[Editorial] Untenable strike

The South Korean economy is beset by unfavorable factors including an unstable global supply of goods, surging prices of materials and “three highs” -- high interest rates, high inflation and high exchange rates -- plaguing the Korean currency. Then yet another issue looms large: an industrial strike. The Cargo Truckers Solidarity, affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, went on an indefinite general strike on Tuesday -- six months after their last strike. Genera

June 9, 2022

[Editorial] Tit-for-tat response

Tensions are mounting on the Korean Peninsula due largely to North Korea’s latest and biggest single missile test. Pyongyang’s new provocation is deeply worrisome, since it heralds an imminent nuclear test as well as the beginning of a firepower demonstrations race. On Monday, South Korea and the United States launched surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile System missiles into the East Sea. The rare show of firepower came as a rare tit-for-tat response to North Korea’s lat

June 8, 2022

[Editorial] Price shock

Consumer prices jumped 5.4 percent in May from a year ago. It was the highest figure in 13 years and nine months after August 2008 when prices rose 5.6 percent. Surging international prices of crude oil and grains among others pushed consumer prices up sharply. The future looks dismal. The Bank of Korea expected prices to keep climbing in a 5 percent range in June and July. The government has suppressed fees of public utilities such as electricity and gas but if they are readjusted to a reali

June 7, 2022

[Editorial] Second reckoning

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea suffered a crushing defeat in the local elections. The ruling People Power Party won by a landslide in the race for 17 metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, which was the highlight of the June 1 local polls. The conservative People Power Party took 12 constituencies including Seoul, while the liberal Democratic Party won in five regions, four of them being traditionally supportive of the party. In the first nationwide poll held 22 days afte

June 3, 2022

[Editorial] Cultivating chip industry

The South Korean government plans to nurture more than 3,000 skilled experts for the semiconductor industry by 2027, the Ministry of Science and ICT said Monday, a move that follows the high-profile visit of US President Joe Biden to a Samsung Electronics facility amid the global shortage of chips. The announcement of the plan itself is timely for the domestic semiconductor industry, which is home to the world’s biggest memory chipmaker Samsung and the second-largest DRAM supplier SK hyni

June 2, 2022

[Editorial] Political extra budget

Three days before the June 1 local elections, the National Assembly passed a 62 trillion won ($50 billion) extra budget mainly aimed at compensating small merchants hit financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through negotiations between rival parties, its amount increased by 2.6 trillion won. The number of those eligible for compensation also increased sharply. In order to expand the extra budget, they reduced government debt scheduled to be repaid -- by 1.5 trillion won from 9 trillion won to

June 1, 2022

[Editorial] Make the pie bigger

One of the first -- and the biggest -- obstacles online platform startups face is an almost impenetrable fortress of exotic rules and penalties set up by an existing cartel of firms or professionals. These groups indulge in what economists call “rent-seeking” behaviors, referring to anticompetitive practices to ensure outsize profits at the expense of customers and competitors. It is understandable that existing players instinctively try to keep their profiteering scheme against ne

May 31, 2022

[Editorial] Growing security threat　

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday took a vote on its resolution to strengthen sanctions on North Korea for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile a day earlier, but the resolution fell through due to opposition from Russia and China. The 13 other members of the Security Council voted to adopt the resolution, but the two permanent members vetoed it. A resolution needs nine “yes” votes and no vetoes by five permanent members to be adopted by the council. It i

May 30, 2022

[Editorial] Navigating high inflation

The Bank of Korea raised its key policy rate by a quarter percentage point Thursday and revised down the country’s growth outlook, amid runaway inflation accelerated by soaring energy prices. The rate hike itself was widely expected in the market. More significant is the revised outlook the central bank projected for the country going forward, and the figures are far from rosy. The central bank’s latest move put the benchmark seven-day repo rate to 1.75 percent, up from 1.5 percen

