Many Korean universities claim to be going global. However, it seems that most of them are still far from globalized in the way they treat foreign students, whose collective numbers have rapidly risen over the past several years.Given continuous side effects involving disharmony between Korean and inbound students, there is an urgent need for the nation to overhaul its policies on studying in Seoul and major cities nationwide with the goal of the students’ smooth acclimation and attracting more

Editorial March 28, 2016

A Chinese manufacturer is poised to pour $30 billion of investment into the semiconductor business, backed by a government initiative. The movement is a de facto announcement that the Chinese electronics and smartphone-makers will scale back dependency on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix over component procurement.Though the project is to undergo a certain period of research and investment before commercialization, it is undeniable that the two Korean chipmakers will face tough challenges from a

Editorial March 28, 2016

Former government officials still account for a large share of the outside directors serving on the boards of major corporations. This is not desirable given the role they are expected to play.　A recent survey by CEO Score, a corporate performance evaluation service, showed about 41 percent of the outside directors appointed this year by the listed subsidiaries of the nation’s top 30 business groups were former government officials.　The survey said that compared with last year, the share of ex-g

Editorial March 24, 2016

The three main political parties in Korea -- the ruling Saenuri Party, The Minjoo Party of Korea and the new People’s Party -- have all wrapped up the process of nominating candidates for the April 13 general election. Hence, a review of how they selected their candidates is in order.　In Korea, there has never been a general election in which political parties picked their candidates without any fuss, and this was no exception. In fact, the nomination process at each party was more conflict-ridd

Editorial March 24, 2016

In Korean politics, “migratory birds” is a term used to refer to politicians who change their party affiliations in pursuit of short-term political interests, like obtaining nominations or increasing their chances of winning an election. The migration becomes brisker ahead of major elections. The upcoming April 13 general election is no exception. In fact, the phenomenon has become more serious partly because of the launch of the People’s Party, which was set up by figures who had broken away fr

Editorial March 24, 2016

What happened recently at Doosan Corporation Mottrol illustrates how inhumane employers can be toward workers. It is truly concerning that this case might not be isolated and there might be similar cases of workers being deprived of basic human dignity. The man, a 47-year-old white-collar worker, was among a group of 20 employees who the firm wanted to fire through “honorary retirement,” a euphemism for early retirement.  He refused to accept the retirement plan, and the management retaliated by

Editorial March 24, 2016

There is an urgent need for economic policymakers to pay more attention to irregular growth in consumer product prices. Over the past year, prices of daily necessities have grown despite drops in raw material prices, according to a consumer advocate group.The Korea National Council of Consumer Organization has compared the consumer prices and rollout costs of 34 processed foods and daily necessities sold by 300 distributors in Seoul.The organization said raw material prices fell 3.2 percent on a

Editorial March 22, 2016

Recent remarks by President Park Geun-hye on her economic outlook are drawing accusations of inconsistency and fickleness. Her assessment on the national economic conditions changed from skepticism early this year to an upbeat mood in early March, and again returned to skepticism this week.In her speech to the public in January, Park said that Korea “could face the woes of mass unemployment and pay huge social and economic costs, as it did during the (1997-98 foreign exchange) crisis.” Park expr

Editorial March 22, 2016

The nation’s three mobile carriers -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus -- have been found to have cheated customers in marketing what they called “unlimited” data, voice call and text messaging services.　The Fair Trade Commission has found that the services that the three operators claimed to be unlimited were in fact limited.　For instance, the carriers slowed down data speeds of their unlimited LTE data plans when subscribers exceeded the data caps they set.　They also levied additional charges or re

Editorial March 21, 2016

Another tragic child abuse case was brought to light last weekend, only days after the body of a 7-year-old boy, who died in February due to maltreatment by his stepmother, was found buried in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.　Police said Saturday they arrested a man in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, in connection with the death five years ago of his 4-year-old stepdaughter.　The stepfather, surnamed Ahn, attributed the death of the child to abuse by her mother, who committed suicide Friday,

Editorial March 21, 2016

With North Korea threatening to continue to conduct nuclear and missile tests, the United States has taken further steps to choke off the funding that allows the rogue state to continue its nuclear and missile provocations.U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order Wednesday designed to implement both the U.N. Security Council resolution against the recalcitrant regime and the recently enacted North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act.The latest executive order goes a step furt

Editorial March 18, 2016

The victory of Google’s computer program AlphaGo over Korean Go master Lee Se-dol in the recent “match of the century” came as a shock to many Koreans, whether they were fans of the classic board game or not.Before the match, Lee was expected to win the best-of-five match without difficulty. The gifted Go master himself was confident of a 5-0 victory.But the artificial intelligence program, armed with its powerful self-learning ability, proved to be much stronger than expected. Lee, who represen

Editorial March 18, 2016

It is irreversible. Korea cannot go back to the time when it boasted of its racial homogeneity. This is not simply because we need foreign workers to make up for the workforce shortage caused by the low birthrate and fast aging of society. But what we see around us and hear from experts and statisticians tells us that we Koreans are not yet as receptive to racial diversity as we should be. A recent study released by the Minister of Gender Equality and Family verified the situation. The study, ba

Editorial March 17, 2016

Politicians and the media that follow what they say and do often contrive expressions, some of which draw a nod of assent or raised eyebrows. Massacre is one such expression. The word is commonly used when a large number of members of a major party faction fail to get nomination for elections due to intraparty politics. This is exactly what is happening at the ruling Saenuri Party. Saenuri is not the only party undergoing upheavals over the nomination of candidates for the April 13 general elect

Editorial March 17, 2016