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Kazakhstan President Urges Voter Participation Ahead of First Kurultai Election Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on citizens to participate in the upcoming Kurultai election during a national address on August 21, the last day of the official campaign period. Tokayev described the election as a truly historic event and a starting point for reforms under the new constitution that took effect on July 1. "With the enactment of the people's constitution, this election will mark the beginning of new reforms," he said, adding that it would open a new chapter in the history of modern Kazakhstan. The term 'people's constitution' is how Tokayev refers to the new constitution. On August 23, all 145 seats in the Kurultai will be contested. The new constitution, which passed a national referendum on March 15, established a unicameral parliament by abolishing the Senate and the Mazhilis. According to the Central Election Commission, the approval rate for the new constitution was 87.15%, with a voter turnout of 73.12%. Seven political parties have nominated a total of 545 candidates. The entire country serves as a single electoral district, and only parties that receive more than 5% of valid votes will gain seats. Independent candidates are not allowed. There are 12,605,788 registered voters. Tokayev noted that he informed each party of the election schedule in advance to allow for adequate preparation. He praised the campaign as substantive, open, competitive, and mature, reflecting a common perception among the public. Political parties have presented their platforms through voter meetings, media promotions, nationwide television debates, and social media discussions, providing voters with opportunities to compare their proposals. The Adilet party, listed first on the ballot, has nominated 186 candidates, more than double that of any other party. Registered on June 1, this party absorbed the Amanat party following a decision at its party congress that same month. Amanat was the largest party in the Mazhilis, securing 53.9% of the vote in the 2023 general election. In his address, Tokayev did not mention any specific parties or candidates but noted a shift in social agendas. He welcomed the emergence of new figures and ideas, particularly from youth, professional organizations, and entrepreneurs. He characterized this as a sign of political renewal and a result of his reforms aimed at enhancing political culture and broadening public participation in governance. He stated, "The new legislative body should serve as a common platform for constructive views and aspirations," asserting that the Kurultai would accelerate the pace of national modernization. He also referenced unprecedented geopolitical tensions and growing global challenges, emphasizing that Kazakhstan must steadfastly pursue its strategy toward becoming a true developed nation, acknowledging that significant challenges remain before achieving this goal. He added that both domestic and international observers would monitor the election process, with activities planned at polling stations on election day. The Central Election Commission has approved 781 foreign and international observers as of August 17, including 39 long-term and 208 short-term observers sent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) through its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The campaign period ended at midnight on August 21, with August 22 designated as a day of reflection. The publication of opinion polls and predictive surveys has been prohibited since August 18. Tokayev emphasized that participating in the vote is the highest expression of the people's will, noting that millions around the world are still fighting for their right to vote. He concluded his address by quoting a Kazakh proverb, "Keliship pishken ton kelte bolmas," which means that the decision made together is the wisest.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:52:00 -
Ansan Mayor Im Min-keun: Community Must Address Isolation and Loneliness Ansan Mayor Im Min-keun emphasized on August 21 that "the issues of isolation and loneliness are not just individual misfortunes but challenges that the community must tackle together." The mayor introduced a new welfare model aimed at preventing social isolation and loneliness by identifying at-risk households and supporting the restoration of social relationships within the community. On that day, he opened the 'Our Neighborhood Daon Convenience Store,' which serves as a community hub to prevent isolation among single-person households and support relationship rebuilding. The 'Our Neighborhood Daon Convenience Store' goes beyond one-time item support, providing urgent livelihood assistance, connecting to welfare services, and offering a space for rest, communication, and community activities. In particular, a non-face-to-face kiosk was established to assist citizens who may feel burdened by explaining their difficulties or visiting welfare agencies. This setup aims to reduce the psychological burden of in-person consultations, allowing citizens easier access to necessary welfare information and support services. The space also features a 'Just Dream' corner. This area provides essential items to citizens in need of food and daily necessities, helping to alleviate immediate living crises and subsequently connecting them to the relaxation, communication, and community programs offered at the Daon Convenience Store. To achieve this, the mayor plans to address the limitations of the existing welfare system, which requires individuals to apply for assistance, by creating a proactive welfare system that identifies isolation risks early and connects citizens to necessary services. Importantly, this initiative aims not only to resolve economic difficulties but also to support the restoration of social networks, distinguishing it from existing emergency welfare programs. By facilitating food support, the strategy encourages citizens visiting the space to relax, participate in programs, and form relationships, thereby transforming one-time assistance into a