A recent series of assaults on Koreans in Australia, which come on top of other attacks on Asian students and travelers earlier this year, have raised concerns about the possibility of racial hatred rising there.It may be an overstatement to say that antagonism against ethnic minorities has permeated Australian society. The rise in crimes against Asian visitors and residents can be attributed at least partly to their increasing number. But it should not be an excuse for what is seen as Canberra’

Lawmakers are demanding an increase in spending next year at a time when they should scale down or abolish projects that are not high priority. Should they have their way in the allocation of budgetary resources, the nation’s fiscal deficit will get out of control.The spending increases demanded by the 12 standing committees of the National Assembly that have completed their respective budgetary deliberations total slightly less than 11 trillion won. The amount will certainly increase in the day

An aged woman and her 6-year-old grandson recently died in South Jeolla Province when their countryside home caught fire from a burning candle. According to news reports, the woman’s husband went out to call for firefighters, leaving her and the child behind. When he returned, he found them dead in the fire.The tragedy for the destitute family resulted from the restriction on their use of electricity. On Oct. 30, Korea Electric Power Corp. notified the family of its decision to keep it from usin

The nation’s 250,000 taxi drivers have threatened to hold a massive rally in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido of Seoul on Dec. 7 if lawmakers fail to pass a bill to designate taxis as public transportation by early next month.Legislators of the ruling and opposition parties rushed the bill through relevant standing committees last week. But they stopped short of pushing it through a plenary session in the face of public outcry and a nationwide strike by bus drivers.On Nov. 22, bus drive

The prosecution is facing the worst crisis since its foundation. Last week, the arrest of a senior prosecutor at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office on corruption charges shook the powerful law enforcement agency to its foundations. As if it were not enough, a dumbfounding sex scandal involving a novice prosecutor has been exposed, dealing a knockout punch to the already staggering agency. The prosecutor, who has been undergoing on-the-job training at a Seoul district prosecutor’s office since ap

Japan’s largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party put forward the slogan “Recover Japan” in announcing last week a series of policy pledges, with which it would campaign for the parliamentary election set for Dec. 16. LDP officials explained the motto meant restoring a strong Japan that could show determination to foreign countries and make its people feel proud of being born there.The election pledges, announced by the party leader and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have not drawn favorabl

Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo’s departure last Friday from the race for next month’s presidential election has set the stage for a duel between the contenders from the two main political parties. Rep. Park Geun-hye of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Moon Jae-in, her rival from the liberal opposition Democratic United Party, registered their candidacy with the election commission Sunday. Park tendered her resignation as a lawmaker on the same day.They will kick off a 22-day o

Two years have passed since North Korea shelled the South’s Yeonpyeongdo in the West Sea. The artillery bombardment on Nov. 23, 2010 killed two soldiers and two civilians, injured many others, and devastated villages on the peaceful island.It was the first attack by the North against civilians in the South since the Korean War ended in 1953. As reasons for its deadly bombing, Pyongyang cited firing drills by the marines on the island. Yet it was nothing more than a thinly veiled pretext for its

2012 will go down as a meaningul year in Korea’s film history. In September, Korean movie “Pieta,” directed by Kim Ki-duck, won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first Korean movie to claim the top prize of one of the world’s three most prestigious film festivals. The domestic film industry has recently set a more significant milestone: It broke the 100 million mark in annual audience number for the first time. According to the Korean Film Council, this year’s combi

Probably as another effect of the prolonged global economic downturn, both the outflow of Korean students abroad and the influx of foreign students here have fallen this year.As of last April, 154,178 Korean students were studying degree courses at foreign institutions of higher learning, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier, according to figures from the Education Ministry. It marks the first time since 2005 that the number of overseas Korean students has recorded a year-on-year drop. Even at t

In his closing remarks during a TV debate with Rep. Moon Jae-in, the presidential nominee of the main opposition Democratic United Party, Wednesday night, independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo said he could not have reached where he stands now without the support of the public. He said he would try to bring in “common sense politics in which the people win.”But the late night debate was certainly far from what the people, including Ahn’s ardent supporters, would have wanted to see. It was preceded

It is extremely rare for a prosecutor to detain an incumbent prosecutor suspected of committing a criminal offense. The usual practice is for the prosecution to take the process of receiving a letter of resignation from a prosecutor involved in a criminal case before arresting him. Such a process supposedly helps both the prosecution and the errant prosecutor save what little face they have left.On Monday, however, a special prosecutor arrested an incumbent prosecutor, Kim Kwang-joon, who is sus

The Wolseong-1 nuclear reactor in Gyeongju ended its 30-year life span on Tuesday. Now its operator, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, is preparing to extend its operation by another 10 years, pending approval from the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission.It will not be the first time for KHNP to restart an old nuclear reactor with an expired lifespan instead of decommissioning it as originally scheduled. When the Kori-1 reactor ended its 30 years of operation in 2007, KHNP extended its life span

With the presidential election less than a month away, lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties are rushing to pass populist bills to capture votes. Their reckless abuse of legislative power should be stopped as it will not only waste taxpayers’ money but give rise to unnecessary social conflicts. Last week, lawmakers on the National Assembly’s Committee on Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs approved a bill to recognize taxis as public transportation and entitle taxi companies to more fi

The trade ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have declared the launch of official negotiations on a three-way free trade agreement on the sidelines of a regional summit in Cambodia. It has been six months since the top leaders of the three neighboring countries agreed to start talks on the FTA within this year during a trilateral summit in Beijing in May. Until only recently, it was reported that the start of the negotiations would be delayed to next year due to the heightened tension bet