[Editorial] Review quiet diplomacy

China is said to have forcibly repatriated hundreds of North Korean defectors locked up in its detention facilities. The Ministry of Unification said such claims by civil organizations working to improve North Korean human rights seem to be true and that South Korea expressed regret to China over the issue. Beijing, however, is silent. According to the organizations, Chinese public security authorities forcibly sent back about 600 North Korean defectors imprisoned near the border with North Kore

Oct. 16, 2023

[Editorial] Support chip sector

South Korean chipmakers have secured an indefinite waiver for US chip equipment exports to China. The eased US controls are clearly a positive turn of events. But the Korean government, keen to shore up its vital chip sector, is in no position to feel relieved. On Monday, the presidential office said Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will be allowed to keep providing US chip equipment to their Chinese factories indefinitely without a separate approval process. The US government designated Samsung

Oct. 13, 2023

[Editorial] NEC's lax attitude

The overall election management system of the National Election Commission has been found to be effectively defenseless to hacking attacks. A joint security check by the National Intelligence Service and Korea Internet & Security Agency detected a number of vulnerabilities in the voting and ballot counting systems and the internal operational system of the commission. The intelligence agency discovered there had been eight hacking attacks on the commission in the past two years, including se

Oct. 12, 2023

[Editorial] Israel-Hamas war

Saturday's surprise attack by Hamas on Israel has escalated into a deadly war in the conflict-laden Middle East, which not only puts the region’s geopolitical order in turmoil but also adds to the deep uncertainty of global politics and the economy at large. In response to Hamas’ incursion of unprecedented scale and preparation, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said in a statement: “We are at war.” More than 900 people were killed in Israel, while H

Oct. 11, 2023

[Editorial] Speed up trials

Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung is to stand trial in several cases, but delays have been severe. He can try delay tactics as a defendant, but the judiciary must not play into his hands. His trials must be conducted all the quicker, considering his status as party leader. Before the legislative general election just six months away, voters need to know the courts’ judgments on grave allegations involving a party leader. Lee attended his first court hearing Friday, seven month

Oct. 10, 2023

[Editorial] Sticky inflation

South Korea’s consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 3.7 percent in September from a year earlier, marking the highest on-year increase in five months, amid worrisome signs of additional volatility in prices. Some experts raise the possibility that the Korean economy might fall into a trap of “sticky inflation,” referring to a situation where prices do not adjust quickly or smoothly in response to changes in supply and demand, leading to persistent inflation. It is too

Oct. 9, 2023

[Editorial] Uproot opinion-rigging

The anomalies which happened on the Korean web portal Daum during the Asian Games show that overseas manipulation of public opinions on domestic portal sites has become a reality. During the Asian Games men's football quarterfinal match between South Korea and China on Sunday, the ratio of clicks cheering for China on Daum reached 91 percent at one point, compared with a mere 9 percent for South Korea. On Naver, another Korean web portal, the number of clicks cheering for South Korea took

Oct. 6, 2023

[Editorial] No time to delay reform

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration is scheduled to unveil a blueprint for public pension reform this month, but there is only a slim chance that any meaningful progress will be made any time soon. One of the reasons for such a pessimistic view is that the lawmakers from both parties agreed to effectively put aside the pension reform issue until after next year's general election. The ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Monday agreed to extend the ope

Oct. 5, 2023

[Editorial] Time for self-restraint

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea is escalating its offense against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration after the court rejected an arrest warrant request for its leader, Lee Jae-myung. The party demanded an apology from Yoon and the dismissal of Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon. Boosted by the denial of his arrest warrant, Lee proposed out of the blue that Yoon hold one-on-one talks with him to discuss the livelihoods of the public. Lee likely knew well that the president would almost ce

Oct. 4, 2023

[Editorial] Right choice eventually prevails

The Constitutional Court ruled a ban on sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea is unconstitutional. It comes as another belated -- but correct -- decision after the Supreme Court ruled in April that anti-North Korea leaflets played a positive role in providing information to North Koreans about their reality. At the time the ban was introduced, the Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea faced severe criticism for legislating the ban as North Korea demanded, but t

