[Editorial] Answer summons

Lee Jae-myung, the new leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, condemned the prosecution on Friday for summoning him over suspicions that he spread false information in violation of the election law. He was called to show up at a prosecution office on Tuesday for a voluntary interview with prosecutors. He said the prosecution was trying to pick holes off the mark in what he said, now that it found nothing wrong about him personally. The party has reacted strongly against the inv

Sept. 5, 2022

[Editorial] Protect teachers

It is widely accepted that today’s students do not respect teachers as much as their parents did decades ago -- a sign of inevitable changes in South Korea’s education culture. Gone are the days when teachers had enjoyed strong authority in the classroom, even over unruly students. Nowadays, misbehaving pupils perceive teachers as easy targets of their verbal, sexual or other types of abuses. A striking example is a recent video clip of a middle school student lying on the teacher&rs

Sept. 2, 2022

[Editorial] No wasting budget

The government unveiled next year’s budget to be proposed to the National Assembly for approval, and it is 6 percent less than this year’s total expenditure, when including supplementary budgets. No supplementary budgets were drawn up yet for next year. It is the first time in 13 years that the government budget bill is smaller than its total expenditure a year earlier. The government said the belt tightening was intended to curtail the ballooning fiscal deficit. This is the right di

Sept. 1, 2022

[Editorial] Lee’s chance to restart

Lee Jae-myung, who lost the presidential election to Yoon Suk-yeol by a slim margin in March, has reemerged as a key political leader representing the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea. Lee won a total of 77.7 percent of the votes to become the chairman of the Democratic Party during the party’s national convention Sunday, suggesting that he enjoys predominant support from fellow party members. Furthermore, four of the five Supreme Council members are pro-Lee lawmakers. The Democra

Aug. 31, 2022

[Editorial] Unite in times of crisis

The governing People Power Party fell in a great confusion as the court granted its former leader Lee Jun-seok’s request for an injunction to invalidate the party’s decision to go into an emergency mode and suspended the leader of its emergency council. The party is teetering again after its National Assembly members at their general meeting resolved to seek a further disciplinary action against Lee and form a new emergency council while keeping Kweon Seong-dong as floor leader to m

Aug. 30, 2022

[Editorial] Keep fighting inflation

The Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point Thursday in a bid to tame stubbornly high inflation. The central bank’s fourth rate hike in a row, however, did not come as a surprise, as the market had been expecting such a move. Nonetheless, the problems lurking behind the continued rate hike by the BOK remain as serious as ever. First, it comes in response to almost 24-year-high increases in consumer prices -- 6.3 percent recorded in July compared wit

Aug. 29, 2022

[Editorial] Stop dawdling

The special inspector of the presidential office probes allegations involving the president‘s spouse, close relatives and senior presidential secretaries. If the National Assembly recommends three candidates, the president nominates one of them and appoints the special inspector after a parliamentary confirmation hearing. 　 The presidential office said Monday that it is waiting for the National Assembly to recommend candidates. It reaffirmed that Yoon will appoint a special inspector on

Aug. 26, 2022

[Editorial] Currency turmoil

The South Korean currency market is now in turmoil as the local currency continues to depreciate sharply against the US dollar, sparking worries about speculative trading and its negative impacts on the broader economy. Warning signs came on Monday when the Korean won tumbled below the 1,340 level during trading hours before settling at 1339.8 won per US dollar. On Tuesday, the country’s foreign exchange authorities verbally warned to tame the fall, but the local currency skidded to clos

Aug. 25, 2022

[Editorial] Mutual respect needed

South Korea and China on Wednesday mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Their foreign ministers signed a joint statement on the establishment of diplomatic relations on Aug. 24, 1992, in Beijing, China. The two countries ended four decades of hostility from the 1950-1953 Korean War -- though the end of the war was not declared -- and normalized their diplomatic relations. Their relations have since made leaps and bounds largely thanks to geographical proximi

Aug. 24, 2022

[Editorial] Health insurance problem

South Korea boasts of a solid and affordable public health insurance system compared to other countries. Unlike the United States, for instance, it is rare to catch hospitals issuing Korean patients with surprise medical bills for relatively simple treatments at hospitals. Although the national health system is far from perfect, it has been dependable for decades, due largely to the government’s systematic and detailed control over the items eligible for public insurance coverage and pri

