Most Popular
-
1
10-man S. Korea lose to Indonesia to miss out on Paris Olympic football qualification
-
2
Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
-
3
Second Gimpo civil servant found dead, after apologizing for not finishing work
-
4
DP leader says he will meet Yoon without conditions
-
5
First-ever meeting of president, opposition chief set to finally happen
-
6
NewJeans' singles, Japanese debut to proceed as planned, despite Hybe-Ador feud
-
7
Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
-
8
Experts raise concerns about Japan putting pressure on Naver over Line
-
9
Samsung mobile chief, Google device head meet in Seoul
-
10
Ship linked to NK arms shipments to Russia is moored in China: State Dept.
-
[Editorial] Respect for the court
Chung Bong-ju, a former opposition lawmaker who has gained fame as one of the four hosts of a podcast talk show, is set to be sent to prison because the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision on Thursday. He had been sentenced by the lower court to one year in prison for making a false statement that President Lee Myung-bak was involved in a stock price manipulation scam.The ruling also deprived Chung of his right to election to public office for the next 10 years, making it impossible for
Dec. 23, 2011
-
[Editorial] New North Korea policy
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s sudden death has further increased the uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula. Yet it has also provided an important opening for the two Koreas to end the hostility and pursue peace and mutual prosperity. To grab this rare opportunity, the Seoul government needs to recalibrate its North Korea strategy.Inter-Korean relations have remained deadlocked for years, especially following the North’s provocations against the South last year ― the destruction of the Navy’s C
Dec. 22, 2011
-
[Editorial] Korea-China hotline
The government’s response to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s death has exposed some glaring problems. One such problem concerns the failure of the nation’s main spy agency to detect Kim’s death before Pyongyang’s state media announced it on Monday.The National Intelligence Service had no clue to Kim’s death for two days, revealing its serious lack of capability to gather intelligence on North Korea. The agency’s intelligence lapse kept President Lee Myung-bak in the dark about the grave situat
Dec. 22, 2011
-
[Editorial] Condolences to N. Korea
South Korea has offered condolences to North Korea over Kim Jong-il’s death in the manner it apparently considered most appropriate. This should settle the dispute over whether or not the South should express condolences to the North.The South Korean government directed its condolences to the North Korean people, not to the North Korean government or Kim’s successor ― his youngest son. By doing so, President Lee Myung-bak’s administration appeared to be aiming at appeasing conservatives, who wer
Dec. 21, 2011
-
[Editorial] Investor confidence
The South Korean financial markets plunged on the news about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s sudden death on Saturday. They did so with good reason. One of the investor concerns was undoubtedly the possibility of a power struggle breaking out in North Korea in the aftermath of Kim’s death and an ensuing calamity spilling over into the South.When his death was announced two days later, on Monday, South Korea’s benchmark stock index lost 3.43 percent, or 63 points, and closed at 1,776.93. The Ko
Dec. 21, 2011
-
[Editorial] Extreme fluidity
North Koreans may think that it was fortunate that their leader, Kim Jong-il, officially anointed his successor more than a year before his death. But Kim died too soon to ensure his third son a smooth takeover as the ruler of the isolated, impoverished country of 24 million people.Pompous funeral ceremonies for the dictator who ruled the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for 17 years after the death of his father, Kim Il-sung, will be held on Dec. 28 in freezing Pyongyang. And no one knows
Dec. 20, 2011
-
[Editorial] Korea, Japan and China
President Lee Myung-bak spent more than half of his summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Kyoto on Sunday with the issue of the World War II “comfort women.” He asked for the Japanese government’s “sincere and courageous efforts” to settle the issue, which has become a major obstacle to the partnership between the two neighbors.It certainly was extraordinary that the Korean president raised the wartime sex slavery in his conversation with the Japanese head of government for
Dec. 19, 2011
-
[Editorial] Last U.S. troops out
The last U.S. troops left Iraq Sunday, eight years and eight months after the first American missiles struck Baghdad, ostensibly to stop Saddam Hussein from threatening world security with weapons of mass destruction. The soldiers are returning home, but many of them will be sent to Afghanistan, where George W. Bush had started war to destroy al-Qaida, the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. When another Middle East invasion was made into Iraq, much of the non-Arab world supported the U.
