[Editorial] 50m population

Korea’s population including foreign residents is projected to surpass 50 million this Saturday. It is estimated to peak at 52.16 million in 2030 before declining gradually to 49.81 million in 2045, according to a projection by Statistics Korea.It took about half a century for the country to double its population, which stood around 25 million in the early 1960s.Korea now accounts for 0.71 percent of the world population, up from 0.61 percent in 1983 when its population topped 40 million.Coupled

June 21, 2012

[Editorial] Idling away again

Lawmakers of the ruling Saenuri Party decided to return their salaries for this month, holding themselves responsible for the lack of work done since the new National Assembly began its four-year term on May 30.The partisan wrangling over how to form some key standing committees has delayed the opening of the parliament, which should have held its first plenary session by June 5 at the latest under the law.Tuesday’s decision came in line with the “no work, no pay” principle that Saenuri candidat

June 21, 2012

[Editorial] Haste makes waste

As the Korean government presses ahead with its plan to complete the selection of a new fighter jet model for the Air Force by October, questions are being raised about the wisdom of rushing the multibillion-dollar procurement project. Critics are urging the government to halt the process and leave it to the next government, noting that it is unwise for an outgoing government to try to handle an issue that would take so much time to sort out.The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it

June 20, 2012

[Editorial] Whither the UPP?

A special reform committee of the Unified Progressive Party has identified a set of core tasks the beleaguered party should carry out to shake off its pro-Pyongyang image and regain voter confidence.First of all, the committee urged the left-wing party to unequivocally state its stance on three North Korea-related issues ― Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, its human rights violations, and third-generation power succession ― because a political party should not avoid public scrutiny on its id

June 20, 2012

[Editorial] No primary rules yet

In the opposition Democratic United Party, one leading member after another is declaring his candidacy for the presidential nomination. But the party has yet to fix the rules for the primary.Worse still, it is gripped by a disheartening belief that it cannot win the presidential race on its own and that it needs outside help if it wishes to compete against the ruling Saenuri Party. Nothing illustrates better than this defeatism than the opposition party’s position ahead of the December president

June 19, 2012

[Editorial] Outlook still clouded

Top Korean economic policymakers heaved a sigh of relief at the news that a pro-bailout Greek party, which won the largest number of congressional seats in the Sunday general elections, would soon take steps to form a coalition government. The news was undoubtedly a ray of sunshine for the Korean government, who had been bracing for a potentially devastating impact from the Greek elections on the Korean economy.With the chances now being higher that Greece would remain in the eurozone, the first

June 19, 2012

[Editorial] Tighter code of conduct

Local council leaders’ refusal to abide by a code of conduct enacted by a state anticorruption agency is yet another case showing that Korean society still faces an intransigent obstacle to ridding itself of one of its chronic problems.Heads of the 16 metropolitan and provincial councils across the country recently adopted a resolution against the conduct rules and delivered it to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.The resolutio

June 18, 2012

[Editorial] Hosting global bodies

Korea will pass another milestone on June 23 when its population is projected to exceed the 50 million mark with its per capita gross national income being above $20,000.Though shrouded with concerns over a deepening slowdown of the global economy, the achievement of becoming the world’s seventh nation to reach those statistical landmarks is not to be underestimated.There is still much to be done for Korea to enter the club of truly advanced nations. As part of efforts toward that goal, some exp

June 18, 2012

[Editorial] Countering N.K. threats

South Korea and the United States have agreed to strengthen “comprehensive and combined” defenses against North Korea’s missile threats and to enhance cooperation to fend off its increasing cyber threats.The two countries reached these agreements during a meeting of their foreign and defense ministers in Washington on Thursday. The so-called “two plus two” meeting was the second of its kind between the two allies, following the first held in Seoul in 2010.The joint statement issued after the min

June 17, 2012

[Editorial] Bolstering deterrence

South Korea and the United States are reportedly exploring ways to ensure that Seoul’s planned takeover from Washington of wartime operation control of its troops by December 2015 does not weaken deterrence against North Korea.According to reports, one option being studied by the two allies is to transform the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division into a joint unit and maintain the present deployment of its key troops near the border with the North.The idea deserves backing as it can bolster the allies’ de

