[Editorial] Envoy? What envoy?

North Korea has warned that it will not be able to guarantee the safety of Pyongyang-based foreign diplomats after this coming Wednesday, calling on the embassies to consider evacuation. It cites a potential conflict with South Korea and the United States as the reason. Some countries take North Korea’s call for embassy evacuation seriously. Among them is Brazil, whose foreign minister was quoted as saying he could decide to move his ambassador to China’s border city of Dandong after evaluating

April 7, 2013

[Editorial] Simply incompetent

President Park Geun-hye, who was humiliated when some of her nominees for ministerial and other top posts quit for ethical problems, is accused this time of nominating incompetent and unprepared persons for public office. They are under mounting pressure to withdraw from the nominations.First among them is Yoon Jin-sook, who was selected for the post of minister of oceans and fisheries. President Park reportedly referred to her as a “pearl I have found in the sand” when she selected her as a min

April 7, 2013

[Editorial] War on shadow economy

The shadow economy, or the sum of economic activities that are not declared for tax purposes and are usually carried out in exchange for cash, is estimated to be equivalent to 20-25 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. President Park Geun-hye’s administration, which has declared a war on the shadow economy, is aiming at reducing its size to 10-15 percent of GDP.In a report to President Park earlier in the week, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said the efforts to bring the shadowy

April 5, 2013

[Editorial] Gaeseong’s fate

’The industrial complex South Korea built for its small and medium-sized business enterprises in North Korea in 2003 is at a crossroads between its survival as a model of inter-Korean cooperation and its demise as a victim of escalating cross-border military tension. An entry ban imposed by Pyongyang on South Korean commuters has posed one of the greatest threats to the Gaeseong complex’s survival since its construction.On Wednesday, Pyongyang started to ban the entry of South Korean commuters a

April 5, 2013

[Editorial] Venture ecosystem

Government agencies are competitively pouring out measures geared toward venture companies. Economy-related ministries invariably present plans aimed at supporting venture businesses when they report their 2013 business plans to President Park Geun-hye.The policy focus on venture companies is natural as Park’s vision of building a “creative economy” cannot be attained without a prosperous venture sector. A creative economy is driven primarily by a brisk commercialization of innovative ideas, a j

April 4, 2013

[Editorial] Updating nuclear deal

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has boosted expectations here for an early revision of the nuclear accord between Seoul and Washington by saying that the thorny issue could be settled before early next month.After talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se in Washington on Tuesday, Kerry said in a news conference that he was “very hopeful that this can be resolved before the visit of President Park Geun-hye.” Park is scheduled to visit Washington in early May for a summit with U.S.

April 4, 2013

[Editorial] Resetting DUP

The main opposition Democratic United Party has not seen President Park Geun-hye’s declining approval rating translate into more public support for it. Rather, the liberal party with 127 members of the 300-seat parliament is gripped in an increasing sense of crisis over its future as a political force to win back power from the conservative ruling camp.The DUP now sees little chance of winning any of the three parliamentary by-elections scheduled for late April. The party’s vulnerable position w

April 3, 2013

[Editorial] Pyongyang’s illusion

North Korea is taking an illusionary path, which will take it nowhere, by pledging to bolster its nuclear arsenal and economic growth in parallel. Under guidelines earlier approved by the ruling Workers’ Party, the North’s rubber-stamp parliament on Monday adopted a law formalizing the country’s status as a nuclear weapons state and restored a sacked economic reformer to his previous post as prime minister.Showing where the weight of the newly professed approach is placed, Pyongyang said the fol

April 3, 2013

[Editorial] Bipartisan approach

In a rare move, the top leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party have agreed to meet regularly for cooperation in translating their common election pledges into action and addressing other pending issues. Participating in the high-profile talks will be the chairmen, floor leaders and chief policymakers of the two parties. The six top leaders are expected to hold their inaugural meeting this week.On Monday, the two parties’ chief policymakers met to set

April 2, 2013

[Editorial] Boosting housing market

The government’s comprehensive housing policy package announced on Monday elicited a favorable market response, raising hopes that it could inject life into the moribund real estate market. Now attention shifts to the National Assembly, as whether or not the package lifts the housing market from stagnation depends to a large degree on how lawmakers handle it. In this regard, they are advised to amend the relevant laws as early as possible for a swift implementation of the proposed measures. Time

