President Park Geun-hye called her proposal for five countries to hold a separate meeting on denuclearizing North Korea a “creative approach.” To start with, it is flatly wrong to call it “creative” because the idea has been floated in the past. [번역] 박근혜 대통령이 북핵 비핵화에 대한 5자 회담을 열자는 자신의 제안이 ‘창조적 접근’이라고 말했다. 우선 5자 회담은 과거에도 나온 아이디어이므로 ‘창조적’이라고 말하는 것은 완전히 잘못된 것이다. [/번역] And this time, too, the pro...

The government has unilaterally publicized its new labor standards on giving enterprises the authority to lay off underperforming workers, despite a recent breakdown of the tripartite dialogue also involving labor and management. [번역] 최근 노사정 대화가 결렬됐음에도 불구하고 정부가 일방적으로 새로운 저성과자 해고 기준을 발표했다. [/번역] The guidelines provide employers with the authority to sack employees when their job performance is...

An assessment of a group of prosecutors’ attitude when they interrogated criminal suspects at their offices has been made public for the first time. The evaluation of Seoul district-serving prosecutors, conducted by the Korean Bar Association, was mainly focused on whether they took a coercive stance during the interrogation process or whether they were lax in performing their basic duties as civ...

The government’s labor reform drive has hit a major snag, as the labor representative of the tripartite dialogue with management and the government declared Tuesday the breakdown of a landmark agreement reached in September. The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, which represented the labor side at the tripartite social dialogue, also said it would not participate in future talks. [번역] 노동계 대표가 ...

The horrible story of a child whose dismembered body parts had been kept by his parents for about four years exposed some serious social ills in this country. The case of the 7-year-old boy who died in 2012 is still shrouded in mystery despite police investigators’ strenuous efforts to find clues since his father and mother were detained last Friday. [번역] 부모가 아이의 시신을 토막 내 4년 간 보관했다는 끔찍한 이야기는 한국...

The public poll season has returned ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in early February. And the nation has effectively entered campaign mode as less than three months remain until the general election. [번역] 2월 초 설 연휴를 앞두고 여론조사 시즌이 돌아왔다. 그리고 총선까지 3개월이 채 남지 않아 전국이 실질적으로 선거운동 모드에 돌입했다. [/번역] The April 13 election holds great significance, as it is the last chance for nationwide voters to exp...

With the year 2016 expected to see a surge in terrorism around the globe, the terrorist attacks in Jakarta on Jan. 14 suggest that East Asia is no longer safe from terrorism. As Korea can also become a terrorist target, it needs to be ready to combat terrorism, including cyberattacks. [번역] 2016년 전세계적으로 테러가 급증할 것으로 예상되는 가운데 1월 14일 자카르타 테러는 동아시아가 더 이상 테러에서 안전하지 않음을 시사한다. 한국도 테러의 타겟이 될 수 있으므로 사이버테...

In her New Year address and news conference on Wednesday, President Park Geun-hye focused on the “emergency situations” that she said Korea faced on the security and economic fronts. On the security side, she vowed to leave no stone unturned to ensure that the U.N. Security Council could adopt a resolution imposing the “toughest yet sanctions” on North Korea. [번역] 수요일에 열린 대국민담화 및 기자회견에서 박근혜 대통령...

Korean political parties usually recruit “new faces” ahead of major elections to improve their public image and broaden support base. This recruiting campaign is getting fiercer as the parties brace for the April general election amid the virtual split of the main opposition party and the public’s disenchantment with the current 19th National Assembly. [번역] 한국 정당들은 대개 주요 선거를 앞두고 이미지를 개선하고 지지기반을...

The South Korean won has weakened against major currencies including the dollar in the wake of China’s devaluation of the renminbi as well as the U.S. Federal Reserve’s tighter monetary policy. [번역] 중국의 위안화 평가절하, 미국 연준의 통화 긴축정책 후 원화가 달러 등 주요 통화 대비 약세를 보이고 있다. [/번역] The local currency -- which ranged between 1,070 to 1,130 won per dollar during the first half of last year -- slid almost 10 per...

It has been 12 days since the electoral map used for the previous general election expired Dec. 31 without a new one put in its place. It is the first time in Korean election history that all electoral constituencies have suddenly disappeared with the invalidation of the electoral map. [번역] 이전 총선에 쓰인 선거구가 새 선거구로 대체되지 못하고 12월 31일에 만료된 지 12일이 됐다. 한국 선거 사상 선거구 무효화로 모든 선거구가 갑자기 사라져버린 것은 처음이다. [/번역...

The world has learned through North Korea’s fourth nuclear test that it will not give up its weapons of mass destruction. [번역] 세계는 북한의 4차 핵실험을 통해 북한이 대량살상무기를 포기하지 않을 것이란 것을 알게 됐다. [/번역] Another thing the world should learn is that it now needs a new strategy entirely different from the past, with the numerous endeavors -- not least the 1994 Agreed Framework, six-party talks and international ...

President Park Geun-hye is apparently upping the ante in her hardball politics. The launch of a new anticorruption drive and the threat of legal action against local education offices over financing a free child care program are some of her latest gambits. [번역] 박근혜 대통령이 엄한 정치를 강화하고 있다. 새로운 부패 척결 드라이브 착수, 무상보육 갈등을 놓고 지방 교육청에 법적으로 대응하겠다는 위협 등이 최근 책략의 일부다. [/번역] These moves follow Park’s bitter ...

Once again the world has seen -- through its fourth nuclear bomb test -- how unpredictable North Korea is and how difficult it is to rein in the rogue state. This time the North claimed that they had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb and therefore that the country has reached a higher stage of development of nuclear weapons and joined the advanced ranks of nuclear weapons states. [번역] 세계는 ...

Legislative inaction is hurting people and companies in need of help. Due to lawmakers’ failure to act, jobless people cannot receive larger unemployment benefits; struggling households have to pay higher interest rates on loans from credit businesses; and distressed companies face difficulty in getting debt relief from their creditor banks. [번역] 국회의 태만이 도움이 필요한 국민, 회사들에 타격을 주고 있다. 국회 태만으로 실업자들...