[Editorial] Park-Obama summit

President Park Geun-hye, now on a four-day trip to the U.S., will soon hold a summit with President Barack Obama in Washington, which will be the fourth of its kind since she took office in early 2013. 　As is usual with a summit between the countries, the meeting will have bearings not only on their bilateral relations, but also on the geopolitical situation in Northeast Asia, especially regarding China and North Korea. 　The latest Park-Obama meeting comes after the South Korean leader attended

Oct. 15, 2015

[Editorial] Crime inside military prison

An imprisoned Army sergeant who committed abuses that led to the death of an Army private in April 2014 is alleged to have committed similar abuses on fellow prison inmates.　Identified only by his last name Lee, the sergeant is reported to have sexually harassed, attacked and committed other acts of cruelty against at least three inmates from February to August this year before the matter was brought to light. Lee was moved from an eight-person cell to a single-person cell in August.　Lee receive

Oct. 14, 2015

[Editorial] What’s the rush?

In announcing the reintroduction of state-written history textbooks starting in 2017 — state-authored history books were imposed in 1974 during the time of President Park Chung-hee, father of President Park Geun-hye, and state-reviewed textbooks were revived in 2011 — the Education Ministry said that the move was necessary as the current textbooks contain numerous factual errors and offer mostly leftist perspectives of history. 　Since the Education Ministry is responsible for reviewing history t

Oct. 14, 2015

[Editorial] Marginal firms

Korea’s top economic policymakers are slowly awakening to the need for massive corporate restructuring, but they still seem to lack the determination required to face the tough challenge.The prolonged stagnation of both the world economy and the Korean economy has seriously eroded corporate profitability, leaving the balance sheets of many domestic companies in tatters. The dimension of the problem was brought into focus by the Bank of Korea in June. In its Financial Stability Report, it shed li

Oct. 13, 2015

[Editorial] Taxi rip-offs

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has proposed a bill to enact a “three strikes and you’re out” law for overcharging taxi and van drivers. The move is welcome as we still hear about foreign tourists getting ripped off by unscrupulous cab drivers.For instance, a taxi driver was booked last month for taking 400,000 won from a Chinese passenger for a ride from Incheon International Airport to the Mapo district of Seoul. The fare on the meter was 68,000 won but the tourist gave the

Oct. 13, 2015

[Editorial] Repeated folly

There are many silly things in Korean government and politics — silly in the sense that follies and stupidities are being repeated although many know what the problems are. One such thing is the annual parliamentary audit of the executive and judiciary branches. 　The National Assembly finished this year’s audit last week, and as had been expected, it lived up to its reputation as one of the most ridiculous institutions in the country. 　For starters, you need to get only a few sets of statistics

Oct. 12, 2015

[Editorial] War clouds

An intense ideology-packed war looms large between the ruling and opposition parties, with the confrontation certain to worsen the already deep left-right schism in Korean society.　The first front of the war is evolving over the government’s plan to supply state-authored Korean history textbooks to middle and high school students. The Education Ministry officially announced the decision Monday.　Officials say that some of the current eight textbooks — supplied by private publishers — that were wr

Oct. 12, 2015

[Editorial] Kim Jong-un’s sincerity

North Korea put up its largest ever military parade on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party. The country’s young leader Kim Jong-un boasted in a rare live speech that he was ready to fight any kind of war the U.S. might launch.　Yet, noticeably absent from the speech was North Korea’s mantra of “simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.” Also absent was the test firing of a long-range missile that North Korea threatened recently. Experts had p

Oct. 11, 2015

[Editorial] Smelly ginkgo problem

Nothing says “autumn” more beautifully and, unfortunately, pungently than the ginkgo trees that line the streets of Seoul and elsewhere around the country.　On many Seoul pedestrian pavements, one can easily see fallen ginkgo berries that have been stepped on. The odor of fallen ginkgo berries, which is often likened to the smell of vomit, is caused by butyric acid released from the rotting berries. The squashed ginkgo berries on the pavements are an eyesore as well, as they quickly dirty the sid

Oct. 11, 2015

[Editorial] Appeal to heed

A group of 1,000 intellectuals issued a statement earlier this week to appeal to political parties to accelerate work to follow up on the recent labor reform agreement reached by the tripartite committee of government, labor and employers. 　The statement, signed by economists, professors, former government ministers, attorneys and journalists, was addressed to the floor leaders of the ruling and the main opposition parties and the chairman of the National Assembly Environment-Labor Committee. 　P

Oct. 8, 2015

[Editorial] Park’s men

Two key Blue House aides -- presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook and Park Jong-joon, the deputy head of the presidential security service -- have resigned from their posts to run in the parliamentary elections next April. 　The two join Jun Kwang-sam, a former Blue House press officer who stepped down last month with the same parliamentary ambition. The Blue House said that they asked all the presidential staff about their future plans and that no more Blue House staff would run in the upcoming

Oct. 8, 2015

[Editorial] Good signs?