Sept. 28, 2023

[Editorial] Slow growth trap

South Korea’s growth rate is feared to dip below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average for the third consecutive year this year, unless sagging exports rebound at a brisk pace. The OECD maintained Korea’s 2023 growth outlook and inflation forecast at 1.5 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively, in its interim report titled, “Confronting Inflation and Low Growth.” The interim outlook suggests there has been no meaningful change in the country&rsqu

Sept. 27, 2023

[Editorial] Right to live in quiet

The court last week allowed the Korean Metal Workers' Union, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, to hold an overnight rally on the street in front of the National Assembly. It was the first time the court had allowed an overnight open-air demonstration. The court accepted the application by the metal workers' union to invalidate a police ban on its overnight outdoor protest. The union had reported to the police that it would hold a rally from 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 to noo

Sept. 26, 2023

[Editorial] Roadblocks ahead

The South Korean economy is set to grapple with three volatile conditions -- the so-called “three highs” -- in the coming months: higher interest rates, high energy prices and the higher value of the US dollar against the Korean currency. First and foremost, the US interest rate change is drawing keen attention from Korean policymakers and investors as its impact is potentially critical. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged, but signaled it may opt for on

Sept. 25, 2023

[Editorial] Kepco’s woes

President Yoon Suk Yeol signed off on the appointments of Kim Dong-cheol as the new CEO of Korea Electric Power Corp., also known as Kepco, and Bang Moon-kyu as trade minister this week, the very two figures in charge of the highly explosive issue of electricity rate hikes. The idea of raising electricity rates is a sensitive topic for the government as many households find the sharp increase in August's electricity bills hard to swallow. This year’s lengthy heat waves forced many hou

Sept. 22, 2023

[Editorial] Lee's arrest warrant

The National Assembly is set to vote on a government request for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to attend a pretrial detention hearing. He has promised many times to give up his privilege as a lawmaker of being able to avoid detention depending on the result of a National Assembly vote and voluntarily attend a detention hearing like ordinary people do if the prosecution sought an arrest warrant for him, but his promises were just empty words. An incumbent National Assembly member can stand tria

Sept. 21, 2023

[Editorial] A worrisome gap

South Korea’s tax revenue shortfall for 2023 is now estimated to stand at 59.1 trillion won ($44.6 billion), according to newly revised government data, the biggest in years. The Ministry of Finance and Economy announced Monday it has revised down its annual tax revenue projection to 341.4 trillion won, citing sluggish corporate earnings and a protracted slump in the property market. The ministry’s earlier tax revenue outlook for this year was 400.5 trillion won. The new revision ref

Sept. 20, 2023

[Editorial] Deceit of the nation

The manipulation of economic statistics by the Moon Jae-in administration, disclosed by the Board of Audit and Inspection last week after a six-month probe, is astonishing. The audit agency found that the Moon administration had persistently and widely manipulated government statistics on real estate prices, national income and employment to hide its policy failures. The board asked the prosecution to investigate 22 former Moon government officials on suspicion of leading the statistics manipula

Sept. 19, 2023

[Editorial] Dangerous deal

Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is looming large. The recent summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a sight showing that vague concern becomes real risk. It was a closed-door meeting and no press conference was held. Nothing is known about what they actually discussed, except for their open mention of cooperation in the field of satellites. Putin said Friday that Russia would not breach any agreements concerning the Korean Penin

Sept. 18, 2023

[Editorial] In need of quality jobs

As far as headline numbers are concerned, South Korea’s job figures for August are not so bad. In fact, the number of employed people went up last month from a year earlier. But beneath the upbeat data lies a problematic trend that continues to keep policymakers on edge. According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the country added 268,000 new jobs in August, increasing the total of employed people to 28.67 million. The new job additions mark a much welcome rebound. In Jul

Sept. 15, 2023

[Editorial] Trial delayed

The first-trial court trying the case of former President Moon Jae-in's Cheong Wa Dae staff allegedly intervening in the June 2018 Ulsan mayoral election is finally set to pronounce a ruling -- three years and 10 months after the prosecution’s indictments. The prosecution on Monday asked the court to sentence former Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho and an opposition party lawmaker, Hwang Un-ha, to six and five years behind bars, respectively, in connection with the case. The prosecution also

Sept. 14, 2023