sustainable social safety net. This aligns with the mayor's ongoing policy direction to enhance citizen-centered welfare and strengthen the social safety net. One citizen remarked, "Loneliness should not be viewed solely as an individual issue; it is a problem that neighbors and the community must pay attention to," adding, "I hope this space fosters an atmosphere where we look out for our struggling neighbors." Another citizen stated, "It is important that we do not stop at one-time item support but create opportunities for people to naturally interact and build relationships. I hope the Daon Convenience Store becomes a starting point for those living alone to reconnect with the world." Mayor Im Min-keun plans to strengthen a proactive welfare system that identifies crisis signals close to citizens' daily lives, rather than waiting for those in welfare blind spots to seek help. Meanwhile, Mayor Im expressed his hope that the 'Our Neighborhood Daon Convenience Store' will become a warm space where any citizen can visit without hesitation to rest and receive assistance. He emphasized, "By lowering the barriers to welfare through non-face-to-face kiosks, we will closely connect emergency livelihood support with the formation of social networks, creating a safety net in Ansan that ensures no citizen is left behind."* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:48:00
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President Tokayev urges Kazakhs to vote in first Kurultai election SEOUL, August 22 (AJP) - With one day to go before Kazakhstan chooses a new single-chamber parliament, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called on citizens to turn out, casting Sunday's vote as the start of a fresh cycle of reform under a constitution that took effect seven weeks ago. Tokayev issued the appeal in an address to the nation published Aug. 21 (local time), the final day on which campaigning was permitted. He called the election a truly historic event. Voters choose all 145 seats of the Kurultai, the chamber that replaced the Mazhilis and the Senate when the new constitution came into force on July 1. Seven parties are fielding 545 candidates in a single nationwide district. Seats go only to parties that clear five percent of valid votes. Self-nomination is not allowed. The Central Election Commission has registered 12,605,788 voters. The constitution was approved in a referendum on March 15, with the Central Election Commission (CEC) reporting support at 87.15 percent on turnout of 73.12 percent. Tokayev calls it the People's Constitution, and in the address he tied Sunday's vote directly to it. "With the entry into force of the People's Constitution, these elections will become the starting point of new reforms," he said, adding that they would open a new chapter in the country's modern history. He said he had announced the election well in advance so that every party could prepare. The campaign that followed was substantive, open, competitive and civilized, he said, and called that the general view among citizens. Parties set out their programs at voter meetings, in the media, in nationwide televised debates and in arguments on social media, he said, giving people a chance to weigh competing visions of the country's future. Adilet, which holds first place on the ballot, is running 186 candidates, more than double any rival list. The party was registered June 1 and absorbed Amanat, which took 53.9 percent in 2023 and held the largest bloc in the Mazhilis, after congresses of both parties approved the merger that month. Tokayev named no party and endorsed no candidate. He instead pointed to what he called a shift in the public conversation, with new faces and new arguments emerging. He said he was particularly pleased that young people, professional associations and entrepreneurs had joined the debate, describing it as a sign of political renewal and crediting his own program of raising political culture and widening public participation in government. "The new legislative body must become a common platform for constructive views and aspirations," he said, adding that the Kurultai would set a high tempo for the country's modernization. He placed that task against what he called unprecedented geopolitical tension and mounting global challenges. Kazakhstan had to hold to its strategy of becoming a genuinely developed state, he said, and faced difficult work to join the front rank of nations. Domestic and international observers followed the campaign and will be present at polling stations on Sunday, he said. The CEC had accredited 781 foreign and international observers as of Aug. 17. They include 39 long-term and 208 short-term monitors sent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe through its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The address ran on the last day campaigning was allowed. Aug. 22 is set aside as a day of electoral silence, and publication of opinion polls and forecasts has been barred since Aug. 18. Tokayev closed by calling participation the highest expression of the popular will, and noted that millions of people around the world are still fighting for the right to vote. He ended on a Kazakh proverb, "Kelisip pishken ton kelte bolmas," which he glossed as meaning that a decision taken together is the wisest. 2026-08-22 19:45:06 -
