[Editorial] Too complacent

Kim Moo-sung, leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, has been downplaying the efforts of opposition parties to recruit outside figures as candidates for the April 13 general election. 　In his New Year’s news conference Monday, Kim again dismissed the opposition’s recruiting endeavors as a mere “show” aimed at improving their public image. Parties should not delude the people and they should try to compete with policy and vision, he said. 　It is not difficult to see why Kim is so convinced -- or at

Jan. 20, 2016

[Editorial] Collective responsibility

The horrible story of a child whose dismembered body parts had been kept by his parents for about four years exposed some serious social ills in this country. 　The case of the 7-year-old boy who died in 2012 is still shrouded in mystery despite police investigators’ strenuous efforts to find clues since his father and mother were detained last Friday. 　The most immediate questions are how the boy died, and why the parents, both in custody on court-issued warrants, kept the body parts in a frozen

Jan. 20, 2016

[Editorial] Persia rush

Measured in terms of purchasing power parity, Iran’s gross domestic product surpasses that of Australia and the Netherlands, indicating the enormous scale of its economy.　Given this, it is not surprising that South Korean policymakers are calling on local enterprises to actively tap the second largest economy in the Middle East, as the international community has finally lifted its sanctions on Tehran.　Government officials expect the lifting of decades-long sanctions will benefit Korea’s constru

Jan. 18, 2016

[Editorial] Distrust in politics

The public poll season has returned ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in early February. And the nation has effectively entered campaign mode as less than three months remain until the general election.　The April 13 election holds great significance, as it is the last chance for nationwide voters to express their evaluation of the three-year performances of President Park Geun-hye and before the 2017 presidential election.　A recent survey by Gallup Korea is noteworthy, as it displayed the wid

Jan. 18, 2016

[Editorial] A wake-up call

With the year 2016 expected to see a surge in terrorism around the globe, the terrorist attacks in Jakarta on Jan. 14 suggest that East Asia is no longer safe from terrorism. As Korea can also become a terrorist target, it needs to be ready to combat terrorism, including cyberattacks.　The attacks in Jakarta reminded us of the horrifying tragedy in Paris last November. As in Paris, several explosions and gunfire rocked central Jakarta, suggesting that the attacks were carried out by a coordinated

Jan. 17, 2016

[Editorial] A tycoon’s misconduct

The court’s guilty verdicts against Hyosung Group chairman Cho Seok-rae and his eldest son, Cho Hyun-joon, have brought relief again to the corporate governance problems prevalent among Korea’s chaebol conglomerates.　A Seoul district court Friday sentenced the elder Cho, 81, to three years in prison and 136.5 billion won ($112.4 million) in fines on charges of tax evasion and accounting fraud. 　The junior Cho was given an 18-month jail term, suspended for three years, and 120 hours of volunteer

Jan. 17, 2016

[Editorial] Stimulus drive

The South Korean economy underwent an extreme slump in exports and weaker-than-expected recovery in private consumption last year. A series of government-led stimulus policies had to face a number of unfavorable external factors.　From the beginning of 2016, uncertainties have started clouding the local market. Among those are the economic slowdown of China — largest export destination of Korea — a deep slide in international crude prices and the Korean currency’s volatility against major currenc

Jan. 15, 2016

[Editorial] Repetitious tension

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, like his late grandfather and father, is striving to make a parade of the communist country’s military power both internally and on the international stage.　The young dictator appears more paranoid, compared to his late father and grandfather, about the possibility of regime collapse by a coup led by the country’s high-profile military officials.　It seems that Kim’s alleged trepidation over a military coup or civil revolt is pressing him to create habitual geopol

Jan. 15, 2016

[Editorial] Pressure on China

In her New Year address and news conference on Wednesday, President Park Geun-hye focused on the “emergency situations” that she said Korea faced on the security and economic fronts.　On the security side, she vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the U.N. Security Council could adopt a resolution imposing the “toughest yet sanctions” on North Korea.　The UNSC has been drafting a new resolution against the North following what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb test a week ago. 　To inflict

Jan. 14, 2016

[Editorial] Corruption vaccines

The government has launched a new anticorruption initiative for the public sector. The latest campaign, announced Tuesday by Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, is focused on preventing corruption by reinforcing monitoring on public systems.　Calling the new drive a “corruption vaccination” program, Hwang said it represented a shift in the government’s anticorruption fight from exposure and punishment to surveillance and prevention.　What the government means by vaccination is installing and activating

