[Editorial] New normal

It is not uncommon for Korean political parties to undergo a power vacuum or leadership crisis. This often happens when party leaders step down in the wake of an election defeat or a major scandal. An interim leadership -- usually termed an “emergency planning panel” -- takes over until party members choose new leaders. As the name suggests, such an abnormal situation should come about only rarely. It seems, however, that this is not a rarity, but the norm for Korean parties: Currently, all thre

July 3, 2016

[Editorial] Abolishing privileges

One positive aspect of the multiparty system created by the April general election is that political parties are under stronger pressure than before to project a pro-reform image to win support from the public.　The three major parties -- the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea and the minor opposition The People’s Party -- are acutely aware of the growing public demand for a new political culture. 　The public also demands higher ethical standards for lawmakers tha

July 1, 2016

[Editorial] Protecting consumers

German carmaker Volkswagen’s $14.7 billion deal with U.S. customers and regulators is fueling a debate over the need for Korea to introduce punitive damages and class action lawsuits to bolster consumer protection.　To settle its emission cheating scandal in the U.S., Volkswagen has offered to pay U.S. owners of its polluting vehicles -- nearly 475,000 TDI diesel cars -- as much as $10,000 per car in compensation. It has also agreed to buy back or repair the defective vehicles. 　While offering fa

July 1, 2016

[Editorial] Boon or bane?

Only four months after it came into being, the People’s Party is in crisis. How the party copes with the crisis will affect the future of not only the party itself but also national politics -- especially the next presidential election. The crisis, touched off by allegations of financial wrongdoing during the April 13 election campaign, culminated with the resignation of Ahn Cheol-soo, the party’s paramount leader, and his joint leader Chung Jung-bae on Tuesday. Their resignation came a day afte

June 30, 2016

[Editorial] Hong’s case

The seemingly endless controversies involving Hong Ky-ttack, a vice president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, show that a combination of personal greed and President Park Geun-hye’s misuse of her right to appoint senior officials has resulted in another disaster. As in similar cases, much of the blame for the latest mishap should go to Park, who is good at assigning the wrong people to the wrong posts. At the base of the problem is her preference for those who helped her election ca

June 30, 2016

[Editorial] China’s choice

Early this year, a newspaper published by China’s ruling Communist Party, reported growing calls among Chinese citizens to put pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.The paper said that a growing number of Chinese, both elites and ordinary citizens, regard Pyongyang as a burden to Beijing rather than an old friend.It pointed out that “changes in public opinion are altering the external environment of China’s policy on North Korea and can be converted into pressure that pushes the

June 29, 2016

[Editorial] Still unequal game

From Thursday, local and foreign institutions will be obliged to make public their identity when they engage in a certain level of short selling on the local bourse.The new disclosure rule is applicable to stock investors whose short sale of a particular listed company is worth 1 billion won ($856,000) or more. In addition, irrespective of worth, investors whose short-sale balance sheet exceeds 0.5 percent of a particular company’s total stocks issued must go public.The disclosure items include

June 29, 2016

[Editorial] Wise decision

Busan Mayor Suh Byung-soo said Monday he would respect the central government’s decision to expand the existing airport in the port city to meet the increased demand for air traffic in the nation’s southeastern region. He made the right decision.The central government announced on June 21 that it would scrap its plan to build the nation’s second hub airport in one of the two candidate sites -- Gadeokdo Island in Busan and Miryang of South Gyeongsang Province.　Busan had sought to host the new air

June 28, 2016

[Editorial] Navigating Brexit

The government has unveiled its economic management plan for the second half of the year amid turmoil in global financial markets following Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.The focus of the plan is on creating and retaining jobs as job market conditions are expected to worsen due to the weakening economic recovery and the ongoing restructuring of ailing industries.The economy grew a mere 0.5 percent on quarter in the first three months of the year, slowing down from the 1.2 percent

June 28, 2016

[Editorial] Corrupt labor

The graft scandals involving the union of GM Korea show how corrupt some of the nation’s large unions are. It should serve as a reminder that we cannot eradicate labor corruption without reining in unions’ power and interference with management decisions like staff recruitment. The latest case at the local unit of the U.S. carmaker General Motors started with an investigation into bribery allegations over the company’s purchase of gifts for employees on major holidays like Chuseok and Seollal an

