[Editorial] Facing same fate?

The measure taken by the Justice Ministry last week to ban former intelligence chief Won Sei-hoon from leaving the country has been viewed by many people as signaling a repeat of what the nation used to see after a power transfer. The former director of the National Intelligence Service, who is under investigation for interfering in domestic politics while in office, is known to have canceled a plan to embark on an overseas trip Sunday.Though his associates said he was scheduled to return home a

March 26, 2013

[Editorial] Trilateral trade talks

To limited fanfare, South Korea, China and Japan kicked off the first round of negotiations on a trilateral free trade deal in Seoul on Tuesday. The three-day talks, devoted mainly to discussing details including the method and scope of the trade negotiations, opened a tough and complicated process that is expected to take more than two years to complete.In November, the three Northeast Asian nations agreed to launch the trade talks, based on the outcome of a decade-long feasibility study. But t

March 26, 2013

[Editorial] Testing trustpolitik

President Park Geun-hye has started the process of building trust with North Korea by allowing a private organization to provide a humanitarian aid package to the isolated country. Last Friday, the Ministry of Unification permitted the Eugene Bell Foundation, an aid organization that has long provided humanitarian services to the North, to ship some 680 million won worth of medicine for treatment of tuberculosis patients in the North.The approval was the first granted by the Seoul government sin

March 25, 2013

[Editorial] Local election reform

One of the political reform pledges made by both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party during the presidential election campaign was to stop nominating candidates for elections in the basic units of local government ― provincial cities, counties and districts of metropolitan cities. Now they face an early test of their commitment to political reform as by-elections are to be held in five constituencies on April 24 to elect new local government heads or fill vac

March 25, 2013

[Editorial] Flawed selections

President Park Geun-hye, finally giving up on her defense minister nominee, has decided to retain the minister from the previous administration. Her decision speaks volumes about her flawed approach to selecting candidates for high public posts. On Friday, Kim Byung-kwan withdrew from his nomination as defense minister, paving the way for President Park to retain Kim Kwan-jin as her first defense minister. Kim, a Cabinet member from the previous administration, had been delaying his departure pe

March 24, 2013

[Editorial] China’s action on N.K.

Given the remarks by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Beijing is staying the course in its relations with Pyongyang despite North Korea’s Feb. 12 nuclear test. Spokesman Hong Lei was quoted as saying that the Chinese government had made no change in its position on North Korea though it had signed up to new U.N. sanctions against the nuclear test.He made no departure from the policy China had been maintaining toward North Korea when he called for a dialogue among the parties concerned. He s

March 24, 2013

[Editorial] Park’s policy on N.K.

It is the job of the South Korean unification minister to improve relations with North Korea, aiming at an eventual Korean reunification. Still, it was nothing less than inappropriate for a new unification minister to put an emphasis on the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue at a time when Pyongyang was threatening to turn South Korea into a “nuclear sea of fire” and launch a “second Korean War.”True, new Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae did mention the high level of tension that had been esc

March 22, 2013

[Editorial] Sex for influence

In a widening sex-for-favors scandal, Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-ui tendered a letter of resignation on Thursday. While denying being involved in the scandal, Kim said his name being mentioned in connection with it made it impossible for him to continue to do his work as a vice minister.But his resignation reaffirmed that background checks by the Park Geun-hye administration on those selected for top public posts were seriously flawed. The presidential office, though informed of his alleged i

March 22, 2013

[Editorial] Brace for cyber warfare

The massive computer network failures at top TV broadcasters and major banks on Wednesday are another painful reminder that the nation still remains highly vulnerable to cyber terrorism even after a series of similar attacks from North Korea in recent years.According to reports, government investigators are analyzing the malicious programs they found on the crashed computer systems of the victimized companies, which included three TV broadcasters ― KBS, MBC and YTN ― and three banks ― Shinhan, N

March 21, 2013

[Editorial] Delayed nominations

After a long delay, President Park Geun-hye has picked a nominee to lead the Constitutional Court along with two new justice candidates to sit on the court’s nine-member bench. Park nominated Park Han-cheol, who has served as an adjudicator of the court since 2011, to become its chief justice, a post that has been left vacant for 60 days since former chief justice Lee Kang-kook retired in January.She also picked Cho Yong-ho, chief of the Seoul High Court, and Suh Ki-suhk, head of the Seoul Centr