Jan. 14, 2016

[Editorial] Bad scouts

Korean political parties usually recruit “new faces” ahead of major elections to improve their public image and broaden their support base. 　This recruiting campaign is getting fiercer as the parties brace for the April general election amid the virtual split of the main opposition party and the public’s disenchantment with the current 19th National Assembly.  　But all the major scouts -- the Mijoo Party of Korea, Ahn Cheol-soo’s People’s Party and the ruling Saenuri Party -- seem to be failing

Jan. 13, 2016

[Editorial] It’s simply wrong

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions’ decision to nullify the grand social compromise reached last September is another reminder of how selfish Korea’s major labor groups are and how good they are at political maneuvering. 　The FKTU said Monday that its executive council decided to withdraw from the agreement of the tripartite committee and that it would make an official announcement Tuesday if the government does not change its position by that time. It is apparent that by giving a week’s noti

Jan. 13, 2016

[Editorial] Worsening job quality

For more than two years, the Park Geun-hye administration has repeatedly pledged to carry out full-fledged efforts to create as many jobs as possible by 2017 amid the spiraling youth jobless rate. 　But the intermediate result is frustrating young jobseekers as some statistical data indicate the government has been solely obsessed with the numerical figure, seemingly paying less attention to the quality of the new jobs.　The South Korean wage gap between regular and nonregular workers is quite hig

Jan. 12, 2016

[Editorial] Cheap Korean currency

The South Korean won has weakened against major currencies including the dollar in the wake of China’s devaluation of the renminbi as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy.　The local currency -- which ranged between 1,070 to 1,130 won per dollar during the first half of last year -- slid almost 10 percent to hover above 1,200. In Monday trading, the Korean currency fell to a 65-month low versus the greenback to close at 1,209.8.　It is also losing ground against the euro and

Jan. 12, 2016

[Editorial] Dying with dignity

The National Assembly has passed the “well-dying” bill, which would allow terminally ill patients to refuse meaningless life-sustaining treatments and die with dignity. With the law slated to go into effect in 2018, the government needs to ensure that all facilities necessary for its implementation are put in place before then.　The law has been a long time coming. It came more than 18 years after two doctors at a Seoul hospital were punished in 1997 on charges of aiding a murder after stopping l

Jan. 11, 2016

[Editorial] Unlevel playing field

It has been 12 days since the electoral map used for the previous general election expired Dec. 31 without a new one put in its place. 　It is the first time in Korean election history that all electoral constituencies have suddenly disappeared with the invalidation of the electoral map.　The unprecedented situation has already created serious problems as political novices who were preparing to run in the April election are suffering considerable disadvantages against incumbent lawmakers in conduc

Jan. 11, 2016

[Editorial] Nuclear fallout

North Korea’s surprise nuclear test last week has added to the long list of negative factors for the Korean economy. 　North Korea has already warned of war in response to the resumption of South Korean border propaganda broadcasts. A single artillery shell attack against the speakers will spark severe tension, similar to what we saw last summer. 　This heightened geopolitical risk comes on top of many difficulties the Korean economy faces: the uncertainty in the Chinese economy as evidenced by th

Jan. 10, 2016

[Editorial] China factor

The world has learned through North Korea’s fourth nuclear test that it will not give up its weapons of mass destruction. 　Another thing the world should learn is that it now needs a new strategy entirely different from the past, with the numerous endeavors -- not least the 1994 Agreed Framework, six-party talks and international sanctions led by no fewer than seven resolutions of the U.N. Security Council -- having clearly failed. 　Given the rapid progress of the North’s nuclear and missile cap

Jan. 10, 2016

[Editorial] Uncoordinated policy

A well-intended policy often produces an effect opposite to what was intended due to a lack of coordination among the ministries involved. The latest example could be the government’s decision to exempt visa application fees for group tourists from Asian countries, including China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.　　The decision was reached at a meeting of economic ministers presided over by President Park Geun-hye last month. The Ministry of Justice proposed to implement the plan from Jan. 1 to ma

Jan. 8, 2016

[Editorial] Turning up loudspeakers

The Seoul government has resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the heavily fortified border with North Korea. As the rogue state has crossed the red line again by testing what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb, the South’s strong reaction is warranted.　The South’s loudspeakers installed along the Demilitarized Zone began to blurt out messages critical of the North’s young leader at noon on Friday, two days after it carried out its fourth nuclear weapons test.　The propaganda broadcast

Jan. 8, 2016