[Editorial] Up to the task

President Park Geun-hye seemed to have wanted to signal a strong security posture rather than attend to calls for more strategic adroitness in selecting her new national security adviser. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, who was appointed to the post of National Security Office chief that has been vacant since Kim Jang-soo resigned on May 22, has been a figure symbolic of Seoul’s firm stance against threats from Pyongyang.Since becoming defense minister in 2010 after North Korea’s shelling of a So

June 3, 2014

[Editorial] Momentum of recovery

Figures released by the national statistics office last week have raised concerns that the April 16 ferry disaster might go beyond dampening consumer sentiment to eventually undermine the still-fragile economic recovery. The industrial output index, which covers the manufacturing and mining sectors, rose by 0.1 percent in April from the previous month, down from a 0.9 percent gain in March, according to data from Statistics Korea. Production in the service sector shrank by 1 percent in April, wi

June 3, 2014

[Editorial] Parliamentary probe

The National Assembly on Monday launched an investigation into the deadly sinking of the Sewol ferry, about 50 days after the tragedy took place, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. The ruling and main opposition parties set the investigation period at 90 days, more than double the norm for a parliamentary probe, which is 40 days. This reflects the magnitude of the tragedy, one of the worst manmade maritime catastrophes in Korea. During the period, a team of 18 lawmakers will inspect t

June 2, 2014

[Editorial] Advance voting

The June 4 local elections are different from previous ones in several respects. One of them concerns the voting system. Previously, voters who could not go to the polls on election day had to apply for absentee ballots in advance.Now Korea’s advanced IT infrastructure allows these people to cast their ballots during the advance voting period without requesting absentee ballots beforehand. All they need to do is visit the nearest advance voting station, bringing their ID cards.If voters don’t kn

June 2, 2014

[Editorial] N. Korea-Japan thaw

North Korea has agreed to reopen the investigation into Japanese citizens it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s. In return, Japan will lift some of the sanctions it has imposed on the North over its nuclear bomb tests and missile launches.The agreement, reached on Friday, also called for Japan to provide humanitarian aid to the North and the two sides to conduct negotiations for normalizing relations. It is not undesirable for Japan or any other member of the international community to engage North

June 1, 2014

[Editorial] U.N. office on N.K. rights

The United Nations’ decision to open in South Korea a field office on human rights in North Korea should be welcomed. No place is better suited for the office that will become a frontline unit on rights abuses in the North. It is said that the Seoul government was not so eager to accept the request of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to set up an office in South Korea to deal exclusively with North Korean rights issues. That is a little understandable since one can imagine ho

June 1, 2014

[Editorial] Continuing disasters

While the country is still reeling from the trauma of the Sewol ferry tragedy, manmade accidents resulting from indifference to safety continue to take place. On Wednesday, a fire at a convalescent hospital in Jangseong, South Jeolla Province, killed 21 people, mostly elderly patients, injuring eight others. Police suspect that an 81-year-old dementia patient launched an arson attack on the hospital.Firefighters brought the fire under control minutes after receiving a report. But the death toll

May 30, 2014

[Editorial] No lessons learned

President Park Geun-hye has suffered another major personnel appointment debacle. On Wednesday, her prime minister nominee, Ahn Dae-hee, announced his withdrawal. It was six days after he was picked to head the Cabinet.The former Supreme Court justice was Park’s second nominee for the No. 2 post of the executive branch to drop out of the process even before his qualifications were verified in a confirmation hearing. In January 2013, former Constitutional Court chief Kim Yong-joon withdrew his no

May 30, 2014

[Editorial] Buying nominations

The corruption scandal involving Rep. Yoo Seung-woo of the Saenuri Party shows how hard it is to end the dirty practice of candidates buying nominations from major political parties. The case has yet to be investigated by the prosecution and for now Yoo denies the accusation that he took bribes, but the allegations are so concrete and detailed that it appears very likely to have been a dirty deal. The case was revealed by the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, which, acting on a tip

May 29, 2014

[Editorial] Second deputy P.M.