Kang Kyung-sook Elected Chair of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Party Kang Kyung-sook, a proportional representative member of the Justice Innovation Party, has been elected as the chair of the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Party.According to Yonhap News on the 22nd, the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Party held a party member meeting at its office that day, where Kang was elected as the chair after running unopposed.Voting by Jeonbuk party members and national delegates took place over three days starting on the 20th. Kang received 93.1% of the votes in favor, with 6.9% opposed. Her term begins immediately and will last for two years.In her acceptance speech, Kang expressed gratitude to former chair Jeong Do-sang for his leadership and emphasized her commitment to revitalizing the party.Kang stated, "The essence of politics is attitude, and I believe that if I sincerely dedicate myself to the residents, the party, and the members, everyone will come together." She added, "I will lead the party to become a policy-oriented party that connects central and local issues, a small but strong party."She also highlighted the importance of communication with party members and strengthening organizational capacity. "The Jeonbuk party will come to you first to share concerns and work together," she said. "When facing difficult paths, I will be at the forefront, and when it's time to soar high, I will support you from below."Initially, this election was expected to be a contest between Kang and former chair Jeong Do-sang. However, Jeong withdrew from the race on the 17th, leaving Kang as the sole candidate, leading to the voting process.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:44:00
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Police Officer Arrested for Falsely Closing Missing Person Case in Jeju A police officer in Jeju has been urgently arrested for allegedly falsifying the closure of a missing person report involving 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, who has been missing for over three months. The Jeju Police Agency announced that at 3:29 p.m. on August 22, they arrested Officer A from the Jeju Western Police Station on charges of dereliction of duty, forgery of public documents, and obstruction of official duties. The arrest followed a comprehensive investigation into cases handled by Officer A, which revealed additional instances of false closures. According to reports from Yonhap News, police confirmed on August 21 that a separate missing person case, which Officer A had closed on July 2, was also falsely concluded, similar to the Jang case. Further evidence emerged indicating that Officer A had closed other missing person cases without verifying the facts. Previously, Officer A had reported on May 15 that he had made contact with Jang while processing her missing person report, leading to the case's closure. However, both Jang's phone records and an internal police investigation found no evidence of any communication between Officer A and Jang. Notably, Officer A closed the case approximately two and a half hours after the initial report was filed. Jang was last seen leaving her home in Hallim-eup, Jeju City, at 10:15 p.m. on May 12, carrying only her mobile phone, and her whereabouts remain unknown. Evidence has also surfaced indicating that Officer A deleted internal management records during the handling of the missing person case. The Jeju Police Agency has identified that Officer A entered information related to Jang's disappearance into the police's 'Missing Profiling System' but deleted it from the management list upon closing the case. According to Yonhap, police have been conducting focused searches around Hallim Port in Jeju City, where Jang's phone location was last confirmed, since August 20. Authorities, including the police and coast guard, are utilizing helicopters, drones, scent-tracking dogs, divers, and patrol boats in their efforts to locate Jang. The Jeju Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit plans to investigate the overall handling of cases, including the additional false closures attributed to Officer A, to determine if there are any further offenses.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:36:10
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Magnitude 2.7 Earthquake Strikes Off the East Coast of Jeju On the 22nd, the Meteorological Agency reported that a magnitude 2.7 earthquake occurred at 7:09 PM, 79 kilometers off the east coast of Seogwipo, Jeju.The epicenter was located at a latitude of 33.18 degrees north and a longitude of 127.41 degrees east, with a depth of 19 kilometers.The Meteorological Agency stated, "No damage is expected from the earthquake."* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:28:00
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Brazilian artists donate works to Seoul embassy before Biennale SEOUL, August 22 (AJP) - Thirteen Brazilian artists have donated works to the permanent collection of the Brazilian Embassy in Seoul, the embassy announced at a closing reception Friday evening, just over two weeks before their country opens its first national pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale. The pavilion, "Devorações do Amanhã – Brasil em rebento," or "Devouring Tomorrow," opens Sept. 5 at the Gwangju History and Folk Museum and runs through Nov. 15. It brings together 35 Brazilian artists across several generations and regions, under curators Aldones Nino and Bruna Levi. The Gwangju Biennale has hosted national pavilions alongside its main exhibition since 2018. Brazil has never had one until now. The announcement came at Brazil Hall, the embassy's cultural space in Samcheong-dong in central Seoul, where roughly 60 guests gathered on the final night of a three-week artist residency called Tropismo. Diplomats, artists and invited guests moved through a room still holding the work made there over the past three weeks. Aldones Nino, a Brazilian curator based in Spain, told the room that works by Ayla Tavares, Heloisa Hariadne, Isabella Ogêda, Lucas Lugarinho, Manauara Clandestina, Marcos Chaves, Maruan Sipert, Nathan Braga, Patrícia Abbott, Shinji Nagabe, Vicente de Mello, Uýra Capelobo and Vinicius Gerheim would enter the embassy collection. He said the residency was never meant to be a warm-up for the exhibition in Gwangju. "When I first envisioned this program, I wanted to create something that would go beyond serving as a preparatory stage for an exhibition," Nino said. Ambassador Fernando Meirelles de Azevedo Pimentel, who presented his credentials to President Lee Jae Myung on July 22, said the donations matter to how the mission presents Brazil in South Korea. "It is for us critical that the embassy becomes also the face of Brazil," the ambassador said. "We show our people, we show our art, and we cannot do it in a more beautiful way than through the contributions we will be receiving