Dec. 19, 2011
-
[Editorial] Crumbling power base
President Lee Myung-bak used to say his power would remain intact until his final day in office, brushing aside the possibility of sliding into lame-duck status in his last year in office, as his predecessors did. Set to enter into the final year of his five-year presidency soon, however, he needs to look squarely at irksome truths about his crumbling power base.When his administration was inaugurated on February 2008, Lee looked so indomitable that all his detractors, both actual and potential,
Dec. 18, 2011
-
[Editorial] Upward mobility
A society is certain to lose vitality and remain stagnant, if not go backward, if its members believe that they cannot move to a higher social status whatever efforts they may make. Such pessimism is gripping Korea, as evidenced by a survey recently conducted by Statistics Korea.According to the 2011 social survey of 17,000 households throughout the nation, almost half the Korean people believe they belong to the working class and six in 10 believe they cannot improve their social and economic s
Dec. 18, 2011
-
[Editorial] Fostering youth start-ups
The government is rolling up its sleeves to stimulate start-up activities among young people as youth unemployment worsens.The November job data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday put the unemployment rate among those aged 15-29 at 6.8 percent, more than double the general unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.While the overall jobless rate improved this year on the back of employment growth in the service sector, the rate among young people worsened.Korea’s youth unemployment figure may not l
Dec. 16, 2011
-
[Editorial] End to GNP factionalism
Rep. Park Geun-hye has cleared the biggest hurdle to her comeback in more than five years as the leader of the embattled ruling Grand National Party.On Wednesday, she met a group of reformist GNP lawmakers who had vociferously called for dissolving the party to create a new one. They threatened to leave the party should Park reject their demands. Two hot-tempered lawmakers did declare their departure from the party on Monday.Park was in principle against disbanding the GNP. She regarded it as no
Dec. 16, 2011
-
[Editorial] Summit agenda
President Lee Myung-bak is visiting Kyoto, Japan, on Saturday and Sunday for shuttle diplomacy with Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda. Glaringly missing from the officially sanctioned summit agenda, however, is an issue concerning Korean women forced into sex slavery during World War II. The summit will have to deal extensively with the case, be it on the official agenda or not.True, presidential aides say that Lee, very much concerned about the issue, may take it up any time he meets Noda. But a curs
Dec. 15, 2011
-
[Editorial] GNP in turmoil
The ruling Grand National Party, faced with a leadership crisis, is put to a test over whether it will be able to put itself on the path to its former glory or continue to run adrift until it is shipwrecked. There is no easy prediction about its future, as an ad hoc committee that is empowered to map it out has yet to be created.For the moment, however, pessimism is outweighing optimism. Some demoralized party-affiliated lawmakers are giving up running for reelection, while some others are vowin
Dec. 15, 2011
-
[Editorial] Playing it safe in 2012
Next year is likely to be another tough year for Korean economic policymakers as economic and political uncertainties are likely to mount at home and abroad. Globally, the eurozone sovereign debt crisis is expected to persist, adding fuel to turbulence in global financial markets and aggravating the vulnerability of the Korean economy.The year 2012 is also an election year not only in Korea but in many countries, including the United States, Russia, France and Spain. A leadership change is also
Dec. 14, 2011
-
[Editorial] Climate change efforts
To scientists and environmental groups, the outcome of the recently ended U.N. climate talks in Durban is a big disappointment. Ostensibly, the two-week-long conference, which was attended by more than 190 countries, delivered results. It produced a package of agreements, including, among other things, the extension of the Kyoto Protocol for another five years.The delegates also agreed to launch negotiations next year to hammer out a new legally binding treaty by 2015. The envisioned pact is aim
Dec. 14, 2011
-
[Editorial] Disorderly ‘integration’
Few were surprised that the main opposition party’s rally at a gymnasium in Seoul to approve merger with another group of progressives was marred by so much noise and violence, as such scenes are rather a tradition in the nation’s rugged political history. And true to tradition, the losers in Sunday’s Democratic Party convention are about to bring the intraparty dispute to court.Rep. Park Jie-won and his supporters contended that the vote on the merger with the Citizens Unity Party, a hurriedly
Dec. 13, 2011
-
[Editorial] Outrages at sea
China has become a world superpower, but some of its people behave like Somalian pirates. The frequent, rather routine violations of Korean-controlled waters by Chinese fishing boats make us doubt that Chinese authorities have any concerns about the outrages at sea perpetrated by their people. The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested for attacking Korean Coast Guard officers, killing one and seriously injuring another, as they seized his ship operating deep inside the Korean exclusive
Dec. 13, 2011
-
[Editorial] President’s brother
Rep. Lee Sang-deuk announced Sunday he would not run for the 19th National Assembly election next April. His retirement, we believe, was four years too late. He had been advised by people in and outside the Grand National Party to make an exit from politics when his younger brother Lee Myung-bak was elected president in December 2007. But “SD” decided to seek his sixth term ― and won it ― “to play the role of the bridge” between the new ruling party and the president, who lacked firm roots in th
Dec. 12, 2011
-
[Editorial] Strange judges
We are increasingly uneasy that judges are making the news, not only with their verdicts but with their Twitter messages, and even with a collective appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the desirability of an international pact ratified by the Assembly and signed into law by the president.Judge Kim Ha-neul at the Incheon District Court has sent a letter of suggestion to Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae, asking him to form a task force for a court-level study of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement
Dec. 12, 2011