(Yonhap News) With expectations for success ever growing ... How can Korea nurture better Olympians? It has been a tumultuous first week for Korea at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The disqualification of four of its badminton players, a number of controversial judging decisions and underwhelming performances have led to an at times rocky competition for the nation. Nevertheless, team Korea h...

With ambitious new development on the rise ... Do planned cities work? Brasilia, Canberra, Sejong and Songdo all share a common trait: They are planned cities. Despite mixed assessments of the success of cities built from scratch worldwide, South Korea has repeatedly embraced the concept. The Seoul satellites of Ilsan and Bundang were built as planned developments in the 1990s. Today, the part...

With increasing numbers of Korean teens having sex ... What should schools teach about sex? In a country where sex is not to be spoken about, it is no surprise that sex education in schools is a sensitive issue. Deciding what content is both relevant and appropriate is invariably contentious. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology currently requires all schools to provide 10 hours o...

With risky drinking on the rise ... Should the law be tougher on alcohol? Korea’s regulation of alcohol is decidedly laissez faire by international standards. Unlike in much of North America and Europe, alcohol is sold at convenience stores 24/7, bars and nightclubs close at their digression and drinking is permitted in public places. The population is free to drink more or less whenever and w...

With parties’ nomination processes in focus ... Are open primaries necessary? With the presidential election six months away, the process of how political parties choose their candidate is in the spotlight. Three Saenuri Party presidential hopefuls, rivals of favorite Park Geun-hye, last month called for the introduction of an open primary allowing all citizens to vote regardless of party affil...

After the Rio summit’s failure to adopt specific measures ... Is green growth working? “Green growth” has been an oft-used phrase in political, environmental and scientific circles in recent years. President Lee Myung-bak first announced his vision for environmentally sustainable, low-carbon economic growth in an address to the nation in August 2008. In July 2009, the government unveiled the Fi...

With the most hours clocked up in the OECD ... Should Koreans work less? It’s no secret that Koreans work the longest hours of any developed nation. In 2010, each worker put in an average of 2,111 hours. Workers in Korea also take some of the fewest holidays. Just 53 percent take all of their holiday time, compared to 89 percent of the French, according to a 2010 poll by IPSO. On the back of th...

With discrimination still widespread ... Can Korea ever accept homosexuals? Homosexuality has long been taboo in Korean society. The traditional Confucian emphasis on familial bonds led homosexuality to be regarded as detrimental to the societal order, as defined by the philosophy’s five categories of social relationship. In the 1980s, homosexuals were widely feared as AIDS carriers. Today, ma...

With a recent MBC documentary angering expatriates ... Does the media portray foreigners fairly? For many Westerners here it was an all-too-familiar example of the media’s habitual vilification of non-Koreans. An MBC segment focusing on Western men and their relationships with Korean women titled “The Shocking Truth About Relationships With Foreigners” provoked outrage online for what many saw ...

With Korea’s sports stars becoming more diverse ... Should foreign athletes get special naturalization? Never has it been more difficult to define what it means to be Korean. Unprecedented immigration to the country in recent years, and the demographic and cultural change brought with it, has challenged the assumption that Korean citizenship and ethnicity are synonymous. Inevitably, this blurri...

With large numbers of people unable to afford basic goods ... How can Korea end poverty? Korea’s meteoric rise to prosperity since the 1960s is often cited as an almost unparalleled example of success in lifting a population out of poverty. But despite a vast improvement in living standards since the aftermath of the Korean War, poverty remains an everyday reality for a significant number of Ko...

With prices high despite a market slump... Is Korea at risk of a housing bubble? The property market is stagnant and needs a jolt. At least, that’s the view of the government, which on May 10 announced measures to boost house sales, particularly in affluent areas of southern Seoul such as Gangnam, Songpa and Seocho. Within days, however, real estate agents and market observers had labeled the ...

With the nation lagging behind some of its neighbors in visitor numbers ... Korean tourism has seen something of a boom in recent years. Foreign tourist numbers grew almost 50 percent from 2007-2011, from about 6.5 million visitors to close to 10 million. This year, the Korea Tourism Organization aims to increase that number to 11 million. But despite the considerable progress in bringing in mo...

With more than half of surveyed spouses reporting abuse... Is domestic violence taken seriously in Korea? Domestic violence is often out of sight, occurring behind the closed doors of the family home. Nevertheless, national surveys on the issue suggest it happens with disturbing frequency. According to the 2010 Korea National Survey of Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence, 53.8 percent of res...

After a bad month for the reputation of the force ... How effective are the police? April has been a devastating month for the public image of the Korean National Police Agency. The bungled police response at the start of the month to an emergency call from a kidnap victim who was later murdered sparked public outrage. Public ire was further stoked with the revelation that the police in Suwon h...