[Editorial] Barriers too high

North Korea this week downplayed South Korea’s recent decision to join a China-led financial institution as a trade-off for the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system on its soil. Uriminzokkiri, the North’s propaganda website, claimed the U.S. was strengthening its push to send a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to the peninsula in return for letting the South become a founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.Seoul seems to have left some room for Pyon

April 2, 2015

[Editorial] Poisonous politics

Rival political parties seemed to mistake the April 29 by-elections, which will be held in four parliamentary constituencies, for general or presidential polls when they put forward large-scale campaign pledges this week.The liberal main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy promised to create 100,000 new jobs and 600 day care centers every year as well as to provide tuition fees for high school students from working-class and middle-income families. Party policymakers claimed funds nee

April 2, 2015

[Editorial] Real protection

The Korean name of the nation’s immigration detention facilities includes the word for “protection.” But it has long been pointed out that the facilities, which temporarily house asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants who face deportation or are under investigation, do not meet the demands of a place for protecting and sheltering people who are going through a difficult ordeal. Nevertheless, a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission that found numerous cases of human rights vio

April 1, 2015

[Editorial] Bullying poor vendors

Since its launch in 1995, television home shopping has grown as a solid, lucrative retail platform, with the market reaching 9 trillion won. Sadly, a filthy side to the business environment in the industry has also steadily grown.There are so many entrenched foul business practices in the industry that the nation’s antitrust watchdog called them “a comprehensive assortment of irregularities.”For the irregularities, mostly cases of six TV home shopping firms abusing their power against vendors, t

April 1, 2015

[Editorial] Abe’s ambiguity

In an interview with the Washington Post last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined the goals of his April trip. The tenor of the interview was that the U.S.-Japan alliance remained strong, based on both economic and security partnerships as well as the two countries’ shared universal values. There was also a strong suggestion of a growing threat from China and how a stronger U.S.-Japan alliance would be able to counter that threat. By emphasizing that Japan is a country which, like

March 31, 2015

[Editorial] Growing sinkhole problem

Two sinkholes appeared in busy areas of Seoul on March 28, lending urgency to the problem of sinkholes, which threaten public safety.In Sinchon, a 15-ton truck fell sideways as the ground gave way below it, and in Samseong-dong a motorcyclist was injured when his motorbike hit a sinkhole. In February, two pedestrians were injured in Yongsan when the pavement sank below them. Last year, sinkholes that appeared around the Lotte World Tower construction site also caused widespread fear. Authorities

March 31, 2015

[Editorial] Security cooperation

A senior Pentagon official last week reiterated Washington’s desire to further expand trilateral defense cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo beyond the military information sharing agreement concluded among them last year. David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs, called the intelligence sharing deal a “good first step” during his speech at an event on U.S.-Japan security in Washington. He hoped there would be opportunities for further such arrangements that

March 30, 2015

[Editorial] A valuable partner

Korea pledged to strengthen support for facilitating growth in Central and South American countries during this year’s Inter-American Development Bank board of governors meeting in Busan last week. The Finance Ministry unveiled a plan to offer $1.1 billion in policy funds to help finance development projects in Latin America. During the biennial IDB conference, Korea also promised to expand its knowledge-sharing program with states in the region to help them better use its development experience

March 30, 2015

[Editorial] AIIB and Korea

In many respects, South Korea’s decision last week to participate in the China-led new regional infrastructure development bank was sensible. The decision, made eight months after Beijing formally requested Seoul’s participation, however, does not mean that the Seoul government has solved a tricky issue for good, but that it should brace for real challenges ― like securing due equity and voting rights. Chinese President Xi Jinping requested Korea to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

March 29, 2015

[Editorial] Unfit corruption busters

Investigators raided the home of Park Bum-hoon, former Chung-Ang University president, and several other places Friday on suspicions that he exerted influence on government officials to favor the university when he served as a top presidential aide. The probe into Park, who served as the senior presidential secretary for education during the Lee Myung-bak administration, is part of the widening “all-out war” against corruption launched by the government of President Park Geun-hye earlier this mo

