Most Popular
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Yoon's approval rating plunges to all-time low
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S. Korea votes in favor of Palestinian bid for UN membership
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Russia's denial of entry of S. Korean national unrelated to bilateral ties: Seoul official
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Bae Doo-na shares portraying Korean identity in Hollywood's 'Rebel Moon'
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[From the Scene] Monks, Buddhists hail return of remains of Buddhas
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Medical schools granted enrollment quota flexibility for next year
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Yoon offers first one-on-one meeting with opposition leader next week
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France rejects opening Paris flight routes to T'way Air, deals blow to Korean Air merger
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Chinese man behind drug scam targeting teens nabbed in Cambodia
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Iran fires air defense batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
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[Editorial] Pyongyang’s nuclear threat
There is no doubt that North Korea is extremely intractable for its obsession with building up military forces and advancing lethal weapons. But its tactics are not so unpredictable. After all, it has consistently repeated its old playbook of saber-rattling in hopes of reaping rewards in various forms. Pyongyang has been test-firing a series of ballistic and strategic missiles that appear increasingly sophisticated in a way that deepens concerns about the security on the Korean Peninsula. Exper
April 29, 2022
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[Editorial] Attend hearings
Prime Minister nominee Han Duck-soo’s two-day confirmation hearings all fell apart due to the Democratic Party of Korea’s boycott. The ruling and opposition parties agreed to reconvene on May 2 and 3. But it is unclear if they will proceed normally, considering the party’s excessive demands. Just a day before the hearing started Monday, the party abruptly demanded its postponement, citing that the nominee had not provided information sincerely. The National Assembly has so
April 28, 2022
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[Editorial] More risks for economy
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exacerbates already troubled global supply chains, is not the only headache for the Korean economy to tackle. There is a growing list of risk factors, some of which warrant a careful analysis and, if necessary, decisive action. As with other parts of the world including the United States and Europe, inflation is posing the most immediate and insidious threat. As if the war in Ukraine isn’t bad enough, Indonesia’s surprise palm oil export ba
April 27, 2022
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[Editorial] Suspicions on party leader
The Central Ethics Committee of the People Power Party on Thursday decided to begin disciplinary procedures for its leader, Lee Jun-seok, in connection with allegations that he had received sex services as a bribe. Lee is the first party leader in the history of the country’s main conservative party to be referred to the ethics committee for review while in office. All of its nine members decided unanimously to start the procedures. However, it did not say when the procedures will begin.
April 26, 2022
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[Editorial] Prosecution reform
It came as a surprise that the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the main opposition People Power Party pulled off a compromise on the controversial bill that will strip the prosecution of its investigative powers. In most cases, compromise is better than confrontation. But this does not mean that striking a deal solves all the problems at hand at once. After all, compromise is likely to entail a host of unresolved issues and grievances from those who prefer confrontation. As for the comp
April 25, 2022
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[Editorial] Defection trick
The Democratic Party of Korea is going against common sense and procedural norms in order to push through bills that will strip the prosecution of all of its investigative powers. Min Hyung-bae, a member of the National Assembly’s legislation and judiciary committee, defected from the party on Wednesday to become an independent lawmaker. The party is pushing bills to revise the Criminal Procedure Act and the Prosecution Office Act, which will take the prosecution’s hands off all
April 22, 2022
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[Editorial] Problematic choices
Shortly after his election victory, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said he believes that he was elected by the people to restore “fairness and common sense” in society. But many of his picks for the inaugural Cabinet are now entangled in a slew of embarrassing allegations, raising questions about whether the nominees in question will carry out their duties with a sense of fairness and common sense. At the heart of the dispute is Chung Ho-young, the health and welfare minister nomi
April 21, 2022
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[Editorial] Tighten guard
North Korea on Sunday announced that it had successfully test-fired two “new-type tactical guided weapons.” It did not disclose the date of the launch, but South Korea’s military presumes the launch occurred at around 6 p.m. Saturday. The military disclosed the provocation after the North announced them in the morning of the following day. The disclosure came 13 hours after the tests. With the military criticized for its belated disclosure, Cheong Wa Dae said that it had held
April 20, 2022
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[Editorial] Tackle inflation first
The South Korean economy confronts a toxic mix of high inflation, frothy asset prices and a volatile exchange rate, among other negative variables, amid concerns that the forthcoming launch of the new administration might exacerbate uncertainties. For President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, such dire conditions mean it’s no time to be self-congratulatory about his election victory. On Friday, he asked the presidential transition team to come up with a comprehensive road map to strengthen the econ
April 19, 2022
