The recent spate of violent sex crimes has reignited the old debate on the death penalty. On one side of the debate are people enraged by the appalling kidnapping and rape of a 7-year-old girl in Naju, South Jeolla Province. They are calling for execution of those who commit heinous sex crimes.These people urge the government to lift the moratorium on executions, which has been in place since 1998, as it contributes to increasing violent sex crimes. They also argue that keeping death row prisone

Was it to blackmail an opponent or to give advice to an old friend? An aide to Ahn Cheol-soo, a strong potential presidential candidate, alleged Thursday that a Saenuri Party official threatened to expose skeletons in the entrepreneur-turned-professor’s closet.Geum Tae-sup, a lawyer with close ties to Ahn, claimed that Jeong Joon-gil, a Saenuri media relations official, called him Tuesday and said the ruling party would disclose allegations about Ahn’s “bribery and woman problems,” if he decided

Election pledges are just conditional promises ― nothing more, nothing less. For the promises, no presidential candidate gains a mandate or assumes an obligation until after he or she wins the election. This holds true even if the candidate is the standard-bearer of the ruling party.But Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential nominee of the ruling Saenuri Party, is putting pressure on President Lee Myung-bak and his administration to endorse her election promises.Her undue request comes at a time w

According to a survey conducted shortly after the 19th National Assembly was launched in late June, two in three respondents favored the idea of cutting the pay for lawmakers.What those favoring a pay cut were saying was that lawmakers were underperforming. They had apparently been nursing a grudge against their representatives who had frequently boycotted legislative sessions, used violence on the floor and demonstrated their incompetence in other ways.The pay level is at issue again, this time

One of the intractable problems that the incumbent government has failed to address is the construction of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods. The project should have already started in light of the fact that the temporary at-reactor spent fuel pools, which currently store all fuel rods discharged from the nation’s 22 nuclear reactors, are nearly full.But the current administration did not bother to tackle the urgent problem throughout its term. All it did was to launch an a

Should the entrance quotas of domestic medical colleges be expanded or curtailed? The Ministry of Health and Welfare says student enrollments at medical schools need to be increased as physicians are in short supply. Yet practicing doctors argue exactly the opposite.According to a report released by a Yonsei University research institute, Korea is suffering a shortage of medical manpower. A comparison of doctor-population ratios among OECD countries clearly shows this. In 2010, Korea had two phy

The Korea Development Institute, the leading government-funded economic think tank, publishes a report on the nation’s economic outlook twice a year ― in May and November. Based on the November report, the administration sets up its New Year economic management plan in December. If necessary, it revises the plan in June, this time based on the KDI’s May report.But the KDI is scheduled to publish an interim report later this month, a rare exception, which speaks volumes about the nation’s weakene

The presidential primaries of the main opposition party are running out of steam, dashing the party’s hopes of getting attention and praise from the electorate and deepening the schism between the frontrunner and the three other contenders. It looks as if the Democratic United Party was being torn apart in an undue power struggle in the midst of the primaries.The turnout of registered voters is declining. The turnout in Ulsan peaked at 64.2 percent on Aug. 26, one day after the first primary on

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has disclosed the list of 43 underperforming colleges ― 23 four-year schools and 20 junior colleges ― that will be deprived of financial support from the government next academic year. The selected schools ranked in the bottom 15 percent in the ministry’s annual assessment of the nation’s 337 tertiary educational institutions ― 198 four-year colleges and 139 junior colleges.Of the 43 on the list, 13 face another disadvantage: Some of their studen

A gruesome sex crime has been committed against a child girl in Naju County, South Jeolla Province. The 7-year-old girl was kidnapped in the middle of the night while sleeping at her own home with her family. She was brutally raped and strangled to the point of unconsciousness, but luckily survived.Police has arrested a suspect, a 23-year-old man who lives in the victim’s neighborhood. A day laborer with no fixed abode, the suspect confessed he committed the crime under the influence of alcohol.

Hyundai Motor Co. will put an end to the overnight shift in March next year, pending the approval by union members of the latest labor-management deal, which will be put to a vote on Monday. The change in the work pattern will undoubtedly improve the quality of life for employees.The change will also have a far-reaching impact on the entire domestic auto industry, pressuring Kia Motors Corp., Hyundai’s sister company, and other domestic automakers to brace for union demands for a similar change.

The National Assembly opens its regular session on Monday for a 100-day run, with its activities focused on deliberating on the administration’s 2013 budget request and inspecting government agencies. The schedule for the regular session is subject to negotiations between the two negotiating groups ― the ruling Saenuri Party and its rival, the Democratic United Party.When a regular session starts, one of the issues of great concern to the administration is whether or not the legislature will app

As expected, Korea has flatly rejected Japan’s proposal that the two countries jointly refer their territorial row over the Dokdo islets to the International Court of Justice. Seoul has delivered a diplomatic note to Tokyo to reaffirm its stance that no territorial disputes exist regarding Dokdo because the islets in the East Sea are an integral part of Korean territory.Following Seoul’s rejection, Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said in a statement that Tokyo would take “appropriate mea

The government’s “employment first, education later” policy for students at vocational high schools is yielding results. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, about 41 percent of the students who graduated from specialized high schools in Seoul in February opted to get a job instead of going on to university. The figure represents a big improvement from 19.2 percent in 2010 and 23.4 percent in 2011. Yet it is still far lower than 62 percent in 2001.The office has found a simil

Not many are better qualified than Ahn Dae-hee, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party’s newly established special committee on political reform, to flesh out its presidential nominee’s promise to aggressively fight political corruption, ranging from illegal election funding to bribery among those in power.His credentials include a 2003 criminal investigation he led as a senior prosecutor. His team successfully dealt with the provision of a vanload of cash and other illegal corporate contributions