[Editorial] A near miss

A group of children and teachers narrowly avoided what could have been a horrible accident last week when the roof of a classroom collapsed at a child care center in Bangbae-dong, Seoul.Eleven students, from age 1 to 3, used the classroom in which the roof caved in. It was pure chance that the children had just stepped out of the room, led by their teachers, to wash their hands before lunch. The accident could have led to the tragic deaths of teachers and young lives. On the day of the accident,

July 20, 2015

[Editorial] Need for transparency

The death of a National Intelligence Service employee by apparent suicide on Saturday has raised more questions about the spy agency’s hacking activities.The 20-year-veteran of cybersecurity at the NIS who was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in his car in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, left three separate suicide notes, including one addressed to his employer, the NIS, which was made public on Sunday.The man, identified only as Lim, was said to have been responsible for the spy agency’s pu

July 20, 2015

[Editorial] Selecting a justice

The Supreme Court recently unveiled a list of 27 candidates to succeed a justice who is to retire in September. It is the first time the top court has made public the list of justice candidates before a recommendation committee begins its screening process.Individuals and organizations are allowed to express their opinions in written form on the qualifications of each candidate for 10 days through Friday. The recommendation committee is supposed to reflect the opinions in its work to select thre

July 19, 2015

[Editorial] Japan’s security legislation

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has stayed firm on his path toward enacting controversial security bills by September despite surging parliamentary and public opposition.His Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner in the ruling coalition, the New Komeito Party, unilaterally passed the bills in the lower house of the Diet on Thursday. They require approval by the upper chamber to become law.The security legislation centers on allowing Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defe

July 19, 2015

[Editorial] A fresh start

By all accounts, it was a convivial meeting. On Thursday, President Park Geun-hye and leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party met at the Blue House, the first such meeting in nearly five months.The gathering of Park and the top leaders of the Saenuri Party, including chairman Kim Moo-sung, newly-elected floor leader Won Yoo-chul, and new chief policymaker Kim Jung-hoon was an occasion to demonstrate that relations between the Blue House and the ruling party were back to normal, following the Nationa

July 17, 2015

[Editorial] Stolen statue returned

A statue of Buddha stolen from a shrine in Japan and smuggled into Korea has been returned to Japan.In announcing the decision to return the stolen artifact, the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said that it could not be determined whether the bronze standing Tathagata Buddha statue, dating back to the 8th-century Unified Silla period, had been taken out of Korea illegally. It also said that no one had come forward to claim ownership of the Buddha statue. The statue was smuggled into Korea after it w

July 17, 2015

[Editorial] Denuclearizing N. Korea

The conclusion of a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program this week has raised hopes it might lead to a breakthrough in stalled negotiations on denuclearizing North Korea.From a realistic view, however, there can be little expectation that the accord between Tehran and six world powers, including the U.S., will have any significant implications for the North Korean nuclear issue.The fundamental difference between Iran and North Korea is that the former regards its nuclear program as an option, not

July 16, 2015

[Editorial] Intelligence hacking

The nation’s top intelligence agency has denied using a hacking program purchased from an Italian company to monitor South Korean citizens.At a closed-door meeting with lawmakers Tuesday, the head of the National Intelligence Service insisted the agency had bought Remote Control System software to boost Seoul’s cyberwarfare capabilities against North Korea. NIS director Lee Byung-ho was further quoted by executive members on the parliamentary intelligence committee as saying it was unthinkable t

July 16, 2015

[Editorial] Back to normal

　Ruling party leader Kim Moo-sung rekindled public attention in two important political agendas - revising the National Assembly Advancement Act that has often incapacitated the parliament and instituting open primaries for major elections. 　Kim mentioned the proposals in a news conference Monday, which marked a year since he took the helm of the Saenuri Party. It is not the first time that he has spoken about these issues, but the anniversary press meeting surely added political weight to his s

July 15, 2015

[Editorial] About-face

    President Park Geun-hye’s sudden about-face on special pardons raises concerns that she may repeat what she criticized her predecessors for – abusing the presidential clemency in favor of business tycoons and politicians.  　Park, in a meeting with her senior Blue House aides Monday, said that special pardons to be granted on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule would contribute to “national development and integration.”　It makes a sense that s

