The rumor that former President Roh Moo-hyun kept 2 billion won in borrowed bank accounts is likely to be put to rest, as the prosecutors’ office has made a provisional conclusion that the late president had no such secret fund. The office summoned former National Police Commissioner Cho Hyun-oh on Monday for final questioning on his earlier remarks about the alleged fund.In a 2010 lecture to police officers, Cho, then as chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, claimed Roh took his life i

The 6th World Ocean Forum opens today in Busan under the theme of “Vision of the Blue Economy and Ocean Governance.” The three-day conference brings together some 3,000 scholars, government officials and ocean industry leaders from Korea and abroad for discussion on sustainable use and development of the oceans. The term “blue economy” has not gained wide currency in Korea yet. It is being introduced to the public through the forum and the ongoing international exposition in Yeosu, whose theme i

Korea’s national debt totaled 774 trillion won as of the end of last year, according to a report submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.The figure is about 354 trillion won higher than the 420 trillion won estimated by the ministry last month. The difference was caused by a shift in accounting method. Previously the government calculated national debt based on cash accounting, a method that recognizes expenses at the time when cash is paid. Under this approach

Two lawmakers elected through the United Progressive Party’s proportional representation list will have to resign on their own if they wish to avoid the humiliation of being expelled from the National Assembly. Both the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition Democratic United Party are already moving to force them out of the National Assembly.At issue are the ideology that Rep. Lee Seog-gi and Rep. Kim Jae-yeon of the divided leftist party are alleged to espouse and the process of putting them

An annual electricity-saving campaign started on the first day of June ― one month ahead of time. The early launch of the government-initiated promotion reflects a deep concern about power shortages that may cause nationwide blackouts in summer.Nationwide blackouts are not just a remote possibility. They are an imminent threat to the nation, which experienced rolling blackouts last year ― successive blackouts in small areas that were designed to conserve electricity when supply fell to a dangero

In the first move of its kind, a U.N. working group recently concluded that Pyongyang has forcibly detained the wife and two daughters left behind by a South Korean man who escaped North Korea in 1986 a year after defecting there with his family.Their continued detention since 1987 “has been and is arbitrary,” said the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a statement adopted at its session last month, which was made public by a Seoul-based rights group Tuesday.It also requested that Nort

It has been a long time since Koreans ceased to be recognized for their passion for saving.A recent report confirmed they have lost that passion more rapidly than people in other major economies over the past decade.According to the report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Korea’s household savings rate ― the ratio of savings to total disposable income ― declined from 23.2 percent in 1998 to 3.1 percent last year. The decrease of 20.1 percentage points over the cited

The curtain has been raised on the 19th National Assembly. The public has high expectations for the new parliament as the legislative procedure for contentious bills has been changed to promote inter-party compromise and prevent unsavory brawls among lawmakers.Yet the behavior of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party apparently has not changed much. They are reenacting the familiar haggling over the distribution of the chairmanships of the Assembly’s 18 standin

Not a day passes these days without corruption scandals grabbing headlines. On a daily basis, the media reports on corruption allegations involving presidential confidants, government officials, savings bank owners, police officers, etc. So much so that we are getting numb to corruption.For many years, Korea has been committed to fighting corruption. Successive governments have made earnest efforts to crack down on it. As a result of a continued anti-corruption drive, Korean society has become m

Official figures paint a picture of the Korean job market that is far from bleak. On the contrary, Korea appears to be near “full employment,” given the 3.5 percent April jobless rate ― somewhere near an acceptable level of unemployment.But President Lee Myung-bak’s administration is desperate to create jobs by boosting growth. That points to a problem that cannot be described by the official jobless figures alone. Lying at the core of the problem is hidden unemployment. In other words, so many

One of the serious mistakes made by President Lee Myung-bak’s administration was to issue licenses to four new “general programming” cable television channels and one news-only channel last year. This is shown by their abysmal ratings, which reveal an average viewer share of less than 1 percent.One of the questions raised is why four general programming channels were allowed to operate when it was widely believed that, given the market size, two would be more than enough. Moreover, the advertisi

Moon Jae-in, a lawmaker-elect for the main opposition Democratic United Party, recently wrote a tweet suggesting how burdened and frustrated he felt about obstacles to his presidential challenge.The feeling was apparently exacerbated by the backlash against his alliance with two senior DUP members, which he had probably hoped would help lay the groundwork for his presidential bid.In return for their support, Moon appeared to have promised to throw his weight behind Rep. Park Jie-won and former P

The ruling Saenuri Party is planning to submit a dozen bills related to people’s livelihoods as soon as the new National Assembly begins its four-year term Wednesday.At the top of the list, which is scheduled to be finalized at a meeting of party policymakers Tuesday, will likely be a set of measures aimed at banning discrimination against irregular workers.Under the measures, which the ruling party wants to enact into law along with other priority bills within the first 100 days of the new parl

The Supreme Court has rendered a landmark verdict for Koreans who have been seeking compensation from Japanese companies for their forced labor during the colonial period (1910-45). In two suits filed by 11 Koreans against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp., the highest court ruled that the two Japanese enterprises should pay their former Korean employees unpaid wages and compensation for their suffering. The verdict carries deep legal, historical and political implications,

Kim Yong-soo was drafted into the army right after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. At the time, he was 18. The student soldier died during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a fierce 17-day engagement fought in the winter of 1950 between 12,000 U.S. troops and a 120,000-strong Chinese force at a reservoir in northeastern North Korea.Kim participated in the battle as a member of KATUSA or Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army. He was assigned to the U.S. 7th Infantry Division,