[Editorial] Wither Liberty Korea Party?

The internal feud of the Liberal Korea Party is getting worse and worse, darkening prospects for an early rehabilitation of the nation’s conservative political forces devastated by the fall of former President Park Geun-hye and their loss in the presidential election that followed. At the center of the strife are party leader Hong Joon-pyo and Park loyalists in the party led by veteran lawmaker Suh Chung-won. The latest round of conflicts between the two started with the party’s decision last we

Nov. 1, 2017

[Editorial] Ties back on track

The soured relations between South Korea and China over the deployment of the US antimissile system have been put back on the right track. The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced its agreements with its Chinese counterpart on the improvement of ties between the two countries, strained by Seoul’s decision to host the system and China’s subsequent economic retaliation.The ministry said South Korea made clear that it is well aware of China’s positions and concerns and that the Termin

Oct. 31, 2017

[Editorial] Accept reality

The North Korean nuclear crisis that escalated tension between the North and the US to stoke fears of war on the Korean Peninsula has certainly reached a decisive point. US President Donald Trump’s Asian tour next week will heavily affect how the crisis will evolve, as he is scheduled to discuss North Korea with key leaders in the region, including South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It is too early to predict on what the leade

Oct. 30, 2017

[Editorial] Look ahead, not back

The nation marked the first anniversary of the candlelight protests that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye on the weekend, but it is questionable whether politicians have properly met the people’s wishes for social reform.The protests were a victory for people power, which brought down a corrupt government peacefully. They began at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on Oct. 29 a year ago and spread nationwide with a cumulative total of 17 million people joining them.Protesters called fo

Oct. 30, 2017

[Editorial] Haughty union group

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has put a kink in President Moon Jae-in’s plan to form a labor-government partnership by boycotting his first meeting with labor leaders at Cheong Wa Dae. Moon’s authority was undermined as well.The Moon administration has pushed labor-friendly policies, including ones to push businesses into hiring outsourced workers as regular workers, raise the minimum wage, shorten working hours and repeal guidelines on what constitutes fair dismissal and the changing

Oct. 26, 2017

[Editorial] Park effect

As expected, power structure is emerging as one of the hottest topics in the discussions to revise the Constitution. Also obvious is that there are notable changes in the public and experts’ views of what would be the best one for the nation. Since the republic was founded in 1948, Koreans have long been accustomed to the presidential system. Public opinion polls used to find that a majority of Koreans favored the presidential system. The tendency to preserve the presidential system had been mai

Oct. 25, 2017

[Editorial] Get tough on canine attacks

Calls for tough rules against pet owners are mounting after a recent high-profile death due to dog bites. The owner of a well-known Korean restaurant died of sepsis six days after being bitten by a French bulldog belonging to an actor and K-pop star. The dog was not leashed nor muzzled when it attacked her.With the population of pet owners surpassing 10 million in Korea, dog bite incidents have been on the rise. According to the National Fire Agency, the number of victims transported to hospital

Oct. 24, 2017

[Editorial] Third way

Nowadays the talk in Korean politics is of “mergers” or “alliances” between political parties. Some of the possible scenarios and suggestions have the chance of becoming reality as the parties gear up for next year’s local election. It is not rare for Korean political parties to come and go through mergers and alliances prompted by political expediency. Most of the political realignments are implemented to bolster political clout or raise election gains at the expense of policy lines. As a resul

Oct. 23, 2017

[Editorial] Precious lessons

The public deliberation commission’s decision to recommend the resumption of the construction of two nuclear reactors should offer precious lessons to the government of President Moon Jae-in and the nation as a whole. Most of all, the panel’s decision -- by the larger-than-expected margin of 19 percentage points -- shows that common sense prevails in the long run. The 59.5 percent of the 471 jurors in the panel who supported resumption of the construction work for the Shin Kori No. 5 and No. 6 r

Oct. 22, 2017

[Editorial] All that politics

Two controversial cases – each involving the police and the top spy agency -- illustrate how Korea’s powerful agencies, including law-enforcement authorities, are swayed by domestic politics. The first case concerns the death of an activist farmer who died about one year ago after being hit by a police water cannon. The turn of events surrounding Baek Nam-ki is truly dramatic.Baek, then 68, fell unconscious in November 2015 after he was directly hit by a police water cannon during a violent anti