President Park Geun-hye plans to name a second deputy prime minister who will oversee educational, social and cultural affairs. The plan is part of a scheme to widely reorganize the government in the wake of the Sewol ferry disaster. Park said she wanted to create the post so the government would have four “control towers” built around the prime minister, two deputy prime ministers and the national security chief. She said the prime minister should be responsible for the rule of law, bureaucrati

May 29, 2014

[Editorial] Outwitting North Korea

Four years have passed since Seoul slapped blanket economic sanctions on North Korea in May 2010 in retaliation for its torpedo attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The measure imposed by the conservative government of then-President Lee Myung-bak was taken over by the incumbent administration of his successor Park Geun-hye, who took office in February last year.Park’s adherence to the punitive policy disappointed Pyongyang, which might have expected her to discard it to buil

May 28, 2014

[Editorial] A delicate balance

It has become a formulated remark by Seoul officials that South Korea will continue to strengthen its security alliance with the U.S. while expanding its strategic partnership with China. But they find it increasingly tough to strike this delicate balance between the two superpowers at a growing rivalry with expanded areas of conflict.A concrete case showing the difficulty of the complicated task is Washington’s persistent pressure on Seoul to join the U.S.-led regional missile defense shield.In

May 28, 2014

[Editorial] Governance reform

Calls to reform the governance structure of public broadcasters are growing as the feud between the president of the state-run Korea Broadcasting System and its employees escalates.Reporters, anchors, producers and other staff of the nation’s most influential TV network are up in arms against their boss, Gil Hwan-young, as he is alleged to have intervened, on behalf of Cheong Wa Dae, in news programming for favorable coverage of President Park Geun-hye. The allegations were raised by Kim Si-gon,

May 27, 2014

[Editorial] Feud at top bank

KB Kookmin Bank is in disarray as an internal feud that has erupted over the replacement of its computer system is boiling over into a power struggle between the bank’s CEO and the chairman of KB Financial Group.The feud at the bank started last month after its board of directors, allegedly supported by KB Financial Group chairman Lim Young-rok, had decided to shift from the existing IBM mainframe system to a Unix-based one.Both systems have strengths and weaknesses. The mainframe platform is ge

May 27, 2014

[Editorial] Renewal of presidency

Starting with the nomination of the new prime minister, President Park Geun-hye is bracing for what will likely be a sweeping reshuffle of the Cabinet and the presidential office. She certainly hopes that the shakeup will help her administration and the nation recover from the aftermath of the Sewol ferry disaster and make a fresh start. The shakeup is important for the president because the new lineup will not only spearhead her government’s efforts to upgrade the nation’s safety system and ref

May 26, 2014

[Editorial] Harmful indifference

Campaigns for the June 4 local elections are in full swing, albeit subdued due to the mourning for the victims of the Sewol ferry sinking. In the quadrennial races, about 9,000 candidates are running for nearly 4,000 posts, including governors, mayors and education superintendents of the 17 provinces and metropolitan cities, chief administrators of more than 200 smaller local governments and nearly 3,700 local council members.From the perspective of national politics, the upcoming elections are

May 26, 2014

[Editorial] Ensuring safety

In a meeting with her senior secretaries last week, President Park Geun-hye emphasized the envisioned ministry of national safety should be given sufficient authority to act as the “control tower” in disaster management. She said the head of the ministry should assume the role of what she described as a “minister for special missions” and all other government agencies should comply with requests from the minister in responding to a disaster such as the April 16 deadly sinking of the Sewol. The p

May 25, 2014

[Editorial] Balanced line-up

The deteriorating public sentiment following the ferry tragedy last month led President Park Geun-hye to dismiss her national security adviser and intelligence chief Thursday when she nominated a new prime minister. Kim Jang-soo, head of the presidential national security office, had come under fire for disavowing responsibility for the handling of the disaster and National Intelligence Service Director Nam Jae-joon had been under pressure from the opposition to resign over a series of scandals.

May 25, 2014

[Editorial] Cardinal’s visit to Gaeseong

Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung visited the North Korean city of Gaeseong on Wednesday to meet Catholic workers in the factories run by South Korean firms there. It was only a one-day trip and was limited to the factory park in the border city and both church and government officials played down its political significance. One can suppose that North Korea accepted Yeom’s visit, the first by a South Korean Catholic leader, as part of its propaganda on freedom of religion, which it guarantees in its

May 23, 2014

[Editorial] New P.M. nominee

It seems that President Park Geun-hye has set out on a sweeping shakeup of senior government posts, which she hopes will help the nation and her administration recover from the Sewol ferry tragedy and restore public confidence in government. She first picked a revered former prosecutor as new prime minister and fired two unpopular aides.Although the opposition camp raised its customary skepticism and questions, Park’s nomination of former Supreme Court justice Ahn Dae-hee as prime minister is la

May 23, 2014