As the 60-year-old law again faces a legal challenge ...

Korea’s education system, ranked second in the world in some assessments, has been feted far and wide. But its impressive ranking internationally obscures a less glorious reality at the country’s centers of learning: rampant plagiarism. Cases of academic fraud at the university level emerge with alarming frequency, often implicating those at the highest levels of power. In February, Presidential Chief of Staff Huh Tae-yeol was forced to apologize for copying sections of his doctoral dissertation

With Korea committing to legislation ...

With foreign media painting a doomsday scenario

The authority of the state emanates from the people ― so proclaims the Korean Constitution. A corollary, then, is that citizens have the right to know what their government does on their behalf. But as with state power everywhere, government transparency in Korea is tempered by numerous competing interests, from concerns over national security and privacy to public officials’ reluctance to open themselves up to public scrutiny. Government transparency can be defined in numerous ways, from the pu

With SMEs increasingly complaining of an unfair trade environment ...

With reckless spending a recurring problem ...

With the foreign population at 3 percent of the total ...

Crimes by U.S. soldiers stationed here have long been a sore spot in U.S.-Korea relations. The question of who maintains criminal jurisdiction over personnel accused of crimes in particular has often been the subject of controversy. The U.S.-South Korea Status of Forces Agreement, which deals with the investigation and punishment of United States Forces Korea personnel, has typically faced calls for revision after high-profile crimes by American personnel. The debate was reignited once again thi

With more than 3,000 people convicted last year ...

Korea’s experience of religious belief is as varied as it is long. Shamanism, with a history of some 5,000 years, is the belief system with the longest presence on the peninsula. Buddhism, introduced from China in the fourth century, found favor among the rulers of the Three Kingdoms and, later, Goryeo period. Not so much a religion as a philosophy, Confucianism was to become the moral code of the Joseon era, which largely tried to suppress Buddhism. From the mid-20th century, particularly, it w

With consumers feeling the pinch ...

With balancing work and home life a struggle for many ...

With 300 members in the National Assembly ...

President-elect Park Geun-hye has made no secret of her wish to oversee big increases in public spending, mostly to fund her vision of a more expansive welfare system. Considering South Korea’s comparatively low level of social spending and the prevailing political wind for increased welfare, Park’s welfare drive by itself could be seen as unremarkable. More notable, though, is her claim of being able to raise the more than 100 trillion won necessary without introducing new direct taxes or raisi