July 15, 2015

[Editorial] People run the system

Last week, an 86-year-old woman was found living in an empty house with the body of her 83-year-old sister, who, the police say, appeared to have passed away several days earlier.The police were alerted about the two elderly sisters by a relative who reported that it had not been possible to contact the sisters for five days. When the police arrived at the scene, they found the younger woman’s decomposing body and the older sister in a state of severe dehydration. The surviving sister, who suffe

July 14, 2015

[Editorial] More than a sports event

In this age of professional sports, amateur sporting events of university students garner little public attention.Yet, that does not take away from the value of the Summer Universiade that came to a close Tuesday after welcoming some 13,000 student athletes from 143 countries around the world on July 3. Although a number of athletes decided to withdraw following the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak, the viral disease failed to dampen the Summer Universiade’s celebration of sports, youth

July 14, 2015

[Editorial] Duty-free sales

HDC Shilla Duty Free and Hanwha Galleria Timeworld, which are affiliated with the country’s major conglomerates Samsung and Hanwha, last week obtained licenses to run new duty-free stores in downtown Seoul.They had good reason to be overjoyed at their success in the high-profile bidding war against five competitors. The duty-free market has been a rare bright spot in the local retail sector struggling with anemic consumer spending amid a sluggish economy. Buoyed mainly by shopping by a growing n

July 13, 2015

[Editorial] Misuse of subsidies

Out of the 11.8 trillion won ($10.4 billion) in the supplementary budget bill submitted by the government last week to parliament, 5.6 trillion won has been earmarked to make up for this year’s tax revenue shortfall. In recent years, tax revenues have consistently fallen short of government-set targets.Under these tightened fiscal conditions, the importance of budgetary efficiency cannot be overemphasized.A recent audit by a group of experts, including professors and researchers, into government

July 13, 2015

[Editorial] Another rehash

The Education Ministry announced plans last week to increase the number of foreign students studying at the nation’s colleges and universities to 200,000 by 2023. This represents a 250 percent expansion from the current level ― there were about 85,000 international students at Korean campuses at the end of last year. Since peaking at 89,000 in 2011, the number has declined, with the ratio of foreign students to domestic students standing at 2 percent, compared with the 8 percent average among me

July 12, 2015

[Editorial] Fending off vultures

Samsung may heave a sigh of relief over the news reports that the National Pension Service has decided to support the proposed merger of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. The decision, reportedly made by its investment panel Friday, certainly gives the upper hand to the Korean conglomerate in its showdown with the U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates, which has striven to block the merger. The decision of the NPS, which holds the largest voting stake, 11.2 percent, in Samsung C&T, followed two suc

July 12, 2015

[Editorial] Minimum wage increase

A trilateral committee of labor, management and government representatives decided Thursday to raise the country’s minimum wage by 8.1 percent to 6,030 won ($5.33) per hour for next year. About 3.4 million workers on low incomes are expected to be affected by the pay increase, which will be steeper than this year’s 7.1 percent hike.The decision came 10 days after the legal deadline set for June 29. Labor representatives walked out of a vote on the compromise suggested by government-appointed mem

July 10, 2015

[Editorial] Income tax exemption

Lawmakers on a parliamentary subcommittee set up to deliberate taxation rules have been sitting on their hands over measures submitted by the government early this month to reduce the number of income earners exempted from tax.This is an embarrassing scene as it was the panel itself that had asked Finance Ministry officials to work out the measures. More perplexingly, the lawmakers contradicted themselves in making the request, having put pressure on the ministry to settle complaints from wage e

July 10, 2015

[Editorial] No more power struggle

Infighting within Korean political parties ― ruling and opposition alike ― is as notorious as fights between rival parties. Yet, the recent brouhaha in the ruling camp and the way it was settled increases skepticism about the Park administration and the Saenuri Party. Usually, the relationship between the president and the ruling party becomes strained around the end of the chief executive’s term. This is largely because the president ― who serves a single five-year term ― is in the lame-duck st

July 9, 2015

[Editorial] Self-contradiction

President Park Geun-hye issued a warning Tuesday against Cabinet members who she said were distracted from their jobs. The warning, made at the weekly Cabinet meeting, was a clear manifestation that she was not happy with the performance of some ministers. Specifically, a stern-faced Park raised her voice when she said that Cabinet ministers should work on behalf of the people and that they should lead their respective ministries well, without pursuing any “personal paths.”Park did not elaborate

July 9, 2015