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[Editorial] Stop legislation
The Democratic Party of Korea on Friday submitted bills to revise the criminal procedure law and the prosecution office law to strip away completely the prosecution’s investigative powers. On the back of its parliamentary majority, the party started the legislative process to block investigations of allegations involving the Moon Jae-in administration and former Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, who was the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. The party and the admini
April 18, 2022
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[Editorial] Consider all factors
The incoming administration led by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is set to recast the country’s controversial carbon neutrality and nuclear phase-out plans of the Moon Jae-in administration. This is a welcome development, as it is never too late to fix a glaring problem. The presidential transition team claimed Wednesday overhauling the two interlinked policies, whose side effects are claimed to outweigh potential benefits, is inevitable. Won Hee-ryong, the transition team’s plann
April 15, 2022
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[Editorial] Chief justice’s silence
An organization of judge representatives is said to have asked the National Court Administration under the Supreme Court early this month to explain Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su’s allegedly biased personnel measures. It is the first time that judges have officially raised issue with the chief justice’s personnel decisions. Kim has assigned important posts and cases to judges belonging to two progressive study groups -- one for the study of Korean law and the other for the study of
April 14, 2022
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[Editorial] Post-omicron policy
The South Korean government is poised to scrap COVID-19 restrictions as the omicron-led infections are showing signs of abating in recent weeks. Furthermore, it is mapping out a post-omicron scheme as well. The protracted COVID-19 pandemic is indeed receding, though the exact pace is hard to predict. The country reported 210,755 new cases Tuesday, bouncing back to over-200,000 mark after hitting the lowest level in seven weeks a day earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Preventio
April 13, 2022
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[Editorial] Focus on livelihoods
Economy-related minister nominees who will work for the incoming government are regarded as market friendly. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday nominated Choo Kyung-ho as deputy prime minister and minister of economy and finance and Lee Chang-yang as trade, industry and energy minister and Won Hee-ryong as land, infrastructure and transport minister. The new government is expected to change its policy paradigm from income-led growth to a market-led one. Considering that businesses are the e
April 12, 2022
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[Editorial] Role of prosecution
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is accelerating its move to strip the prosecution of all of its investigation powers -- a highly controversial issue that is roiling political circles and sparking heated opposition from prosecutors. At the heart of the dispute is that the ruling party can -- and regrettably will -- abuse its supermajority position at the National Assembly to railroad the related bill to change the country’s prosecution system once and for all. If the bill is unilate
April 11, 2022
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[Editorial] Change the course
Consumer price increase has exceeded 4 percent. According to Statistics Korea, consumer prices rose 4.1 percent in March from the same month last year. It was the sharpest hike in 10 years and three months. Prices soared, largely affected by the war in Ukraine which further disrupted the supply of crude oil and raw materials following the COVID-19 shockwaves to global supply chains. Setbacks in the supply of oil and materials are hard to avoid for Korea, which imports most of its supply of bo
April 8, 2022
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[Editorial] Compromise matters
The Minimum Wage Commission held its first plenary session Tuesday to start negotiations to set the minimum wage for 2023, a highly sensitive issue for both labor and business that is also expected to set the overall labor policy tone of the incoming administration. The minimum wage for this year is 9,160 won ($7.52) per hour, up 5.05 percent from 2021, after much wrangling between labor and business. Neither side was satisfied with the final result, as the gap was too wide to narrow. Similar
April 7, 2022
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[Editorial] Delegate authority
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is stepping up preparations to form the first Cabinet of his administration. He nominated former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as prime minister, and rumors have flown about who will be named as deputy prime ministers and ministers. Kim Eun-hye, Yoon’s spokesperson, said on Monday that Yoon would try to announce the full lineup of the Cabinet next week at the latest. Yoon met with Han on Sunday ahead of announcing his nomination of prime minister. Han repor
April 6, 2022
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[Editorial] Emotional battle
The incoming and outgoing administrations are still engaged in confrontation, failing to forge cooperative relations to tackle crucial issues during the transition period. A case in point is the high-profile clash over the recent appointment of Park Doo-sun as CEO of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The relocation of the presidential office is also a matter fraught with friction and mistrust. Similarly, both sides wrangle over the disclosure of protocol costs for the first lady Kim
April 5, 2022
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[Editorial] Opaque transactions
Whenever new suspicions have been raised about first lady Kim Jung-sook’s outfits, Cheong Wa Dae offered an explanation, but it said different things each time. Tak Hyun-min, protocol secretary for President Moon Jae-in, said on a radio program on Wednesday that the first lady bought clothes and accessories at her own expense for the past five years with her own credit cards. But that was not quite the case. A master of Korea’s traditional costume hanbok and an artisan of handmad
April 4, 2022