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] ‘Green’ nuclear energy
The European Commission has decided to include certain gas and nuclear activities in its taxonomy -- a classification system that offers guidelines on private investment promoting climate neutrality. The latest move made on Wednesday by the European Commission suggests that South Korea is increasingly seen as a country going against the global trend of utilizing nuclear power plants as a source of green energy. Late last year, the Moon Jae-in administration made a hasty and controversial dec
Feb. 8, 2022
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[Editorial] Swift probe needed
Lee Jae-myung, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential candidate, apologized again Friday for corruption suspicions involving his wife, Kim Hye-kyung. Kim is under fire over revelations by a former low-level employee of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government that allege he had spent most of his working hours running her private errands when her husband was governor of the province. Using public officials privately constitutes a crime of abuse of authority. Under instruction from
Feb. 7, 2022
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[Editorial] Japan’s shameless move
It is regrettable that the Japanese government took a step Tuesday to list a gold mine linked to wartime forced labor as a UNESCO World Heritage site, as the apparently politically motivated attempt is feared to worsen the already trouble-laden relations with South Korea. The Japanese government submitted a letter of recommendation for the gold and silver mines on Sado Island, as the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave a green light to the 2023 UNESCO heritage bid -- despite strong op
Feb. 4, 2022
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[Editorial] Sluggish reaction
When a nation faces a security crisis, it is critical to swiftly convey information about it to the public. But the South Korean government’s communication with media and the public following North Korea’s latest missile provocation is disappointing. North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile into the East Sea from Mupyong-ri in the northeastern province of Chagang on Jan. 30. It was the North’s longest-range ballistic missile launch since November 2017 when it
Feb. 3, 2022
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[Editorial] Dawdling at probe
Years ago, an opposition party raised a suspicion that Lee Jae-myung, then Seongnam mayor and current presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, made several companies sponsor a city-run professional football club in exchange for resolving their issues mostly related to land use and construction authorization. Lee was the president of the club at the time. Six companies offered a total of 16.05 billion won ($13.3 million) to the team under the pretext of sponsorship and adv
Jan. 28, 2022
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[Editorial] Too busy to talk
It is unprecedented that a much-anticipated and potentially crucial presidential press conference was abruptly canceled with only three days left before the event, citing a controversial, if not dubious, reason. President Moon Jae-in was scheduled to hold a New Year press conference Thursday, but the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae announced Monday it would call it off because the president has to focus on measures to counter the omicron-led COVID-19 surge. It is doubtful that the presid
Jan. 27, 2022
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[Editorial] Clarify rules
The Severe Accident Punishment Act with a far-reaching impact on industrial sites will take effect Thursday. The act imposes punishment -- one or more years of imprisonment or a fine of up to 1 billion won ($835,000) -- on business owners or responsible executive officers for severe industrial accidents that result in death or serious injury. Heads of local governments and chief executives of public enterprises are also subject to punishment under the act. It went through a one-year grace perio
Jan. 26, 2022
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[Editorial] Omicron fears
South Korea is in for another round of the COVID-19 crisis, as the highly transmissible omicron has officially become the dominant strain amid growing concerns over its potentially sweeping impact on high-risk groups and the already fragile health system. According to the government data released Monday, the detection rate of the omicron variant hit 50.3 percent in the past week. As omicron has emerged as the dominant COVID-19 variant, health authorities said they will shift gears and implement
Jan. 25, 2022
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[Editorial] United for neutrality
Cho Hai-ju, the standing commissioner of the National Election Commission, was going to stay on the commission at President Moon Jae-in’s request, but left it under its staff’s collective pressure. This is an unprecedented incident. Days before his term as the standing commissioner expires, Cho reportedly expressed an intention to leave the commission completely. But Moon was said to have requested he keep a nonstanding commissioner position after resigning as the standing commissi
Jan. 24, 2022
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[Editorial] N. Korea’s saber-rattling
North Korea on Thursday ratcheted up its threat level dramatically by hinting at lifting a moratorium on major weapons tests, with South Korea reluctant to strongly protest the North’s continued missile tests despite mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The policymaking politburo of the ruling Workers’ Party, presided over by leader Kim Jong-un, held a meeting and decided to “examine the issue of restarting all temporarily-suspended activities,” the North’s o
Jan. 21, 2022
