The proposed judicial reform is in danger of being shipwrecked in the face of opposition from the legal profession. Political activists will do well to join hands in efforts to rescue it.Under pressure from judges, prosecutors and lawyers, the special committee on judicial reform is moving to terminate its operation at the end of June, as scheduled, though it is necessary to extend it because fina

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

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

Lawmakers of the ruling Grand National Party are taking another crack at curbing the time-old practice of public officials landing high-paying jobs at private companies immediately after retirement. The latest attempt comes in the midst of public anger over officials of the Financial Supervisory Service who have all but monopolized the auditor posts at financial companies after retirement.To addre

Rep. Hwang Woo-yea, an independent-minded four-term lawmaker, was elected new floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party on Friday, signaling a power shift in the party and the collapse of its mainstream faction loyal to President Lee Myung-bak.Hwang beat Reps. An Kyung-ryul and Lee Byung-suk, both from the pro-Lee camp. In the first round of voting, Hwang won 64 votes out of 159, while An an

Domestic companies are stepping up efforts to localize some of the parts and materials they import from Japan as their suppliers in the neighboring country are in trouble due to the March 11 earthquake.For instance, LG Electronics has decided to develop a microcontroller unit for its home appliances as Toshiba Corp., which accounts for 60 percent of the global MCU supply, has still not fully norma

Korea suffered a severe credit card crisis in 2003 that not only disrupted the financial system but hit the real economy with a body blow. The crisis followed a massive credit card lending boom, which was fueled by the government’s misguided bid to boost consumption. As the government eased regulations on the credit card business, card issuers pulled out all the stops to recruit new cardholders. T

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, driven into chaos by four student suicides this year, now appears to be recovering from the initial shock and looking for solutions to stressful campus life. KAIST will do well to take time in determining what to do to avoid similar tragedies, as advised by its board of directors.Last week, the board of directors, after being briefed on remedial

The government and the ruling Grand National Party have agreed to upgrade the Nuclear Safety Commission, now under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, to an independent, ministerial-level agency by July this year. The decision, announced on Friday, is a welcome move as it would help address concerns about the safety of nuclear plants in Korea caused by the radiation leak at Japan’s

In early March, outgoing Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kim Jong-chang issued a strong warning against excessive competition among domestic commercial banks. One example cited by the top regulator, who quit on Friday as his three-year term expired, was the recent scramble among banks to attract big corporate customers. It was triggered by Kookmin Bank, which sought to boost corporate lending b

Twenty-seven of the 31 North Koreans who strayed into the South Korean waters aboard a fishing boat a month ago, are stuck in limbo ― Pyongyang refuses to take them back unless Seoul sends them all. The other four desire to remain in the South. Is Pyongyang throwing tantrums when it says the South is holding them against their will?When South Korean officials took the 27 North Koreans to the truce

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office indicted on Thursday the head of a doll exporting company on charges of illegally siphoning off personal assets worth 94.7 billion won overseas and evading taxes totaling 43.7 billion won.The businessman, identified only by his surname Park, was suspected of having shifted his assets abroad for nine years since 2000 using his subsidiary in Hong Kong,

Korea is probably the first country in the world to develop an index to measure how large corporations treat their small subcontractors. On Wednesday, the Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies disclosed a draft plan to introduce the so-called “win-win index.”If enforced as planned, the index is expected to provide a turning point in transforming trade practices in the domestic

Egypt stands at a crossroads following the resignation on Friday of President Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the Arab world’s most populous country for the past 30 years with an iron fist. Pro-democracy activists who had boldly protested at Tahrir Square in Cairo since Jan. 25 pulled off a revolution by forcing the dictator to step down. But the key to the nation’s future is not in their hands. It is he