[Editorial] Dissolving the Assembly?

Why is there no mechanism in the Korean Constitution for dissolving the National Assembly? So wondered former Prime Minister Kim Whang-sik recently, asserting that such a mechanism would be useful to resolve the current political stalemate.Opposition lawmakers denounced Kim, who also served as a Supreme Court justice, for making the reckless comment. They asked if he wanted to go back to the era of dictatorship, when the president could dissolve the Assembly at will.Of course, Kim did not mean a

Dec. 3, 2013

[Editorial] Green Climate Fund

The secretariat of the Green Climate Fund, a U.N. fund set up in 2011 to help fight global warming by funneling money from developed to developing countries, is to be launched Wednesday in Songdo, a newly developed international town in Incheon. World Bank head Jim Yong Kim, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and other global dignitaries are scheduled to attend the ceremony to open the headquarters of the first major international organization Korea has hosted.But the event has

Dec. 2, 2013

[Editorial] Enhancing academic ability

It is worrisome that the proportion of secondary school students falling short of basic learning skills increased this year for the first time in five years since a nationwide assessment test was introduced in 2008.The results of the 2013 exam, which were released by the Ministry of Education last Friday, showed that 3.4 percent of middle and high school students across the country lacked the academic abilities needed to keep up with classroom lessons, compared to 2.6 percent last year. The prop

Dec. 2, 2013

[Editorial] Over the hump?

Korea’s per capita income broke through the $20,000 mark for the first time in 2007. Buoyed by the nation’s outstanding economic performance, many Koreans believed it was a matter of time before per capita income, posted at $21,632 that year, reached $30,000.They believed Korea could pull it off in five years, as Japan had done. After all, the nation had been successfully benchmarking Japan for its economic advancement.But it did not take long before they realized their optimism had been misplac

Dec. 1, 2013

[Editorial] Move to join TPP

Korea, ending a protracted deliberation process, is near to joining negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral agreement to liberalize trade in the Asia-Pacific. It said last Friday it would make a final decision after talks with the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and eight other negotiating partners.The forthcoming consultations are little more than a formality, given that Korea, the eighth-largest trader in the world, has long been urged by the United States to join

Dec. 1, 2013

[Editorial] A new financial vision

The Financial Services Commission has unveiled a vision to foster the financial industry as a growth engine of the Korean economy. Dubbed the “10-10 Value-Up Plan,” it is aimed at increasing the financial sector’s share of Korea’s gross domestic product to 10 percent over the next 10 years.Currently, the financial industry accounts for about 7 percent of Korea’s GDP, relatively small for an advanced economy. In some advanced countries, such as Singapore and Australia, financial services account

Nov. 29, 2013

[Editorial] Politics of dignity

Returning home after a six-month stay in Germany, former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-shik recently admitted his envy of the European country’s political culture. He was deeply impressed by the negotiations on forming a coalition government between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the allied Christian Social Union on the one hand, and the main opposition Social Democratic Party on the other. Surely, it was a scene totally unimaginable here.At the September parliamentary elec

Nov. 29, 2013

[Editorial] Tiger not to blame

A 3-year-old Siberian tiger at a zoo on the southern outskirts of Seoul can have no way of knowing that his fate has been hanging in the balance since he attacked a zookeeper Sunday. The ill-fated worker, 52, who was bitten in the neck by the tiger while preparing to feed him, remains in serious condition.Officials at Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon have been deliberating on how to deal with the animal, which was removed from public view after the incident. In a press conference earlier this week,

Nov. 28, 2013

[Editorial] Budget stalemate

The National Assembly has failed to pass the annual budget bill within the legal deadline of Dec. 2 for the past 11 years. It seems certain that this year will be no exception.Lawmakers belatedly began deliberations on the government budget proposal for 2014 on Tuesday, with the aim of approving it by Dec. 16. Many officials at the main political parties, however, seem skeptical that this target will be met, even raising the possibility of prolonged partisan strife delaying the passage of the bu

Nov. 28, 2013

[Editorial] A church-state conflict?

