Korean tourism officials are preparing for an event to welcome this year’s 10 millionth foreign tourist, who is expected to arrive here Wednesday. The ceremony set at Incheon International Airport, the country’s main gateway, should not end up merely with a self-complacent celebration for achieving the landmark figure for the first time. It should rather serve as an occasion for giving serious consideration to long-term measures to further promote Korea’s tourism sector.The number of foreign tou

The state audit agency announced last week that it had found 43 cases of embezzlement and other irregularities during its recent inspection of 18 diplomatic missions and other offices abroad.Two Culture Ministry officials, who had been assigned to a cultural service center affiliated with the embassy in Moscow, were found to have embezzled money by doctoring documents. One of them drew up fake papers on fictitious contracts with local cultural agencies. The other official claimed more schooling

The 2012 economic growth outlook officially stands at 3.5 percent. But few believe that is attainable. Instead, the consensus among economic policymakers is that growth will fall below 2.5 percent. Noting that output increased a mere 0.2 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, a top economic policymaker was quoted as saying that Korea cannot go against the global slowdown.Among those bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown are small- and medium-sized enterprises. Creditors put 1

The nation needs to keep 4 million kilowatts of electric power or more in reserves if it wishes to spare itself blackout fears. If the reserves fall below 2 million kilowatts, the government issues a blackout warning and demands a cut in consumption by public organizations.According to an estimate by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the reserves will fall to 1.27 million kilowatts when electricity consumption peaks in January. Worse still, the estimate is based on the assumption that two nucle

It would be just nonsense to risk one’s life to arrive at a place where he or she is destined to become a criminal or fall victim to crimes. Many North Korean defectors here, however, find themselves trapped in such an unfortunate destiny.In recent months, the local news media have run a number of reports on crimes involving defectors from the North. Police said this week two defectors had been arrested for smuggling methamphetamine from China and selling the drug to dozens of South Koreans. In

By any account, it is far from normal that all attention is being riveted to the murky process of choosing a single opposition candidate with little more than a month to go before the Dec. 19 presidential election. A tug of war between the Democratic United Party and an independent political group over fielding a unified candidate has taken the place of debates on policies and future visions, which should have already started between the final runners from the ruling and opposition blocs.The neg

The independent counsel wrapped up his month-long investigation into the suspicious land purchase for President Lee Myung-bak’s retirement home on Wednesday. But he failed to tie up all the loose ends that the prosecution had left behind.The responsibility for the incomplete investigation, however, did not lie with the independent counsel, but with the first family, who had denied him access to what he perceived to be vital information for prosecution. Moreover, the president had denied him perm

With a little more than a month to go until the presidential election, many find it still difficult to tell how one candidate differs from others when it comes to key campaign issues, such as national security, economic policy and education.For such people, televised live debates are a good source of information. Actually, few fora provide a better opportunity for eligible voters to evaluate the qualifications of each candidate.True, the number of TV debates has been on the decline ― from 54 dur

The main opposition Democratic United Party has again put the brakes on the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island. The party has refused to pass a bill allocating 200 billion won for the project next year through the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly. It demanded that the entire budget be axed.Behind the party’s nonsensical move was its presidential candidate Moon Jae-in. A week ago, he visited Jeju and told opponents to the project that if elected president, he would hal

Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, has toned down her party’s chaebol reform proposals. She has, among other things, rejected a plan to penalize existing circular shareholding arrangements among chaebol affiliates. Her decision was prudent but drew fire from opposition presidential runners.Circular shareholdings are high on the economic democratization agendas of the three main presidential contenders, who include, along with Park, Moon Jae-in of the main oppositio

Defense officials and private security experts from 17 countries and international bodies will gather in Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day dialogue.Under the theme of cooperation for security and peace, more than 100 participants will discuss concerted efforts to cope with common security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and threats to cyberspace security. They will also exchange views on ways to improve the efficiency of defense administration.The inaugural conference of the Seoul Defense

With about a month to go before the Dec. 19 presidential election, placards publicizing political parties’ populist pledges from increasing pensions for all old-aged people to halving college tuition fees are hung over streets of Seoul and other cities across the country. The competition to win voters’ hearts with promises to shore up their livelihoods hit by the prolonged economic slowdown will be further heated when the official campaign kicks off later this month. The three major presidential

In a bizarre development over the weekend, the prosecution snatched a bribery case from police and started its own investigation all of a sudden. It did so because the case involved a senior prosecutor. No matter what it says, however, the prosecution made the wrong move.Notwithstanding a long-lasting turf war between the two law-enforcement agencies, the prosecution’s move was seen as nothing but an ill-advised attempt to hoodwink the public and downplay the case. Few would expect the prosecuti

As Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party rightly observed, the devil is in the details. He made the remark when he was recently referring to his negotiations with the independent Ahn Cheol-soo on which of the two will represent the opposition as its sole candidate in the upcoming presidential election.Moon and Ahn claim their joint pursuit of the opposition’s single candidacy as a means for a change of government is a mandate from the public that desires a political reform.

Since the 1997-98 financial crisis, financial regulatory reform has been a recurring theme in presidential election campaigns. This time is no exception.The thee main presidential candidates -― Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo ― have each disclosed a plan to revamp the current financial regulatory system.What motivated their proposals was last year’s savings bank scandal that starkly demonstrate