April 2, 2013

[Editorial] Return of statues

Koreans tend to eschew rational reasoning to make a special case in controversial matters with Japan. It may be somewhat understandable that they often become emotional when it comes to dealing with their former colonial ruler. Recent moves by Japan’s right-wing government to dilute its wartime atrocities and strengthen its claim to a group of islets controlled by Korea has exacerbated the public sentiment here.Amid this antagonistic atmosphere, however, Koreans need to be cautioned against thei

April 1, 2013

[Editorial] A danger signal

President Park Geun-hye has seen her approval rating slide sharply since her election as the nation’s first female leader in December. The rating, which peaked at 55 percent shortly after her election victory, declined to 41 percent in a survey conducted last week.The level of approval was unusually low for a president in office for just a month. Comparable figures for her predecessors were 71 percent for Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, 60 percent for Roh Moo-hyun and 52 percent for Lee Myung-ba

April 1, 2013

[Editorial] Huge fiscal deficit

The economy is in a much worse state than previously believed, forcing President Park Geun-hye’s administration to revise major 2013 projections downward. Among the projections are one for growth, which has been revised to 2.3 percent from 3 percent at year end, and another for new jobs, from 320,000 to 250,000.If anyone were to be held accountable for the economic mismanagement, it would be the previous administration, which wrote this year’s budget plan and passed it through the National Assem

March 31, 2013

[Editorial] At loggerheads again

The prosecution and the National Police Agency are in conflict over criminal investigations again, this time over the prosecution’s rejection of a police request to ban a former vice justice minister from going on an overseas trip. The prosecution says the former vice minister, Kim Hak-ui, is a witness, not a criminal suspect yet.The police agency, which is investigating a sex-for-favors case, recently asked the prosecution to ban more than 10 people involved in the case from going out of the co

March 31, 2013

[Editorial] No improvement

According to a government estimate, the national pension fund will begin to suffer a deficit in 2044, as the sum of benefit payments is projected to surpass that of contributions and other revenues for the first time. The government says the pension fund will be depleted by 2060 if no action is taken to stop the hemorrhaging.This projection is little different from that made in 2008, which means that the previous Lee Myung-bak administration made no progress in improving the soundness of the pen

March 29, 2013

[Editorial] Walking a tightrope

It is not easy to guess what North Korea is thinking when it threatens nuclear war against the South while permitting an unimpeded border crossing by employees of South Korean corporations operating factories in the North. Nor is it easy to make sense of where South Korea stands when it says it is preparing to propose dialogue and family reunions to the North while threatening a counterattack on any North Korean hostility, be it conventional or nuclear.North Korea has been ramping up its nuclear

March 29, 2013

[Editorial] Public pension reform

The government recently raised the ceiling on the number of central administrative employees by 20,000 to nearly 300,000. The measure was taken to back President Park Geun-hye’s campaign pledge to hire more police officers, firefighters and welfare workers to help strengthen public security and tighten the social safety net.Now it seems only a matter of time before the number of public employees at central and regional governments surpasses the 1 million mark. If inevitable, more civil servants

March 28, 2013

[Editorial] Closing eyes to history

The Japanese government’s approval this week of new versions of textbooks laying claim to Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo suggests again how hard it is to expect Tokyo to face up to historical truth, which should be the basis for cultivating friendly partnership with its neighbors.According to Seoul officials, 15 of the 21 newly approved high-school textbooks describe Dokdo, a group of rocky outcroppings in the waters between the two countries, as Japanese territory. Some of the controversia

March 28, 2013

[Editorial] Wasting political capital

The resignation on Monday of Han Man-soo, President Park Geun-hye’s nominee to head the Fair Trade Commission, triggered an outpouring of criticism of the president’s appointment style and calls for punishment of her secretaries responsible for making background checks on her nominees.Even leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party now say enough is enough. They have joined the main opposition Democratic United Party in blasting Park’s unique style of making personnel appointments. The DUP went further

March 27, 2013

[Editorial] Challenges for NTS

This year promises to be a tough year for Kim Duk-joong, the new head of the National Tax Service, as he is charged with collecting more taxes than before at a time when the economic slowdown is making a dent in government revenue.Kim also faces the task of rooting out corruption among tax officials. The need for house cleaning is all the greater as he is set to step up crackdowns on tax cheats to attain the tax revenue target. During a parliamentary hearing on Monday, Kim raised the alarm by di

March 27, 2013