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[Editorial] End spoils system
Political appointments to reward those who were helpful to the current administration are going too far as Moon Jae-in’s presidency nears its end. As a matter of fact, no administration has been completely free from the practice of using appointments as a reward for loyalty. The spoils system is an undesirable custom, but realistically, it is a hard one to eradicate. Nonetheless, past governments have shown as much restraint as possible from filling high-level posts with their supporters,
Jan. 20, 2022
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[Editorial] Family matters
Political leaders often confront accusations about their family members meddling in state affairs or peddling influence due to the inherently intimate relationships they have with each other. A striking example is the raging dispute over Kim Kun-hee, wife of the main opposition People Power Party’s candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, after a local broadcaster aired recordings taken from phone calls she had with a reporter of a pro-government YouTube channel Sunday. Even before the controversial
Jan. 19, 2022
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[Editorial] Passing on ‘pension bomb’
The Korea Economic Research Institute warned that people born after 1990 may not receive national pension at all unless the scheme is reformed. The institute affiliated with the Federation of Korean Industries raised the need for the reform of the system on the grounds of its analysis of data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Statistics Korea. The nation’s elderly poverty ratio reached 40.4 percent in 2020. The figure is the highest among the 37 O
Jan. 18, 2022
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[Editorial] Mixed message
In a bid to tighten the flow of money and rein in runaway inflation, the Bank of Korea raised the interest rate on Friday. But on the very same day, the Ministry of Economy and Finance unveiled a plan to draw up another supplementary budget to support COVID-hit merchants. The mix of the two potentially conflicting measures could send a wrong message to the market and increase the risk of weakening the purported effects. In an ideal world, when the central bank moves to raise the benchmark rat
Jan. 17, 2022
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[Editorial] Surveillance in its DNA
It was recently revealed that the Board of Audit and Inspection checked the mobile phone records of 31 high-ranking staff employees in early November last year, apparently to find the leaker of inside information. A lawmaker of the main opposition People Power Party said in the National Assembly in October last year: “Word is going around that if Choe Jae-hae is appointed as chair of the board, a secretary in the presidential office will succeed a member of its council of commissioners (w
Jan. 14, 2022
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[Editorial] Misguided innovation
The dispute over the mass stock selling by Kakao Pay executives continues to reverberate, suggesting the depth of the problems with their technically legal yet governance-wise irresponsible decision that was fairly “innovative” -- so much so that authorities are expected to use the scandal to ratchet up regulations against online startups. Kakao Pay, a mobile payment unit of Kakao, which operates the country’s dominant mobile messenger Kakao Talk, was once touted as a shining
Jan. 13, 2022
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[Editorial] Stop beating around bush
The trial began Monday for the five defendants implicated in the Daejang-dong land development scandal. The scandal involves four of the defendants getting astronomical rates of return on their investments in a project to develop land for housing in Daejang-dong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province in the 2010s. A lawyer for Kim Man-bae, one of the defendants, reportedly argued in the first hearing that (Kim) followed policies taken by then Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung for a stable execution of the pr
Jan. 12, 2022
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[Editorial] Gender conflict
When their ratings slide, politicians often use hot-button issues to stop the decline. Presidential nominee Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party followed this formula exactly, but whether he can pull off a turnaround is unclear. On Friday, Yoon made a simple yet highly controversial Facebook post: “Abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.” The post has since attracted more than 11,000 comments and 34,000 likes on the social media. As expected,
Jan. 11, 2022
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[Editorial] No rushing bills
Despite strong opposition from business circles, the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill that will guarantee employee representation on the board of directors of public institutions. A day earlier, the Environment and Labor Committee approved a bill that will give paid time off to members of the unions of government employees and teachers for their full-time union activities. The bills are scheduled to pass the plenary session of the Assembly on
Jan. 10, 2022
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[Editorial] Puzzling embezzlement case
A massive embezzlement scandal at a Kosdaq-listed company is sending shock waves among local and foreign investors, as well as regulators and financial firms. At the heart of the scandal is Osstem Implant, the country’s biggest maker of dental implants, in which foreign investors hold a 44.2 percent stake. The company sued its employee surnamed Lee on Friday for misappropriating 188 billion won ($157 million). The Korea Exchange, which operates the benchmark Kospi and tech-heavy second
Jan. 7, 2022