It does not seem a very wise move that a group of South Korean lawmakers would visit one of the Kuril islands, the subject of a long-standing territorial dispute between Russia and Japan, as part of their campaign to manifest Korea’s sovereignty over Dokdo islands in the East Sea. First of all, there is little similarity between Dokdo and any of the four islands which have been under Russian juris

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting China again, accompanied by his top economic officials. It is the reclusive and ailing leader’s third visit to China in a short span of one year, with the previous two visits made in May and August last year. Kim’s frequent visits to China indicate Pyongyang has made little progress in tackling its deepening economic, political and social problems. The p

The government has launched an investigation into the allegations that U.S. Forces Korea buried tons of Agent Orange at Camp Carrol in Waegwan, about 30 km north of Daegu, in 1978. The Ministry of Environment sent an inspection team to the camp area Friday to verify whether the claims, put forward by three U.S. veterans who served at the military base, are true. The three veterans told a U.S. TV s

Chung Jin-suk, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, denies he did anything illegal when he was an outside director for Samhwa Savings Bank, which has recently slid into insolvency. He may not have breached the law but he may be criticized for negligence“Never did I attend a conference on bank management or engage in lobbying (on behalf of the savings bank),” says Chung, who took 2

As a recent survey indicates, almost eight in 10 Koreans support the Ministry of National Defense’s idea of giving favors in written employment tests to those who have completed active duty. Given this high approval rate, the ministry may be tempted to believe all it needs to do is request the legislature to pass the relevant bill awaiting action.But it is not as simple as it looks. A similar law

The nation has recently experienced severe conflicts between local governments over the location of state-promoted projects such as the science-business belt, an international airport in the southeastern region and the relocation of LH Corp., a state-run property development agency. The sites for these projects have all been chosen but the government needs to tackle the following challenges to pre

It is encouraging that Korea’s national competitiveness ranking keeps rising. According to Switzerland-based IMD, Korea placed 22nd among the 59 countries surveyed in the World Competitiveness Yearbook for 2011. That is the highest spot Korea has taken since IMD started to evaluate the competitiveness of major countries in 1997. Korea climbed in the IMD global rankings for the third consecutive ye

On Monday, the National Tax Service summoned senior officials and regional office heads to a conference at short notice. That was unusual. The usual practice is to hold such a conference annually, at the outset of each year.Even odder was that there was no urgent issue to deal with. Instead, what the participants were told was to refrain from arranging jobs for their retiring colleagues because it

In recent consultations with small and medium-sized businesses, President Lee Myung-bak said the chaebol owner-centered style of management needs to be changed. He stopped short of specifying details of how to do so, but said they should alter their management style to favor co-prosperity with SMEs.But it takes no genius to guess what message Lee wanted to get across to the business tycoons contro

Forty-three former Navy and Air Force heads collectively turned down an invitation to a Defense Ministry briefing Tuesday on an extensive defense reform plan. They were particularly dissatisfied with the proposed system to place the chief of naval operations and the Air Force chief of staff under the operational control of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Many retired Army generals are al

It is fortunate that National Police Agency chief Cho Hyun-oh officially withdrew a controversial plan to change the traffic signal system by introducing red arrow for “no left turn.” “Global standards” were cited for the change, which the police asserted was conducive to reducing traffic accidents. It took two years for the NPA to prepare for the change after the National Competitiveness Commissi

Balanced regional development has been a key objective in national administration for decades. But each time the government makes a decision on the location of any major state project, competition among candidate cities and provinces become so severe that it looks like the nation is just falling apart.As the central city of Daejeon has been selected as the location for a “science-business belt,” a

An individual’s sexual misdeeds have never caused a greater shock and disappointment in living memory than the alleged sexual assault attributed to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French managing director of the International Monetary Fund who is under arrest in New York after a hotel maid reported to police a case of attempted rape Sunday. Bill Clinton managed to survive the Monica Lewinsky scandal w

Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, new floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, vows to drub the ruling party in the parliamentary elections scheduled for next April. But he has much work to do with his counterpart from the ruling party before going on the stump together with Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu, the leader of his party. On being elected floor leader on Friday, Kim, a second-term lawmaker from Suwon, Gy

On Monday 50 years ago, a group of Army officers, led by Maj. Gen. Park Chung-hee, toppled the government and took power in a coup. Park ruled the nation for the next 18 years ― first as the coup leader and later as an authoritarian president ― before being assassinated by his intelligence chief.The anniversary is certain to rekindle a debate on the event’s historical meaning. The government ouste