[Editorial] SME brain drain

A government plan aimed at preventing large corporations from poaching skilled workers from small and medium-sized enterprises has sparked controversy.In a bid to stem the brain drain plaguing SMEs, the Ministry of Employment and Labor is set to unveil a guideline on compensation that big businesses will be required to pay SMEs for recruiting their core employees. The scheme is intended to address the free rider problem of large companies hiring away workers for whom SMEs have invested in traini

Oct. 18, 2012

[Editorial] Blame for sea tragedy

It was unfortunate that a Chinese fisherman was killed on Tuesday during a Korean Coast Guard raid on Chinese boats fishing illegally in South Korean waters in the West Sea.The fisherman was hit by a rubber bullet fired by a Korean Coast Guard officer, who felt threatened as Chinese fishermen wielded deadly weapons such as hacksaws and knives to stop the Coast Guard from seizing their boats.The Seoul government allowed Coast Guard commandos to fire rubber bullets against Chinese fishermen early

Oct. 18, 2012

[Editorial] Under siege

The ruling and opposition parties, crafting pledges for the upcoming presidential election, are moving to rein in the prosecution, which exercises near absolute power in legal proceedings against criminal suspects. The parties share with the public a belief that criminal justice cannot be properly administered without reforming the prosecution.Their desire to subject the prosecution to greater control reflects the growing public distrust in the law enforcement agency, which has often been denoun

Oct. 17, 2012

[Editorial] Seoul’s debt

Park Won-soon, who was elected Seoul mayor last year, will now have to make a choice between two of his key election promises ― cutting the city’s debt by 7 trillion won ($6.5 billion) and the building of 80,000 low-rent homes, both by 2014. That is the conclusion of a recent report on the metropolitan government’s finances.According to the report commissioned by the metropolitan government, Seoul had a debt of 18.7 trillion won at the end of last year ― not a small sum by any measure. No less t

Oct. 17, 2012

[Editorial] Partnership with Africa

Hundreds of African government officials and business leaders are gathering here to attend a variety of events aimed at enhancing ties between Korea and the continent.The designation of the Korea-Africa Cooperation Week, which continues through Thursday, reflects Seoul’s eagerness to get closer to the resource-rich region with a growing population and market. About 300 high-level figures from more than 50 African countries have been invited to discuss a broad range of cooperation with their Kore

Oct. 16, 2012

[Editorial] Lax security posture

Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin publicly apologized Monday for the undetected defection early this month of a North Korean soldier across the heavily armed inter-Korean border. He pledged to sternly punish military officers responsible for the incident and thoroughly investigate flaws in the front-line guard system. All necessary measures should be taken to prevent such grave border security failure from being repeated in the future. It cannot be excused for any reason that no one detected the Nor

Oct. 16, 2012

[Editorial] Resetting a foundation

The Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation is again haunting the Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye. According to news reports, the foundation has decided to sell off its stake in Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. and the Busan Ilbo, the largest daily in Busan, and use the sales proceeds for welfare projects in Busan and its surrounding South Gyeongsang Province.The foundation’s president Choe Phil-lip recently met MBC officials and agreed to sell its 30 percent stake in the broadcaster to the

Oct. 15, 2012

[Editorial] Tobacco retail

Recently, chaebol business groups have been slammed for encroaching upon business areas considered more suitable for small-business people, such as bakeries, pizza shops and restaurants. One more item needs to be added to the list ― tobacco retail.Lotte Group, the nation’s fifth largest chaebol with presence in diverse business fields including distribution, is under fire for using illegal means to earn profits from tobacco sales. Under the law, only shop operators who directly sell cigarettes t

Oct. 15, 2012

[Editorlal] Chaebol control

In a race to tighten regulations on chaebol in the name of “economic democracy,” presidential candidates are moving to write proposed changes in corporate governance into law ahead of the Dec. 19 election. But hasty legislation may do more harm than good.Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party is moving to pass two key bills shortly after the National Assembly completes its inspection of government agencies next week.Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party, which is working

Oct. 14, 2012

[Editorlal] Talks on candidacy

Ahn Cheol-soo recently claimed that an independent, such as himself, can make a good president if, while holding the legislature in high esteem, he is capable of persuading the ruling and opposition parties to pursue common goals. An independent, persuasive president’s governance, he said, is a viable alternative to either the conservative Saenuri Party’s continuously uninspiring majority rule or the liberal Democratic United Party’s ineffective, cantankerous minority government. But it is incon

