Rep. Park Geun-hye has cleared the biggest hurdle to her comeback in more than five years as the leader of the embattled ruling Grand National Party.On Wednesday, she met a group of reformist GNP lawmakers who had vociferously called for dissolving the party to create a new one. They threatened to leave the party should Park reject their demands. Two hot-tempered lawmakers did declare their departure from the party on Monday.Park was in principle against disbanding the GNP. She regarded it as no

President Lee Myung-bak is visiting Kyoto, Japan, on Saturday and Sunday for shuttle diplomacy with Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda. Glaringly missing from the officially sanctioned summit agenda, however, is an issue concerning Korean women forced into sex slavery during World War II. The summit will have to deal extensively with the case, be it on the official agenda or not.True, presidential aides say that Lee, very much concerned about the issue, may take it up any time he meets Noda. But a curs

The ruling Grand National Party, faced with a leadership crisis, is put to a test over whether it will be able to put itself on the path to its former glory or continue to run adrift until it is shipwrecked. There is no easy prediction about its future, as an ad hoc committee that is empowered to map it out has yet to be created.For the moment, however, pessimism is outweighing optimism. Some demoralized party-affiliated lawmakers are giving up running for reelection, while some others are vowin

Next year is likely to be another tough year for Korean economic policymakers as economic and political uncertainties are likely to mount at home and abroad. Globally, the eurozone sovereign debt crisis is expected to persist, adding fuel to turbulence in global financial markets and aggravating the vulnerability of the Korean economy.The year 2012 is also an election year not only in Korea but in many countries, including the United States, Russia, France and Spain. A leadership change is also

To scientists and environmental groups, the outcome of the recently ended U.N. climate talks in Durban is a big disappointment. Ostensibly, the two-week-long conference, which was attended by more than 190 countries, delivered results. It produced a package of agreements, including, among other things, the extension of the Kyoto Protocol for another five years.The delegates also agreed to launch negotiations next year to hammer out a new legally binding treaty by 2015. The envisioned pact is aim

Few were surprised that the main opposition party’s rally at a gymnasium in Seoul to approve merger with another group of progressives was marred by so much noise and violence, as such scenes are rather a tradition in the nation’s rugged political history. And true to tradition, the losers in Sunday’s Democratic Party convention are about to bring the intraparty dispute to court.Rep. Park Jie-won and his supporters contended that the vote on the merger with the Citizens Unity Party, a hurriedly

China has become a world superpower, but some of its people behave like Somalian pirates. The frequent, rather routine violations of Korean-controlled waters by Chinese fishing boats make us doubt that Chinese authorities have any concerns about the outrages at sea perpetrated by their people. The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested for attacking Korean Coast Guard officers, killing one and seriously injuring another, as they seized his ship operating deep inside the Korean exclusive

Rep. Lee Sang-deuk announced Sunday he would not run for the 19th National Assembly election next April. His retirement, we believe, was four years too late. He had been advised by people in and outside the Grand National Party to make an exit from politics when his younger brother Lee Myung-bak was elected president in December 2007. But “SD” decided to seek his sixth term ― and won it ― “to play the role of the bridge” between the new ruling party and the president, who lacked firm roots in th

We are increasingly uneasy that judges are making the news, not only with their verdicts but with their Twitter messages, and even with a collective appeal to the Supreme Court concerning the desirability of an international pact ratified by the Assembly and signed into law by the president.Judge Kim Ha-neul at the Incheon District Court has sent a letter of suggestion to Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae, asking him to form a task force for a court-level study of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement

Job creators are patriots. So said President Lee Myung-bak during a meeting with a group of businessmen a few days ago. The terse remark sums up the bleak labor market outlook for next year. Jobs are likely to be much more difficult to find in 2012 as domestic companies plan to scale back new hiring in response to slowing economic growth at home and abroad.The Bank of Korea puts the number of new jobs to be created next year at 280,000, a 30 percent plunge from the average 407,000 jobs created i

Rep. Park Geun-hye, the leading presidential hopeful of the ruling Grand National Party, is set to take the helm of the party, which has been drifting without a rudder. Park, who served as the party’s chairwoman between 2004 and 2006, has a demanding task cut out for her. She has to salvage the sinking party and navigate it toward victories in the April general election and subsequent December presidential election.The stage for her comeback after more than five years was set last Friday when th

The Dec. 2 constitutional deadline for the passage of a budget bill has come and gone. Yet, no agreement on an extraordinary parliamentary session appeared to be forthcoming from the ruling and main opposition parties when the regular parliamentary session was set to come to a close Friday. The reason was that the parties were embroiled in internal turmoil.Budget officers in the administration must have been fretting over the possibility of being forced to draw up a provisional spending plan. To

The main opposition Democratic Party is set to hold a national congress on Sunday to determine whether or not it will disband itself for a merger with a group of political, social and labor activists. Either way, its decision will have a great impact on the general and presidential elections next year.The party’s proposed merger with the activist group, which goes by the name of “Innovation and Integration,” is an attempt to unite politicians and political activists that were close to the two la

The ruling Grand National Party is teetering on the brink of collapse. On Wednesday, three of the party’s five top leaders quit their posts, calling for reform of the party. The majority party has been floundering in defeatism after losing the Seoul mayoral by-election on Oct. 26. The collective resignations of the three leaders ― Reps. Yoo Seung-min, Nam Kyung-pil and Won Hee-ryong ― were intended to pressure party leader Hong Joon-pyo to step down. What motivated the trio to drag Hong down was

The government has again come up with a package of measures aimed at stimulating the dormant housing market. It is the sixth of its kind introduced this year. The frequent announcements of policy steps illustrate the difficulty of the task facing policymakers ― injecting new life into the moribund housing market without letting the genie of real estate speculation out of the bottle.The latest package, announced by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on Wednesday, contained bolde