-only role, completing a reform that ends the old dual investigative model after nearly eight decades.
People Power Party lawmakers filibustered the 2 October plenary session, blocking a bipartisan Tattoo Artist Act that health committee leaders had already cleared, while the Democratic Party adopted a party-line resolution urging expulsion proceedings against PPP Rep. Kim Tae-gyu over televised remarks on insurrection law.
Democratic Party floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae set an Oct. 15 forum deadline for a bipartisan wartime OPCON handover calendar before the November security consultative meeting.
Special counsel prosecutors closed their case against Daegu Mayor Choo Kyung-ho on Wednesday, calling his Dec. 3 moves to shift party meetings a betrayal of constitutional order ahead of a sentencing recommendation in Seoul.
President Lee’s Cabinet cleared a special act and 14 presidential decrees on Sept. 29 to govern acquisition, safety, and operation of nuclear-powered submarines, setting up a National Assembly push for the Jangbogo-N program.
The National Assembly environment panel opened an audit of fire-suppression water intake permits at the Yeongil Bay methane terminal after local groups questioned coastal draw rates.
The ruling Democratic Party scheduled an extra National Assembly session to advance a semiconductor subsidy bill before October’s supplementary budget vote, setting up a clash with the opposition over audit triggers and local content rules.
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon says the joint DMZ investigation was moved to Sunday after U.N. Command pressure, as the Defense Ministry disputes his broader charge that the Lee government cannot defend the border.
President Lee Jae Myung says Zelenskyy's UNGA disclosure of two North Korean POWs' transfer to South Korea broke a confidentiality understanding and complicates security and diplomacy.
President Lee Jae Myung said Ukraine disclosed the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea in breach of a non-disclosure agreement, a day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy named the handover in his U.N. General Assembly address. Seoul says Kyiv's advance notice was vague, while Ukraine…
The Unification Ministry will hold a closed Friday briefing for National Assembly foreign-affairs and unification aides on repatriation and resettlement options for the two KPA detainees Zelenskyy named at the UN, according to officials and lawmakers who asked not to be named on the record.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN General Assembly on September 23 that Ukraine had sent two North Korean prisoners captured in Kursk in January 2025 to South Korea; Seoul would not confirm their safety, while PPP lawmaker Yu Yong-weon said they arrived three or four days earlier as Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met Andrii Sybiha in New York.
The National Assembly Budget Office challenged the won price tag of extending Chuseok expressway fuel subsidies, telling lawmakers the relief overlaps defense fuel budgets and distorts long-term energy pricing ahead of a plenary vote.
The National Assembly’s Strategy and Finance Committee extended Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong’s reappointment hearing after opposition lawmakers demanded more testimony on won volatility, FX smoothing disclosures, and household debt stress during Trump–Xi summit week.
About 1,300 workers at Korail Networks, Korail Tourism Development and the Railway Customer Center began a three-day strike Sept 21, rallying outside Seoul Station and marching toward the Cheong Wa Dae area to demand direct Korail employment instead of a government plan to merge five subsidiaries into three.
The Interior Ministry will pilot tenant advisory ballots in five cities after jeonse deposit disputes rose 22 percent, letting leaseholders flag landlord sale plans before eviction filings reach district courts.
MOLIT locked ballot rules for September’s first-time-buyer rental-block lots, splitting priority between childless wage earners under 34 and newlywed households that missed earlier 매입임대 rounds.
A bipartisan National Assembly bill would cap realtor commissions on jeonse lease renewals at 0.3 percent of deposit value, targeting September churn when landlords reset keys before Chuseok travel.