Most Popular
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Controversy rekindled over when to name criminals, suspects
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Seoul transit pass for travelers to be available starting July
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Hybe-Ador CEO conflict gets messier
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Battery makers ramp up efforts to diversify graphite supply chain
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Prosecutors to summon pastor who allegedly gave Dior bag to first lady
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‘Monk’ DJ spreading Buddhism goes global
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[LLG] Unseen inheritance: Trauma of transnational adoption 'trickles down' to adoptees' children
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Court's ruling set to shape path of medical school expansion
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Loans of self-employed swell 50% in four years
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[KH Explains] Hyundai Motor’s plan for new landmark keeps hitting bumps
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[Editorial] Two juxtaposed numbers
This week, we have news reports revealing two significant statistics. One has it that Korea is to achieve $1 trillion in annual two-way trade volume this week. The other is not so encouraging: the nation’s total household debt is expected to hit 1,000 trillion won by 2013 ― roughly equivalent to $1 trillion.These two figures are of course not directly related to each other in economics. Yet, they are related to the general perception among Koreans regarding how far they have come through the pas
Dec. 5, 2011
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[Editorial] DDoS suspect
An aide to a lawmaker of the ruling party is suspected of being behind cyber attacks that crashed the computer systems of the National Election Commission and the liberal candidate for Seoul mayor on the day of the Oct. 26 by-election. The lawmaker, who denies involvement, says he would resign from his post if proven otherwise.As he claims, Rep. Choi Koo-sik of the ruling Grand National Party may not be involved in the distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks, which shut down the websites
Dec. 4, 2011
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[Editorial] Military’s preparedness
Burma is one of the few countries to which Pyongyang exports its arms and military technology. But the Southeast Asian country is most likely to downgrade its military ties with North Korea, though perhaps not sever them outright, to improve relations with the United States. During her visit to the Southeast Asian nation last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reportedly called on the Burmese leaders to discontinue military cooperation with North Korea, which is suspected of pr
Dec. 4, 2011
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[Editorial] Emissions trade bill
Many important bills are gathering dust at the National Assembly as rival parties are still locked in a stand-off following the unilateral passage by the ruling Grand National Party of the Korea-U.S. free trade bill on Nov. 22. The emissions trade bill submitted by the government in April is one of them.The legislation aims to launch a greenhouse gas emissions trading system in 2015 to stimulate corporate efforts for emissions reduction. In 2009, the Korean government voluntarily declared it wou
Dec. 2, 2011
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[Editorial] Priority on fiscal health
In his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech, President Lee Myung-bak pledged to achieve a balanced budget during his term, which ends in February 2013. Following Lee’s pledge, officials of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance moved forward the target year for budget balance to 2013 from 2014.In drawing up the 2012 budget bill, they put priority on strengthening fiscal health. The bill proposes 5.5 percent growth in spending, a modest increase compared with the expected 9.5 percent growth in revenue.Und
Dec. 2, 2011
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[Editorial] SNS rules for judges
Judges, as public officeholders, are constitutionally required to remain politically neutral. They are not allowed to take sides. The ethics committee of the Supreme Court drove this point home when it called on judges to exercise prudence on the use of the social networking services on Tuesday.The committee’s call for caution followed a political comment that a judge recently posted on Facebook. But the committee chose not to take any disciplinary action against the judge when it was called int
Dec. 1, 2011
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[Editorial] No one else to blame
The ruling Grand National Party acknowledges that it is in crisis. Yet, it shows few signs of trying hard to pull itself out of the quandary. No wonder supporters are turning their backs on the party.The lethargy manifested itself when the party recently summoned its lawmakers to a conference on improving its image among the electorate ahead of the next parliamentary elections in April. The conference, rather than serving as a forum on proposed reforms, ended in a dispute over who would hold swa
Dec. 1, 2011
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[Editorial] Policy on irregular workers
The government and the ruling Grand National Party are promoting a plan to convert some 30 percent of nonregular workers in the public sector into indefinite-term employees as part of their efforts to curb the continued growth of irregular workforce.According to Statistics Korea, the number of irregular workers reached 5.99 million as of August, accounting for 34.2 percent of the nation’s 17.5 million paid workers. The figure represented a 5.4 percent increase or 309,000 workers from a year ago.
