The nation has lost a precious opportunity to put the brakes on the rising tide of welfare populism as the free lunch referendum in Seoul held Wednesday was declared invalid due to low voter turnout. Only 25.7 percent of the capital city’s 8.4 million-strong electorate voted, falling far short of the required 33.3 percent. As a result, the ballot boxes were not even opened, let alone counted. Th...

The project of sending South Korean tourists to a scenic resort in North Korea, suspended since July 2008, is now at the risk of being put to an end as Pyongyang is confiscating South Korean assets in Mount Geumgang on North Korea’s east coast. North Korea, which said on Monday it was legally disposing of all South Korean assets in the resort, has made no mention of how to settle the dispute ove...

Alarm bells are set off each time the central bank announces data on household debt. But little action has been taken to curb its growth, and the action that has been taken has had little impact. Nothing else explains why household debt has been snowballing. The potential threat that soaring debt was posing to the Korean economy was so great that the financial authorities were pressured to take ...

The collapse of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s iron-fisted regime appeared imminent on Tuesday as rebels took control of most of Tripoli and seized two of the leader’s seven sons. Rebels briefly celebrated their victory in Green Square, the symbolic heart of Gadhafi’s dictatorial rule. Gadhafi still remained at large. Saif al-Islam, the leader’s second son who has been considered his heir appar...

Today, Seoul citizens express their views on the controversy over school lunches in a referendum. They are asked to choose between two opposing schemes ― a free-lunch-for-all-students plan supported by the main opposition Democratic Party versus an alternative program from Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon that limits coverage to students from families in the lowest half in terms of income. On the surface,...

It does not take genius to guess why North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is visiting Russia. Kim desperately needs economic aid, with his country gripped by a chronic food crisis, which has been aggravated by recent floods. Also of great concern to Pyongyang watchers is whether or not he is attempting to balance China’s growing influence on his country by forging closer ties with Russia ― the kind o...

On Aug. 16, the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby for big enterprises, turned 50 ― the age at which it, were it a person, should “know the will of heaven.” In Confucian philosophy, those aged 50 are thought to be old enough to understand their destiny as mandated by heaven. But the FKI is nowhere near gaining such wisdom. On the contrary, it appears to be blindfolded. It is groping abou...

The world’s athletics enthusiasts have only five days to wait before the start of the IAAF World Championships in Daegu. The world’s premier track-and-field competition is set to open on Aug. 27 in Daegu for a nine-day run until Sept. 4. Some 2,500 of the world’s greatest athletes from more than 200 countries, including Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth, will compete in 49 events, the largest...

The government is seeking to ease the tax burden associated with generational business succession at small and medium-sized family enterprises. Baek Yong-ho, policy planning chief at Cheong Wa Dae, told a meeting of SME executives on Thursday that the government has set out to introduce the German model that offers generous tax relief to those inheriting family businesses if they maintain employm...

On Thursday, the administration announced a package of policies aimed at curbing the steep rise in home rent ― the third of its kind this year. But it is unlikely to produce its intended outcome, as it fails to address the core problem appropriately ― a chronic shortage in supply. The shortage dates back to 2008 when the ruling Grand National Party committed itself, ahead of the upcoming parliam...

Both Sony and Nokia looked invincible in their heydays. But Sony is now being pushed out of the TV market and Nokia is at risk of being taken over. Behind the fall of Sony and Nokia is the rapid rise of Samsung, Apple and others in their global market share. As the Financial Times recently reported, Sony and other Japanese companies ― once consumer electronics behemoths ― are pondering pulling t...

The National Health Insurance program has a loophole that helps rich people pay a far smaller proportion of their income in premiums than most people. Under the present system, the subscribers are divided into two categories ― the employee insured and the self-employed insured. For employee-insured, the contribution is based solely on salary, with income from other sources not taken into account...

In the old days, longevity was considered one of the five blessings in Korea, the other four being wealth, health, love of virtue and a peaceful death. Longevity was one of the most common themes in paintings and embroidery pieces, reflecting people’s wish for it. Koreans’ view of longevity, however, seems to have changed. A recent survey conducted by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Af...

Rep. Chung Mong-joon, his relatives and their Hyundai companies are contributing 500 billion won to inaugurate a charity ― the Asan Sharing Foundation ― in memory of his deceased father, Chung Ju-yung. The Asan Sharing Foundation sets itself apart from many charity foundations established by other businessmen and corporations in funding the project and some other ways. A large share of the 500 ...

All swans were perceived to be white in the West. But what stood this perception on its head was the discovery by a Dutch expedition that found black swans in Australia in 1697. A black swan was no longer an oxymoron. Based on this episode, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of “The Black Swan,” builds his black swan theory ― a theory which refers to unexpected events of enormous magnitude and th...