It is about time for the Park Geun-hye administration to stop chasing its elusive goal of expanding welfare programs without tax increases. It is unfortunate for the country and possibly damning for future generations to continue to believe that people can enjoy greater welfare services without someone paying for it.Park, whose election pledges included expanding welfare without increasing taxes, has kept to that position in spite of indications that it is simply not feasible. The latest figures

Feb. 11, 2015

Former National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon, who was sentenced to three years in jail by the appellate court, is to bring his case to the Supreme Court. The Seoul High Court on Monday found Won guilty of meddling in the 2012 presidential election as well as illegally engaging in political acts as the country’s spy chief. Won was taken into immediate custody by the court.In September, a Seoul district court had found Won guilty of illegally engaging in political acts in violation of t

Feb. 11, 2015

PARIS ― Massive interconnectivity in our era has ironically resulted in self-isolation, self-delusion and aggression ― for individuals and nation-states alike. Did anyone predict that the perception of close proximity fostered by globalization and interconnectivity might lead to blowback?Yes, in fact several scientists did.In 1971, Charles Southwick wrote in the Ohio Journal of Science: “I think we could agree that the dramatic multimedia approach of our communications networks affects the sense

Feb. 11, 2015

President Park Geun-hye is expected to shake up the Cabinet and the Blue House as early as this weekend if her Prime Minister nominee Lee Wan-koo gets parliamentary approval in the vote scheduled for Thursday. Confirmation hearings for Lee began Tuesday. Blue House spokesman Min Kyung-wook said that the impending reshuffle of top government posts would be “small-scale.” Regarding the possibility of replacing Park’s chief of staff, Kim Ki-choon, he only said, “You will know when the announcement

Feb. 10, 2015

Two of the five members of the now-defunct Unified Progressive Party who lost their parliamentary seats when the Constitutional Court outlawed the party have announced that they will run in the by-elections for the seats they lost. Lee Sang-kyu will run in Seoul’s Gwanak district, and Kim Mi-hyui will compete in a district in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, in the by-elections slated for April 29. A third ex-UPP lawmaker, Oh Byung-yun, may also run in his former constituency in Gwangju. It is utter

Feb. 10, 2015

The U.S. government issued its clearest stance so far on the issue of Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense deployment in Korea through the visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken.Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-young, Blinken said, “There is no decision on THAAD. There are no active discussions on THAAD.” Despite the denial of active discussions on THAAD, a position also shared by Seoul, Blinken went onto explain that THAAD is a system that is

Feb. 9, 2015

The major opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy voted for Rep. Moon Jae-in, the party’s presidential contender in 2012, as the party chairman Sunday.Seen as representing the Roh faction within the party, which is divided into several rival parties, Moon fought a close race with Rep. Park Jie-won, a veteran politician and close confidant of the late President Kim Dae-jung, winning 45.3 percent of the votes. Moon will lead the party over the next two years as it tries to make a comeback i

Feb. 9, 2015

When South Korea agreed to open its rice market in 1994 under the Uruguay Round multilateral trade talks, then-President Kim Young-sam had to apologize to the people for revoking his campaign promise that, if elected, he would stake his presidency on protecting the local rice market from imports.In 2008, Lee Myung-bak, still fresh from his victory in the presidential election the previous year, faced fierce protests from farmers and liberals against the government’s decision to import beef from

Feb. 8, 2015

The government has finalized its plan to reform the deficit-ridden pension plans for government workers. The proposal came three months after the ruling Saenuri Party unveiled its own plan. Overall, the key elements of the two proposals are not much different. Pensioners would contribute more and receive less, start to receive payouts in later years than now and be required to subscribe to the schemes longer.One of the notable differences is that the government proposal toughened the rule on hal

Feb. 8, 2015

It is gloomy news that the amount of wages unpaid to workers surged to its highest level in five years. Based on complaints filed to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the sum of overdue wages stood at about 1.31 trillion won ($1.2 billion) at the end of last year, the largest since 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis that jolted the local economy. The number of employees who were unpaid for their work totaled 293,000, translating into some 4.5 million won per person in back pay.T

