[Editorial] Minimizing Iran risks

The Korean economy will face greater risks this year as the Seoul government has agreed to reduce its oil imports from Iran gradually in response to a U.S. request to participate in global sanctions against the Middle East country. Washington has officially asked Seoul to cut its purchases of oil from Iran and unwind financial dealings with the Central Bank of Iran as part of its campaign to drive the Tehran government toward more serious negotiations over its nuclear program.Given its close rel

Jan. 19, 2012

[Editorial] Haphazard welfare policy

The government keeps saying it would resist any attempts by political parties to introduce populist welfare programs. Yet at the same time, it keeps contradicting itself by continuing to expand politically motivated welfare measures. A case in point is its haphazard expansion of the child care subsidy program.Last year, the government abruptly announced it would provide a child care subsidy to all families with a 5-year-old starting this year, regardless of their income, if they send their child

Jan. 19, 2012

[Editorial] Resources diplomacy

Securing steady supplies of energy and natural resources is a matter of grave concern that is not limited to individual business enterprises. It is vital to the entire nation to ensure them, as it depends on them to generate sustained growth. It goes without saying that diplomatic efforts must be made to this end, with the upsurge in their prices posing a formidable threat to the Korean economy. Since its inauguration four years ago, President Lee Myung-bak’s administration has been mounting a f

Jan. 18, 2012

[Editorial] Trade with Japan

Last year, Korea’s exports jumped almost 20 percent to $556.5 billion. The upsurge should have meant a sharp increase in Korea’s trade deficit with Japan, if past trends had been any guide. But Korea reduced its deficit with Japan, by a large margin. That was no small achievement for a nation that had strived to break the pattern in which it had to import more parts and components from Japan if it wanted to ship more products to the rest of the world.Yet the Korean government should be cautioned

Jan. 18, 2012

[Editorial] Fighting prejudice

Few countries in the world must have as perfect a law for supporting interracial or multicultural homes as Korea. The Law on Supporting Multicultural Families was enacted in 2010 with the purpose of contributing to “improving the quality of life of multicultural families and their integration into Korean society by ensuring that they lead stable family lives.” The statute orders the state and local governments to take measures necessary to ensure stable lives for those multicultural families. Th

Jan. 17, 2012

[Editorial] Another female first

“Chamsuri,” meaning sea eagle, is the nickname of Navy’s high-speed patrol craft responsible for guarding the coast of the republic. A standard 170-ton Chamsuri attack craft with 20 personnel on board is equipped with a 40 mm gun, two Vulcan cannons, two 12.7 mm machine guns and anti-aircraft missiles. In incessant naval clashes with North Korean forces, Chamsuri patrol craft have demonstrated their superior combat abilities.The Navy appointed two female officers as skippers of Chamsuri craft pa

Jan. 17, 2012

[Editorial] Analogy with Taiwan

The Republic of Korea and the Republic of China on Taiwan have taken similar courses of political and economic development since the division of their countries after World War II. Civil wars in early years of the Cold War hardened the division. After democracy movements ended authoritarian rule in both nations, conservative and progressive governments took power by turns.These historical similarities prompt analysts to make comparisons between what takes place in the domestic politics of the tw

Jan. 16, 2012

[Editorial] New opposition leadership

For the first time, Korean partisan politics came under female leadership in both ruling and opposition camps. Han Myeong-sook, who was prime minister under President Roh Moo-hyun, took the helm of the newly reassembled main opposition Democratic United Party to lead it through the National Assembly elections in April and possibly until the presidential vote in December. She will take on the Grand National Party’s Park Geun-hye, who now heads an emergency committee to overhaul the ruling party a

Jan. 16, 2012

[Editorial] Identity crisis

The ruling Grand National Party is in the process of redefining its ideological guidelines, which will be contained in a new official platform. A similar procedure will soon start at the main opposition Democratic United Party, which has now completed the process of establishing a new leadership to manage the April general elections. What is emerging at this early stage of electoral preparations provides a glimpse into, if not a whole picture of, the nation’s future political landscape: There is

Jan. 15, 2012

[Editorial] Biased prosecution

The prosecutors’ office is often accused of political bias in its criminal investigations. Such accusations have gained greater credence from recent court decisions on two politically fraught cases. One case involved Han Myeong-sook, who was prime minister for President Roh Moo-hyun’s administration in 2006-07. The other involved Chung Yeon-ju, who was forced out of the post of president of the Korea Broadcasting System, the country’s most powerful radio and TV network, shortly after President L

