[Editorial] Ultimate challenge

The potential fallout from the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus is threatening to further weigh on South Korea’s sluggish economy, which grew at the slowest pace in a decade last year. In 2019, the country saw its gross domestic product expand 2 percent on-year, the slowest since 2009, due to a simultaneous slump in exports, investment and consumption. Government and central bank policymakers have said the economy was expected to rebound this year partly on the back of eased trade tension

Jan. 29, 2020

[Editorial] Take proactive steps

The spread of a new coronavirus called the Wuhan pneumonia is ferocious. As of Monday, China confirmed 2,744 people have been infected so far, including 80 dead. On Sunday alone, 796 new cases were confirmed and 24 died in China. It was the first time that the daily death toll from the virus had exceeded 20. The effect of the Lunar New Year, known as the Spring Festival in China when hundreds of millions of people visit their hometowns or travel abroad, has not been reflected fully in the nu

Jan. 28, 2020

[Editorial] Due burden

South Korea and the US are poised to hold intensive negotiations in the coming weeks on Seoul’s share of the cost of stationing 28,500 American troops here. The two sides “broadened their mutual understanding and common ground” at the sixth and latest round of negotiations in Washington earlier this month, according to Seoul’s Foreign Ministry. They are expected to hold the next round of talks in Seoul early next month. The euphemistic description of the latest discussi

Jan. 27, 2020

[Editorial] Declining growth

Preliminary data released Wednesday by the Bank of Korea showed the country’s economy grew 2 percent in 2019 from a year earlier. The figure marks the slowest on-year growth since 2009, when Asia’s fourth-largest economy expanded 0.7 percent in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.The central bank’s growth estimate for last year, which was on par with the government’s forecast, beat predictions by most private experts. The average of 2019 growth estimates by seven

Jan. 23, 2020

[Editorial] Strengthen quarantine

A novel coronavirus, also known as the Wuhan pneumonia, is spreading quickly since it broke out in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province in late December. As of midnight Tuesday, increased testing had shown 440 confirmed cases and nine deaths. There is evidence of it spreading directly from human to human. Beijing appears to have underestimated the epidemic at first and failed to contain it early. Chinese health authorities have typically been reluctant about disclosing informat

Jan. 22, 2020

[Editorial] Unexpected replacement

North Korea’s reported appointment of a hard-line figure with a military background as its new foreign minister has heightened uncertainties over the recalcitrant regime’s denuclearization talks with the US and relations with South Korea.The North last week notified foreign ambassadors based in Pyongyang of its appointment of Ri Son-gwon as the communist state’s top diplomat -- likely to be officially announced this week.Ri, a former army officer, has been serving as chairman o

Jan. 21, 2020

[Editorial] Candidacy rush

Many public servants have resigned to run in the April 15 general election. They include former Cheong Wa Dae officials, high-ranking officials of the government and public organizations. Even some judges have quit their jobs in pursuit of National Assembly seats. Most of them are seeking the candidacy of the ruling partyReportedly about 130 public officials resigned to register with the National Election Commission as aspiring candidates of the Democratic Party of Korea. The number is much high

Jan. 20, 2020

[Editorial] Hasty courtship

South Korea and the US are showing signs of friction over a possible mismatch in the progress of inter-Korean cooperation and the North Korean denuclearization.The issue has drawn renewed attention since President Moon Jae-in said in his New Year’s press conference Tuesday last week Seoul should expand cross-border cooperation as a way to help facilitate stalled nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.While hoping to resume major inter-Korean projects, Moon suggested allowing South

Jan. 19, 2020

[Editorial] Unconstitutional idea

Kang Gi-jung, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, said Wednesday a “real estate (housing) transaction permission system” must be considered.“Some people say the government should have the right to permit real estate transactions in areas where real estate prices soar preposterously,” Kang said in a radio interview, “The government must pay attention to arguments for the introduction of a transaction permission system targeting those who use real est

Jan. 16, 2020

[Editorial] Aging population

The number of people aged 65 or older in South Korea surpassed 8 million for the first time last year, with the overall population growing at the slowest pace ever.The country is one of the world’s fastest-aging societies. The proportion of elderly people relative to the population as a whole exceeded 14 percent in 2017, making Korea an “aged society.”As of end-2019, the figure had climbed to 15.5 percent, exceeding an earlier estimate by the Bank of Korea of 14.9 percent.The c