June 17, 2012

[Editorial] Price of recklessness

The deepening mess surrounding the financing of free child care testifies to what consequences political populism could bring about.If a lesson is to be learned from the confusion, it should ring a loud alarm bell against reckless competition between the rival parties to woo voters with excessive welfare pledges in the lead-up to the presidential election in December.It has been just a matter of time for the budget for free child care to be exhausted since lawmakers passed a measure last Decembe

June 15, 2012

[Editorial] Embarrassing figures

President Lee Myung-bak emphasized the need to enhance public safety awareness during his radio address this week. He said various accident-related statistics made “us still ashamed to say that we are on the threshold of becoming an advanced nation.”A review of the actual figures shows his remarks are far from exaggerated.The annual death toll from traffic accidents, industrial accidents and fires exceeded 15,000 and the overall economic loss incurred by them amounted to 32 trillion won ($27.3 b

June 15, 2012

[Editorial] Patients held hostage

Doctors are threatening to stop treating patients in protest against the government’s plan to introduce a mandatory fixed-rate system for seven illnesses starting July 1.Ophthalmologists have already declared they will not perform any cataract operations during the first week of next month, asserting that the new plan would cause a significant drop in the quality of their services. Obstetricians, orthopedic surgeons and otolaryngologists have also decided to temporarily stop conducting some of t

June 14, 2012

[Editorial] Key questions unanswered

The prosecution has again disappointed us by coming up almost empty-handed after three months of reinvestigation into the allegations that officials of the Prime Minister’s Office illegally spied on civilians.Prosecutors did not bother to get to the heart of the scandal, leaving many central questions unanswered. Who was the mastermind behind the illegal surveillance? How deeply was the Office of the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs involved in the affair? Had President Lee Myung-

June 14, 2012

[Editorial] Restarting operations

Nothing can be placed before safety when it comes to nuclear power generation. The latest reminder was the Fukushima disaster of March 2011. The nuclear reactors, though designed to withstand a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, succumbed to the 14-meter-high tsunami waves.Now, has Japan entirely abandoned nuclear power generation in the wake of the Fukushima accident? Of course not. It is instead preparing to restart two of the reactors that have passed post-Fukushima safety tests.At issue in Korea is t

June 13, 2012

[Editorial] Discredited again

In the past, the prosecutors’ office has often been accused of being obedient to the incumbent president and those close to him. It turned itself into a target of similar accusations again this week when it decided not to file criminal charges against any of those involved in the dubious land purchases in the outskirts of Seoul made for the construction of President Lee Myung-bak’s post-retirement residence.What is now in store for the prosecutors’ office is the public humiliation of being sidel

June 13, 2012

[Editorial] A heart-breaking loss

All Koreans must have felt heartbroken at the pictures of the bodies of eight Korean engineers being recovered with those of six other people from the site of a helicopter crash in the mountains in southern Peru on Sunday.They were flying back to a Peruvian town after aerial surveillance of a possible site for a hydroelectric project when their helicopter apparently crashed at about 4,950 meters above sea level due to bad weather conditions Wednesday.Most of the eight Koreans aboard the ill-fate

June 12, 2012

[Editorial] Families in crisis

A majority of Korean families are gripped with a range of problems, which threaten to rattle the foundation of society if left unaddressed.Nearly six out of 10 households are in critical or vulnerable situations due to disease, debt, unemployment, delinquent children or other troubles, according to a report published this month.Only 42 percent said they had little difficulty during the past year.About one in four families (23 percent) cited illness of one of its members as the most serious conce

June 12, 2012

[Editorial] Tasks for DUP leader

Former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan has been elected the new chairman of the main opposition Democratic United Party. The six-term lawmaker won a dramatic come-from-behind victory over Rep. Kim Han-gil on Saturday, the final day of the party’s leadership race that began on May 20.The new leader’s primary task is to manage the selection of a party candidate for the presidential election in December. The job sounds simple but is in fact complex because the party, after nominating its own presidenti

June 11, 2012

[Editorial] Bracing for the worst

Spain has at last decided to request European financing to recapitalize its teetering banks, becoming the fourth eurozone country to receive an EU bailout, following Greece, Ireland and Portugal.Madrid’s request for a financial rescue is welcome news for the global economy, as it would calm market jitters over Spanish banks, which are swamped with bad debts resulting from their reckless lending to property developers.The specific amount of aid has not yet been set, as an assessment of the capita

June 11, 2012