Korean society has traditionally been biased against physically-challenged people.The deep-rooted prejudice, which seems to originate from life in a homogenous agrarian community, has somewhat diminished in the modern era but still remains as a psychological obstacle to Koreans building a truly advanced nation.It was partly against this background that a law was enacted more than two decades ago to encourage public institutions and private companies to employ more physically-handicapped persons.

Japan has recently alarmed its neighbors by taking a series of moves that suggest the world’s third-largest economy is rushing its comeback as a military powerhouse. Since the early 1990s, Japan has slowly but steadily proceeded toward militarization despite the constraints posed by its so-called peace constitution. Dubbed the “no-war” clause, Article 9 of the constitution renounces war and the right to use force as a means of resolving international disputes. It also declares that Japan will ne

The Supreme Court has put an end to the drawn-out dispute over the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island by ruling that the Ministry of National Defense has proceeded with the project in a lawful way.The top court’s final verdict has cleared a big obstacle to the project, ensuring that the construction of the important naval base will go ahead as planned.The lawsuit was filed by residents of Gangjeong Village on the island in 2009 to stop the base construction, which they claimed would dam

In recent months, the Federation of Korean Industries, the country’s main business lobby, has been standing up to the political parties’ moves to tighten the reins on conglomerates.Though public concern is mounting over the concentration of economic power on big businesses, there could be some rationale for its argument that the politically-motivated regulatory pressure could hamper corporate activity and national competitiveness. It may be common sense that the organization should behave proper

Alarm bells have been sounding continuously against worsening poverty among aged people in the country.A review of concrete figures showing the depth of the problem should add to the urgency of working out measures to help ease increasing difficulties facing elderly Koreans.The average income of elderly households was only 66.7 percent of the average family income in Korea last year, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.The proportion was the sec

The debate on “economic democratization” is intensifying in politics, although the term still remains vaguely defined. In whatever ways the term is defined, one thing is clear ― it involves reforming the chaebol.The ruling Saenuri Party is expected to step up its push for economic democratization as Kim Jong-in, a key proponent of the elusive concept, has been named co-chairman of Rep. Park Geun-hye’s presidential campaign.While serving as a member of the ruling party’s emergency committee led b

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance is set to take a scalpel to the controversial day care subsidy program for children under 24 months old.In March, the government began to provide day care subsidies to all families, regardless of their income, only if they registered their toddlers with a child care center. Previously, the subsidies were offered to families in the bottom 70 percent of the income distribution. The expansion was rushed by the ruling Saenuri Party, which was blinded by its desir

President Lee Myung-bak reportedly blew his top over the recent mishandling of a controversial treaty with Japan by his Cabinet on Monday. His anger was supposedly targeted at those who had decided not to make public the Cabinet approval of the treaty on the exchange of confidential security information.According to a news report, Lee said the relevant government agencies should have had a process of building a public consensus in favor of the treaty, instead of putting it as an urgent secret ag

A North Korean spy who came to South Korea last year, posing as a defector, has been caught and indicted. The agent is the third North Korean woman to disguise herself as a defector to infiltrate the South.South Korea’s counterespionage officers will have to keep their guards up against North Korea’s attempt to dispatch spies as defectors. The job will be difficult, given that more than 2,000 North Koreans defect to the South each year. It is not rare for some of them to slip out of the country

The main opposition Democratic United Party recently rekindled one of the most sensitive issues in Korean society by revealing that it is considering including the merger of all national universities in its presidential election pledges.Rep. Lee Yong-sup, the DUP chief policymaker, said Sunday the merger could be completed by 2017 if his party won the election on Dec. 19.His remark has drawn keen attention from the public and media as the measure would lead to the virtual abolition of Seoul Nati

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding prison sentences for two middle school students who bullied their friend until he killed himself is seen as a judicial message to toughen its stance against school violence.Sentencing them to prison terms, a lower court said it would be “too tolerant to subject them to measures other than criminal punishment for their acts, which are unthinkable between friends.”Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae suggested in May the judiciary would be stern in handling cases

Lee Sang-deuk, the elder brother of President Lee Myung-bak, is to be summoned by prosecutors today for questioning in connection with the ongoing savings bank scandal.Investigators have reportedly secured evidence suggesting that the former six-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party took hundreds of millions of won in bribes from Lim Seok, the disgraced chairman of Solomon Savings Bank, between 2008 and 2010. Solomon was suspended from operations in May due to capital shortages. The presiden

As baby boomers have begun to retire en masse, the government is pushing to introduce a new system to help them stay in work longer. Under the proposed scheme, workers aged 50 and older will be given the right to request a shorter workweek, which will involve a corresponding reduction in pay, in order to put off their retirement. Officials of the Ministry of Health and Welfare say the scheme will not only help baby boomers ― people born between 1955 and 1963 ― stay longer at their current jobs b

Rep. Park Joo-sun, an independent, who had been charged with breaching election law, was sentenced to two years in prison at a district court last week. He will be removed from office unless his sentence is reduced to a fine of less than 1 million won or he cleared on appeal.At the trial, the prosecutor demanded one year in prison. But the bench came up with a harsher ruling, apparently complying with the Supreme Court’s earlier advice against unwarranted leniency for those charged with electora

President Lee Myung-bak’s administration needs to start wrapping up what it has been pursuing, instead of launching a new controversial project. But it appears to have ignored that it now has just eight months left until the end of its term in office, when it attempted in vain to conclude a treaty with Japan.On Friday, the Korean ambassador to Japan was scheduled to sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement with the Japanese foreign minister at a ceremony in Tokyo. To its humil