Household loans extended by local banks have been increasing at an accelerating pace in recent months, raising concerns that bloated debt will boomerang with consequential risks to the economy when the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control down the road. The amount of outstanding bank loans to households in the country rose by 18.3 trillion won ($16.7 billion), or 7.9 percent, from a year earlier to 982.1 trillion won in November, according to data released last week by the Bank of Kore

President Moon Jae-in told the people on Dec. 9 to “have faith in the ability of the government to stamp out the pandemic.” He said that “the end of a long tunnel can be seen at last.” It was wishful thinking that vaccines and medicines could eradicate the coronavirus soon.　 The following day, Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo said the opposite -- that “the nation faces a precarious situation where the government’s ability to control the disease will

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, came forward Wednesday to take issue with recent remarks by South Korea’s top diplomat regarding Pyongyang’s antivirus measures. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told an international forum last week that it is hard to believe the North’s claim that it has no novel coronavirus cases, adding that the reclusive regime has been unresponsive to the South’s call for cross-border antivirus cooperation. In a

On Nov. 24, Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae ordered the suspension of Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl and requested that disciplinary action be taken against him. At that time, she cited six suspicions. But the ministry’s inspection committee found all of those suspicions groundless. The Seoul Administrative Court also cleared Yoon, allowing Yoon to return to his duties. Five of the six reasons are false or fabricated. They are without merit. The suspicion that Yoon ordered a prosecutor t

A resurgence in novel coronavirus cases is slowing down South Korea’s economic recovery, though its manufacturing sector has been propped up by improving exports. Outbound shipments from Asia’s fourth-largest economy grew 4 percent on-year in November, bouncing back from a 3.6 percent decrease in October. The country’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace of 2.1 percent in the July-September quarter from three months earlier, raising hopes that it was on a path to recov