[Editorial] Under the cloak of journalism

A group of reporters with citizen media outlet "The Tamsa TV," a YouTube channel, flocked to the door of the apartment where Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon lives in southern Seoul on Sunday afternoon. Waiting outside the front door, they rang the doorbell, demanded an interview with Han and looked at a package sitting there. They even pressed keys on the door lock pad, apparently trying to unlock it. All the while filming this situation and then broadcasting the video live on their cha

Nov. 30, 2022

[Editorial] Dispute over Wemix delisting

Another setback caught the South Korean digital currency market off guard last week, sending jitters through investors amid deepening worries over the reliability and security of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. The shock wave was sparked by the country’s major crypto exchanges’ decision to delist the Wemix token issued by Wemade’s blockchain platform. On Thursday, the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance, known as DAXA, representing leading crypto exchanges here, decided to halt

Nov. 29, 2022

[Editorial] Crooked behavior

The allegations raised by Kim Eui-kyeom, a National Assembly member of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, that President Yoon Suk-yeol drank with Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon in a bar in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul proved false. A female cellist said to be the source of the allegations confessed to the police on Thursday that she lied to deceive her boyfriend. Kim revealed in the National Assembly on Oct. 24 that Yoon and Han drank with about 30 lawyers of Kim & Chang in a C

Nov. 28, 2022

[Editorial] Fixing flawed tax system

There is no doubt adjusting tax rates is a tricky task. If the rates are too high, the burden on companies and households will increase disproportionately in a way that can undermine economic activity. If the rates are too low, the government may struggle to secure enough funds for welfare and other essential state projects. As for South Korea’s tax system, taxes are too high on both companies and households. In particular, a growing number of middle-class households are hit by burdensome

Nov. 25, 2022

[Editorial] Not the time to strike

Trade unions are going on the offensive, fanning concerns over a dismal outlook for the Korean economy and its weakening growth momentum. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions announced on Tuesday that it will go on a general strike. Its demands to the government and the National Assembly are wide. They include the legislation of a special law on construction safety to root out fatal accidents on construction sites, the perpetuation and expansion of the "safe truck freight rates" sy

Nov. 24, 2022

[Editorial] Startups and regulations

At a time when a solid startup ecosystem is playing a greater role in introducing new technologies and innovating services, South Korea still remains a tough market saddled with regulations even for local ventures, a recent report showed. On the surface, official figures regarding the Korean startup market don't look so bad. After all, the country runs the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, a state agency fully dedicated to nurturing startups in a way that helps the broader economy find a fresh

Nov. 23, 2022

[Editorial] Probe heading for Lee

Jeong Jin-sang, a vice chief of staff to the Democratic Party of Korea chairman Lee Jae-myung who is regarded as one of Lee's alleged two closest confidants, was detained by the prosecution Saturday. He is suspected of accepting 140 million won ($103,000) in bribes on six occasions from February 2013 to October 2020 from a small party of speculators including Kim Man-bae and Nam Wook in return for giving them an array of favors that enabled them to make astronomical returns from investing i

Nov. 22, 2022

[Editorial] NK’s ICBM tests

North Korea on Saturday released photos of its leader Kim Jong-un conducting an on-site inspection of the regime’s test-firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, revealing new details about its dangerous missile game that continues to heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula. According to Pyongyang’s state media Korean Central News Agency, the missile was launched from Pyongyang International Airport on Friday. The missile flew 999.2 kilometers in one hour, eight mi

Nov. 21, 2022

[Editorial] Majority party's tyranny

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration proposed a total of 77 bills in the six months since its inauguration on May 10. None of them have passed the National Assembly. The opposition Democratic Party of Korea, with its 169-seat majority in the 300-seat National Assembly has put a brake on them. This is a legislative tyranny. The Yoon administration revised 19 tax codes to reduce the tax burden on the people and invigorate the private economy, and submitted them to the Assembly. But the Democratic Part

Nov. 18, 2022

[Editorial] Disclosing the list of victims

Disputes have intensified over the disclosure of the list of Itaewon tragedy victims, with related media outlets, Catholic priest groups and political parties engaged in politicizing the Oct. 29 crowd crush that killed at least 158. The controversy was sparked when two progressive online media outlets released a list of 155 people who died in the tragedy on their websites Monday. The names of 10 victims were removed after their families sent complaints to the outlets in question. It is deeply re