Jan. 15, 2012

[Editorial] Reforming work practices

One major policy goal of the Ministry of Employment and Labor for this year is to reform shift work practices at domestic companies. The reform drive is intended to shorten Korea’s notoriously long working hours, which is essential to improving workers’ quality of life, creating jobs and enhancing productivity.The ministry’s reform initiative is belated but welcome as it can benefit workers, their companies and the national economy. Yet the benefits don’t materialize automatically. As shift work

Jan. 13, 2012

[Editorial] Child care leave

The Ministry of Legislation has drawn fire from women’s organizations by interpreting child care leave in a way that could justify discrimination against female workers for taking leave to take care of their infants.The controversy was sparked by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which sought the Legislation Ministry’s authoritative view on the eligibility of a second-grade female librarian, who took child care leave during her six years in the office, for promotion to a first-grade p

Jan. 13, 2012

[Editorial] Prodigal municipalities

The moratorium declared by a fiscally strained Seongnam City in June 2010 prompted the Board of Audit and Inspection to look into the books of 49 local administrations. Its findings, made public earlier this week, showed that Seongnam was not the only spendthrift municipality. Some of the municipalities, if no action were to be taken, would undoubtedly follow the footsteps of Seongnam in the near future. No less alarming is that officials cooked the books to produce non-existent surpluses. A cas

Jan. 12, 2012

[Editorial] Speaker’s choice

Like everybody else, National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae deserves to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This basic right should hold even though a prosecutor raided the home of one of his erstwhile aides for search and seizure as part of a criminal investigation into an allegation that he bought votes for his 2008 election to the chairmanship of the ruling Grand National Party.But it does not mean that he should allow himself to retain the top post of the legislature. Instead, he shoul

Jan. 12, 2012

[Editorial] Voting by mobile phone

The main opposition Democratic Unified Party is undertaking an important experiment that could reshape the election culture in Korea. It has opened its leadership election process to ordinary citizens and allowed them to vote through their mobile phones. The party’s unprecedented move is being closely watched by rival parties as well as political analysts as it could also affect the outcomes of the coming parliamentary and presidential elections.According to the DUP, more than 643,000 citizens h

Jan. 11, 2012

[Editorial] Jobs for seniors

Lotte Mart has joined a small but growing number of companies that help people continue to work beyond its mandatory retirement age, which is set at 55. The discount store chain announced Monday it would hire 1,000 senior employees aged between 56 and 60 under indefinite-term contracts this year. According to the company, the senior workers will be treated the same as regular employees. They will be entitled to the four social insurance benefits ― national pension, health insurance, employment i

Jan. 11, 2012

[Editorial] Corporate leadership

When a conglomerate CEO is indicted on charges of large-scale embezzlement after strenuous investigation by prosecutors, he is normally expected to do three things. The first is to apologize to shareholders for the trouble caused by his personal activities, even before criminal procedures are completed. The second is to devote all his energy to attaining his group’s business targets, thereby helping recover the tangible and intangible losses inflicted on its finances and image. Third, is to take

Jan. 10, 2012

[Editorial] Lingering dispute

National Police Agency chief Cho Hyun-oh has remarked that “time has come for the police to start controlling the prosecution, ending prosecutors’ control of police.”This could be yet another emotional outburst from the police chief, who is hardly a man of great self-restraint, in the ongoing dispute between the two law-enforcement organizations. But he had very concrete reasons for pronouncing a reversal of the traditional police-prosecution relationship.The National Human Rights Commission rec

Jan. 10, 2012

[Editorial] Reform of parties

Rep. Koh Seung-deok of the Grand National Party is a first-term lawmaker from Seocho district of Seoul. He is called a “genius in Yeoeuido” with a diploma from Seoul National University College of Law, LL.M.’s from Yale Law School and Harvard Law School and J.D. from Columbia Law School. He passed the state judiciary examination as an SNU sophomore and the diplomatic and administration service exams in 1980, the year he graduated from the SNU law college with top honors. He also has CPA and pate

Jan. 9, 2012

[Editorial] Gender imbalance

As of 2011, women teachers accounted for 75.8 percent in the nation’s primary schools, 66.8 percent in middle schools and 46.2 percent in high schools. These figures represent significant rise in the presence of female teachers at primary and secondary schools since a decade ago, when the respective figures were 68 percent, 59 percent and 35 percent.With violence in school reportedly growing in recent years, occasionally causing suicides of young students after extended suffering from bullying a

Jan. 9, 2012