The issue of turning the current conscription service into a volunteer military system has resurfaced, with Gyeonggi Gov. Nam Kyung-pil taking the lead. Nam, a potential presidential candidate for the ruling Saenuri Party, suggested in a forum earlier this week that South Korea should transition to a payment-based voluntary military by 2022.  Nam and other advocates argue that the current conscription-based military should give way to a voluntary military in consideration of, among other things,

Editorial Sept. 7, 2016

It seems there is no end to corruption scandals involving state prosecutors. The latest case involves a senior prosecutor who allegedly received dubious money from a businessman facing fraud charges. Kim Hyung-joon, who was suspended Wednesday pending internal investigation, is suspected of receiving 15 million won ($13,500) from the businessman on two occasions and trying to solicit favors from his fellow prosecutors investigating the case. The prosecutor and the suspect went to the same middle

Editorial Sept. 7, 2016

The more distraught we get about the name-calling, wall-building tone of this year’s presidential campaign, the more it helps to revisit a national campaign of half a century ago, which started out mired in similar meanness but then demonstrated how to rise above it.America was as riven in 1968 as we are today. Then, it was over a war that roiled racially torn cities, and tensions between the old and new in everything from electioneering to hairstyles. The question was: Which presidential aspira

Viewpoints Sept. 7, 2016

Affirmative action has reached middle age.It has been almost 40 years since the US Supreme Court ruled that universities could consider race in admissions as a way to enhance student diversity. Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke (1978) barred schools from giving an advantage to minority students if the purpose was to compensate for historic discrimination against them. The only constitutionally acceptable rationale for affirmative action was to improve the education of all student

Viewpoints Sept. 7, 2016

WASHINGTON -- Despite Hillary Clinton’s recent slip in the polls, she has a big political opportunity, even though some of her advisers might regard it as a curse: She can run as the candidate who represents the “mainstream” leadership of both parties and knows how to fix our broken political system. In a year when anti-elitism has been a dominant theme in both parties, donning this establishment mantle might appear to be a mistake for Clinton. But let’s be honest: Her strength is that she’s the

Viewpoints Sept. 7, 2016

If you’re stopped by the police in your self-driving vehicle, would you need to show a driver’s license? This is not a riddle, it’s a legitimate question to be debated by lawmakers when they begin to address the reality of a world where not all cars and trucks have humans at the wheel.Yes, the driverless car is coming -- much sooner than you think. Ford says that within five years it will have a fully self-driving vehicle without steering wheel, gas or brake pedal for sale to ride-hailing compan

Viewpoints Sept. 7, 2016

Fallouts from the collapse of a big company usually reach far beyond its own shareholders, employees, business partners and customers. The case of Hanjin Shipping Co. offers a good example. The shipper, the No. 1 in the nation and the No. 7 in the world, went into court receivership last week under heavy debt amounting to 6 trillion won ($5.37 billion). It touched off a storm not only in the shipping industry but also the entire economy. Now more than half of Hanjin’s 141-strong fleet are strand

Editorial Sept. 6, 2016

Type “Xi Jinping” — the name of the Chinese president — and “Cold War mentality” into Google and you will get a long list of results. Most prominently among them are results that mention how Xi said nations should abandon the Cold War mentality when he addressed the UN General Assembly about one year ago. He made the same remark last week when he addressed a business forum at the G20 summit he was hosting in Hangzhou. He apparently had in mind his country’s biggest rival, the US, which it believ

Editorial Sept. 6, 2016

The Clintons have been subject to fishing expeditions before, but why is a federal court making Hillary Clinton give sworn responses now to questions about her use of a private e-mail server back when she was secretary of state? This all stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a conservative group seeking State Department information about Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin. With a series of permissive rulings, the judge has allowed the suit to get out of hand. It’s now an inquiry int

Viewpoints Sept. 6, 2016

As Gene Roddenberry‘s “Star Trek” boldly passes the 50-year mark Thursday, the series is in impressive shape.The latest movie -- “Star Trek Beyond” -- made about $250 million at the domestic box office and received an 83 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is far better than most of this summer’s hideously awful blockbusters. A new series, “Discovery” -- No. 7 in the franchise -- makes its debut on CBS in early 2017, seemingly in a serialized fashion where the characters and plotlin

Viewpoints Sept. 6, 2016