In downplaying the security threats posed by North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program, President Moon Jae-in’s administration is going too far in what critics see as an illusory pursuit of inter-Korean reconciliation. The North on Thursday test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles after launching two cruise missiles four days earlier. South Korea’s military was slow and passive in responding to the North’s latest provocative acts. Initially it described the

The election commission is facing questions about its neutrality ahead of the April 7 mayoral by-elections in Seoul. This is a serious issue in that a partisan attitude can undermine fair elections, incapacitate democracy and open the way to dictatorship. An alliance of 288 civic groups held a press conference in front of the Sejong Center in Seoul on Tuesday to denounce the election commission. The coalition -- formed in response to sexual violence by a former Seoul mayor -- had planned to

The upcoming Seoul mayoral by-election has boiled down to a two-way race between ruling party contender Park Young-sun and unified opposition candidate Oh Se-hoon. Oh, who is running on the ticket of the main opposition People Power Party, beat entrepreneur-turned-politician Ahn Cheol-soo from the minor People’s Party in a public opinion poll conducted Monday to determine the standard-bearer of the broader opposition bloc. Details of the polling results were withheld in compliance with the

Justice Minister Park Beom-kye ordered the prosecution to probe suspicions that former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook may have been wrongfully convicted of accepting bribes based on false testimony after prosecutors forced witnesses to lie in court. Park even invoked his authority to command an investigation, a power that has rarely been used out of respect for the independence of the prosecution. But after reviewing the allegations, the prosecution concluded that they were groundless. This me

A group of ruling party lawmakers recently proposed a bill designed to create more jobs for young people by collecting additional taxes from companies. The bill would oblige private firms to pay what is termed as a youth tax, amounting to more or less 1 percent of their business income. This is the equivalent of increasing the country’s corporate tax rate by the same amount. In 2018, South Korea’s maximum corporate tax rate was raised to 25 percent from 22 percent. Young people ha

South Korea and the US held the “two-plus-two” meeting of their foreign and defense ministers on Thursday, where they exposed perception gaps on North Korea and China issues. Their joint statement does not even contain the phrase, “denuclearization of North Korea,” not to mention “keeping China in check,” which is one of the cornerstones of US foreign policy. For the South Korea-US alliance, North Korea’s nuclear weapons are the most urgent issue. Pyo