[Editorial] Trade war

A trade war whose scale could rise to threaten the global trade order looms large, as the US and major trading nations are threatening tit-for-tat actions against each other. This certainly poses a grave challenge to South Korea, whose economy relies on exports. It may too early to predict how many and fierce the battlefronts will be, but the latest statements from US President Donald Trump and leaders of countries like China, the European Union, Canada and Mexico point to a large-scale trade wa

March 5, 2018

[Editorial] Tasks for special envoy

President Moon Jae-in is sending special envoys led by Chung Eui-yong, chief of the presidential National Security Office, to North Korea on Monday afternoon. The five-member delegation has been dispatched to reciprocate recent official visits from the North, and they are expected to focus on the arrangement of a US-North Korea dialogue. The main purpose of the delegation is to grasp North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s thoughts. The South needs to know whether he intends to dismantle his country’s

March 4, 2018

[Editorial] History is not over

President Moon Jae-in strongly urged Japan on Thursday to sincerely reflect on its past wrongdoings and apologize for them. “In resolving the issue of sexual slaves, the Japanese government, the perpetrator, must not say it is ‘over,’” Moon said during a speech marking the March 1, 1919, Korean resistance to Japanese occupation, “Inhumane violation of human rights during war cannot be covered by saying it is over.”“Dokdo is the land that was first occupied in the process of Japan’s invasion of K

March 2, 2018

[Editorial] Bad legacy

The flurry of new stories about former Presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak, all coming from the court and the state prosecution, show how crooked the Korean presidency is.The numerous charges -- and they really are numerous, with Park alone facing 18 altogether -- have yet to be judged by the court, but testimonies and evidence reported so far point to grave wrongdoings on the part of the two former leaders.Park, who was ousted from office last March amid a massive corruption scandal invo

March 1, 2018

[Editorial] Shorter working hours

The National Assembly has passed a revised bill to reduce standard weekly working hours from a maximum of 68 hours to 52 hours.　Under the revised Labor Standards Act, working hours per week will be limited to 40 hours of weekday work and 12 hours of overtime work. Working on a holiday or weekend is regarded as working overtime.　Overtime pay rates for working on a holiday are the same as at present: 150 percent of ordinary wages for up to 8 hours worked overtime and 200 percent for the portion ov

Feb. 28, 2018

[Editorial] Dialogue momentum

One obvious geopolitical legacy of the PyeongChang Olympics is that it provided a momentum for improvement of inter-Korean relations that had been stalled for years due to the North’s nuclear and missile crisis. There are some downsides to the latest thaw, including objections within the South and a skeptical view of the US, which still focuses more on sanctions and pressure than on dialogue. But the two Koreas need to continue their hard-won rapprochement. Indeed, the PyeongChang Olympics heigh

Feb. 27, 2018

[Editorial] Conditions for dialogue

Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wanted to improve ties with Washington and had “ample intentions of holding talks” with the US, the South Korean presidential office said in a statement Sunday.　The North’s delegation led by Kim Yong-chol also agreed that “South-North relations and US-North Korean relations should be improved together,” the statement said.　Kim made the remarks during a meeting with President Moon Jae-in for ab

Feb. 26, 2018

[Editorial] PyeongChang’s legacy

The PyeongChang Winter Olympics came to a close Sunday after 17 days of memorable competitions among the world’s top athletes. As a sporting event, the quadrennial games were successful in many respects. Most of all, the PyeongChang Olympics -- the largest-ever Winter Games that drew 2,920 participants from 92 countries -- proceeded without any big hitch, except an outbreak of a stomach virus.The organizers made sure there was no major mishap in the operation of events for 15 sports that were st

Feb. 25, 2018

[Editorial] Dereliction of duty

It is not rare for the National Assembly to defy important deadlines -- like the one for endorsing a new state budget. It does not, however, lessen our frustration with its failure -- yet again -- to finalize the electoral map in time for the June 13 local elections. The National Assembly had been deadlocked for two weeks due to partisan strife stemming from the implication of Rep. Kwon Sung-dong, chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, in a scandal in which influential people solic

Feb. 23, 2018

[Editorial] Abuses in performing arts 　

The #MeToo movement is spreading across cultural circles in Korea. A poet often cited as a candidate for a top literature prize was pegged by a female contemporary in her poem to have serially groped young literary women. Former actresses said they had been sexually abused by Lee Youn-taek, one of the nation’s most prominent theater directors. The revelations invited similar allegations against another theater director, a musical director and a TV actor.A former theater actress said that she eve