Oct. 14, 2012

[Editorial] Allegations against Roh

Which side is telling the truth, the ruling Saenuri Party or the main opposition Democratic United Party? The two parties are confronting each other over the allegations that former President Roh Moo-hyun made remarks gravely detrimental to national interests during his summit with Kim Jong-il on Oct. 3, 2007.The allegations were put forward by Chung Moon-hun, a Saenuri lawmaker who worked at Cheong Wa Dae as presidential secretary for unification affairs between 2009 and 2010.During a parliamen

Oct. 12, 2012

[Editorial] Ties with Myanmar

Myanmar President Thein Sein’s visit to Seoul earlier this week highlighted the importance the Southeast Asian country attached to expanding its ties with South Korea. The Myanmar leader came here to reciprocate President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to Naypyidaw in May. The top leaders’ exchange of visits indicates deepening relations between the countries ― a development that must be painful to North Korea, as Myanmar has long been one of Pyongyang’s allies.Myanmar embarked on a path of political and

Oct. 12, 2012

[Editorial] A fresh start

The latest selection of Kim So-young, a woman appellate court judge, as a Supreme Court justice nominee marks a fresh turn in the court’s nomination process. It should be welcomed on at least two counts.If approved by the legislature, her selection will mark an end to a long-held, misguided practice of keeping one prosecutor-turned justice on the court’s 14-member bench. It will also contribute to promoting diversity in the male-dominated bench. She will become the nation’s fourth woman justice

Oct. 11, 2012

[Editorial] Neighborly relations

In announcing a decision not to renew a currency swap contract with Japan on Tuesday, South Korea denied that domestic politics over a territorial dispute had a hand in making the decision. So did Japan, which claimed that the decision was based “purely on economic and financial factors.”Both of them were saying it was no longer necessary to extend the $57 billion swap deal because Korea had gained resilience to external financial risks. But few would believe it was Korea’s improved economic and

Oct. 11, 2012

[Editorial] Tighter border guard

A recent string of defections by North Korean soldiers across the inter-Korean border, as intelligence sources here suggest, may point to crumbling discipline within the key apparatus shoring up the impoverished regime. A 17-year-old soldier crossed the Military Demarcation Line near the truce village of Panmunjeom on Saturday after shooting two superiors dead. Four days earlier, another soldier defected to the South on the eastern front. A third North Korean soldier crossed the heavily-armed la

Oct. 10, 2012

[Editorial] Gloomy Nobel season

For Koreans, the Nobel Prize season is a period that makes them feel modest and even humiliated about their academic and intellectual levels, which are far below the world’s best.This year’s Nobel week kicked off Monday with the announcement of the medicine prize, which went to Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka and Britain’s John Gurdon for discovering that adult cells can be transformed back to early stem cells which can then be used to form any tissue type. No Korean name has been mentioned as a possibl

Oct. 10, 2012

[Editorial] Leadership test for Park

Where is the ruling Saenuri Party headed? Looking at the suicidal in-party fighting, many supporters of the conservative party must be feeling that it is on the path to defeat in the December presidential election. One factor fueling the worsening conflicts is resentment among the party’s lawmakers who are not included in the campaign team for its presidential candidate, Park Geun-hye.The recent drop in Park’s approval ratings led a group of young lawmakers to demand an overhaul of the party’s l

Oct. 9, 2012

[Editorial] Refocus on growth

As it is increasingly becoming clear that the Korean economy is headed for a prolonged period of slow growth due to the global economic slump, the nation should refocus on economic growth and make concerted efforts to keep the economy running. The nation’s economy is already under the influence of the sputtering global economy. In the World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund cut its growth estimate for Korea this year to 2.7 percent. Its previous forecast, announc

Oct. 9, 2012

[Editorial] No platforms yet

Slightly more than two months are left until the Dec. 19 presidential election. But none of the leading presidential candidates has produced a comprehensive platform ― a wide-ranging public statement of principles in policy on which he or she takes a stand in appealing to the electorate.This is not to say they make few policy statements in their campaigns. They do make election promises on welfare, mention their ideas about future relations with North Korea and refer to other issues of concern t

Oct. 8, 2012

[Editorial] Nothing to brag about

Top South Korean negotiators, who have recently concluded a renewed accord on ballistic missiles with their U.S. counterparts, are patting themselves on the back over what they regard as a major breakthrough after 11 years of bargaining. They also attribute part of the success to the friendship President Lee Myung-bak has cultivated with U.S. President Barack Obama.“This is the outcome that resulted from the combination of the best South Korea-U.S. relationship, personal friendship between their

Oct. 8, 2012