March 21, 2013

[Editorial] Fighting crime

With few days going without news of murder or other felonies, many Koreans have begun to doubt the long-held perception that they live in a relatively safe society. A recent report backed up their doubt with some alarming comparative statistics.The report released by the Korea Development Institute, a state-run think tank, showed the country’s homicide rate of 2.2 per 100,000 people exceeded the OECD average of 2.16 per 100,000. Korea had the ninth-highest murder rate among the 29 surveyed membe

March 20, 2013

[Editorial] Learning from Germany

Germany has recently emerged as a source of inspiration for Korean politicians who want to arm themselves with more effective and sophisticated tools to solve a raft of tasks facing their country. Some of them have opted to spend a period of self-reflection and soul-searching in Germany to prepare for another leap forward in their political career.The European powerhouse has certainly made remarkable achievements that Korean politicians and policymakers may do well to look to in their efforts to

March 20, 2013

[Editorial] Park’s pet ministry

As the National Assembly is to pass the government reorganization bill today, President Park Geun-hye will be able to launch her pet ministry as planned. But it is questionable whether the new ministry, dubbed the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, will be able to play its expected role.That is because the ministry will not be created in the form envisioned by the president. Its scope of business and power have been curtailed in the process of negotiations between the ruling Saenuri Party

March 19, 2013

[Editorial] New trade policy

Recent months have seen the world’s major countries making fresh moves to reshape the global trade landscape. As these developments pose serious challenges to Korea, the new Seoul government needs to assess their implications carefully and draw up countermeasures. Among the latest developments, the most notable one may be Japan’s decision to participate in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his bold decision on March 15. The TPP is a comprehens

March 19, 2013

[Editorial] Monetary measures

Last week’s decision by the central bank to freeze its benchmark interest rate at 2.75 percent for a fifth straight month has been viewed by many economists as out of step with the need to spur the sluggish economy.As the grounds for continuing to leave the rate unchanged, the Bank of Korea cited the signs of U.S. and Chinese economies beginning to recover and the local economy rebounding after probably hitting the bottom at the end of last year. Their argument still appeared weak for justifying

March 18, 2013

[Editorial] Undaunted youth

North Korea appears to know no limit to its bellicose rhetoric against South Korea. A commentary carried by the North’s state news agency Saturday warned South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won would be the “first target to be mowed down.”The latest threat from Pyongyang came in response to Chung’s visit to a border island two days earlier, when he told soldiers to hit back “with force 10 times” the size of any possible provocations by North Korea. The island of Yeonpyeongdo, located near the

March 18, 2013

[Editorial] Top prosecutor nominee

Reviews of President Park Geun-hye’s selection of senior prosecutor Chae Dong-wook as nominee for the post of prosecutor-general are favorable, with commentators giving him high marks for not compromising his principles in investigating politically sensitive cases. Yet, he has to prove his mettle in the face of strong public demand for reform in the prosecution.Chae’s nomination on Friday came three months after Prosecutor-General Han Sang-dae resigned from his post in disgrace. Han quit when hi

March 17, 2013

[Editorial] Philosophically correct

On Thursday, the Board of Audit and Inspection, which looked into the books of eight government-invested corporations in September and October last year, announced the outcome of the audit, focusing on the alleged mismanagement of KDB Bank. When it came to Korea Eximbank, Korea Exchange and Korea Security Depository, it found fault with minor issues. It made no mention of the remainder.The state watchdog said KDB Bank is set to sustain 140 billion won in losses this year alone because it began t

March 17, 2013

[Editorial] Employment blues

The February employment indicators are nothing short of abysmal ― the smallest increase in the number of employed people in three years, the highest jobless rate for young people in 23 months and a sharp decline in the number of self-employed people. No less discouraging is a continued decline in the economically active population as a percentage of the working-age population.According to a Wednesday report from Statistics Korea, the February number of working people marked the smallest year-on-

March 15, 2013

[Editorial] End of a dream

What was supposed to be the nation’s largest-ever property development project is on the brink of falling apart as its executor has defaulted. All stakeholders will have to prepare themselves to contain the fallout from the potential bankruptcy of Dream Hub Financial Investment, the executor of the 31-trillion won project to develop an area in Yongsan, Seoul, into a huge complex of offices, shopping malls and apartments.On Wednesday, Dream Hub defaulted on the payment of interest on its business

March 15, 2013