[Editorial] Public sector debt

Korea’s public sector debt, general government debt plus nonfinancial public corporations’ debt, amounted to 821.1 trillion won in 2012, representing 64.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.The government disclosed the public sector debt figure for the first time to give a more accurate picture of Korea’s debt profile. It has thus far released information on two types of government debt: national debt, which consists of central and local government debts, and general government debt

Feb. 17, 2014

[Editorial] Obama’s Asia dilemma

The White House has announced that U.S. President Barack Obama will include South Korea in his Asian trip in April. President Park Geun-hye and her foreign policy lieutenants did not conceal their contentment in having successfully persuaded the U.S. leader to change his original travel plan that included only Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines. If the current relations between South Korea and Japan and their effect on the region were not considered, Park and her aides might not care that much

Feb. 16, 2014

[Editorial] Scientific territory

South Korea has opened its second research base in the Antarctic, becoming the 10th country to have more than one research station on the polar continent. It deserves praise for contributing to the improvement of the nation’s polar research and scientific studies. The Jang Bo-go Antarctic Research Station, named after a ninth-century pioneer naval admiral, houses 16 laboratories and 24 observation facilities. It can accommodate up to 60 people, and a 16-member staff will stay there year-round.Lo

Feb. 16, 2014

[Editorial] Murayama’s message

“Indescribable wrongdoings.” That’s how former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama referred to the atrocities that Japan’s military had committed against more than 200,000 young women from Korea and other countries during World War II.By forcing the women to serve as “comfort women,” or sex slaves for its troops, “Japan robbed them of their dignity,” said Murayama, who as prime minister issued in 1995 the “Murayama Statement” to acknowledge Japan’s wartime aggression and apologize for the

Feb. 14, 2014

[Editorial] Strong jobs data

Statistics Korea has come up with an unusually strong jobs report for January. It said the number of employed people increased 705,000 compared with a year ago, the largest on-year monthly gain since March 2002, when the economy added 842,000 new jobs.The January gain was much larger than the 560,000 jobs added in December, 588,000 in November and 476,000 in October. The quickening pace of job creation is seen as a sign that the economic recovery is gathering momentum.The economy grew 3.9 percen

Feb. 14, 2014

[Editorial] N. Korea’s intentions

The two Koreas, which did not make any agreement despite 14 hours of talks Wednesday, have agreed to meet again on Friday. Seoul officials said North Korea sent a message Thursday to request a second round of discussions, one day after the two sides held high-level talks for the first time in seven years. After the first round, Seoul officials said that they had failed to reach any agreement and that the meeting only helped the two sides understand each other’s positions on pending issues betwee

Feb. 13, 2014

[Editorial] What’s new?

The new party to be launched by independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo has set out what it calls “basic plans for new politics.” The announcement made Tuesday drew public attention since it was the first time that Ahn and his party officially outlined their vision for a new politics. The party’s vision is built around three core aims ― a just society, social integration, and peace on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Hyo-seuk, a co-chairman of the preparatory committee for the party, defined a just society

Feb. 13, 2014

[Editorial] Domestic consumption

Korea’s exports last year reached an all-time high of $559.7 billion for a record trade surplus of $44.2 billion. But this remarkable performance in external commerce did little to boost the livelihoods of many working-class families. Domestic consumption remained sluggish, with the rate of unpaid debt rising to the highest level in three years.Large manufacturing exporters have been investing more in automation or moving their plants abroad to improve productivity and competitiveness. This mean

Feb. 12, 2014

[Editorial] Keeping basic order

Many Koreans were angered by a recent TV program that showed cars standing in the way of an ambulance carrying a woman who had been critically wounded in a traffic accident. It took more than 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive at a nearby hospital.The pity is that it would probably not have been the case that, in the same situation, all the TV watchers would have behaved in the right way and made room for the emergency vehicle.According to a report submitted this week to a lawmaker by the Na

Feb. 12, 2014

[Editorial] Reignited feud over NIS

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party are locking horns again over the National Intelligence Service’s alleged meddling in the 2012 presidential election.The opposition party has repeated its demand for a special counsel investigation into the NIS scandal, following the court’s recent acquittal of Kim Yong-pan, a former Seoul police chief who was charged with impeding a police investigation of the NIS officials allegedly involved in the case.The court justified its ve

Feb. 11, 2014

[Editorial] A Korea-Japan summit?

