[Editorial] Back to basics

The recent resurgence in the number of new coronavirus infections is unusual.　 The daily tally of new COVID-19 cases jumped to 279 as of midnight Sunday, from 56 reported Thursday. It was a nearly fivefold jump in three days. The new coronavirus is spreading at a dizzying pace. At this rate, the number will top 1,000 in several days. Then contact tracing and testing will be very difficult, and medical resources will likely run short. The rapid spread of the virus raises the specter of the C

Aug. 18, 2020

[Editorial] Restoration first

The four rivers project of conservative former President Lee Myung-bak faces yet another reevaluation. At issue here is whether it contributed to the flooding during the recent deadly downpour. The Lee administration refurbished the Geum River, Yeongsan River, Nakdong River and Han River, and built weirs along them in a bid to prevent flooding and droughts. The latest floods took place as heavy rain washed away the levee of the Seomjin River in Namwon City, North Jeolla Province on Aug. 8, and

Aug. 14, 2020

[Editorial] Budget deficit

In a policy consultation Wednesday, the government and ruling party agreed to defer deliberations on the need to draw up yet another supplementary budget this year to cope with the massive damage caused by weeks of heavy rain. The negative response of policymakers appears to have temporarily silenced calls from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea for additional spending to assist flood relief efforts and support victims across the nation. So far this year, the National Assembly has approved t

Aug. 13, 2020

[Editorial] Rough measures

The government unveiled a package of real estate measures on July 10, including one to remove most of the tax benefits for people leasing out houses. The related bill was approved by the parliament on Aug. 4, but just three days later, the government rolled the revision back and decided to retain the tax benefits. Three years ago, the government offered tax privileges to landlords to encourage them to rent out their houses. Landlords could register house leases to receive tax favors. However

Aug. 12, 2020

[Editorial] ‘New Deal’ fund

The government and ruling party are preparing to create a special fund to support the South Korean version of the “New Deal” announced by President Moon Jae-in last month. The ambitious initiative is designed to transform the country’s economy through a set of digital infrastructure and environment-friendly programs to overcome the novel coronavirus-induced shock and prepare for a post-pandemic era. It calls for spending 160 trillion won ($134 billion) by 2025 to create 1.9 mi

Aug. 11, 2020

[Editorial] Read public opinion

President Moon Jae-in’s chief of staff Noh Young-min and five senior secretaries in Noh’s office offered to resign Friday.　 Cheong Wa Dae said their actions were an expression of intent to take responsibility for the recent situation.　 The recent situation seems to mean simmering public discontent with the failure of measures to curb skyrocketing housing and jeonse (rent-free housing lease) prices. When it comes to resignations to take responsibility for real estate policy failure

Aug. 10, 2020

[Editorial] Senseless legislation

The ruling party’s push for legal changes to stop people from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border came to a halt Tuesday at the National Assembly’s Diplomatic Affairs and Unification Committee. Nine opposition and independent lawmakers on the 21-member committee teamed up to form a subpanel to coordinate different positions on the proposed bill. Parliamentary law stipulates that subcommittees can be set up for up to 90 days of additional deliberation with

Aug. 7, 2020

[Editorial] Guard the rule of law

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol said Monday that “liberal democracy, the core value of our constitution, means a true democracy that rejects dictatorship and totalitarianism disguised as democracy.” “Liberal democracy is realized through the rule of law,” he said in an address to newly appointed prosecutors, “Law must be applied and executed fairly to anyone.”　 It is rare for a sitting prosecutor general to mention “dictatorship.” His words ref

Aug. 6, 2020

[Editorial] Looming conflict

As of Tuesday, it became possible for Seoul to take steps to cash in a Japanese firm’s seized assets here to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula. In October 2018, South Korea’s top court made a ruling that ordered Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel, previously known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, to pay 100 million won ($83,840) each to four plaintiffs who had been forced to work at its plants and mines in the co

Aug. 5, 2020

[Editorial] Vanishing jeonse

The House Lease Protection Act, which was revised to strengthen the rights of tenants and went into effect Friday, gave a jolt to the market. The revised act allows tenants to extend their two-year “jeonse” contracts for another two years. The first two-year contract was guaranteed under the law before it was revised. The new act also limits the increase of the second two-year jeonse deposit to a maximum of 5 percent. In South Korea, a jeonse tenant gives the landlord a lump-sum de

