Most Popular
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Hyundai Motor eyes 80,000 jobs, W68tr investment at home by 2026
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Doctors' group picks new leader amid tense standoff over increased enrollment quota
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Dialogue hopes fade as doctors pick hard-liner as new head
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Coupang pledges W3tr to expand Rocket Delivery nationwide by 2027
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[Election Battlefield] Political novice to face off star politician in ‘swing district’
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Korea enters full election mode
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[Kim Seong-kon] The April 2024 election will decide our future
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Seoul’s bus union prepares for strike
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[Editorial] Post-election blues
If ill-conceived nominations cost the opposition alliance a majority in the parliamentary election, the election of candidates with moral or ethical deficiencies is threatening to hurt the ruling Saenuri Party.When Kim Yong-min, a podcaster who gained fame for lampooning President Lee Myung-bak, was nominated by the opposition Democratic United Party, he was found to have made morally indefensible remarks, including those about Korean women forced into sexual slavery during World War II, on an I
April 20, 2012
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[Editorial] Ill-advised subsidies
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has recently revised a regulation on daycare services to ensure that working moms and families with multiple children have priority in enrolling their toddlers at daycare facilities. The measure was necessitated by a surge in demand for daycare services for children aged 0-2 years. Starting March, the government expanded its subsidy program for children under 24 months old. Previously, the subsidy was given to families in the bottom 70 percent of the income lad
April 19, 2012
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[Editorial] Changing tack with N.K.
The U.N. Security Council acted with unusual swiftness when it condemned North Korea on Monday for launching a long-range rocket. It took just three days for the council to toughen sanctions against the rogue regime for violating its previous resolutions. While the council’s response was timely, it lacked teeth needed to deter the wayward regime from making further provocations. On Tuesday, the North “resolutely and totally” rejected the council’s unanimous statement, asserting that it ignored i
April 19, 2012
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[Editorial] More self-help needed
Employees in grade 5 and upward of the Yongin municipality are set to forfeit their pay raises this year ― a consequence of its ill-advised investment in a light-rail transit system. The municipality in Gyeonggi Province has also decided to cut perks for its employees and shelve big-ticket projects, including the replacement of dilapidated air-conditioning systems in school.The savings are estimated to total 22.6 billion won if such efforts are continued during the next five years. Yet the amoun
April 18, 2012
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[Editorial] A magic solution?
Growth is slowing. The Bank of Korea, which forecast in December that the Korean economy would grow 3.7 percent this year, has recently trimmed the growth outlook to 3.5 percent.It should not come as a surprise if the central bank makes a spate of downward adjustments again, as it has done in the past. Last year, it had to revise its growth forecasts several times, as economic conditions worsened both in Korea and across the world.Bearing the direct impact are households, whose income is stallin
April 18, 2012
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[Editorial] Pyongyang after rites
After days of costly rituals to mark the centenary of their eternal leader Kim Il-sung, North Koreans are returning to their usual routine with the decade-old goal of becoming a “mighty, prosperous state” still beckoning them like a mirage. Awaiting them in reality are tons of debris from an all-night fireworks display in Pyongyang and continuing shortages of food and necessities.The more gruesome fireworks show of launching a long-range rocket on Friday, April 13, failed when it exploded minute
April 17, 2012
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[Editorial] Bo Xilai scandal
China’s state news agency Xinhua reported last week that the government had shut down 42 websites and arrested 1,065 people for “fabricating or disseminating online rumors.” Xinhua also revealed that Beijing police had deleted 208,000 “harmful” online messages during the past month. The report did not specify the contents of the rumors, but most Chinese and concerned outsiders know what the main targets of the nationwide crackdown were.Tourists returning from trips to China report that everybody
April 17, 2012
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[Editorial] Last legislative service
The 19th National Assembly has been elected and the outgoing 18th Assembly will finish its term at the end of May. This means that the current legislature has only a month to act on the bills submitted to it since its inauguration in 2008. As proof of the low productivity of our representatives and their parties, there are more than 6,000 bills pending in the Assembly, about 400 of them proposed by the administration. If these bills are not handled during the final session of the present Assembl
April 16, 2012
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[Editorial] Subway Line No. 9
Stunned by the sudden rise in fares for Seoul Subway Line No. 9 by an incredible 500 won from 1,050 won to 1,550 won, we are puzzled at an incomprehensible clause in the contract between Seoul City and the operating company of the newest transit system in the capital city. Article 51 of the contract reads: “The operating company can decide fares independently within a certain limit and the company should consult with the mayor of Seoul when it wants to raise the fare beyond that limit.” On the b
April 16, 2012
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[Editorial] Assertive progressives
When the new National Assembly is inaugurated in June, the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party will continue to hold the exclusive power to negotiate the parliamentary operations. They will be the only parties that qualify as official negotiating groups. Still, they will certainly find chinks in the faade of the virtual two-party system, as a resurgent third party is set to have its voice heard. During the run-up to the parliamentary elections last week, few talk
April 15, 2012
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[Editorial] What next?
