[Editorial] Banning Uber

Lawmakers and administration officials are pushing to ban Uber, the app-enabled taxi service, from operating in local cities. A ruling party lawmaker recently submitted a bill aimed at punishing providers of the service, which links private cab drivers with customers over the Internet. The bill also calls for rewarding people who report taxi app operators to the authorities.Officials at the Transportation Ministry agreed to introduce the measure, noting that, under current law, it is possible to

Oct. 15, 2014

[Editorial] Flexible and principled

Whether to lift blanket sanctions Seoul imposed on Pyongyang in 2010 in retaliation for a deadly naval attack has emerged as a sensitive topic here, as the two sides are gearing up for the resumption of high-level dialogue.North Korea has made a couple of provocative acts since it sent a delegation of top officials to South Korea on Oct. 4 and agreed to resume high-level talks in early November at the latest. Despite recent exchanges of fire across sea and land borders, neither side seems ready

Oct. 15, 2014

[Editorial] Samcheok plant

Last week’s referendum in Samcheok, Gangwon Province, on a government plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the eastern city raises a host of concerns. The first one is that a local government is demanding the scrapping of a state project on the basis of a referendum, which, in fact, has no legal grounds. City officials said that 67.9 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots, with 85 percent of them opposing the plan to construct a nuclear power plant in the city. While this is an outrig

Oct. 14, 2014

[Editorial] Right recognition

Two years after becoming president in 1998, Kim Dae-jung, himself a pro-democracy activist who endured death threats, torture, imprisonment and house arrests, launched a commission to restore the honor of former activists and compensate them for their sufferings under the authoritarian governments. The Commission for Democratization Movement Activists’ Honor-Restoration and Compensation played a key role in shedding new light on many past cases and redressing the wrongs committed by the military

Oct. 14, 2014

[Editorial] Zero tolerance

The arrest of a two-star general on charges of sexually harassing a female subordinate is yet another blow to the military, hit by a string of incidents that raise questions about discipline in the ranks.The major general of the 17th Division is accused of sexually harassing a female noncommissioned officer in his office on five occasions between August and September. The female officer was a victim of a previous sexual harassment by another superior who is now serving a six-month jail sentence.

Oct. 13, 2014

[Editorial] Ebola preparedness

The transmission of the deadly Ebola virus from a patient who recently died in a U.S. hospital to a health care professional who took care of him is a stark reminder of how Ebola may spread despite precautions. The first case of an Ebola transmission outside the African continent also involved a health care professional, an assistant nurse in Spain who provided care to a missionary who had contracted the virus in Sierra Leone and who subsequently died. It is suspected that the nurse accidentally

Oct. 13, 2014

[Editorial] Curbing illicit fishing

China lodged a strong protest with South Korea last Friday over the death of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat during a violent clash with the South Korean Coast Guard during a crackdown on illegal fishing.A senior official at the Chinese Foreign Ministry made “solemn representations” over the incident, which had happened earlier in the day, when he called in the South Korean ambassador in Beijing. He demanded that Seoul “conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the case, punish

Oct. 12, 2014

[Editorial] Mixed signals

North Korea has recently made another string of contradictory gestures, with its leader Kim Jong-un having not been seen in public for more than a month.Last Friday, the North fired antiaircraft machine guns to shoot down balloons containing anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets, which had been floated by South Korean civic activists. After some North Korean machine gun rounds were found to have been fired south of the Demilitarized Zone, South Korean forces fired back dozens of machine gun rounds.

Oct. 12, 2014

[Editorial] Indictment of reporter

The indictment of a Japanese reporter Wednesday on a criminal defamation charge over a story on President Park Geun-hye’s whereabouts on April 16, the day of the Sewol ferry disaster, has become an international embarrassment for Korea.The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office indicted Tatsuya Kato, the former Seoul bureau chief of Japan’s conservative Sankei Shimbun, for an Aug. 3 story that reported on speculation concerning Park’s whereabouts based mostly on rumors circulating in the fin

Oct. 10, 2014

[Editorial] N.K. pressed on human rights

North Korea is under unprecedented pressure to improve its human rights. A draft resolution calling on the U.N. Security Council to refer the North Korean human rights situation to the International Criminal Court was circulated behind closed doors at the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee Wednesday. Written by the European Union and Japan, the draft resolution, which also calls for targeted sanctions against “those who appear to be most responsible for crimes against humanity,” is s

Oct. 10, 2014

[Editorial] Constitutional debate

President Park Geun-hye sounded somewhat insensible when she voiced opposition to the ongoing parliamentary move to debate how to revise the Constitution during a meeting with her aides this week. She said it was time for the National Assembly to focus on passing bills aimed at reviving the economy, instead of paying attention to other matters.Certainly, caution needs to be taken in pushing for the revision of the Constitution, which would have a far-reaching impact on the way the nation is run.

