One of the first things a politician elected to the National Assembly does when his election euphoria recedes is to tailor all his public behavior in such a way as to ensure his reelection four years later. To him, nothing else counts as much.This explains why moderate lawmakers affiliated with the main opposition Democratic Party stopped talking one day after they proposed a compromise over the stalled process of ratifying the Korean-U.S. free trade agreement. The lawmakers became the target of

Controversy is growing over a government-backed private commission’s campaign to restrict the entry of large corporations into certain markets in its bid to protect small and medium-sized enterprises.A week ago, the Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies, which was established in September last year to promote win-win cooperation between big firms and SMEs, categorized 25 products as “SME-suitable” items, urging large companies currently producing them to scale back their outp

Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan described the October job data as an “employment jackpot.” On the surface, the minister’s description is justified ― according to Statistics Korea, the economy gained 501,000 more jobs last month compared with a year ago, while the jobless rate fell to 2.9 percent.The job growth in October is notable as it more than offset the on-year population growth of 454,000. The gain was the largest since the economy added 586,000 in May 2010. Bahk valued the October gain more

Predictability is a rare commodity in Korean politics. Change in voter sentiment is so abrupt, as seen during the recent Seoul mayoral election, that correct predictions are elusive.Few would have believed several months ago that a social activist trained in law would gain so much popularity so swiftly and grab the post of Seoul mayor as an independent. Nor would it have been thought that a university professor with no party affiliation would be mentioned as one of the most powerful potential ca

When millions of animals exposed or presumed to be exposed to foot-and-mouth disease were culled and buried late last year and early this year, the potential leakage from the burial sites and its pollution of ground water were of great environmental and health concern.That fear has become a reality. Moreover, the Ministry of Environment, which conducts tests on 300 new sites each quarter, is accused of attempting to cover up its discovery of the leakage. Quoting a report from the ministry, the p

Every weekday morning, executive members of the Grand National Party gather at the party headquarters in Yeouido near the National Assembly to start their daily meeting along with the heads of departments. Party chairman Hong Joon-pyo sits at the center, flanked by floor leader Hwang Woo-yea and the other executive members, Yoo Seung-min, Na Kyung-won, Won Hee-ryong and Nam Kyung-pil. Korea’s most unproductive “partisan politics” starts here.For years and decades, party executives have behaved a

It is natural that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, now in his second week in office, does not have a full grasp of the bounds of his duties and powers, let alone the scope of his public mission. So, he needs to be reminded that while Seoul is the political, economic and cultural center of the Republic of Korea, it is still just one of the 16 major divisions of the country and that there is a categorical difference between the central and local governments.In this sense, Park’s “statement of opinion”

Members of the five opposition parties continued their “seizure” of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee chamber for a full week. They were trying to deter the ruling Grand National Party from passing the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement bill through the legislative panel. Lawmakers and staff from the opposition parties are joining in the illegal obstruction of the legislative procedures in violation of the National Assembly Law as well as Criminal Code provisions regarding the perfo

In 2008, government authorities fought a losing battle against the campaign of misinformation about mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease that fueled demonstrations against U.S. beef imports. Blogs and mobile phone text messages were widely used by the protesters. Two and a half years later, opposition parties and leftist civic groups have even more effective weapon in their fight against the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. They are liberally using social networking services, which have

It is not an overstatement to say that the nation’s major political parties are exposed to the risk of disintegration ahead of the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for April. Such an argument is supported by an opinion poll recently conducted by the Munhwa Ilbo, a Seoul-based daily.The survey shows that many of the traditional supporters of the conservative ruling Grand National Party and the liberal main opposition Democratic Party are ready to jump ship for a new alternative party.Almos

An ongoing audit of 35 universities ― 29 of them private and the remainder either national or public ― has confirmed that there is substantial room for cutting tuition fees without any increase in subsidies from the government.The Board of Audit and Inspection, which is looking into the books, says the universities have collected an additional annual average of 655.2 billion won ($589 million) during the past five years by bending accounting rules. This accounting fraud is one of the preliminary

The proposed construction of a gas pipeline linking Russia and South Korea via North Korea is expected to gain momentum following a summit between President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.At the meeting, the two leaders reaffirmed joint efforts to promote the project, saying it would benefit all three countries. The scheme calls for laying a 1,700 km-long pipeline to transport 10 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas per year to South Kor

Bad practices die hard. For example, you need not look further than the kickbacks pharmaceutical companies give to doctors and pharmacists in return for prescribing their medicines. To root out this deeply entrenched corrupt practice, the government revised the law in November last year. It made doctors and pharmacists, as well as pharmaceutical companies, subject to punishment when found to have been involved in illegal deals.Under the amended laws, doctors and pharmacists who receive illegal m

The “glass ceiling” refers to a barrier ― invisible, yet unbreakable ― that prevents women from climbing the corporate ladder. But many highly educated Koreans are denied access to the corporate ladder itself, let alone rising above the glass ceiling, simply because they are women.A recent recruitment survey shows how much Korean women are discriminated against in their search for jobs. According to the poll, women accounted for 18.5 percent of those fresh out of university that were recruited b

It is a matter of course that all labor groups, be they national or local, put the interests of workers before anything else. But the two national labor umbrella groups ― the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions ― have often been accused of pursuing their own political agenda or those of their leaders at the expense of the interests of unionized workers.Against this backdrop, a third national labor umbrella group was launched earlier this week. In its in