Washington has reportedly started to put pressure on Seoul and Tokyo to mend fences. Evan Medeiros, a senior White House official, was quoted as saying that the Obama administration hopes “that high-level contact is resumed soon” between the two neighbors. Medeiros is the senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council. He is a key player in the Obama administration’s Asia policy. The official said in an interview with a Korean news outlet that Washington “would welcome high-l

Feb. 11, 2014

[Editorial] Cooking college GPAs

It is no secret that Korean universities tend to give overly generous grades to students. School authorities even employ measures, some of which could amount to “cooking the books,” to help students get high GPAs. This grade inflation trend on college campuses is so pervasive and the scores so distorted that many Korean employers hiring graduates do not put as much emphasis on students’ transcripts as they did in the past. Grade inflation has become rampant mainly due to the ever-tightening job

Feb. 10, 2014

[Editorial] Visa for foreign spouses

The number of multicultural families is growing fast in Korea. So is the number of problems arising from the demographic change, which is obliging policymakers to work out proper countermeasures. It is therefore noteworthy that the government has set out new rules on granting visas for foreign spouses of Korean nationals. The measure, which will take effect April 1, mainly deals with the Korean language ability of foreign spouses and the economic status of their Korean partners. In short, any fo

Feb. 10, 2014

[Editorial] More FTAs for Korea

Many opposition lawmakers and civic group activists here vehemently opposed the signing of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in March 2012. They argued the terms of the accord were biased in favor of U.S. interests, expressing concerns over its possible negative effects on local industries.The opponents of the KORUS deal, however, must have felt embarrassed with the figures released last week by Seoul’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which showed Korea’s trade surpl

Feb. 9, 2014

[Editorial] Good green regulations

The government has taken the right course by deciding recently to adhere to the original goal of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from business-as-usual levels in 2020. With gas emissions increasing sharply in recent years, calls have mounted for lowering the target suggested by the former government of President Lee Myung-bak in 2009. But the Cabinet approved a new road map drawn up by the Environment Ministry, which maintains the 30 percent reduction target but con

Feb. 9, 2014

[Editorial] Specter of nuclear havoc

It is hardly surprising, yet it is utterly scary to hear that experts are concerned about the possibility of a massive nuclear disaster stemming from North Korea’s mishandling of its outdated reactor. What gives cause for greater concern is that the North has restarted its 28-year-old nuclear reactor in Yongbyon after an eight-year hiatus. The experts, quoted by the IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, noted that just a single fire in the Yongbyon nuclear site could cause a disaster potentially worse than

Feb. 7, 2014

[Editorial] Pride in suicide attacks?

There has come another episode illustrating Japan’s perverse and unashamed perception of its wartime wrongdoings: A Japanese town is seeking to include records of World War II kamikaze suicide pilots in UNESCO’s “Memory of the World Register.” We find this unthinkable, and we believe most people in the civilized world would, too.The mayor of the town said he hopes that the 333 notes and letters left by the pilots will convey to the world the “importance of peace” and “wretchedness of war” by pre

Feb. 7, 2014

[Editorial] Inter-Korean trade

Data released last week showed that trade volume between North Korea and China reached a record high last year, while inter-Korean trade plummeted to the lowest level since 2005.According to figures from the Korea International Trade Association, the North’s commerce with China amounted to $6.54 billion in 2013, up 10.4 percent from the previous year. In contrast, statistics from Korea Customs Service showed trade between the two Koreas shrank by 42 percent from a year earlier to $1.13 billion l

Feb. 6, 2014

[Editorial] Boosting tourism industry

The government this week announced a package of measures aimed at boosting the domestic tourism industry. These include introducing tourism weeks in the spring and autumn, during which transportation and accommodation fees are discounted, and providing employees at small companies with a vacation bonus partly subsidized by state coffers.Presiding over a meeting of relevant administration and industry officials, President Park Geun-hye stressed the importance of facilitating a virtuous circle in

Feb. 6, 2014

[Editorial] No undue privileges

Political parties are among the least credible organizations. They make many promises ahead of key elections only to ignore most of them when the elections are over.With the gubernatorial and local elections scheduled for June 4, the main parties have started to draw up election promises. But the electorate will have to take them with a grain of salt. If experience is any guide, many of them will be reheated pledges that parties failed to fulfill in the past.A case in point is the opposition Dem

Feb. 5, 2014