By UN Journal Lee Jon-young President Yoon Suk-yeol held the 19th "Folk Life Discussion with the People" at the Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Office on March 11 under the theme of "Happiness for the People, Power for Gangwon!" and discussed development issues such as high-tech industries and tourism that will open up the future of Gangwon. In his remarks, the president said that through the public forum, which began this year, he realized that it is the right direction to discover policy issues from the perspective of policy consumers and break down the barriers between ministries an
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young "The March 1 Movement will be completed with a unified Korea where everyone enjoys freedom and prosperity," President Yoon Suk-yeol said on March 1, marking the 105th anniversary of the movement. "We must now move toward a free and unified Korean peninsula where all people are the owners," Yoon said in a commemorative speech at the 105th anniversary of the March 1 commemoration ceremony at the Yoo Kwan-sun Memorial Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul. Referring to the 1919 Declaration of Independence, Yoon said, "At the root of the Declaration of Independence was 'liberalism,' w
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young Gyeongju City will leap into the world by hosting the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting 2025 and 'Globalizing the Silla Culture Festival'. Gyeongju City, Gyeongsangbuk-do, held the '2024 Municipal Issues Briefing' hosted by the Culture and Tourism Bureau at the city hall on Feb. 6. Nam Shim-sook, head of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, emphasized that the city will definitely host the APEC Summit in November 2025 in Korea. This is because hosting the summit is expected to promote the image of 'Gyeongju as a cultural and tourism city' to the world, and is expected
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo Busan City Mayor Park Hyung-jun announced on Feb. 22 that he met with French Ambassador to Korea Philippe Bertoux at the International Conference Room of City Hall on the 23rd to discuss cooperation plans for Busan-France interaction. Ambassador Philippe Berthoux said, "The French Embassy in Korea will be able to play a bridge role in the interaction between Busan and France." "We expect to cooperate with Busan in various fields such as culture and tourism, cultural contents such as movies and videos, cultural facilities such as art museums, economic trade, and mariti
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young | Gyeongju City has launched a supporters' group composed of foreign language-speaking public officials to focus on its bid for the 2025 APEC Summit. The city of Gyeongju held a launching ceremony for the "Gyeongju Love Global Public Officials Supporters Group" at the large conference room of Gyeongju City Hall on Feb. 16, the city announced on Feb. 18. The supporters' group is composed of 34 public officials from 22 departments who can speak English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. Gyeongju City, which is focusing its administrative efforts on hosting the
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul held a meeting with Koo Cha-yol, Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) on February 13, to discuss ways to enhance the responsiveness and vitality of Korean businesses in the face of a rapidly changing and uncertain global landscape. This is the fifth engagement with business associations since Minister Cho took office. Minister Cho participated in the New year event hosted by the innovative venture industry (January 19) and met with leaders of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI, January 22), Korea Ch
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young In April last year, five construction companies, including GS E&C, Daebo E&C, and Dongbu E&C, were suspended from business due to the Incheon Geomdan apartment incident, and credit rating agencies downgraded their ratings and outlooks. This, coupled with the uncertain external environment and market downturn, has raised concerns about the level of financial burden on construction companies. GS E&C, which has been suffering from bad reputation due to poor construction, announced on February 15 that it will sell 'Songdo Xi Scenery Granoble', which will
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo Venerable Chief Monk Hyangdeok (Park Seong-eok in Korean name) of the Cheonmansa Buddhist Temple in Ulsan is striving to promote world peace and cultural exchanges between Korea and foreign countries while attending major cultural events with foreign ambassadors in Korea. Ven. Chief Monk Hyangdeok, who is honorary consular of culture and economy of the Embassy of Ethiopia and UN NGO World Peace Ambassador, always prays for good luck and good health for all people he met, including foreign ambassadors, staff members of foreign embassies and their family members in Kore
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo The number of Starbucks stores in South Korea ranks fourth in the world, after the United States, China and Japan. According to Starbucks' global website on Feb. 12, the number of Starbucks stores in South Korea totaled 1,893 at the end of last year, up 116 from the previous year. That's just eight fewer than Japan (1,901), which has 2.5 times the population of South Korea. The number of Starbucks stores in South Korea has steadily increased by more than 100 each year, from 1,508 in 2020 to 1,639 in 2021 and 1,777 in 2022. In Japan, the number of Starbucks stores grew
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo Samsung announced on Feb. 12 that eight product series1 in its 2024 Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED 4K, OLED, and The Frame lineups have received the “Product Carbon Reduction” certification from TÜV Rheinland, the international independent third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization. The certification demonstrates the carbon footprint reduction ratio of these products compared to the previous year’s model, serving as a testament to the company’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions year-over-year. “As the world’s leading TV manufacturer, it is our responsibil
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young Let's not be a soulless people on Feb. 14. Some people may know whether it is Valentine's Day, but how many people remember that Feb. 14 is the day when Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun, a hero of our country and the pride of our nation, was sentenced to death by the Japanese. But to hide that fact, Japan made it a day to exchange chocolates between lovers as a shallow gesture. It's a shameful and unbelievable story that they're trying to hide the memory of this day. February 14, the day a Korean hero was sentenced to death at the tender age of 31, should b
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young President Yoon Suk-yeol has labeled his wife Kim Keun-hee's luxury bag scandal as "political maneuvering" and emphasized that he will "take a firm line in the future." This is Yoon's first public statement on the controversy. In the 100-minute "Special Interview with the President," which aired on KBS on July 7, President Yoon said, “It's an operation because Choi, a Korean-American pastor, came with a watch and a hidden camera.” President Yoon said, "The fact that she was unable to cold-heartedly reject him was the problem, if one can call it a problem, and it is a
By UN Journal Lee Jon-young Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon announced the 'Major Policy Promotion Plan for 2024' on June 6, which includes cultural folklore policies and strategies for K-culture's overseas expansion. The ministry selected this year's priority tasks with the vision of 'a happy society with culture and a global cultural powerhouse led by K-culture'. It aims to raise the national leisure satisfaction rate from 60.7 percent last year to 65 percent this year, and increase the revenue of the K-content industry from 150 trillion won in 2022 to 170 trillion won thi
By UN Journal Lee Kap-soo "As a person who served as president, I wrote my memoirs with the hope that they would serve as a lesson for future generations by revealing what I regretted and what I did well," said former President Park Geun-hye at the launch of her memoirs, "Park Geun-hye Memoirs: Past the Darkness and into the Future. On the same day, Park also released for the first time a handwritten memo she wrote in late fall 2021, when she was imprisoned for more than four years and nine months. At a book release ceremony held at a hotel in Daegu, Park said that in late 2021, about half a y
By UN Journal Kim Ji-eun Gyeonggi-do Governor Kim Dong-yeon met with a group of lawmakers from the Aichi Prefectural Assembly on Jan. 30 at the Gyeonggi-do Government Office to seek ways to revitalize friendly cooperation between Gyeonggi-do and Aichi Prefecture, including cooperation in the manufacturing sector and youth exchanges. The six members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan's Aichi Prefectural Assembly visited Gyeonggi-do in preparation for the 2026 Aichi and Nagoya Asian Games, and delivered a letter from the governor of Aichi Prefecture expressing their desire to expand friend