Feb. 22, 2018

[Editorial] No easy task

Perhaps there is nothing wrong with President Moon Jae-in calling on his aides to confront “resolutely” the onslaught of US protectionist moves against South Korea. Every country has the right to defend itself from unfair trade practices. The problem is that one cannot be sure whether Moon would be able to -- as his aides avowed -- separate trade issues from the security alliance with the US, which has become more critical due to the North Korean nuclear and missile crisis. The currently unfoldi

Feb. 21, 2018

[Editorial] IMF warnings

The International Monetary Fund has forecast South Korea’s potential growth rate to dip below 2 percent in the 2030s.The potential growth rate is a growth rate realizable without incurring inflation by putting all its capital, labor and technology in an economy. It shows the fundamental health of an economy.　This is not the first warning. Last year, the Bank of Korea estimated that the nation’s potential growth rate for the five-year period from 2016 to 2020 would be about half what it was 15 ye

Feb. 20, 2018

[Editorial] Fair audit first

The crisis in the Korean unit of General Motors reminds many Koreans of the case of Ssangyong Motors, from which a Chinese group pulled out in 2011. In fact, the situation in both cases is similar: A domestic car company falls into crisis and is acquired by a foreign automaker. The takeover, however, fails to turn the company around and the foreign owner demands preferential financial assistance from the government and creditors in return for keeping the company float. Ssangyong, now owned by In

Feb. 19, 2018

[Editorial] Tariff bomb

The US Commerce Department recommended Friday that President Donald Trump impose heavy tariffs or quotas on steel imports from South Korea, China and other countries. The department suggested three options: a global tariff of 24 percent on all steel imports; 53 percent or higher tariffs on 12 countries including South Korea and China; and a quota on steel imports from all countries up to 63 percent of what those countries imported in 2017. Trump must decide whether to adopt any of the recommenda

Feb. 18, 2018

[Editorial] Gunsan plant closure

General Motors said Tuesday it would shut down its South Korean operation GM Korea’s plant in Gunsan, one of its four factories in Korea, by the end of May.Considering there are about 2,000 workers at the plant and some 11,000 employees at 130 or so suppliers in and around Gunsan, the decision is feared to strike a heavy blow to the regional economy.There is a further concern that GM may be taking steps to withdraw from Korea altogether, just as it left India and South Africa.The average utiliza

Feb. 14, 2018

[Editorial] Military judicial reform

The Ministry of National Defense is pushing a sweeping reform of the military judicial system.The military cannot be an exception to the principle of independence and the impartiality of investigations and trials.The point of the reform is to change a closed authoritarian system in which commanders call the shots over military police, military prosecution and military courts into a more open and democratic one. In the present system, commanders of divisions or higher units can select military pr

Feb. 13, 2018

[Editorial] Solar pandemonium

Corruption in solar power projects has been uncovered by the state auditor. 　According to the Board of Audit and Inspection on Thursday, 57 employees of Korea Electric Power Corp. were engaged in irregularities related to solar power projects between 2014 and 2016. 　The employees in question operated solar power plants under the names of their spouses or children. The capacity of solar power connectible to the grid is restricted differently by region, but they were bribed by contractors to allow

Feb. 12, 2018

[Editorial] After PyeongChang

Looking at what happened between South and North Korea in PyeongChang and Seoul over the weekend, some might have difficulty believing that until a short while ago, the two were seemingly at each other’s throats, ready to be swept into war in a US-North confrontation over the nuclear crisis. Athletes from the two sides marched together under the Korean Unification Flag at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Games. Two members of the unified women’s hockey team -- one from each side -- climbe

Feb. 11, 2018

[Editorial] Both to blame

The Presidential Commission on Policy Planning has decided to appoint an ad-hoc panel to prepare a constitutional revision bill as the National Assembly is deadlocked over rewriting the basic law. Officials said the ad-hoc panel will come up with a bill by the middle of next month, after collecting public opinions through hearings and opinion polls. The presidential commission’s announcement came two days after President Moon Jae-in, expressing frustration over the slow progress made at the legi

Feb. 9, 2018

[Editorial] Hacking provocations

The National Intelligence Service told lawmakers on Monday that in December last year North Korea hacked at least two domestic cryptocurrency exchanges and stole virtual currency worth 26 billion won ($23.96 million).　The service also said North Korean hackers may have stolen 58 million yen ($5.2 million) in cyber currency from one of Japan’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges on Jan. 26. It is the largest cryptocurrency heist to date.　The North is seen stealing virtual currency as it finds it inc

Feb. 8, 2018