More Koreans are traveling abroad despite the economic slowdown and a spate of terrorist attacks worldwide. The number of Koreans who went overseas in the first half of the year reached 10.6 million, up 16.2 percent from a year ago, according to the Korean Tourism Organization. Travel agencies expect a much steeper increase in outbound tourists during the summer holiday season, which is expected to last until the Sept. 14-16 Chuseok holiday this year.On July 24, Incheon International Airport set

Editorial July 28, 2016

WASHINGTON -- In a bizarre turn of fate, the diehard supporters of Fidel Castro’s left-wing ideology seem to be fighting their last battle in Venezuela, as the frustrated, hungry population there pushes for democracy and change.The political stalemate in Venezuela continued this week as the National Election Council, under pressure from the leftist government, failed to meet a Tuesday deadline to act on an opposition demand for a recall referendum this year that could replace President Nicolas M

Viewpoints July 28, 2016

Since Spain conquered the Philippines 495 years ago, this country’s destiny has too often been determined by great foreign powers.  However, former President Benigno Aquino III’s suit at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in 2013 concerning the South China Sea has set the stage for President Rodrigo Duterte to develop a long-term peaceful solution to the claims of not just the Philippines and China but also of others.Many in the United States, recognizing China’s precarious legal po

Viewpoints July 28, 2016

Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju belongs to a new breed of entrepreneurs who have engineered Korea’s information technology boom and built their own business empires. In many respects, Kim and his fellow IT gurus like Naver’s Lee Hae-jin, Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo and NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin can be called Korea’s Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg. All in their late 40s, they went to schools that draw the nation’s brightest -- Seoul National University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Sc

Editorial July 27, 2016

China, like many other countries, has many faces. It boasts the world’s second-largest economy, military power and advanced technologies in some sectors like aerospace. At the same time, China has yet to overcome backwardness in its political and economic system and various social norms which lag behind international standards.  The country also needs to overcome the skepticism about its vision to become a global superpower equaling the U.S. The skepticism is based on Chinese leaders’ failure to

Editorial July 27, 2016

This week, Hillary Clinton will address the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to accept her party’s presidential nomination and present its platform. When she does, she will define her vision of, among other things, the social contract in America.It will be a crucial moment. The relationship between Americans and their government is a burning issue today, and two of Clinton’s fellow candidates -- Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Bernie Sanders -- have, each in his own way,

Viewpoints July 27, 2016

The prosecution has been exercising exclusive authority to indict and control police investigations.The late President Roh Moo-hyun had tried to set up an independent entity in an apparent bid to check the power of prosecutors, but failed due to tough resistance from the prosecution and conservative lawmakers.The independent entity refers to a new state agency, which would be specialized in investigating corruption cases involving high-ranking government officials as well as prosecutors.The urge

Editorial July 26, 2016

Recent government data sounded the alarm on the need for South Korea to urgently brace itself for a rapidly aging society.  Statistics Korea said that the number of citizens aged 100 or older had surged 72 percent from 2010. The figure showed that 3,159 centenarians were living in the country as of November 2015, up from the 1,835 five years earlier.As life expectancy gets longer steadily, 13.1 percent of South Korea’s 50.6 million population were 65 or older in 2015, said the state statistical

Editorial July 26, 2016

Amid the rising tide of protectionism, a growing number of Korean companies are becoming the targets of protectionist measures in their major overseas markets, including the United States and China.Last week, the U.S. government took a series of harsh measures against Korean exporters. Notably, the Department of Commerce introduced high anti-dumping and countervailing duties on cold-rolled steel plates produced by POSCO and Hyundai Steel on Wednesday.The duties amounted to 64.7 percent for POSCO

Editorial July 25, 2016

The National Assembly is set to begin deliberations on the government’s 11 trillion-won ($9.64 billion) supplementary budget bill.The extra budget is part of the government’s 28 trillion-won fiscal spending package aimed at propping up the faltering economy and easing the fallout from the ongoing restructuring of ailing industries, including shipbuilding.The government hopes that the parliament passes the bill by Aug. 12 so that it can begin spending the funds before September.Yet the deliberati

Editorial July 25, 2016

Donald Trump last night offered a funhouse mirror version of one of the greatest speeches in American history: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, in 1933. In the midst of a genuine crisis, the Great Depression, FDR began by emphasizing his “firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror.”Trump sought to foster exactly that. For Trump, “America is a more dangerous environment for everyone than frankly I have ever seen

Viewpoints July 25, 2016