[Editorial] Watertight alliance

After talks with his South Korean counterpart Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and Seoul “stand very firmly united without an inch of daylight between us” in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and proliferation activities. He said the allies would continue to modernize their capabilities to face any threat from the North.Kerry’s remarks seemed to reflect Washington’s recent focus on portraying its strong alliance with Seoul as a stabilize

Jan. 9, 2014

[Editorial] War on regulations

President Park Geun-hye has declared a war on regulations. In her New Year’s news conference Monday, she unveiled a new three-year plan to reinvigorate the economy, suggesting deregulation as a key implementation strategy.Park’s new economic policy platform calls for raising the nation’s potential growth rate to above 4 percent, elevating the employment rate to 70 percent and boosting Korea’s per-capita GDP beyond the $30,000 mark. These goals are not easy to reach within three years. For instan

Jan. 8, 2014

[Editorial] Row over spy agency

A local city mayor has alleged that an agent of the National Intelligence Service has until recently conducted illegal surveillance on him and meddled in the local elections slated for June.The allegations, raised by Lee Jae-myung, mayor of Seongnam City just outside Seoul, add fuel to the row over the state spy agency’s alleged involvement in politics.In a news conference Tuesday, Lee claimed that an NIS agent covering the city has until recently collected negative information about him in a bi

Jan. 8, 2014

[Editorial] Seoul’s N.K. initiatives

President Park Geun-hye’s proposal to hold fresh reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, with her reserved stance on talks with North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un, appears to indicate the limited scope of options the South Korean leader has in handling inter-Korean ties.In her New Year news conference Monday, Park hoped elderly members of separated families would be allowed to reunite around Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls on Jan. 31. Shortly after Park made the proposal, Seoul’s

Jan. 7, 2014

[Editorial] Election of superintendents

It is understandable that calls have been mounting for the abolition of the direct popular election of educational superintendents in the country. Of the 16 metropolitan and provincial superintendents elected in 2010, nine have been implicated in corruption and other wrongdoings.With the next vote set to be held in June as part of local polls, civic groups and organizations of teachers and professors are joining the movement to do away with what they see as an inefficient and problematic system.

Jan. 7, 2014

[Editorial] A three-legged race

State governance is like a three-legged or four-legged race. Even if the executive branch wants to run fast, it can’t if other branches of government, be it the legislature or local governments, slow down or stop.So said President Park Geun-hye, summarizing the difficulties she had faced last year in steering the nation. Park related her experiences to some 200 leaders of the nation, including from the three branches of government, political parties and business organizations, who attended the N

Jan. 6, 2014

[Editorial] Doctors’ collective action

Doctors are threatening to refuse to see patients starting Saturday unless the government withdraws its plans to introduce telemedicine and allow hospitals to establish for-profit subsidiaries.To prevent the announced collective action, the government proposed setting up a consultative body with physicians to discuss all pending issues related to health care and medical services, including raising medical fees.But the Korea Medical Association, a powerful lobby group of physicians, is saying it

Jan. 6, 2014

[Editorial] Peace on peninsula

President Park Geun-hye will in all probability refer to inter-Korean relations, a key issue of concern to South Koreans, when she holds a news conference on Monday. The news conference, the first since her inauguration 10 months ago, comes after Kim Jong-un, the young, brash and ruthless leader of North Korea, offered to improve inter-Korean relations in his New Year message.In his message, Kim said it was time to put an end to what he called pointless slandering and other acts detrimental to i

Jan. 5, 2014

[Editorial] Opposition in disarray

Gubernatorial and other local elections are scheduled for June. But the chances are very slim that the main opposition Democratic Party will defeat a party still in the making, never mind the ruling Saenuri Party. Some opposition lawmakers publicly acknowledge this.Among the lawmakers is Rep. Park Jie-won, a former floor leader of the Democratic Party. He says he believes that a party now in the process of being created by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, an independent, will surpass the ruling party in appr

Jan. 5, 2014

[Editorial] Yen and export outlook

Exports grew at a snail’s pace, at 2.2 percent from 2012 to 2013. Yet, their value was the largest ever, at $559.7 billion. On the other hand, imports declined from the previous year, by a small margin of 0.8 percent, to $515.5 billion.The end result was a trade surplus of $44.2 billion, an amount that replaced the previous high of $41.2 billion attained in 2010. Exports and imports, when put together, surpassed $1 trillion for the third consecutive year ― an accomplishment confirming again that

