[Editorial] Lineup problem

Kim Ki-jung, the second vice chief of the National Security Office, who was regarded as a mentor to President Moon Jae-in on foreign affairs and national security, offered to resign Monday.Yoon Young-chan, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said Kim felt a “moral responsibility” to step down. According to some news reports, the presidential office practically sacked him for “inappropriate conduct” at Yonsei University when he was a professor there. Many tip-offs and complaints a

June 7, 2017

[Editorial] Minimum is good

President Moon Jae-in’s decision to seek a much smaller-than-expected reorganization of the Cabinet ministries was well advised. Most of all, it would help the civil service easily settle down into a routine under the new liberal government. In some sense, it would have been inevitable for the Moon administration to minimize shutdowns, mergers and creations of government agencies, which had become a routine for almost every recent administration. Moon took the presidency through an unscheduled e

June 6, 2017

[Editorial] Keep in step

South Korea has begun to step up efforts for dialogue with North Korea. The Ministry of Unification on Monday approved four civic groups’ applications for contact with North Koreans to carry out their inter-Korean projects, just three days after giving the green light to eight groups. The total approved points of contact with North Koreans has increased to 15 since the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in administration on May 10. The figure is expected to keep rising in line with the government’s st

June 5, 2017

[Editorial] Brace for more

US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement has some implications for the world and South Korea.First, Trump again demonstrated that America under his presidency could abandon its global leadership in any critical global issue. It is indeed disappointing to see the leader of the most powerful country in the world so easily break away from an international commitment forged to fight one of the most pressing challenges facing mankind. Moreover, the US i

June 4, 2017

[Editorial] Honeymoon’s over

The honeymoon between President Moon Jae-in and the opposition -- if there was any -- is over, with the two sides bracing for the first round of contention since Moon took office a little over three weeks ago. Chung Woo-taik, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, declared an end to the short-lived bedding-in period. He also said that his party would not accept the president’s proposal to form a policy consultative body consisting of the government and ruling and opposition par

June 2, 2017

[Editorial] Undesirable disclosure

Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday the Defense Ministry had deliberately not reported the arrival of four launchers for a US anti-missile system. It came a day after the presidential office made public the ministry’s omission of the information in a briefing and President Moon Jae-in’s order to investigate.　 According to Cheong Wa Dae, the related content was written on the draft of the report, but deleted in the final report made to Chung Eui-yong, chief of the National Security Office. Cheong Wa Dae

June 1, 2017

[Editorial] Genuine reform

Every recent president has promised to reform South Korea’s notoriously powerful agencies, such as the spy agency, prosecution, tax office, antitrust watchdog and so on. President Moon Jae-in is no exception. At the core of Moon’s promise is that his administration will depart from the past practice of the government in power using those agencies for political purposes.Moon has already taken some actions, including radical reshuffles of senior officials, to overhaul the prosecution, which has bo

May 31, 2017

[Editorial] Signals of pressure

North Korea fired a ballistic missile again on Monday. It was the communist nation’s ninth missile provocation this year and the third missile launch since President Moon Jae-in was inaugurated. Nothing seems to hold the North from firing missiles. It passed April without provocations as the US threatened preemptive strikes. Then, signs encouraging its leader Kim Jong-un showed up. The US practically excluded a military option, focusing on economic and diplomatic pressure instead. A new leader w

May 30, 2017

[Editorial] Real difference

It is an undeniable fact that failures of the ousted and jailed President Park Geun-hye have paved an easy way for Moon Jae-in to take over the nation’s highest elected office. So it was quite natural that President Moon called for correcting the wrongs of the Park administration, which he succinctly called “accumulated evils.”They include problems like concentration of power in the president, abuse of power by people close to the president and collusive ties between politics and business. Such

May 29, 2017

[Editorial] Confirmation criteria

The prospects for Prime Minister nominee Lee Nak-yon are cloudy, with opposition parties refusing to adopt the confirmation hearing report for him.The sticking point was a false address registration his wife made.It is one of five irregularities President Moon Jae-in pledged to use as yardsticks to tell eligible from ineligible candidates for public office.False address registration involves moving in a certain district on paper while living elsewhere. It is an illegal act usually committed to f