Feb. 6, 2015

Figures released by local customs authorities Thursday strengthened our perception that Korea can no longer be perceived as a place relatively free of narcotics. The number of drug-smuggling cases uncovered by the Korea Customs Service increased from 150 in 2009 to 232 in 2012 and further to 308 last year.The amount of banned substances confiscated last year totaled 71.7 kg with a street price of 150 billion won ($137 million), up 54 percent and 62 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

Feb. 6, 2015

In this era of digitalization, it is difficult for any individual, organization or government to protect all information and data they handle ― just as it is impossible to live without traffic accidents unless we go back to the pre-automobile age.So while we may be outraged and frustrated by cases of leaks or theft of information ― like those which hit three major credit card firms last year ― we tend to say that we should brace for more. But the data leaks ― in fact, illegal gathering and selli

Feb. 5, 2015

President Park Geun-hye’s much-touted, much-ridiculed slogan of “(more) welfare without tax increases” is facing its toughest challenge since she took office about two years ago. Unfortunately for her, the challenge comes from none other than the ruling Saenuri Party. Kim Moo-sung, the party leader, called promising to finance growing welfare demands without tax hikes a “deception” and newly elected floor leader Yoo Seong-min also publicly demanded a change in the government’s position. It might

Feb. 5, 2015

The Park Geun-hye government’s cultural policies are “retro,” and the Culture Ministry’s clock is apparently running backward to the time of authoritarian regimes.The Korean Film Council, which had said it planned to rate film festival entries, now says the plan has been postponed for the time being. Yet, the film industry remains concerned that the government will ultimately implement the plan in order to censor films that are critical of the government, as was done when the country was ruled b

Feb. 4, 2015

The ruling Saenuri Party has elected Yoo Seong-min floor leader, filling the two top party posts ― party chairmanship and floor leadership ― with lawmakers who are widely regarded as not being part of the Park Geun-hye faction within the party. Yoo, who served as Park’s chief of staff in 2005 when she was the head of Grand National Party, is openly critical of the current government’s policies and power structure within the Blue House.The race for the floor leader was expected to be a close one,

Feb. 4, 2015

Korea now finds itself in an awkward position in discussing free trade schemes with the world’s two largest economies ― the U.S. and China.During his talks with Chinese officials in Beijing last week, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan urged them to take swift actions toward implementing a bilateral free trade agreement. Choi said in a separate meeting with Korean correspondents that it was difficult to specify how long it would take for the two sides to resolve remaining differences to work out a

Feb. 3, 2015

Incheon International Airport is seeing its status as a key transportation hub in Northeast Asia being eroded at an alarming pace. The number of transit passengers using the airport, located 70 km west of Seoul, decreased by about 460,000 from a year earlier to 7.25 million last year.Except for 2010, the figure had increased by double digits every year since 2006. The portion of transit passengers fell to 16 percent of airport users last year from a peak of 18.7 percent in 2013.The erosion of it

Feb. 3, 2015

Chiefs of the nation’s smallest administrative districts ― si, gun and gu ― issued a statement last week to oppose the government’s proposals to reform the local government system. Mayors of the 25 gus in Seoul held a demonstration in Gwanghwamun on the same day, which was followed by a similar protest by a group of local councilors in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. We will likely see similar protests in the coming months, all of which tell us how arduous the reform will be. If carried out, the propo

Feb. 2, 2015

The World Economic Forum’s annual report on global competitiveness provides a glimpse of each country’s strengths and weaknesses. Korea, which scored 26th among 144 countries surveyed in 2014 in terms of overall competitiveness, usually ranks relatively high in such categories as macroeconomic environment, market size, and business sophistication and innovation. On the contrary, the country lags far behind in the government and public sectors. For instance, Korea ranked 113th in the category of

Feb. 2, 2015