Jan. 3, 2014

[Editorial] College restructuring

Universities are in the process of voluntary restructuring, ahead of a forcible reform that will include closures or changes to institutions of further education. But the process is anything but smooth, with disaffected faculty members revolting vehemently against the administration-led restructuring.With high school graduates rapidly declining in number, however, the government is set to reduce the quota for admissions to universities and colleges from the current 559,000 to 400,000 by 2020. To

Jan. 3, 2014

[Editorial] This time seems different

The government is ratcheting up pressure on public organizations to cut their mounting debts and trim excessive welfare benefits. The government has recently selected 38 public organizations as targets for reform. Among them, 12 were chosen for their unsustainable debts. The list includes Korea Land and Housing Corp., Korea Water Resources Corp., Korea Railroad Corp. and Korea Expressway Corp.The remaining 26 were picked for their heavy welfare spending. They include Korea Racing Association, Ko

Jan. 2, 2014

[Editorial] Reform of spy agency

The National Assembly has passed a set of bills aimed at banning the National Intelligence Service from meddling in domestic politics and bringing the powerful spy agency under parliamentary oversight.Since its creation in 1961, the NIS has never been properly scrutinized by an external organization or held to account. It has been given a free hand to operate in light of the need to keep intelligence activities under wraps.What prompted lawmakers to push for reform of the spy agency was the alle

Jan. 2, 2014

[Editorial] N.K. human rights law

President Park Geun-hye said in a recent article contributed to a global opinion-focused syndicate that the execution of Jang Song-thaek, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle and mentor, has made relations between the two Koreas harder to predict. She pledged that her government would pave the way to peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula while maintaining a strong deterrent capability.“The government will strive to forge sustainable peace through dialogue, exchanges and cooperation, s

Jan. 1, 2014

[Editorial] Constitutional revision

A bipartisan group of 116 legislators held a workshop last week to discuss the issue of revising the Constitution that was last amended in 1987. They agreed to begin full-fledged efforts this month to enlist other parliamentary members to put forward a motion on a constitutional amendment, possibly within this year.Their move comes amid a widening perception that the basic law needs revising to keep up with changes in Korean society over the past decades. A recent survey showed more than 80 perc

Jan. 1, 2014

[Editorial] Agenda for 2014

Last year was a tough one for President Park Geun-hye. The top priority for the nation’s first female president in her first year in office was to revitalize the sagging economy to improve people’s lives. But her performance on these fronts was less than impressive.Economic growth in 2013 is estimated at 2.8 percent, higher than 2 percent in 2012 but still much lower than the nation’s potential growth rate of around 4 percent. The government managed to prevent the economy from getting stuck in a

Dec. 30, 2013

[Editorial] At the close of 2013

For the Korean film industry, 2013 has been a year of bountiful harvest, with more than 200 million movie tickets sold. Koreans have watched four movies at theaters on average this year, making them among the most avid moviegoers in the world.Film industry representatives do not hesitate to say that this year’s ticket sales boom is testimony to the high quality of Korean films, which have been improving phenomenally in recent years.Their assessment cannot be far off the mark. Indeed, most of the

Dec. 29, 2013

[Editorial] Undermining justice

It is a common practice for a president to set free quite a few prisoners and restore the rights of many other people with criminal records ahead of a major holiday. But the Aug. 15 National Liberation Day came and went without a presidential pardon. So did Christmas. President Park Geun-hye was making good on an election promise to administer the law strictly and treat no criminal offender with kid gloves.But the upcoming Lunar New Year will be different, with the Ministry of Justice now screen

Dec. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Abe’s Yasukuni visit

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a sudden visit to the Yasukuni Shrine on Thursday, in defiance of the wishes of the Korean government and at the risk of further worsening bilateral relations. His visit to Yasukuni, where convicted Class A war criminals as well as the other war dead are enshrined, also made a summit with President Park Geun-hye an even more remote possibility.In the past, Abe has justified shrine visits by members of his Cabinet, saying it is natural for them to pay respe

Dec. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Different perceptions

Many commentators here have taken note of what they saw as an apparent difference in perceptions recently expressed by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toward Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution.In a prerecorded interview released Monday in time for the emperor’s 80th birthday, Akihito evaluated the constitution, under which Japan’s military is limited to self-defense, as the backbone of his country’s peace and democracy, and the foundation for its current prosperity.On t

Dec. 26, 2013