[Editorial] Cost of lighting up

The health of Korean men is at great risk. So found a Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on the health and nutrition of Koreans in 2013 released earlier this week. The annual report found that about half of Korean men in their 30s and 40s smoke. With 42.1 percent of adult males smoking, the country has the second-highest rate of smokers among OECD countries. The rate of male smokers among the high-income group stood at 36.6 percent while the rate for those in the low-income

Sept. 19, 2014

[Editorial] Rice market opening

Korea’s rice market will open fully to foreign imports starting next year, ending 20 years of rice import caps.On Thursday the government announced that it would seek a 513 percent tariff on rice imports as it fully liberalizes the rice market, explaining that the high tariff will protect Korea’s rice farmers. Under an agreement with the World Trade Organization, Korea gradually increased its rice import quotas for 20 years instead of fully opening its rice market. That agreement expires at the

Sept. 19, 2014

[Editorial] Global climate finance

President Park Geun-hye plans to attend a global climate summit in New York next Tuesday, a day before delivering a keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly. During the conference that will bring together leaders from about 140 nations, Park will reaffirm Seoul’s pledge to take an active role in fighting climate change.The country’s hosting of a U.N. climate fund may give some weight to her commitment. In 2012, Korea was selected to be home to the Green Climate Fund, which was established in

Sept. 18, 2014

[Editorial] Incheon Asiad

The 17th Asian Games kicks off in the western port city of Incheon on Friday for a 16-day run with the attendance of about 14,500 athletes and delegates from 45 countries throughout the continent.Incheon is the third South Korean city to host the quadrennial event ― after Seoul in 1986 and Busan in 2002. Still, organizing officials, with the help of about 13,500 volunteer workers, are tasked with making it as successful as ever to contribute to enhancing friendship and reconciliation across the

Sept. 18, 2014

[Editorial] Timing is crucial

Finally, but belatedly, President Park Geun-hye stepped into the legislative impasse over the special Sewol bill. She called the leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party to Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday to press them to resolve the dispute over the bill and other pending political issues. The previously unannounced meeting at the presidential office came hours after Park broke her silence on the Sewol bill, which is aimed at probing the cause of the ferry disaster in April that claimed the lives of more t

Sept. 17, 2014

[Editorial] NPAD in disarray

Park Young-sun, the floor leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, has dropped her plan to leave the party in protest over demands from party hard-liners that she resign. On the surface, Park’s decision to stay, announced in a news conference she held Wednesday after three days in seclusion, may seem to pave the way for the party to recover from a crisis which was so serious as to raise talk of a split. But Park’s return to the fold is unlikely to pull the party out of

Sept. 17, 2014

[Editorial] Embarrassing lesson

The Health Ministry’s rejection of a Chinese firm’s plan to build a for-profit foreign hospital on Jejudo Island is a lesson that should not be lost on the government as it pursues a policy of broad deregulation.In an embarrassing fiasco, the ministry dismissed a proposal by China Stem Cell to build a 50 billion won hospital on Jejudo Island, a month after the Health Ministry said it would issue its decision on the Shaner Hospital & Health Care Center in September. That remark was made during a

Sept. 16, 2014

[Editorial] Keep your hands to yourself

Former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae has been summoned to appear at the police for questioning regarding a sexual assault complaint against him filed by a caddie.The 76-year-old Saenuri Party standing adviser is alleged to have sexually assaulted a female caddie during a round of golf on Sept. 11. At the ninth hole, the caddie radioed her supervisor complaining of physical contact and requested an immediate change of caddie. In attempting to deny the allegation, Park, in fact, admitted

Sept. 16, 2014

[Editorial] Fastest-aging society

A recent study by the National Assembly Research Service forecast South Koreans will be extinct by 2750 if the nation’s fertility rate, which declined to a new low of 1.19 children per woman last year, continues to remain at the same level.A simulation in the study suggested that the country’s current population of 50 million would shrink to 40 million in 2056 and 10 million in 2136 before the last South Korean died in 2750, making it the first national group in the world to become extinct. Thou

Sept. 15, 2014

[Editorial] Self-justifying report

North Korea last week issued a rare report on its own human rights situation. The report rebutted international criticism of its rights record and defended the oppressive regime’s policies as guaranteeing the “genuine rights of the people.”The North went to extra lengths to explain the reasons for releasing the report. The paper aims “to help the public properly know about the efforts exerted by the country to protect and promote human rights, to lay bare the false and reactionary nature of the