Jan. 15, 2020

[Editorial] Divided, the right fall

Ha Tae-keung, co-chairman of the recently launched New Conservative Party, said Monday his party would discuss integrating with the main right-wing opposition Liberty Korea Party.　Ha said Liberty Korea Party Chairman Hwang Kyo-ahn and its supreme council effectively accepted “three principles” demanded by the New Conservative Party.　Hours earlier, Hwang said the new party’s demands were reflected in the six principles set by the solidarity of right-wing civic groups and politic

Jan. 14, 2020

[Editorial] No more mockery

South Korea’s presidential office has kept mum on North Korea’s latest mockery of its efforts to facilitate nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.On Saturday, Kim Kye-gwan, Pyongyang’s former nuclear envoy, took issue with an earlier announcement by the South’s top security official that Seoul had conveyed US President Donald Trump’s birthday message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.Returning from a trip to Washington on Friday, Chung Eui-yong, director o

Jan. 13, 2020

[Editorial] Frame of disobedience

The ruling camp is putting pressure on Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, criticizing his “disobedience” to the justice minister, who replaced his key aides leading investigations targeting the presidential office.Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae told the National Assembly that Yoon did not express his opinion on her plan to reshuffle senior prosecutors even after she asked him to. “He disobeyed my order,” she said.Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon told her to take necessary action.

Jan. 12, 2020

[Editorial] Declining investment

In his New Year’s address earlier this week, President Moon Jae-in pledged to strengthen efforts to increase investment in a bid to help revitalize the slumping economy.For 2020, the government plans to push for large-scale investment projects worth 100 trillion won ($86.1 billion) in both the public and private sectors. As part of the investment drive, private companies will be encouraged to invest 25 trillion won.Instead of setting rosy numerical targets, the Moon administration should w

Jan. 9, 2020

[Editorial] Carrying on regardless

President Moon Jae-in is set to enter the fourth year of his five-year presidency in May. For him, now is the time to look back with a cool head at what he has done so far and decide what to focus on for the rest of his term.　But his New Year’s address was filled with self-praise rather than an objective assessment of his policies. He effectively declared that “I will keep doing things my way no matter what.”　Moon vowed to push the changes and reforms his government has led mor

Jan. 8, 2020

[Editorial] Pyongyang’s option

The escalating tensions in the Middle East in the wake of a fatal US drone attack on a top Iranian military commander last week have heightened uncertainties over the stalled nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.North Korea may judge it has more room to maneuver, with the US focusing on the intensifying standoff with Iran that could flare up into a full-scale war.The upsurge in the conflict between Washington and Tehran comes amid the North’s repeated threats to return to provoca

Jan. 7, 2020

[Editorial] Act responsibly, KCTU

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which pursues obviously leftist ideologies and frequently uses violence at rallies, is exerting its greater influence after becoming the nation’s largest union group.The group is said to have recently asked the Ministry of Employment and Labor to allocate more seats to it than to its less militant rival on a ministry committee to be launched next month.The confederation became South Korea’s largest labor group with 968,000 members, overtaking

Jan. 6, 2020

[Editorial] Rosy vision

On Friday, President Moon Jae-in chose the country’s largest vehicle export port as the venue for his first field visit of the year. The move was seen as showing his government’s resolve to boost exports, a key pillar of the growth of the South Korean economy.In his speech at the Pyeongtaek-Dangjin Port, Moon declared, “Today, we are starting a new decade to make a leap into the world’s big-four export powerhouses by 2030.”His rosy vision appears out of tune with a

Jan. 5, 2020

[Editorial] Beef up deterrence

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s remarks at the Workers’ Party meeting late last year revealed his real intention behind the regime’s nuclear programs.Kim vowed to lift his self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. He said the world will witness a new strategic weapon, and that his country “will shift to a shocking actual action.” He has apparently changed his country’s course from negotiation to confrontation.While

Jan. 2, 2020

[Editorial] Reinvigorating economy

In his year-end press conference earlier this week, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said that the government would put top priority on reviving the country’s sluggish economy.Hong, who doubles as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, cited the industrial output data for November, which gained 0.4 percent on-year and rebounded from a 0.4 percent decline a month earlier, as a “positive” sign that the economy may have bottomed out.The government forecasts that the South Korean

Jan. 1, 2020