from the artists." He reached for a Korean idea to describe what the residency had done. Tropism, in biology, is the way a plant grows toward light or water. The ambassador said it echoed Cheon-ji-in, an old Korean and East Asian framework that treats heaven, earth and human beings as one connected whole. The three elements are familiar to most Koreans from the alphabet itself, since the vowels of hangeul are built from a dot for heaven, a horizontal line for earth and a vertical line for a standing person. "Tropism and Cheon-Ji-In emerge from different traditions, but they share a simple and profound insight: we do not grow in isolation," he said. The residency ran on almost nothing. According to the organizers' own transparency statement, the embassy lent Brazil Hall free of charge, and there was no budget for airfare, accommodation, production or operating costs. The artists covered those themselves. Vicente de Mello, a photographer who is also among the donors, directed the program day to day. The ambassador said the artists pushed to stay past closing. "The artists kept bugging us to give them more time, leave the studio later. 'We need to work until midnight,'" he said. "We did as much as we could. I'm sure they liked the overtime." Some of the work went well outside a studio. Isabella Ogêda, who works at the meeting point of art and science, spent part of her stay at a nuclear fusion laboratory. "My time in Korea has included research with the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) and a visit to KSTAR in Daejeon, which has been particularly important for the new work I am developing," she said. KSTAR is South Korea's superconducting fusion research reactor, a machine that holds plasma at temperatures far hotter than the core of the sun in an attempt to reproduce the reaction that powers stars. Speaking after the reception, Nino said the value of a residency shows up later, in how artists work once they are home. "There are artists who made their artwork in a specific form, but after this experience, a lot of artists changed the mode to create their artworks," he said. "I believe this is the strongest point in an artistic residency: the moment the artist goes back to their country and changes the mode to see the world." He said Asia remains largely unexplored territory for Brazilian artists. "In Brazil, it's very common to have connections with Europe and North America, but with the Asian world, the artists don't have the opportunity to investigate," Nino said. He said his hope for the pavilion is that it runs in both directions, with more Brazilian artists showing in South Korea and Korean artists invited to Brazil. The 16th Gwangju Biennale, directed by Ho Tzu Nyen under the title "You Must Change Your Life," opens Sept. 5 and runs to Nov. 15. 2026-08-22 19:21:24 -
KPGA Dong-A Membership Open Round 3 Postponed Due to Severe Weather The third round of the KPGA Dong-A Membership Group Open was postponed due to severe weather, including heavy rain and lightning. According to Yonhap News on the 22nd, the third round at the Sol Course (par 72) of the Solago Country Club in Taean, South Chungcheong Province, was halted at 2:50 p.m. due to intense rain and lightning. The KPGA delayed the resumption time twice but ultimately decided it was impossible to continue, pushing the remaining matches to the following day. The tournament had already faced challenges due to adverse weather during the second round the previous day, which was interrupted by a lightning warning and only resumed at 4:20 p.m. As a result, 72 players were unable to complete their rounds that day, necessitating the continuation of the second round early on the 22nd. Players who made the cut began the third round at 11:50 a.m. on the 22nd. However, inclement weather struck again, preventing all 72 players in 24 groups from finishing their rounds. Consequently, the players are scheduled to complete the third round starting at 6:50 a.m. on the 23rd, followed by the final round at approximately 11:40 a.m. on the same day. Jeong Jae-hoon, who completed three holes of the third round, is currently leading with a total score of 15-under par, while Kim Seung-min trails by one stroke.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:20:00
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Fire Breaks Out at Yeosu Power Plant, No Injuries Reported A fire broke out at a power plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, prompting firefighting efforts from local authorities.According to Yonhap News, the fire started around 4:08 p.m. on August 22 at a power plant in the Jungheung-dong area of Yeosu.No workers were present at the site during the incident, and there have been no reports of injuries so far.The fire department has deployed 27 fire trucks and 78 personnel to combat the blaze.The fire originated from a coal dust filter system located approximately 100 meters above ground. It is estimated that there are 1 to 2 tons of coal dust inside the system.Fire officials anticipate that completely extinguishing the embers within the dust will take considerable time and are continuing external cooling operations.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:00:10
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Fire Breaks Out at Yeosu Power Plant, No Injuries Reported Fire broke out at a power plant in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, prompting firefighting efforts from local authorities.According to Yonhap News, the fire started around 4:08 p.m. at a power plant in the Jungheung-dong area of Yeosu.No workers were present at the site during the incident, and there have been no reports of injuries so far.The fire department has deployed 27 vehicles and 78 personnel to combat the blaze.The fire originated from a coal dust filter system located approximately 100 meters above ground. It is estimated that there are 1 to 2 tons of coal dust inside the system.Fire officials anticipate that completely extinguishing the embers within the dust will take considerable time and are continuing external cooling operations.* This article has been translated by AI. 2026-08-22 19:00:00