Sept. 15, 2014

[Editorial] Education cost

Korean parents are well known for their enthusiasm for their children’s education, which usually entails a heavy financial burden. The burden is so heavy that young people give up or delay marriage and childbirth, and baby boomers who had spent more than they could afford on the education of their children have to live a financially strained post-retirement life. This reality faced by many Koreans was confirmed statistically by an annual report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Sept. 14, 2014

[Editorial] N.K. at Asian Games

North Korean athletes have begun arriving here to attend the Incheon Asian Games opening later this week. The first batch of the 352-strong contingent arrived in Incheon aboard an Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang last Thursday. There will be five more such groups of North Korean athletes, trainers and officials coming to Incheon in time for the biggest sports festival in Asia scheduled for Sept. 19-Oct. 4. It is the third time that North Korea has participated in an international multisport event

Sept. 14, 2014

[Editorial] As closed as ever

The Sewol ferry disaster in April raised public awareness of the importance of reforming the civil service. A key element in the reforms is shutting down the system of revolving-door appointments, in which retired civil servants move to private-sector jobs related to their previous duties. Equally important in reforming the civil service is to bring in qualified personnel from outside the government. In fact, there are several schemes aimed at expanding personnel input from the private sector an

Sept. 12, 2014

[Editorial] War against smoking

The government has announced a drastic increase in cigarette prices to fight cigarette smoking, which is a serious problem in Korea. The announcement included nonprice-related antismoking programs like tougher packaging rules and restrictions on advertisements of tobacco products at retail shops. The “comprehensive antismoking measures,” announced by Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo on Thursday, are the most radical yet as they call for raising cigarette prices to 4,500 won from the cu

Sept. 12, 2014

[Editorial] Overdue play

The key architect of North Korea’s nuclear diplomacy recently reiterated Pyongyang’s call for an unconditional resumption of the six-party talks on the communist regime’s atomic weapons program. Kang Sok-ju, who brokered the 1994 nuclear deal with the U.S. in Geneva, said, “We want a resumption of the six-party talks without preconditions.”Kang, a secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party in charge of international relations, also called for the implementation of past inter-Korean agreement

Sept. 11, 2014

[Editorial] Exports to China

Korea has seen its exports to China, its largest trading partner, falling this year, even as its overall shipments abroad continue to grow. This trend is worrisome for Korea, which relies on the world’s most populous nation for nearly 30 percent of its exports.In the first eight months of 2014, the country’s shipments to China dropped by 1.5 percent from a year earlier, in contrast to a 2.5 percent rise in its overall exports, according to figures from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Sept. 11, 2014

[Editorial] Passing the buck

Three of the buildings that make up the Lotte World Tower & Lotte World Mall opened to the public on Sept. 6 for a “preopening” ― what the Seoul Metropolitan Government described as a chance for the people to make up their minds on whether the mega mall should be allowed to open ahead of the completion of the 555-meter-tall Lotte World Tower which is still under construction.While the high-end department store Avenuel, entertainment complex and shopping mall are open for public viewing, the shel

Sept. 10, 2014

[Editorial] Chuseok message

The lawmakers back from their trips home during the Chuseok holiday claim to have listened to their constituents. They should then know that what the voters want most of all is for the legislators, who they have voted into office and who are paid with their tax money, to get to work.Since May, the National Assembly has not passed a single bill. Just before Chuseok, though, the lawmakers managed to get together to vote against the arrest of one of their own who is suspected of taking bribes in a

Sept. 10, 2014

[Editorial] Save good regulations

The government announced this week that children aged 15 or under will be allowed to play online games after midnight, if they have their parents’ approval. This will only expose our children to greater risk of computer game addiction. Currently, online game operators are banned from providing services to those aged 15 or under from midnight to 6 a.m. The curfew, called “nighttime shutdown,” has been in force since 2011 and has proven effective in curbing youth game addiction.The announcement wa

Sept. 5, 2014

[Editorial] Adroit compromise

The government announced this week two major policy programs on carbon emissions regulation. In sum, the government will launch a carbon emissions trading scheme next January as scheduled, with some modifications to lessen the burden on industries, but it will delay a system that will reward buyers of low-emission cars and penalize those who buy high-emission ones. It seems that the government tried to find a compromise, considering both the nation’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissio

Sept. 5, 2014