As it had promised, the United States confirmed Friday that it suspended its commitment to providing North Korea with 240,000 tons of nutritional aid after the communist state defied the international community and went ahead with the launch of a satellite using a long-range missile. Washington suspended the aid even though North Korea failed to place the satellite into orbit. Washington threatened to take more sanctions if North Korea should engage in additional provocations. The warning came a
April 15, 2012
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[Editorial] Reform amid stability
Now that the parliamentary election is over, political parties are shifting their focus to the presidential race. The Wednesday election was widely viewed as the precursor to the December poll. Yet there is no guarantee that the Saenuri Party victory will be repeated in eight months’ time. To win the crucial election in December, political parties should listen to the vox populi expressed in the parliamentary poll. This applies to the ruling Saenuri Party, as well as to the main opposition Democ
April 13, 2012
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[Editorial] Tokyo’s futile Dokdo claim
On Wednesday, about 800 Japanese right-wingers gathered in Tokyo to reiterate their claim that Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets, is Japanese territory and urge the Tokyo government to act on the issue.The rally, organized by Shimane Prefecture of western Japan, is notable as it was the first of its kind held in Tokyo. Furthermore, the participants included some 60 Japanese lawmakers and senior government officials. Some of the politicians at the rally made highly provocative comments. For insta
April 13, 2012
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[Editorial] Park Geun-hye power
Defying earlier predictions, the ruling Saenuri Party won a majority in the parliamentary elections on Wednesday and put the National Assembly under its control again. Due credit must be given to Rep. Park Geun-hye, who reorganized a party in disarray after the October by-elections and successfully rallied conservative voters behind the party.It was not just pre-election opinion polls but exit polls that indicated that the opposition alliance could beat the ruling party. They did not even rule o
April 12, 2012
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[Editorial] Fiscal indiscretion
The nation’s debt obligations have surpassed the 400 trillion won mark for the first time. The national debt, or the combined debt obligations of the central and local governments, was at 420.7 trillion won as of the end of 2011.The increase of 28.5 trillion won over the previous year raised the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product from 33.4 percent to 34 percent. This must be seen as a matter of concern.Nevertheless, it should not come as a surprise. That increase had been anticipat
April 12, 2012
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[Editorial] N.K.’s reckless gamble
This week is a crucial week for North Korea and its young leader, Kim Jong-un. Amid global outcry, the impoverished country is ready to launch a long-range rocket to mark the April 15 centennial of the birth of Kim Il-sung, its founder and the grandfather of the 20-something leader.Underlying the planned rocket launch is the paranoid regime’s desire to demonstrate to the outside world as well as its disgruntled people that it has attained its long-cherished dream of becoming a “strong and prospe
April 11, 2012
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[Editorial] Reform 112 call service
National Police Agency Commissioner Cho Hyun-oh has stepped down to take full responsibility for the bungled police investigation of a recent murder case.The police came under fire following reports that the 112 emergency service center carelessly handled a desperate phone call for help from a woman who said she was being attacked. The 28-year-old victim in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, reported her exact whereabouts during her call but police failed to figure out her location. By the time police of
April 11, 2012
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[Editorial] Assert voter power
Since democracy was restored in 1987 after the end of long military-backed authoritarian rule, the people of the Republic of Korea are going to the polls today to form a new National Assembly for the seventh time. But the passage of a quarter of a century has not accomplished a stable, productive partisan politics and many voters are still not quite sure how different major parties are from one another in policies.So, 30 to 40 percent of eligible voters, and an even higher percentage in large ci
April 10, 2012
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[Editorial] Samsung, Apple, Nokia, RIM
As Samsung Electronics revealed its record high quarterly operating profit last week, Nokia reported the reduction of its plants in Finland after closing its operations in Germany, Hungary and Romania. Top executives of Research In Motion are leaving the company one after the other as the BlackBerry maker faces a possible hostile takeover.Nokia was the pride of Finland and RIM was the biggest tech success story of Canada. Since Nokia edged Motorola to become the world’s largest cell phone produc
April 9, 2012
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[Editorial] Endless turf war
Anyone writing for English-language newspapers will from now on have to take extra care in differentiating the two schools of medicine in this country, the traditional and Western disciplines. A newly-coined English term for traditional medicine has become the subject of yet another dispute between the two divisions in the healing profession in an extension of their endless turf war.What started the new round of contention was the decision by the association of doctors practicing the traditional
April 9, 2012