[Editorial] Adieu 2012

Few Koreans would say that 2012, during which economic hardship never lost its grip, was a great year for them. But it might not necessarily have been a terrible year for them, either.Looking back on the past year, many Koreans will likely view it as a rather challenging period, which highlighted difficulties facing the nation but also galvanized its move toward overcoming them. What we should now be reminded of is that challenges, if met with the proper response, can give us lessons and opportu

Dec. 28, 2012

[Editorial] Smooth transition

President-elect Park Geun-hye has begun forming her transition committee, whose work many observers note will hold a key to the success of her five-year term, with Thursday’s appointments of its head and deputy chief. Her concrete ideas on the function and structure of the committee will be made clearer when she reveals the names of other members in the days to come. Park still gave a noticeable indication of how the transition team will be formed and operated through the first batch of her sele

Dec. 28, 2012

[Editorial] Budget bill dispute

The National Assembly, which failed to meet the Dec. 2 constitutional deadline for passing the administration’s 2013 budget bill, has recently rescheduled a vote on the bill for Friday.However, the ruling Saenuri Party, which has the National Assembly under its control, will still find it difficult to pass the bill on Friday in the face of strong resistance from the main opposition Democratic United Party. The key stumbling block is the ruling party’s demand to increase the 2013 spending by 6 tr

Dec. 27, 2012

[Editorial] No undue reward?

President-elect Park Geun-hye was right when she said no unqualified person should be awarded with a top post of government-owned corporations or government-funded organizations just because he contributed greatly to the election of a new president. Such an appointment, she said, is a burden on not just the incumbent administration but its immediate successor.But no one should be blamed if he turned skeptical, upon hearing her remarks, that she would put an end to an age-old practice of a new pr

Dec. 27, 2012

[Editorial] Health care free riders

The problem of affluent self-employed people free riding on the national health insurance system is well known. To avoid paying contributions commensurate with their large personal wealth, these people manage to put their names on company payrolls and register themselves as employees, whose contributions are computed solely based on their monthly wages.To curb these practices, the National Health Insurance Corp. has begun to levy extra contributions on employees with income other than their mont

Dec. 26, 2012

[Editorial] Footing the welfare bill

Expanding welfare spending without impairing fiscal soundness is a feat the ruling Saenuri Party is required to perform to carry out the election pledges of President-elect Park Geun-hye.The easiest way to achieve the feat is to increase tax revenue by raising tax rates or creating new taxes. But Park has ruled out this facile option. During the campaign period, Park said she would not tinker with tax rates.Instead, she said she would cover 60 percent of her welfare bill by adjusting the governm

Dec. 26, 2012

[Editorial] Handling North Korea

President-elect Park Geun-hye mentioned Pyongyang’s recent firing of a long-range rocket as a case that “symbolically showed how grave our security reality is” in her address to the nation a day after her win in the Dec. 19 presidential vote.The following day, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for developing bigger rockets at a banquet he hosted for scientists, technicians and other officials involved in the Dec. 12 launch, according to the North’s state media.Seoul’s Defense Ministry said

Dec. 25, 2012

[Editorial] Aging workforce

In a reflection of the demographic change in the country, its workforce is rapidly aging, raising the need to enhance labor productivity, especially in the service sector.According to a recent report released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the average age of Korea’s waged workers increased from 36.5 in 2001 to 39.6 last year. It is projected to exceed 40 this year.Over the cited period, the number of workers aged 15-29 declined by 15.6 percent to 3.6 million, while the figures for thos

Dec. 25, 2012

[Editorial] ‘Beautiful exits’

Some of those who had made great contributions to Park Geun-hye’s election to the presidency packed up and left, without claiming credit for the win. News commentators were quick to call their departures “beautiful exits.”Among them is Ahn Dae-hee, a former justice of the Supreme Court, who helped craft Park’s election pledge for clean politics. He had vowed not to use his role as the chairman of a committee on political reform as a stepping stone to advance his personal interests when he had be

Dec. 24, 2012

[Editorial] Park and gender gap

In October each year, the World Economic Forum makes public its Global Gender Gap Report, a report on its survey of gender equality in 135 countries. In the 2012 report, Iceland topped the overall rankings for the fourth consecutive year. It was followed by Finland and Norway.What was the ranking for Korea, a country which has a separate Cabinet member for the promotion of gender equality ― the minister of gender equality and family ― and elected a woman to the presidency last week? It was abysm

