As it does each year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade holds a conference of its diplomatic mission chiefs in Seoul this week, at which it briefs them on this year’s foreign policy goals and gives them new assignments. Conspicuously missing from the conference will be Han Duck-soo, ambassador to the United States. Hardly a day had passed since his arrival last week before he said he was resigning. He did not offer any explanation. His seemingly abrupt decision sent many scratching their

Rep. Park Hee-tae, speaker of the National Assembly, subjected himself to a prosecutor’s inquiry into a vote-buying allegation Sunday. Though his case may have no direct link to the 18th National Assembly’s underperformance during the last four years, it certainly has added to its self-inflicted humiliation. The floor in the main hall of the National Assembly has often become the scene of a brawl, as lawmakers attempting to railroad a bill try to break through the defenses of their rivals. Injur

Few would deny that the U.S. economy is badly damaged or that the party with the more plausible plan for fixing it is likely to win the coming election. Yet neither has proposed a plan that realists can believe in. While Republicans advocate yet more tax cuts and deregulation, Democrats propose further stimulus and deficit spending. Both are futile.Tax cuts will fail because they reduce government revenue, thereby necessitating additional layoffs at the state and local levels among police, firef

In cities and towns across the U.S., a familiar story is replaying itself: Powerful companies are preventing local governments from providing an essential service to their citizens. More than 100 years ago, it was electricity. Today, it is the public provision of communications services. The Georgia legislature is currently considering a bill that would effectively make it impossible for any city in the state to provide for high-speed Internet access networks ― even in areas in which the private

Banks had often demanded people line up more than one guarantor if they wanted to borrow money until “joint and several liability” for individuals was abolished in 2008. But lenders still ask the self-employed and corporations that other parties be presented to hold each of them liable to the full amount of the relevant obligation.This loan practice, however, is set to be scrapped in May. The Financial Services Commission has recently decided to ban joint and several liability ― a practice often

Further investigation of a recent attack in Philadelphia might justify the filing of hate-crime charges against teenagers who sparked the melee.On a Saturday night two weekends ago, a Penn senior named David Goldman was in the back of a cab, en route to a date. The problem came when the car approached 15th Street.“I was in the backseat, looking out of my window, which was rolled down, and then ― bam! A strong punch came barreling through the window and hit me squarely in the jaw,” he wrote in th

Valentine’s Day should be an occasion to celebrate love and compassion. But in Thailand, this occasion is considered by some adults as a dreadful time when many young and underage girls become pregnant. The Police Department, for instance, has enforced a 10 p.m. curfew for people aged below 18 on Valentine’s Day. At the same time, the Public Health Ministry has spent 60 million baht to buy 60 million condoms for young lovers this week.These actions, the agencies claim, are meant to protect our t

Last week featured almost hourly television news updates on a case involving a semi-celebrity and her friend who have now been charged by prosecutors for the brutal beating of a taxi driver on Feb. 2. The media can’t seem to help itself and ― like a binge eater ― is now in the process of purging with more than one newspaper or media commentator coming out to denounce the sensationalist coverage and call for restraint. The swarm of media piranhas is somewhat understandable; after all, this case h

In July last year, prosecutors indicted 37 football players on charges of fixing matches in the nation’s top professional football league. The associations of other sports should have learned a lesson from the scandal, but they did not. Now they are paying the price.Allegations have been made that professional baseball players were involved in match fixing. Prosecutors, who are looking into the cases, have reportedly obtained testimony confirming the scandal. The teams whose players are suspecte

The outcome of Sunday’s mayoral election in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, must serve as a springboard to ensure the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station is relocated to the Henoko district of Nago in the prefecture.Atsushi Sakima, a conservative candidate and a former Liberal Democratic Party member of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, was elected to his first term as mayor of Ginowan when he defeated Yoichi Iha, a former mayor and a progressive candidate.During the campaign, Sakima insisted th