Aug. 4, 2020

[Editorial] Unexpected rebound

Government data released last week showed an unexpected simultaneous uptick in industrial output, private consumption and facility investment in June. South Korea’s overall industrial production gained 4.2 percent on-month in June, rebounding from a 1.2 percent decline in May -- the first rebound in six months. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity sectors jumped 7.2 percent from a month earlier in June, recording the sharpest growth since February 2009, when it in

Aug. 3, 2020

[Editorial] Stop shaking BAI

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is shaking the chairman of Board of Audit and Inspection.　 The board is in the last stretch of its inspection of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s decision to retire Unit 1 of the Wolsong nuclear power plant prior to the expiration of its operating license in 2022. It is expected to release the results of the inspection next month.　 Rep. Song Gab-seok of the party claimed in the National Assembly on July 23 that Choe had said in a board meeting on Apr

July 31, 2020

[Editorial] Controversial appointment

Park Jie-won, a former four-term lawmaker and close aide to late President Kim Dae-jung, began work as head of the country’s top intelligence agency Wednesday. A day earlier, President Moon Jae-in appointed him to lead the National Intelligence Service shortly after ruling party lawmakers on the National Assembly Intelligence Committee adopted a confirmation hearing report in a session boycotted by members from the main opposition United Future Party. During Monday’s confirmation h

July 30, 2020

[Editorial] Slack management

When the North’s Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday that a North Korean defector had returned to the North by crossing the military demarcation line, the report sounded dubious at first. But as time went by, the North’s claims seemed to fit the facts. 　 South Korean military officials said Monday that they believed a 24-year-old man surnamed Kim, who fled here from the North in 2017, had swum to the North from the western island of Ganghwado after going through a drain under

July 29, 2020

[Editorial] Unbending partner

The head of the country’s largest trade union offered to resign Friday, a day after its delegation voted to reject an agreement reached by labor, business and government representatives on cooperation to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The rejection was disappointing and embarrassing for Kim Myung-hwan, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who had initiated talks on the tripartite deal. The accord, which followed weeks of negotiations, empha

July 28, 2020

[Editorial] Safety nets of power

The office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs has reportedly worked out a draft decree of the revised Prosecutors’ Office Act and sent it to the Justice Ministry. The National Assembly passed revisions to the act in January, as well as to the Criminal Procedure Act, limiting the authority of prosecutors and expanding that of the police. The revised laws and related decrees will take effect early next month. The draft decree restricts prosecutors to cases involving pub

July 27, 2020

[Editorial] Necessary prerequisites

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that the South Korean version of the “New Deal” initiated by his administration would be linked to a push for balanced growth between the Greater Seoul area and other regions. The project is intended to “shift the axis of national development” from the capital and nearby cities to local areas, he said during a weekly Cabinet meeting. He pledged that the government would do its best to ensure the initiative would provide fresh vigor for

July 24, 2020

[Editorial] Go regular route

Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, proposed that the presidential office, the National Assembly and all of the government ministries remaining in Seoul be relocated to the administrative city of Sejong.　 He made the proposal as a way to resolve real estate problems and ease overpopulation in the capital area. Ruling party heavyweights have gotten behind the proposal. Rep. Kim Du-kwan said that ending the era of the “Seoul Republic” is the on

July 23, 2020

[Editorial] Right move

President Moon Jae-in on Monday decided to preserve greenbelt development restriction zones around Seoul. Earlier, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the government had vowed to weigh the option of lifting development restrictions on greenbelt zones as a way to increase housing supply under Moon’s instruction. However, some figures in the ruling camp voiced individual positions against the option, confusing the market. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Sunday called for “ca

July 22, 2020

[Editorial] Rekindled possibility

The possibility of a reduction in the number of US troops stationed here is resurfacing amid a prolonged impasse in defense cost-sharing negotiations between Seoul and Washington. The US Defense Department reportedly presented the White House in March with options for cutting American troop levels in South Korea and other countries. After the news was revealed Friday, a Pentagon official said the US “routinely” reviews its global force posture. But the latest review is said to have

July 22, 2020