Dec. 24, 2012

[Editorial] Election post-mortem

One striking aspect of the Dec. 19 presidential election was the extraordinarily high voter turnout among people in their 50s. According to the exit polls conducted jointly by the three nationwide TV broadcasters, a whopping 89.9 percent of the voters aged 50-59 cast ballots. The figure stands out when compared with the average turnout of 75.8 percent or the turnouts of other age groups ― 65.2 percent for those in their 20s, 72.5 percent for 30-somethings, 78.7 percent for the 40-49 year-olds an

Dec. 23, 2012

[Editorial] Mending Seoul-Tokyo ties

Japan’s incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is hurrying to reset the frayed relationship between Seoul and Tokyo. He took a conciliatory gesture toward Seoul just one day after South Korea elected its first female president on Dec. 19.According to news reports, the hawkish Japanese leader has decided to put off his plan to upgrade the status of Takeshima Day from a provincial government ceremony to a central government event. Takeshima is Japan’s name for Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets. Japan’

Dec. 23, 2012

[Editorial] Headed where?

A mature political party would accept an electoral defeat with grace, no matter how painful it may feel, and resolve to do better next time. But not the opposition Democratic United Party, whose standard-bearer, Moon Jae-in, was soundly trounced in the presidential race. It looks as if it were on the verge of being drawn into a whirlwind of factional strife.The opposition party is all the more vulnerable, given that it lacks strong leadership capable of keeping the party on an even keel when a s

Dec. 21, 2012

[Editorial] Runaway spending

With growth slowing to a snail’s pace, President Lee Myung-bak’s administration is reportedly revising its earlier 2013 economic management plan, focusing on an increase in spending. In other words, it is considering taking on additional debt to finance growth.Few policymakers in the administration no longer mention fiscal prudence as a virtue they have been pursuing. Is it the same administration that, until recently, vowed its top priority was balancing the budget in 2013 ― one year ahead of i

Dec. 21, 2012

[Editorial] Making a new Korea

South Korea has ushered in a new era by electing its first female president. The victory of Park Geun-hye, the candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, in the hard-fought election on Wednesday is in itself significant political progress in light of the deeply entrenched male dominance in Korean society.Yet she was chosen not because she was a woman but because the electorate saw traits of a good president in her and trusted her track record as a leader who has weathered many crises. Throughout the

Dec. 20, 2012

[Editorial] Risks from ‘Abenomics’

Korean exporters will have to brace for stronger competition from their Japanese rivals down the road as Japan’s incoming Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is determined to devalue the yen to reignite the economy.Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party swept to victory in elections for the lower house held on Sunday by selling a set of economic policies dubbed “Abenomics.”The new prime minister is pressing the Bank of Japan to print more money to further ease its already loose monetary policy and raise its infla

Dec. 20, 2012

[Editorial] Five years to come

Park Geun-hye, the winner of Wednesday’s presidential vote in South Korea, has no time to revel in her hard-won victory, facing a range of difficult tasks. The president-elect is set to go through tougher and more complicated external conditions and internal challenges than any previous leader.The continuous advancement and prosperity of the country as a middle power with a ripe democracy and robust free-market economy depends on her performance. The daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, wh

Dec. 19, 2012

[Editorial] At the polls

As is often the case with presidential elections, it may not be party loyalists and ideologically committed voters that will have the final say this time. Instead, it is a small number of swing voters that will probably hold sway in a closely contested race on Wednesday.Of course, this is not to say that the vote of each party’s loyal supporters is of little significance. On the contrary, a large voting bloc in favor of a party is a prerequisite when the party enters a presidential contest. As s

Dec. 18, 2012

[Editorial] No easy salutation

The Liberal Democratic Party made a roaring comeback under the leadership of Shinzo Abe, bringing the Democratic Party of Japan to its knees in the Diet election on Sunday. It carried 294 of the 480 seats at stake while its alliance partner, Komeito, took another 31 seats. The DJP was given a humiliating 57 seats.As one of Japan’s neighbors, Korea should respect the decision by the Japanese voters to bestow governing power on the LDP again for the first time in three years. Still, Korea finds it

Dec. 18, 2012

[Editorial] Seoul’s Sputnik moment

North Korea’s launch of a satellite using a self-developed rocket was a Sputnik moment for the South. It shocked South Koreans just as Sputnik 1, the first satellite the Soviet Union put into space in October 1957, shocked Americans.Experts say the South is five to seven years behind the North in space technology. Seoul has yet to develop its own carrier rocket. Naro-1, the South’s first satellite carrier, has suffered two successive launch failures, with the third attempt delayed twice due to t

Dec. 17, 2012