May 28, 2017

[Editorial] Way to create jobs

The employment situation board installed in President Moon Jae-in’s office Wednesday vividly shows his strong will to create jobs.Moon and his secretaries can take a glance at key labor statistics including employment rate, jobless rate, youth jobless rate, wage disparity and working hours. Job creation was one of his key election pledges. His first executive order, signed on May 10 when he took office, was to establish a presidential committee on job creation. He said he would check the display

May 26, 2017

[Editorial] Too impatient

Now into his third week as the chief executive, President Moon Jae-in seems to be off to a good start, with his approval ratings exceeding 80 percent. Not all what he says and does is good or assuring, however. North Korea is one area of such concern. The biggest problem is that Moon and his top aides appear to be rushing to appease North Korea despite the lack of progress in efforts to rein in the rogue state’s nuclear and missile threats. It would be unsurprising if Moon, whose former boss Roh

May 25, 2017

[Editorial] Driving out evils

President Moon Jae-in has started a drive to root out the evils of the past governments, as pledged on his campaign trail.The drive started three days after he was elected. Moon ordered Cho Kuk, senior secretary for civil affairs, to review prosecutors’ investigations into the leak of a document in late 2004.The document revealed the existence of Choi Soon-sil and her then husband, Jeong Yun-hoe, and their connection to President Park Geun-hye. It alleged the couple had close ties with Park and

May 24, 2017

[Editorial] Appointer in chief

Every president has his or her own style. Moon Jae-in is no exception, and his appointments of senior administration officials have distinguished him from past presidents. First, Moon -- unlike his predecessors -- comes to the Blue House pressroom to personally introduce presidential appointees. That certainly helps the president stay close to the public. The way Moon selects senior administration officials so far has been generally positive as well. It is encouraging that he picks people from a

May 23, 2017

[Editorial] Conflicts over THAAD

When it comes to resolving conflicts with China over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antimissile system, South Korea appears to have little elbow room. Chinese President Xi Jinping received a visit by South Korea’s special envoy Lee Hae-chan on Friday and expressed his hope for an early resolution of the conflict on the basis of mutual respect.Xi did not mention opposition to the THAAD and the possibility of revoking economic retaliation, but there have been signs that

May 22, 2017

[Editorial] Another vital task

There are some issues President Moon Jae-in has been prioritizing in his first weeks as the chief executive. They include job creation, the security threat from North Korea, relations with neighboring powers and overhauling the prosecution. Moon has just added revision of the Constitution to the growing list. The Constitution was last amended in 1987 in the wake of the pro-democracy movement in that year. Its focus was on ensuring a power structure that can end the vicious cycle of dictatorships

May 21, 2017

[Editorial] Reform, not purge

As President Moon Jae-in said, it is time to reform the prosecution. A recent scandal involving senior prosecutors adds to the urgency to overhaul the nation’s top law-enforcement authority. The scandal surrounds a dinner on April 21, during which two groups of senior prosecutors -- one from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office and the other from the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Justice Ministry -- dined and drank together. The problem is that the heads of the two groups were involve

May 19, 2017

[Editorial] Summit diplomacy

President Moon Jae-in has kick-started summit diplomacy with the dispatch of special envoys. Special envoys to the US and Japan are already on visits to the countries, and an envoy to China departed for Beijing on Thursday. A special envoy to Russia will leave for Moscow next week.During a luncheon with special envoys Tuesday, Moon said, “filling the void of summit diplomacy is the most urgent task.” Top-level diplomacy was on hold due to Park Geun-Hye’s impeachment. US President Donald Trump di

May 18, 2017

[Editorial] Harmony or hegemony?

A president’s relationship with the opposition in his first months in office is crucial for setting a new administration to work. It’s even more the case if that president was elected with less than a majority of votes and his party lacks control of the parliament. That is part of the reality that may have encouraged President Moon Jae-in to pay a personal visit to the four opposition parties on his first day in office. That rare gesture fostered the mood for the rival parties to leave their bit

May 17, 2017

[Editorial] Hopes and concerns

Moon Jae-in’s first week as president exposed both positive and negative aspects, raising hopes and concerns about the decisions he will make over his five-year term.Having taken the national leadership amid a deep divide caused by the removal of Park Geun-hye as president, Moon has put “national integration” as one of the key tenets of his presidency. Communication is another core word as he believes Park ruined her presidency due to her parochial operation of the government and detachment from

May 15, 2017