It is never easy to predict what North Korea, unarguably the world’s most isolated country, will do and what will happen there. It is not rare either for the North Korean leadership to take a sharp turn in its dealings with the outside world, especially South Korea and the U.S. Nevertheless, some latest developments in North Korea raise hope that at least for the time being, it will not take any action to shake peace and stability in the region.　The first positive development surrounds the North

Oct. 7, 2015

[Editorial] Korea’s choice

The agreement between 12 countries to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- the world’s biggest-ever regional trading bloc -- and Korea’s exclusion from it poses a lot of challenges to the country. 　First of all, the completion of the negotiations to form the mega trade bloc, which accounts for 40 percent of the world’s economic output, should reignite the debate not only on the timing of Korea’s entry but also on the country’s trade policy as a whole. 　The 12 members in the largest regional t

Oct. 7, 2015

[Editorial] Vigilance against cyber terror

It appears that North Korea may have hacked Seoul Metro’s servers for months without the subway authority being aware of the serious breach in security.　According to a National Intelligence Service report, two operating servers of Seoul Metro, which runs Subway Lines 1, 2, 3 and 4, were hacked for at least five months before the company became aware of the problem in July 2014. The hackers, presumed to be North Koreans, broke into 210 Seoul Metro computers and infected 58 with malicious code. 　A

Oct. 6, 2015

[Editorial] U.S. attack on hospital

The U.S. air strike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Oct. 3 that left 22 civilians dead — 12 Medecins Sans Frontieres staff and 10 patients, including three children — should be fully investigated, preferably by an independent party.　According to the MSF, also called Doctors Without Borders, the Afghan and coalition troops had the exact GPS coordinates of the hospital, which has been operating for four years. MSF general director Christopher Stokes said that the air strike continued even

Oct. 6, 2015

[Editorial] Bad school lunches

Tampering with school meals to make profit should be dealt with in the strongest possible way as it puts the health of the country’s youngsters at risk.　A middle school and high school in Seoul were found to have rigged the books to make illicit profits for the schools’ foundation in a special audit conducted by the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The office was acting on a tipoff from a whistle-blower.　The school foundation was ingenious in cheating the students. After purchasing 10 can

Oct. 5, 2015

[Editorial] Gun safety

Saturday’s incident in Busan involving a gun theft from an indoor shooting range has raised alarms concerning gun safety in a country where guns are strictly controlled.　A 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of stabbing the owner of an indoor shooting range and fleeing with a 0.45 caliber handgun and 19 bullets. He was caught after a four-hour manhunt involving police, police dogs and a SWAT team. 　Fearing that the man would commit further crimes, such as taking hostages, police immediatel

Oct. 5, 2015

[Editorial] Infant mortality

President Park Geun-hye’s administration needs to pay a serious heed to a recent report on North Korea’s infant mortality. The report by the National Assembly Research Service noted the North was in need of an outside supply of drugs and medical equipment to cope with its high infant mortality rate.　According to data from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, which was cited in the report, North Korea ranked 74th among 223 countries surveyed in 2014 in terms of the number of dea

Oct. 4, 2015

[Editorial] A loose tongue

A former South Korean intelligence chief sparked controversy last week with remarks that the leaders of the two Koreas operated a hotline for years until 2008.　Kim Man-bok, who served as director of the National Intelligence Service under the late President Roh Moo-hyun, said the hotline was set up during the administration of President Kim Dae-jung, Roh’s predecessor, and maintained into the Roh presidency. But he said the secret highest-level communication channel was severed after Lee Myung-b

Oct. 4, 2015

[Editorial] Black Friday that wasn’t

The first-ever Korean adaptation of the “Black Friday” sales in the U.S. appears to be just another sales period.While the Black Friday event in the U.S., which takes place the day after Thanksgiving, is a once-a-year deal offering steep discounts of up to 80 percent on a wide range of items, the same event here which kicked off Thursday for a two-week run is not much more than the regular autumn sale under a different name. People who flocked to department stores in search of bargains Thursday

Oct. 2, 2015