Aug. 23, 2022

[Editorial] Stern response needed

President Yoon Suk-yeol said in a press conference marking his 100th day in office on Wednesday that it is important to consistently maintain the law and principles regardless of labor or management. The rule of law must be applied even-handedly, but labor relations are tilted in favor of labor. The government must stop merely watching unlawful labor protests and instead begin to respond sternly to them. Among other revisions, unlawful protesters must be held legally responsible for the damage

Aug. 22, 2022

[Editorial] Symbolic square

Gwanghwamun Square, a landmark space in central Seoul, reopened on Aug. 6 after the Seoul Metropolitan Government completed a large-scale expansion and renovation project that started in November 2020. Given the historical and symbolic status of the square -- a venue for democratic movements and candlelit vigils over key public issues -- the long-awaited reopening of the square as a spacious park was supposed to be a welcome development for citizens. Unfortunately, a heated dispute is raging

Aug. 19, 2022

[Editorial] Do not be impatient

Regarding President Yoon Suk-yeol’s “Audacious Initiative,” the presidential office said that the administration would seek to give economic aid even in the early stages of negotiations if North Korea engages in nuclear talks with sincerity. The office also said that if needed, the administration would consult the international community to exempt North Korea partially from UN sanctions.　 This implies that sanctions may be eased if the North engages in nuclear talks, even wi

Aug. 18, 2022

[Editorial] A turning point

President Yoon Suk-yeol will mark his first 100 days in office Wednesday. Under normal circumstances, he should have enjoyed favorable coverage from the media, lawmakers and citizens during the period -- a “honeymoon period” traditionally reserved for an incoming president at the start of a five-year term. Unfortunately, Yoon appears to have skipped the supposedly sweet honeymoon period to confront a hostile political battlefield filled with loud explosives from critics and hidden

Aug. 17, 2022

[Editorial] Self-reflection first

Lee Jun-seok, the suspended former leader of the governing People Power Party, did not mince his words when it came to talking about the conservative party at his press conference Saturday. He condemned President Yoon Suk-yeol and Yoon’s key aides and vowed to fight them to the end. Lee was suspended for six months by the party’s ethics committee on July 8. A day after the party shifted to an emergency mode on Aug. 9, he applied for an injunction. He automatically lost the post of

Aug. 16, 2022

[Editorial] No to Three No’s

As expected, the first talks between South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi ended without agreement, exposing a serious difference of position on an array of issues. Wang came up with a proposal for five things both countries should do. The first thing is to stay independent, self-reliant and free from external interference. This implies that South Korea is not independent from the sphere of US influence, so it should renounce the US alliance to be independ

Aug. 12, 2022

[Editorial] Controversial remote work

On Monday, when South Korea was slammed by a record downpour, President Yoon Suk-yeol said he noticed some apartment complexes submerged by flash flooding on his way home after work. Unlike other high-ranking officials who returned to their offices to handle the disaster, Yoon continued to ride back to his house in Seocho-dong, Seoul, and stayed there all night.  It is deeply regrettable that Yoon decided to handle the apparently dangerous situation that was threatening citizens from home,

Aug. 11, 2022

[Editorial] Uphold people’s will

President Yoon Suk-yeol showed a humble attitude to the “will of the people.” It is desirable. Taking questions from the press as he returned from a weeklong vacation on Monday, Yoon said that his vacation was a time to reinforce his belief that his duty to the people is to examine their will carefully and uphold it while sticking to his original intentions. Asked if he has a reshuffle on his mind, he said he would look at all the problems from the perspective of the people and tak

Aug. 10, 2022

[Editorial] Pandemic impact

It appeared that South Korea was finally pulling out of the COVID-19 pandemic before the summer holiday season started. But highly transmissible omicron strains, led by BA.5, are hitting the nation, sending the number of new infections spiking in recent weeks. Nonetheless, the government does not have a plan to restore strict social restriction rules on the assumption that the country can handle the current resurgence and, over time, infections will fade away. It is not certain whether such

Aug. 9, 2022

[Editorial] Establish rule of law

The police on Thursday forcibly disbanded about 200 unionized lorry owner-drivers who were blocking the only road to the Gangwon factory of HiteJinro, the country’s largest maker of soju and beer, in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. The police arrested some of the illegal demonstrators for disobeying the dispersal order. It was the first time for the Yoon Suk-yeol administration to disperse a labor union’s illegal demonstration by force.　 The lorry owner-drivers, belonging to the H

Aug. 8, 2022