Oct. 20, 2017

[Editorial] Mutual confidence

For Asia and the rest of the world, what the US president does and says on overseas summit trips counts. Such will be the same with Donald Trump’s first swing through Asia as president scheduled for early next month. Trump and his aides have not yet outlined anything like Barack Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” vision, but his engagements with major Asian leaders will certainly set the direction for US policy on the region which will last at least three more years.So many will closely follow his what is

Oct. 19, 2017

[Editorial] No more misdeeds

All the noise surrounding former President Park Geun-hye’s trial reflects some of the problems deeply entrenched in our society. The first one is the tendency of prosecutors to exploit their authority to seek detention of criminal suspects. Korean prosecutors investigating high-profile cases tend to link the success or failure of their work to whether they acquire court-issued arrest warrants for major suspects. This time, as the first arrest warrant for Park that was issued six months ago has e

Oct. 18, 2017

[Editorial] Improper acting presidency

A request made by eight Constitutional Court justices on Monday that the court’s two vacancies, president and a justice, should be filled as soon as possible is just and proper in the aspect of its independence.The positions, if left vacant for a protracted period, will harm the normal operation of the court and its status as an institution that safeguards the Constitution.President Moon Jae-in must nominate a new candidate for the chief justice of the court quickly. Moon and the ruling Democrat

Oct. 17, 2017

[Editorial] Unbreakable mandate

There is no doubt that the nation needs a new Constitution that reflects the many changes of the past decades. The latest public opinion survey shows that nearly 80 percent of the general public and close to 90 percent of lawmakers support amending the basic law. Most of all, the current Constitution, last revised in 1987 in the wake of a pro-democracy movement, is outdated in many aspects. The recent corruption scandal involving ousted President Park Geun-hye also bolstered the call for a new C

Oct. 16, 2017

[Editorial] Foothold for better ties

South Korea and China renewed their currency swap deal. The contract was set at $56 billion and will mature in three years.The extension of the deal is welcome news amid chilling ties in the wake of China’s economic retaliations against South Korea’s deployment of US anti-missile assets. As the previous scheme expired on Tuesday with a renewal unannounced, pessimism that negotiations would break down had prevailed.　The renewal carries significant meaning in that South Korea has secured more fore

Oct. 15, 2017

[Editorial] Biased deliberation

The impartiality of public deliberation on whether to continue or terminate the construction of Shin-Kori nuclear reactors 5 and 6 has been called into question. Some of the data provided to citizen jurors who will decide the fate of the reactors is suspected of having been distorted. The citizen jurors are scheduled to hold a yes or no vote on the issue after deliberating for three days from Friday. Groups for and against the construction submitted their respective data to the public deliberati

Oct. 13, 2017

[Editorial] Are we ready?

The shocking revelation that North Korea hacked war plans prepared by South Korea and the US calls for outside investigation by institutions such as the National Assembly or the state audit agency. That is necessary because the issue poses a grave threat to national security and because -- as in the case of many other wrongdoings it committed -- the military insists that it cannot disclose details of the leak, as military secrets are involved and the case is still under its own investigation. It

Oct. 12, 2017

[Editorial] Parliamentary evil

The parliamentary inspection of the administration due to start Thursday is likely to degenerate into a familiar scene of rival parties exchanging harsh words and lawmakers scolding businesspeople.The ruling and opposition parties are determined to use the audit to ramp up their political offensives against each other. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea plans to highlight “evils” of past conservative governments, while the largest opposition Liberty Korea Party has condemned its “political ret

Oct. 11, 2017

[Editorial] No more illusion

The latest developments surrounding the Kaesong Industrial Complex show how risky a reconciliatory policy toward the rogue regime in North Korea is. The industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong -- shut down since February last year -- has emerged as a hot topic in the wake of a report last week that the North has been secretly running at least 19 textile factories there. The report by Radio Free Asia followed news reports in August that about 100 vehicles that had been used by

Oct. 10, 2017

[Editorial] Renegotiation a reality

The administration of US President Donald Trump is increasing trade pressure on South Korea.Seoul and Washington agreed Wednesday to begin a process to amend their free trade agreement. It seems South Korea could not help but accept the US demand for renegotiation after Trump threatened to terminate the deal amid mounting tension over North Korea’s provocations.On the following day, the US International Trade Commission found that surging imports of washing machines from Samsung Electronics and

Oct. 9, 2017