Oct. 9, 2014

[Editorial] Racial discrimination

Remarks made this week by a U.N. special rapporteur on racism and discrimination about related conditions in Korea seem to have been met with little interest from the public and media here. Not so many Koreans might agree with his rather critical position. But it would be unwise to ignore his views and suggestions, which deserve to be fully weighed by a Korean society facing challenges of adapting to increasing multiculturalism.In Monday’s news conference wrapping up his eight-day visit here, Mu

Oct. 9, 2014

[Editorial] Biological diversity

A United Nations convention on biodiversity is underway in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. The event should encourage more countries to include mainstream biological diversity in their development agendas and commit themselves to protecting species and restoring the ecosystem. The 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, or the CBD COP 12, started Monday and will run through Oct. 17. As many as 20,000 representatives from 194 countries, internationa

Oct. 8, 2014

[Editorial] Dangers on the road

Although the situation is improving bit by bit, Korean roads are still among the most dangerous in the world. This is shameful for a country whose economic power ranks among the world’s top 10 and which is the world’s fifth-largest producer of cars. Recent data shows Korea’s traffic fatality rates are the highest in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For instance, 2.4 people were killed for every 10,000 vehicles in 2012, which is the most among the 34 members of the club

Oct. 8, 2014

[Editorial] Abe must accept history

Is Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sincere about his wish to hold a summit with President Park Geun-hye? Judging by his recent comments at the Japanese Diet, either Abe has no desire to meet with Park or his political judgment has become so clouded that he cannot see the consequences of his remarks.According to a Japanese newspaper report, Abe, speaking at a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee on Friday, said that the Kono Statement did not recognize that women were forci

Oct. 7, 2014

[Editorial] Bumpy path guaranteed

The unexpected visit by a high-ranking North Korean delegation on Saturday may have paved the way for a second round of high-level talks later this month or early November but, as is normally the case with North Korea, nothing is guaranteed.As if to prove this point, a North Korean patrol boat on Tuesday morning crossed into South Korean territory in the West Sea and opened fire, according to the Defense Ministry. North and South Korean patrol boats exchanged fire briefly before the North Korean

Oct. 7, 2014

[Editorial] Record foreign investment

It is good news for the sluggish Korean economy that foreign direct investment has continued to increase at a fast pace this year. New FDI pledged to Korea soared by 37.9 percent from a year earlier to $14.8 billion in the first nine months of the year, the highest-ever figure for the January-September period. The amount of new FDI that arrived here during the period also reached a record high of $9.7 billion, up 50.1 percent from a year earlier, according to data released Sunday by the Ministry

Oct. 6, 2014

[Editorial] THAAD deployment

Seoul and Washington have struck different tones in recent months over the possible deployment of an advanced missile defense system here.A senior Pentagon official prompted the latest controversy by confirming last week that the U.S. is considering deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea to better cope with threats from North Korea. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said, “We are working with the government of South Korea now to determine if that is the rig

Oct. 6, 2014

[Editorial] N.K.’s turnaround

It came in a somewhat dramatic way, yet the agreement between South and North Korea to reopen high-level government talks should be welcomed. The agreement was made on Saturday between South Korean officials and a high-powered North Korean delegation, which made a surprise visit to Incheon to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games. The delegation, which included Hwang Pyong-so, presumed to be the North’s most powerful man after its leader Kim Jong-un, met South Korean Unification Ministe

Oct. 5, 2014

[Editorial] Finding right KB chief

KB Financial Group has announced the names of eight candidates for the top post of its holding company, following the exit of former chairman Lim Young-rok in the wake of a severe feud with the head of the group’s flagship Kookmin Bank. The eight ― five former KB executives and three outsiders ― were short-listed from a pool of 84 potential candidates and will be narrowed further down to four by Oct. 16. The group’s chairman selection committee will then choose a single candidate, whose appointm

Oct. 5, 2014