June 27, 2016

[Editorial] Speaking up

National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-gyun took helm of a legislature which had lost public trust so severely that it was often rated as one of the least respected public institutions in opinion polls. The problem was serious in the 19th Assembly and many called it “the worst-ever parliament” due to severe partisan strife that often paralyzed legislative business and involved its members’ endless series of ethical lapses. The 20th Assembly started its four-year term early this month under strong p

June 27, 2016

[Editorial] Transient shock

South Korea’s financial market has faced widening uncertainty from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. Its stocks and currency, which suffered a sharp drop in value on Friday, are likely to show extraordinary volatility over the next few trading sessions.There is a possibility that the two main indexes will be further hit by Britons’ majority vote for Brexit.However, simultaneously, chances are the benchmark KOSPI will bounce back rapidly in the coming weeks. Despite the big external

June 26, 2016

[Editorial] Extreme nepotism

Koreans are accustomed to encountering misdeeds committed by public officials — both elected and appointed. But the seemingly endless cases of alleged nepotism involving Rep. Seo Yeong-gyo certainly goes beyond a tolerable level. In short, Seo, a two-term lawmaker from The Minjoo Party of Korea, is quite good at misusing her public office to provide benefits to her own family members.   She has been involved in a long list of cases of notorious nepotism. Three years ago, the lawmaker hired her o

June 24, 2016

[Editorial] Steep bias

The latest developments surrounding a group of 13 North Korean defectors who recently resettled in South Korea gives us several things to think about. First, the case reminds us of the Cold War-era past in which the two Koreas were engaged in a fierce publicity war about which was the better place to live. During that time, the two Koreas took full advantage of defectors from either side — to be fair, those from the North far outnumbered those from the South — to blow their own trumpet. Official

June 24, 2016

[Editorial] Evolving missile tests

North Korea test-fired what appeared to be two mid-range ballistic missiles Wednesday. The communist country managed to fly its intermediate-range ballistic missile for some hundred kilometers for the first time.While the first launch was deemed to be a failure, the second projectile’s flight, while well short of the 500 kilometer suspected minimum flight range of the Musudan, was assessed to have managed to sustain flight for a significant range.As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has clarified,

June 23, 2016

[Editorial] Denomination change

A lawmaker from the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea has raised the issue of abbreviating the unit of currency, and some of his colleagues are supporting his proposal for a redenomination.Rep. Choi Woon-yeol of the Minjoo Party said that it is the right time to start negotiating among lawmakers on whether to redenominate the currency. His suggestion indicates that the 20th National Assembly needs to take the initiative in garnering social consensus on the currency unit overhaul.The optimum

June 23, 2016

[Editorial] Risky idea

The main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea is pushing to divert funds from the state-run National Pension Service to build low-cost rental apartments for young people and child care centers to boost the nation’s low birth rate.The party launched Monday a large-scale special committee to promote the scheme, showing its determination to tap into the 520 trillion won pension fund ($446 billion) to finance its welfare projects.The committee consists of 13 lawmakers and 10 experts invited from out

June 22, 2016

[Editorial] Repeated folly

The government has scrapped its plan to build a new international airport in the southeastern region, choosing instead to expand the existing airport in Busan.The decision, which is exactly the same as the one made five years ago, was reached Monday based on a feasibility study carried out by ADPi, a French airport architecture and engineering company. ADPi was expected to choose one of the two candidate sites for the new airport — Miryang, a town located between Busan and Daegu, and Gadeokdo Is

June 22, 2016

[Editorial] Suicidal strikes

The news that the unions of South Korea’s three major shipbuilders are moving to strike against restructuring plans is truly distressing. Workers at Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries proclaimed last week a labor dispute with management -- the first legal step for collective action. They said workers will cast ballots soon whether to authorize a strike or not. The union of the third shipbuilder -- Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering -- had already voted for walkout, wit

June 21, 2016

[Editorial] Wrong conclusion

As expected, investigations into incumbent prosecutors over the Jung Woon-ho bribery scandal is going nowhere. This raises a fundamental question -- whether it is legitimate to leave the investigation in the hands of the state prosecution. Prosecutors indicted a key figure in the case – former vice minister-level prosecutor Hong Man-pyo -- on Monday on charges of accepting kickbacks from Jung and evading taxes. The indictment accused Hong, already in custody, of receiving 300 million won ($251,0

June 21, 2016