May 27, 2022

[Editorial] Breaking a promise

The speaker of the National Assembly and chairperson of its legislation and judiciary committee play essential roles in the process of passing bills. The chairperson of the committee has authority to preside over meetings, which are the last hurdle to the assembly plenary session. The speaker has the right to introduce a bill and put it to a vote in the plenary session. In past assemblies, a majority party member of the parliament was elected as the speaker while a member of the second-largest

May 26, 2022

[Editorial] Business matters

The summit between President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden wrapped up its three-day schedule Sunday, but its impact is still reverberating among Korean policymakers, businesspeople and the media. In all fairness, Biden reaped plenty of benefits by visiting Seoul as the first stop of his Asian tour -- something that he hopes will boost his standing in the eyes of US politicians, especially those who want to see the president playing a key role in expanding America’s economic clo

May 25, 2022

[Editorial] Pointless elections

School district superintendents are responsible for the overall performance of elementary, middle and high schools in their districts. Their authority is powerful. They decide on issues related to school type, such as whether to shut down autonomous private high schools or increase public schools that emphasize creative curricula. They have the authority to propose bylaws such as one to restrict late-night private lessons at commercial education facilities. They have the final say over the wei

May 24, 2022

[Editorial] Post-summit tasks

President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden agreed Saturday to expand joint military exercises to counter threats from North Korea, and strengthen regional economic cooperation through a new US-led trade framework. During their first summit talks in Seoul, the two leaders discussed pending issues, including Pyongyang’s continued saber-rattling; a strategic alliance based on a “norm-based order”; and South Korea’s participation in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framewo

May 23, 2022

[Editorial] Spirit of integration

President Yoon Suk-yeol, government ministers and nearly all lawmakers of the People Power Party attended the 42nd anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. It is unprecedented that most lawmakers of the party attended the official ceremony to memorialize the civil revolt, which has long been associated with the liberal Democratic Party of Korea. On May 18, 1980, Gwangju citizens rose up against the then-military junta led by the late President Chun Doo-hwan. The conservative part

May 20, 2022

[Editorial] Not-so-stable ‘stablecoins’

Cryptocurrencies still sound cryptic to most people, especially those who are not familiar with how its jargon-filled blockchain technology works. But the message from the plunging market capitalization of major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is not so cryptic: Panicky investors are selling off their risky digital assets. At the center of the rushed crypto sell-offs are none other than Korean-made cryptocurrencies, terra and luna, both of which were launched by local startup Terraform Labs. Its

May 19, 2022

[Editorial] Surging Kepco losses

Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco), a state-run firm with a monopoly on power transmission and distribution, reported a record-high operating loss of 7.78 trillion won ($6.06 billion) in the first quarter of this year. The figure is much larger than the company’s operating loss of 5.86 trillion won logged for the whole of last year. Considering that its 2021 annual loss was the worst ever, the third-quarter loss is astronomical. If this trend continues, its operating loss for the year wi

May 18, 2022

[Editorial] COVID-19 woes in NK

While the entire world was fighting tooth and nail to contain the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, North Korea remained tightly closed and insisted it is coronavirus-free in a way that spawned much speculation. Last Thursday, Pyongyang finally broke its silence and reported through state media that the country had its first COVID cases. Since then, a flurry of bad news has been coming out, turning hitherto educated guesses into a stark reality. The communist regime said Sunday it a

May 17, 2022

[Editorial] Unending sex scandals

A sex scandal hit the Democratic Party of Korea again. The party decided Thursday to expel Rep. Park Wan-joo for his “sexual illegality” against his female aide. Park is a three-term lawmaker who once held key posts in the party -- chief policymaker, first vice floor leader and a member of the Supreme Council. 　 The party said it would not disclose details of the incident to prevent secondary victimization, but considering that it called an emergency meeting to expel Park and requ

May 16, 2022

[Editorial] No easy task

The new economic team of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is confronted with a crisis from the very beginning of its term. The continued rise in inflation, interest rates and the US dollar -- the so-called “three highs” -- pose a grave threat for the South Korean economy. For Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho, the three highs are only one of the serious risk factors he has to tackle. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is receding, an economic recovery is so fragi

May 13, 2022