Nov. 30, 2011
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[Editorial] Short cut on inflation
The government has found an easy way to curb inflation ― to change the way of calculating the consumer price index.Statistics Korea said Tuesday that it had updated the composition and weights of the goods and services used to produce the CPI, a job it does once every five years to ensure that the key measure of inflation reflects price trends more accurately.The change magically brought down the nation’s CPI rise in the first 10 months of the year by 0.4 percentage points. Before the revision,
Nov. 30, 2011
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[Editorial] Prosecution under fire
A resigning prosecutor left a note of criticism of the prosecution, assessing it to be in “total disarray.” Paek Hye-sun at Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office asked her former colleagues whether they had no doubt about their political neutrality, fairness in investigation, and correctness in their judgment and standards on ever-changing social situations. But she apparently missed one thing in her reflection: the pervasive signs of corruption in the organization.Lee Kuk-chul, CEO of a mid-size s
Nov. 29, 2011
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[Editorial] Opposition ‘integration’
Moon Jae-in and Lee Hae-chan, presidential chief of staff and prime minister respectively during President Roh Moo-hyun’s term, will soon launch a new party with people who follow ideals of the late Roh. The projected “Citizens Unity Party” is being created only to make a party-to-party merger with the main opposition Democratic Party in just a few weeks to take on Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party in the presidential election next year. DP’s chairman Sohn Hak-kyu and its former floor le
Nov. 29, 2011
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[Editorial] Get back to the Assembly
President Lee signs into law today the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement which was ratified a week ago. The regular session of the National Assembly stays idle as opposition parties are boycotting it in protest of the government party’s unilateral passage of the FTA bill, claiming it as “null and void.”If opposition lawmakers do not turn up in the Assembly hall by Friday, the deliberation of the national budget will pass the legal deadline again this year. This legislative abnormality has been rep
Nov. 28, 2011
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[Editorial] Lawlessness FTA protests
An opposition lawmaker detonates a tear gas bomb at the rostrum of the National Assembly’s main chamber. Mobs in a nighttime rally beat up the Jongno police chief responsible for the public order of the heart of the capital. These two incidents related to protests against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement demonstrate the state of lawlessness in the Republic of Korea.The National Assembly makes law and police execute it. When some individuals use violence to deny these institutions’ authority w
Nov. 28, 2011
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[Editorial] Forum on development aid
Korea joined the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD in November 2009, becoming the first country since the organization’s birth to go from aid recipient to donor. Since then, Korea has sought to chart a new course for development cooperation based on its unique growth experience.As part of such efforts, Korea will host the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, the world’s largest and highest-level conference on development aid. The three-day forum is to kick off tomorrow in Busan, wit
Nov. 27, 2011
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[Editorial] Private or public?
A senior judge at Incheon District Court has rekindled the debate over the nature of social networking sites ― are they a private or public space?The judge has caused a stir by posting a scathing message against President Lee Myung-bak and trade officials on his Facebook page after the ruling Grand National Party unilaterally passed a bill to ratify the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement on Nov. 22.His posting read: “I will never forget Nov. 22, 2011, the day when the president and trade officials,
Nov. 27, 2011
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[Editorial] Free subway rides
It is often said that there is no such thing as a free ride. A passenger’s free ride is not free, because somebody else has to pay for it. A case in point involves senior citizens on the urban transit systems that are hemorrhaging money.Almost one in five passengers is given free travel. In its performance evaluation of the seven subway corporations in six cities, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security says that people aged 65 or older, who are exempt paying fares, account for 19.3 p
Nov. 25, 2011
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[Editorial] Financing unification
President Lee Myung-bak’s administration has made its final decision on how to finance unification with North Korea: to build a “unification account” with carryovers from a government fund and contributions from civilians and corporations. The plan is an ill-conceived retreat from President Lee’s earlier proposal to levy a new unification tax.No one can tell whether or not South and North Korea will be reunified during the next two decades, as the administration expects. And there is no knowing
Nov. 25, 2011
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[Editorial] Biased compromise
Since June, the Prime Minister’s Office has sought to mediate a conflict between the prosecution and the police over criminal investigation rights. But the office could not come up with a compromise that was satisfactory to both sides. To resolve the long drawn-out dispute once and for all, it had to invoke its authority to force a compromise on them.On Wednesday, the PMO announced its final answer to the knotty problem in the form of a draft to revise the relevant presidential ordinance. The dr
Nov. 24, 2011
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[Editorial] No need for more tax
Despite the government’s opposition, a plan to collect more taxes from the very wealthy to increase welfare spending is gaining traction among lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party.In an about-face, GNP leader Hong Joon-pyo expressed on Tuesday his support for the scheme, which is being promoted by Rep. Chung Doo-un, head of the Youido Institute, the party’s think tank. Hong stressed the need to impose a higher income tax on the super-rich. Under the current tax system, he said, people ea
Nov. 24, 2011
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[Editorial] Fiscal prudence
The administration promised to halve the fiscal deficit next year and balance the budget in 2013 when it sent its 2012 budget bill to the National Assembly on Oct. 2. But it looks extremely difficult for the administration to make good on its promise.As a consequence of its earlier decision to spend its way out of the 2008-09 global economic crisis, the administration targeted a budget deficit of 25 trillion won for this year and 12.3 trillion won for 2012. Then it committed itself to producing
Nov. 23, 2011