NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

When asked about Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung's proposal about a special prosecutor on his way to work this morning, President Yoon Suk-yeol said that many people had already made their opinions public, which suggested that the president cannot accept the proposal to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the Daejang-dong development scandal. Earlier, the office of the president made it clear that the special prosecution issue should be discusses at the National Assembly and People Power Party Floor Leader Joo Ho-young already stated that the ruling party will not accept the proposal.
New confirmed cases of COVID-19 numbered in the 40,000s for two straight days. The Central Disease Control Headquarters announced that as of yesterday 40,842 new cases, including 40,761 local cases, were reported in Korea. Critical cases in hospitals amounted to 242, up 17 from the previous day, and 26 more people died to bring up the total number of COVID-19 deaths to 29,043.
It was found that the North Korean merchant vessel that had crossed over the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea on Monday was on the watch list of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea. Voice of America reported today that the Mupo merchant vessel was being watched by the expert panel of the sanctions committee. According to the U.S. news media, the sanctions committee's panel of specialists included the Mupo in the list of 14 ships that began sailing under the North Korean flag between 2020 and 2022 in its mid-term report submitted to the U.N. on October 7th.