March 29, 2015

[Editorial] Tantalizing goal

Korea’s per capita gross national income amounted to $28,180 last year, up 7.6 percent from the previous year, with its economy growing 3.3 percent, according to data released by the central bank this week. The robust increase in the dollar-denominated per capita GNI was attributed largely to a 3.9 percent rise in the value of the Korean won against the greenback.Experts estimate Korea ranked 29th in the world last year in terms of per capita income, a gauge of a population’s purchasing power.Th

March 27, 2015

[Editorial] Aged drivers

Traffic police here are on alert over a sharp increase in the number of road accidents involving elderly drivers. According to data from the National Police Agency, the total number of traffic accidents in the country decreased from 231,990 in 2009 to 223,552 last year, but the figure for those caused by drivers aged 65 or older rose from 11,998 to 20,275 over the same period. As a result, elderly drivers accounted for nearly 10 percent of road accidents that took place last year, up from 5.2 pe

March 27, 2015

[Editorial] Undue privileges

In the Korean court, there is a unique, yet very unwholesome practice ― judges and prosecutors give preferential treatment to cases handled by their former colleagues who have gone into private practice. Because of this advantage, retired judges and prosecutors have a higher rate of winning cases in their first years as attorneys, which means they easily get more clients and make more money than their competitors. Strictly speaking, this amounts to corruption or at least collusion, and there hav

March 26, 2015

[Editorial] Special inspector

The parliamentary judiciary committee approved on Tuesday President Park Geun-hye’s nomination of Lee Seok-soo as the first special inspector tasked with inspecting the president’s close relatives and senior Blue House aides. The parliamentary approval paves the way for Lee, a former prosecutor, to start his work ― keep a close watch on Park’s relatives and aides and launch investigations if any of them commits wrongdoings.The appointment of the special inspector was one of Park’s election pledg

March 26, 2015

[Editorial] Resource diplomacy probe

The parliamentary probe into resource diplomacy hit a stumbling block with the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy unable to agree on the witnesses to be called for the parliamentary hearings scheduled to take place on March 31 and April 1, 3 and 6.The special investigation committee was launched on Dec. 31 to probe the Lee Myung-bak administration’s resource diplomacy. The effort undertaken during the Lee administration to reduce dependence on Middle

March 25, 2015

[Editorial] An Asian legend

A visionary leader who saw Singapore rise from a former colonial outpost to a global economic powerhouse, Lee Kuan Yew passed away Monday, leaving behind a legacy that will be hard to emulate.A lawyer by training, Lee entered politics in pre-independent Singapore and became its first prime minister in 1959, a post he would hold for some three decades. When the Republic of Singapore was founded in 1965, it was a country without natural resources, including water, which it obtained mostly from Mal

March 25, 2015

[Editorial] Honor of Navy

Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the North Korean torpedo attack on the Cheonan corvette in the West Sea, in which 46 officers and sailors perished in the dark waters. As in the past four years, Koreans will solemnly pay tributes to the patriots who sacrificed their lives in the defense of the nation. A memorial service is to be held at the National Cemetery in Daejeon, where the fallen Cheonan crew lie in state, and other events will commemorate the anniversary. Despite the passage of ti

March 24, 2015

[Editorial] As elusive as ever

It is often said that Koreans are not good at negotiations or compromise. As a matter of fact, social pacts and grand social compromises that require concessions from all parties are rare in Korean society. But hopes had been a little higher than usual when two panels ― one for reform of the pension scheme for government workers and the other for reform of the labor market ― started talks. Hope was high because the issues matter greatly for the future of the nation. But both the Body for Grand S

March 24, 2015

[Editorial] Boosting the economy

Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan last week announced his third stimulus package since taking office in July to help boost the economy. Markets have remained skeptical about its effectiveness ― with good reasons.The stimulus calls for frontloading 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) in fiscal expenditure in the first half of this year and raising an additional investment of 7 trillion won from public and private sectors throughout the year.If implemented as envisaged, these plans seem to be far short o

March 23, 2015

[Editorial] Rezoning constituencies

The thorniest task facing the parliamentary special committee on political reform, which was set up last week, may be rezoning the 246 electoral districts ahead of the next general election in April 2016.The main guidance for the rezoning work will be last year’s ruling by the Constitutional Court that the population deviation between the most and least populous constituencies should be narrowed from the current 3-to-1. This will be changed to 2-to-1 to ensure each voter exercises more equal vot

March 23, 2015