The protracted standoff between political parties over the state spy agency’s alleged meddling in the parliamentary and presidential elections last year is threatening to boil over into a conflict between the government and progressive religious groups.Today, a group of some 1,000 Buddhist monks are to hold a rally at a temple in central Seoul to denounce the National Intelligence Agency’s involvement in the elections and criticize President Park Geun-hye for her “inability to communicate with t

Nov. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Part-time employment

The government is rushing to put in place its part-time job scheme to attain President Park Geun-hye’s promise to boost the nation’s employment rate to 70 percent from the present 64.2 percent.The government’s plan calls for the creation of a total of 930,000 part-time jobs by 2017, 40 percent of the 2.4 million jobs it needs to produce to meet Park’s campaign pledge.On Tuesday, the government organized a job fair to help private corporations recruit part-time employees. A total of 82 companies

Nov. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Strengthening the economy

A string of recent figures on income and trade show that the condition of the Korean economy is improving. What should be taken more seriously, however, may be the need highlighted by these figures to boost consumer confidence and change the industry structure, which is heavily tilted toward export-driven manufacturing sectors.Local financial institutions forecast that Korea’s per capita gross national income will reach a record high of $24,044 this year, up from $22,700 last year, aided by mode

Nov. 26, 2013

[Editorial] China’s air zone

China’s unilateral drawing of its new air defense identification zone that partly overlaps with South Korea’s appears to have made Seoul officials recognize again the complexity of the work needed to strike a delicate strategic balance among major regional powers.Saturday’s announcement of the Chinese ADIZ, which includes airspace over a South Korean-controlled submerged rock called Ieodo and a set of islands claimed by both China and Japan, has prompted protests from Seoul and Tokyo. The U.S. a

Nov. 26, 2013

[Editorial] Seoul as a financial hub

Should Korea continue to pursue its goal of becoming a regional financial hub? The question is being raised as the nation takes stock of what has been achieved for the past 10 years since it unveiled this aspiration.In December 2003, President Roh Moo-hyun disclosed a road map to make Seoul a financial hub in Northeast Asia by 2020. One key objective was to attract the regional headquarters of the world’s 50 largest asset management companies to Seoul by 2012.Since then, an array of measures has

Nov. 25, 2013

[Editorial] Smog from China

As winter approaches, public concern about the toxic smog blowing in from China is growing. The smog in China gets worse during the winter as people burn coal for heating. The smog contains a high level of “particulate matter,” which refers to extremely small pollutant particles floating around in the air. These particles include nitric and sulfuric acids, organic chemicals and metals. Their density is diluted as they cross the West Sea, but meteorologists say up to 50 percent of them reach Kore

Nov. 25, 2013

[Editorial] New political force

Ahn Cheol-soo, who has been pushed out of the political limelight since he bowed out of the presidential race one year ago, is coming back to center stage, this time with a plan to organize his supporters into a political party and, by doing so, change the nation’s virtual two-party system.Last Friday, the independent lawmaker said he would unveil his schedule for organizing a new political force at a news conference on Thursday. He may not officially declare the creation of a new party. What is

Nov. 24, 2013

[Editorial] Not much choice

One of the greatest security concerns for South Korea is how to respond to signs showing an impending nuclear attack from North Korea, which is arming itself with nuclear weapons as well as missiles. In such a circumstance, South Korea will have no other choice than to launch a clandestine preemptive air attack against the nuclear weapons locations in the North. Against this dire backdrop, South Korea had to select a defense contractor capable of providing 60 top-of-the-line, radar-evading aircr

Nov. 24, 2013

[Editorial] Time to invest

One lesson that Korean corporations learned from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis is that you need money set aside to survive a credit crunch. They have since steadily increased their cash holdings to build a buffer against unexpected financial shocks. So when the global economy was thrown into turmoil in 2008 due to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, major Korean corporations were not affected as they had already accumulated enough retained earnings to avoid any cash crunch. Yet they have gon

Nov. 22, 2013

[Editorial] Evidence against NIS

Prosecutors have found evidence confirming the allegations that the National Intelligence Service was systematically involved in the parliamentary and presidential elections last year. Investigators probing the state spy agency said they have newly discovered more than 1.2 million Twitter messages disseminated by NIS agents in the run-up to the two important elections. The 1.2 million messages were mostly retweets of 26,550 original texts. Investigators suspect that NIS agents had used “Twitterb

Nov. 22, 2013

[Editorial] Culture of giving

An annual national fund-raiser to help people in need started Wednesday with the aim of collecting 310 billion won ($294 million), slightly more than the 302 billion won donated during last year’s event, by the end of next January. It is hoped that this moderate target will be achieved though the economy still remains far from full recovery.Hyundai Motor Group became the first conglomerate to join the “Hope 2014 Sharing Campaign,” donating 25 billion won on the first day to its organizer, the Co

Nov. 21, 2013