Nov. 17, 2022

[Editorial] Grant abuse

Government grants towards the recovery of Ansan City from the shock of the Sewol ferry sinking were found to have been abused. According to data submitted Saturday by the city government to Suh Bum-soo, a National Assembly member of the ruling People Power Party, Ansan received 1 billion won ($759,000) to 2 billion won in “Sewol ferry tragedy grants” annually for six years, from 2017 to this year. The grants came from central and local governments under the special act regarding th

Nov. 16, 2022

[Editorial] Joint efforts to deter NK

It is meaningful that the leaders of South Korea, the US and Japan confirmed they share the same view on North Korea’s continued missile launches that threaten security on the Korean Peninsula and destabilize geopolitics in the East Asian region. President Yoon Suk-yeol, while on his two-nation tour, met with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Phnom Penh on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Cambodia on Sunday and issued a joint statement pledging to step

Nov. 15, 2022

[Editorial] False quotes

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea apologized for distorting a foreign envoy’s remarks. Its chairman Lee Jae-myung and European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo Fernandez held a closed-door meeting in his office in the National Assembly on Tuesday. In a back briefing after the meeting, party spokesperson, Kim Eui-kyeom, said Fernandez said that there seems to be a limit to the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's response to North Korea's escalating provocation

Nov. 14, 2022

[Editorial] Tarnished start

President Yoon Suk-yeol marked his first six months in office Thursday. Unfortunately, the scorecard for his starting period of a five-year term, usually filled with hopes for change and reform, is not so pretty. To be fair, Yoon confronted a host of thorny challenges on many fronts. The continued missile provocations of North Korea, the deepening economic woes including credit crunch and high inflation, and the Itaewon tragedy took place under his stewardship, to name just three negative factor

Nov. 11, 2022

[Editorial] Excessive offense

Yang Kyung-sook, a Democratic Party of Korea member of the National Assembly, said during the Assembly's inspection of the presidential secretariat Tuesday that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration cornered many young people into a deadly situation in Itaewon. She likened the Yoon government to those who gripped military power and mobilized troops to massacre civilians in Gwangju in 1980. Yang probably made the remark to rebuke the absurd government response to the Itaewon crowd crush that kill

Nov. 10, 2022

[Editorial] Worsening debt crisis

Worries about the negative impact of rising interest rates on the South Korean economy are mounting, with some experts calling for a flexible approach in policy to tackle soaring debts shouldered by the government, companies and households. The predominant monetary policy trend both at home and abroad clearly leans toward raising the rates to keep high inflation under control. Last Wednesday the US Federal Reserve, as widely expected, raised its short-term borrowing rate by 0.75 percentage point

Nov. 9, 2022

[Editorial] Miraculous rescue

A day before the national mourning period ended for the 156 people who died in the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon, good news had come from Bongwha, North Gyeongsang Province. Two miners were rescued from a collapsed shaft in a zinc mine in the county of North Gyeongsang Province on Friday night. Their miraculous return brought a message of hope to the nation lost in grief over the Itaewon tragedy. Team leader Park Jeong-ha (62) and an assistant surnamed Park (56), both walked out alive, help

Nov. 8, 2022

[Editorial] Deepening doubts

As a special investigation unit unearths details about what happened on Oct. 29 when a tragic crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district killed at least 156 people, deeply disappointing facts have emerged about the police response, especially regarding high-ranking officials and a dysfunctional chain of command. The investigation into what went wrong in responding to the Halloween crowd surge is ongoing, but the details that have been revealed so far are outrageous enough to question whether

Nov. 7, 2022

[Editorial] Stern response

North Korea‘s military provocation seems to be going to the extreme. It fired 25 missiles, including short-range ballistic missiles, into the East and West Seas on Wednesday. One of the ballistic missiles flew across the Northern Limit Line, a de facto maritime border, with South Korea. It is reportedly the first time since the division of the Korean Peninsula into the communist North and capitalist South in 1945 that a North Korean ballistic missile landed south of the borderline. Its mil

Nov. 4, 2022

[Editorial] Blame game won’t help

Public figures have belatedly apologized for their improper responses to the Itaewon tragedy that killed at least 156 people, but questions are being raised over what went wrong, who is responsible for the missteps and what might have been done to prevent the disaster. At the heart of the raging dispute is whether police failed to take proper actions to prevent the weekend Halloween crowd surge in advance, especially after transcripts of emergency calls were disclosed, showing that police had re

Nov. 3, 2022