[Editorial] Outdated privilege

At some point, the Asian Games became a competition for Korean athletes seeking exemption from mandatory military service. South Korea beat Japan 1-0 in the men’s soccer final at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, securing a fourth consecutive title. The victory means that 20 of the national team’s 23 players, excluding the three who have already completed their military duty, will receive military-service exemptions. But remarks by some players have drawn criticism. In a postgame in

2026-10-06 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] Fact vs. fiction

Controversy over “The Assassin(s),” a film about the 1974 shooting death of Yuk Young-soo, wife of then-President Park Chung-hee, has spilled into the political arena. At issue is not artistic license itself, but whether cinematic invention can justify distorting established historical facts. The film depicts the Aug. 15, 1974, shooting and advances a plot hypothesis that people close to Park or the Korean Central Intelligence Agency may have been involved. The filmmakers insist they did not exp

2026-10-01 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] Why the delay?

South Korea’s military and the UN Command investigated the site of a suspected land mine explosion in the western part of the Demilitarized Zone on Sunday, six days after the incident happened. The military initially said it would investigate the site on Tuesday, after the Chuseok holiday, citing the risk of a secondary explosion during the investigation. Amid growing controversy over the delay and concerns of evidence being destroyed, however, it moved up the investigation by two days. The mili

2026-09-29 05:30:05:00

[Editorial] Freeze not enough

President Lee Jae Myung has proposed easing sanctions on North Korea in exchange for a freeze on its development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology as a way to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. The proposal, outlined in an interview with The New York Times published on Monday, can be understood as an approach that calls for not making denuclearization a precondition but instead starting with a realistically achievable freeze on North Korea's nuclear progra

2026-09-24 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] A risky opening

The government is reportedly supportive of a bill that would allow South Koreans seeking to contact North Korean residents to do so by simply giving prior notice to the government, rather than obtaining its prior approval. The bill in question to revise the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Act was proposed by Rep. Kim Joon-hyung of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party in June last year. Under the current law, the Minister of Unification may reject an application for prior approval of contact wi

2026-09-22 05:30:00:00

[Pedro Sanchez] Reining in data center power use

The rapid expansion of data centers has become one of the most tangible expressions of the artificial intelligence revolution. But debate about their environmental, economic and social impact threatens their future development. And rightly so. Every cloud service and AI application depends on massive physical infrastructure that takes up land, consumes energy, uses water and requires ever-increasing investment. International experience suggests that as the data center industry scales up, tension

2026-09-21 05:30:00:00

[Lee Jae-min] The data goes to space. But the law remains murky

A couple of years ago, while driving, I heard a unique Korean song on the radio. It was “Space Travel,” a 1970 track by the twin-sister duo Bunny Girls, composed by the legendary musician Shin Joong-hyun. Yes, it is a song about space travel — all the way back in 1970, right here in Seoul. It beautifully captured the wave of cosmic enthusiasm sparked by the Apollo 11 moon landing just the year before. What grabbed my attention was the singing technique: Instead of performing in unison, the siste

2026-09-21 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] A test of loyalty

President Lee Jae Myung recently ordered additional vetting of Kim Ji-yong, whom he nominated to head the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which is scheduled to launch early next month. It is necessary to clarify whether there were any problems with the initial vetting, though it had already been completed; above all, the circumstances raise suspicions that Lee's order may have been influenced by strong backlash from hard-liners in the ruling party. Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers Park J

2026-09-17 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] Vetting failure

Rep. Yong Hye-in's resignation as nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family is ultimately the result of Cheong Wa Dae's vetting failure. Yong did not even make it to the National Assembly's confirmation hearing. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea did not even schedule a confirmation hearing for her, and its leader, Kim Min-seok, reportedly went so far as to send his chief of staff to urge her to step down. Her firm stance that she would retain her seat as a sitting proportional-repres

2026-09-15 05:30:00:00

[Editorial] Investigation gap

A Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson said Tuesday that President Lee Jae Myung nominated lawyer Kim Ji-yong to be the first head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, which is scheduled to launch alongside the Prosecution Service on Oct. 2. Kim is a former chief of the Criminal Affairs Department at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and will lead the agency for two years following a confirmation hearing. A revision to the Criminal Procedure Act pushed through by the Democratic Party of Korea and pro

2026-09-10 05:30:01:00