Many Koreans think themselves accustomed to all sorts of corrupt practices plaguing society, but they have still been stunned by recent corruption allegations against a mayor and his family.Kim Hak-kyu, the mayor of Yongin in Gyeonggi Province, allegedly had his associates pay for his rent and back taxes worth about 150 million won ($132,000) before he ran in the 2010 local elections. His wife is suspected of receiving 160 million won from seven businessmen to help finance her husband’s campaign

President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to Dokdo on Friday was a surprise in light of his consistent efforts since inauguration to build future-oriented ties with Japan. The unexpected visit ― the first ever by a Korean president ― is certain to throw the bilateral relationship into a tailspin as Tokyo views it as a breach of an unwritten understanding between the two nations. Yet it is fully understandable given Tokyo’s repeated sovereignty claims to South Korea’s easternmost territory. During Lee’s te

Many of the public agencies that are to relocate from Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi Province to other cities have learned no lesson at all from local governments that ruined their finances by pouring money into exorbitant office buildings.Under a balanced regional development scheme, 147 public agencies are required to move out of the capital zone to local “innovation hubs.” Of them, 121 have decided to construct their own office buildings, while 26 have chosen to rent. Of the 121 not renti

To see how the federal government has pursued money-laundering cases against big banks over their dealings with Iran and other countries under U.S. trade sanctions, consider what happened when Barclays Plc and the Justice Department were required to file reports describing the U.K. bank’s cooperation under a settlement in 2010. The deadline came and went. Barclays and the Justice Department failed to comply, infuriating U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of Washington, who had ordered that the r

By choosing U.S. Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has added some verve to what had been a tedious presidential contest. Romney deserves credit for his audacity, to borrow a word from his opponent. The question is whether the Republican campaign’s newfound energy will be used more to obfuscate or illuminate. If the latter, voters might find that the two presidential candidates agree more than they would have you believe. The debates over such phony issues as whether Romne

Three years ago, Dan Senor, now a foreign-policy adviser to Mitt Romney, was in my radio studio promoting a book he’d co-authored called “Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle.” It is a book that Romney acknowledges as having shaped his thinking on Israel.Back then, Senor laughed when I said reading the book made me think of something once told to me by Bobby Greenberg, a businessman and former Philadelphia treasurer: “Always try to dress British and think Yiddish.” But Senor w

Pyongyang is reportedly conducting an experiment of far-reaching economic reform again, this time under the leadership of young leader Kim Jong-un. A lack of information, however, makes it difficult to connect the dots. Moreover, it is risky to read too much into news reports on North Korea’s decision to abandon some of the pillars supporting communist-style economic management, including central planning and rationing. That said, signs were coming that the Swiss-educated Kim was launching an ec

The main opposition Democratic United Party hopes that more than 2 million people will vote in its presidential primary, scheduled for Sept. 23. But the target may prove to be too high, given the initial lackluster response to the DUP’s call for voter registration. Only 40,365 people registered during the first two days of registration, which had started last Wednesday. Registration will continue until Sept. 4. The low level of registration was disappointing to say the least for the DUP’s leader

The U.S. this year is set to have the worst outbreak of whooping cough since the 1970s. Already, from January to mid-July, there have been 17,000 registered cases and nine deaths. Like the whoop that punctuates the cough, this number is a warning that something is very wrong. The increase, researchers suspect, is partly due to the waning effect of whooping cough vaccines introduced in the 1990s to replace older formulations. It’s also connected to the rising number of parents who refuse to get t

Olympic athletes want to win ― we all know that. So why are they being disqualified for trying to lose? After the badminton scandal that marred the early days of the games, the latest athlete to be kicked out was Algerian middle-distance runner Taoufik Makhloufi, who walked off the course in an 800 meters semifinal on Aug. 6. Makhloufi got lucky. After an appeal, the International Association of Athletics Federations accepted the doubtful excuse that he was feeling injured, and reinstated him. T