The long drawn-out controversy over the establishment of for-profit hospitals in Korea has been rekindled as the government and the ruling Grand National Party seek to pass bills allowing such hospitals on Jeju Island and in the Incheon Free Economic Zone. If passed through the National Assembly in August as planned, the bills will allow private investors to set up and operate hospitals in the two

The government and the ruling Grand National Party have agreed to increase the number of welfare staff at local governments by 30 percent to improve the administration of social welfare programs. Under the plan, announced Wednesday, the government would add 7,000 new public officials to the existing workforce by 2014.The plan is aimed at easing the shortage in field workers responsible for deliver

The bills that are not moving along in the process of legislation number 6312. As the leader of the ruling Grand National Party says, it is shameful for each standing committee of the National Assembly to sit on hundreds of bills.The ruling party has decided to speed up the legislation process when the National Assembly opens an extraordinary session next month. That is a welcome decision. Among t

Lawmakers are jockeying for position ahead of party nominations, though eight long months are left until the next general elections. Some are abandoning their existing constituencies in search of new electoral districts. Others are jumping ship in factional regrouping.But these efforts to enhance their chances of being nominated again should not come as a surprise. All members of the National Asse

Rep. Chung Dong-young, an executive member of the opposition Democratic Party, raised the issue of co-hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics with North Korea and DP Chair Sohn Hak-kyu endorsed it in a top-level meeting Monday at Alpensia Resort, which will be the main venue of the Games seven years later. “We should consider it seriously and earnestly,” he said. The party’s rank-and-file loyalists appar

As Korean movies, TV dramas and music and dance shows gain popularity worldwide, there are calls for greater government support to accelerate their dissemination, preferably through the work of overseas Korean cultural missions. We believe there are better ideas.It is true that popular entertainment products contribute a lot to a country’s overall profile and their so-called brand power. Koreans,

Companies buy luxury cars for a variety of business purposes. Keeping fleets of expensive cars might demonstrate business strength and add to corporate creditability. Nothing wrong if company owners, their spouses and children holding executive positions drive these corporate cars for commuting or on local tours with domestic or foreign clients.It is a totally different matter, however, if the son

Even at the height of celebrations over winning the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in the city of PyeongChang, South Koreans have a shadow of anxiety as to how North Koreans might be reacting to it. This is because the past decades history of inter-Korean relations over the includes some extremely serious incidents which analysts linked to the North’s attempt to disrupt major sports f

A family comprising parents and two children has long been the Korean household prototype. But households are changing like everything else. A recent census has proven that model to be outdated. The new findings demand a change in housing, welfare and other government policies that are focused on the outdated prototype.In 2000, households of four people ― mostly parents and children ― accounted fo

Acts of physical abuse committed out of personal malice and those of harsh discipline administered without being sanctioned are prevalent in the barracks. One report comes after another about enlisted men being humiliated, beaten up, sexually abused or ill treated in other ways. But the military authorities have taken few effective measures to prevent them.A report from the Ministry of National De

The Board of Audit and Inspection has recently told the National Pension Service to fire an executive and sanction two others for tampering with performance evaluations of brokerage companies that carry out stock transactions on behalf of the NPS. The board’s action is disturbing as it suggests some of the fund managers at the NPS have problems with their integrity. Given the huge amount of assets

The newly elected five leaders of the ruling Grand National Party will hold a workshop tomorrow with key members of the party’s policymaking team to discuss how they would promote policies aimed at improving the livelihoods of ordinary people. The meeting is timely as confusion over the party’s welfare policies has escalated following the inauguration of the new leadership on July 4. But whether t

When wage earners are asked if they are better off today than before, many will probably be quick to say no. Such an instant response is borne out by new wage figures. Worse still, few signs indicate there will be any significant improvement in the near future.The average monthly real wage per employee was at 2,364,074 won during the first quarter of this year, down 4.08 percent from a year before

Korea’s ardent, decade-long pursuit of the Winter Olympic Games was rewarded when Jacques Rogge uttered one long-awaited word, “PyeongChang.” Its selection as the venue of the 2018 Winter Games in the South African city of Durban on Wednesday sent not just Korean delegates but all Korean citizens glued to the TV back home into ecstasy.PyeongChang’s win over Munich of Germany and Annecy of France w

New labor unions are mushrooming at companies following the enforcement on July 1 of the law allowing multiple unions in a single workplace. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, a total of 130 new labor unions were created during the first five days. The pace is faster than expected. Many labor experts expected the formation of new unions would be slow in the initial period due to th