Most Popular
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Nominee for chief of anti-corruption body pledges 'independence, effectiveness'
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Med schools expect 1,500+ new admission slots next year
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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Samsung chief bolsters ties with Germany’s Zeiss
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KT launches new mobile plans for foreign residents
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[Editorial] Mutual flexibility
North Korea’s party and state media these days are churning out “commentaries” that call for a thaw in relations between the two Koreas. The wording is so earnest and enthusiastic that one cannot but wonder that some tectonic changes might be taking place in the North, at least in the editorial depa
Sept. 20, 2011
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[Editorial] ‘Knowledge economy’
Many people still do not know exactly what the Ministry of Knowledge Economy does, three-and-a-half years after it came into being in a government reorganization at the beginning of the Lee Myung-bak presidency. Watching this ministry’s officials scurry for damage control under public wrath over the
Sept. 19, 2011
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[Editorial] Suspension of savings banks
Announcing six-month suspensions of seven more savings banks Sunday, Kim Seok-dong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said that the unease over the insolvency of the second-tier lenders would now be put to rest. The tough action followed the suspension and closure earlier this year of n
Sept. 19, 2011
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[Editorial] Ruling party in trouble
Defeatism prevails among members of the ruling Grand National Party. No trace of the gung-ho spirit is found among its members with the Seoul mayoral by-election fast approaching. Few believe they will win the race again this time.The low morale, resulting from a shift in voter sentiment against the
Sept. 18, 2011
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[Editorial] Key aide under probe
Kim Doo-woo, senior presidential secretary for public relations, resigned from his post on receiving a summons from the prosecutors’ office last weekend ― four months after his name was first mentioned in connection with an insolvent savings bank’ illegal lobbying. An arrested lobbyist for the savin
Sept. 18, 2011
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[Editorial] Power blackouts
Unprecedented power blackouts struck Seoul and many parts of the nation Thursday, causing enormous inconvenience to the public and temporarily disrupting industrial and commercial activity in the affected areas.The unexpected power outages, the first of their kind in Korea, paralyzed banks, offices,
Sept. 16, 2011
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[Editorial] Peak wage system
Domestic banks are among the first companies in Korea to adopt a peak salary system, which extends retirement age for senior employees in return for gradually reducing their salaries in the years leading up to retirement. They introduced the new arrangement one after another following an example set
Sept. 16, 2011
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[Editorial] Cornered opposition party
The main opposition Democratic Party appeared to be coming roaring back when its gamble paid off in the April parliamentary by-elections. Its leader, Sohn Hak-kyu, ran in one of the ruling Grand National Party’s conservative bastions and won.Then came an ill-advised decision by Oh Se-hoon, the GNP-a
Sept. 15, 2011
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[Editorial] R&D collaboration
According to a report published by the National Science and Technology Council, the Korean government, research institutes, universities and corporations invested a total of 43.85 trillion won ($37.93 billion) in R&D in 2010, up 15.6 percent from the previous year. The high increase rate is notewort
Sept. 14, 2011
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[Editorial] Curbing household loans
Last month, domestic banks were criticized for abruptly halting the extension of fresh loans to households. They took the surprise move to comply with the regulator’s policy to rein in household debt. But it was an act that totally ignored the inconvenience that people in urgent need of loans would
Sept. 14, 2011
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[Editorial] 10 years on
The Chuseok holidays kept Korean newspapers from editorially remembering the 9/11 terror on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, but we now join the Americans in renewing the resolve to make the world safer from violence and freer from hatred. From reports of memorial ceremonies at Ground Zero in Ne
Sept. 13, 2011
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[Editorial] Politics of vortex
In his book, The Politics of the Vortex (1968), Gregory Henderson, a former cultural and political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, observed that political groupings in Korea over a millennium and a half have been associations of individuals whose desire for personal power has far outweighed an
Sept. 13, 2011
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[Editorial] Chuseok for lawmakers
Prices have gone up. Jobs are hard to find. It is not easy to rent a home at a reasonable price. But these and other concerns of ordinary people are put to rest for a while, as the four-day Chuseok holiday has just started.For tens of millions of people joining the annual holiday migration, Chuseok
Sept. 9, 2011
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[Editorial] Botched battle on prices
It would be humiliating for a man in public office to acknowledge that he has failed in his mission. But Kim Choong-soo, governor of the Bank of Korea, virtually did so when he was briefing on its monetary policy to the press on Thursday.On its homepage, the central bank has a statement in bold lett
Sept. 9, 2011
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[Editorial] From growth to welfare
Under pressure from the ruling Grand National Party, the government has finally agreed to pull back on the planned tax cuts for large corporations and high-income individuals. Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan, emerging from a meeting with top GNP officials on Wednesday, said the government would not pu
Sept. 8, 2011
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[Editorial] Specter of currency war
The specter of a global currency war is looming large following Switzerland’s surprise decision to peg the Swiss franc to the euro in a bid to hold back a runaway appreciation of its safe-haven currency. The Swiss National Bank shocked global markets Tuesday by declaring that it would cap the franc’
Sept. 8, 2011
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[Editorial] Party politics in crisis
The default political system throughout the world is representative democracy ― a form of government in which people are represented by those they have elected to the legislature. It applies not just to the parliamentary system of government but to the presidential system.With representatives select
Sept. 7, 2011
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[Editorial] Where’s the market?
One of the first things students learn in an economics class is that, in a competitive market, the price of a good is determined by the supply of and demand for it. There is no room for intervention by the government except in case of a market failure.But the Korean government intervenes in the mark
Sept. 7, 2011
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[Editorial] MBC’s overdue apology
MBC said it painfully accepts responsibility upon the Supreme Court’s judgment of falsity in its investigative report aired on April 27, 2008 concerning a bilateral accord for imports of U.S. beef. The broadcaster should have made a public apology for its inaccurate reporting on mad cow disease in t
Sept. 6, 2011
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[Editorial] Celebrity tax evasion
Many top entertainers and sports stars make large donations to charity. It is often reported that their acts of sharing are related to their extremely difficult lives before they reached stardom. Even if some of them insist on not making their donations public, their charitable deeds become known to
Sept. 6, 2011