Korea is heading to a multicultural society. The nation needs the influx of foreigners to maintain industries and homes. Migrant workers are active in growing areas of manufacturing and service businesses, including high-tech ones. One out of every 10 marriages has a foreign-born bride. However, acceptance of ethnic diversity should not mean Korea turning into a haven for illegal immigrants and s...

Management, be it of an airport or a utility, is generally more efficient in the hands of private enterprises aiming at minimizing waste and maximizing profits. In this regard, it is better to privatize Incheon International Airport, as the government plans to do in the near future, than to keep it as a state-owned corporation. True, Incheon is one of the best managed airports in the world despi...

Minister of Knowledge and Economy Choi Joong-kyung invited legitimate complaints from the business community again when he called on large corporations on Saturday to cut executive pay and use the savings to create jobs. His remarks were received as an unwarranted act of government intervention in the private sector. He had made similar anti-business remarks on previous occasions. At a forum spo...

The three Japanese Diet members who were turned back from Gimpo Airport nine hours after arriving in Korea Monday morning may still feel their airport-to-airport trip was politically rewarding. But they will be only remembered here for having performed a comedy, a very disturbing one at that, disappointing many who wanted growth of friendship and trust between the two neighboring countries. Ther...

As the Navy is about to resume the work to build a major naval base on the southern coast of Jeju Island near Seogwipo Port, tension rises between the authorities and residents. In the four years since the project took shape, the resentment of residents and the patience of government authorities have both reached their limits, and a win-win settlement is not in sight. Various factors have compou...

Reports of the ongoing investigation into an alleged espionage network for North Korea brings us to a dj vu of the 1960s or 70s when the authorities occasionally, or rather frequently, exposed subversive groups maneuvering to collect information here and topple the government on orders from Pyongyang. Suspects often included staff members of political parties, and those parties thus named claimed...

The “Hope Bus” demonstrations near a shipyard of the Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction in Busan last weekend ended without serious disturbances. But turmoil can resume any time as a coalition of leftist groups has chosen the labor trouble at the midsized shipbuilding company as a rallying point for a general offensive against the conservative government ahead of elections next year. About...

Korean businesses, financial institutions and government agencies have been frequently targets of hacking in the past. It is like an epidemic. The latest case involves SK Communications, which runs the Cyworld social networking website and the Nate online portal. The hackers, whose attacks reportedly originated in China, stole personal information of 35 million clients of Cyworld and Nate last w...

August, a sultry month for holidaymaking, may not be amenable to engaging in heated political deals. But that is what lawmakers are required to do, with the National Assembly statutorily required to open a special session on each even-numbered month prior to September when a 100-day regular session starts. Moreover, the National Assembly needs to act on as many pending bills as possible during t...

Savings banks’ depositors are protected by deposit insurance, not in full but in part, from losses caused by the inability of the non-banking institutions to pay their liabilities when they are due. Deposit insurance is designed to promote financial stability by protecting depositors and, by doing so, forestalling bank runs. But the downside is the moral hazard it causes. It encourages depositor...

Growth is slowing and prices remain stubbornly high, sending economic experts scratching their heads and trying to figure out if it is a sign of forthcoming stagflation. But the administration and the central bank rule out the possibility of the economy slipping into stagflation, saying that growth will regain momentum and prices will be more stable in the months ahead. Gross domestic product gr...

Record downpours continued to bombard the central part of the nation for three consecutive days on Thursday, raising the death toll to 48. The “rain bombs” triggered landslides in Seoul, Chuncheon and Pocheon, killing more than 30 citizens. They also flooded thousands of houses and roads, leaving some 5,000 people homeless and causing traffic chaos and power outages. In Seoul, the precipitation ...

The Financial Supervisory Commission has renewed its attempt to create homegrown investment banks. On Wednesday the commission unveiled a draft bill that would allow brokerages with equity capital exceeding 3 trillion won to become investment banks. The commission plans to submit the legislation to the National Assembly in October for passage within this year. If approved as planned, the bill wi...

Talks on forced mergers and liquidations are under way. The targets are not corporations that have become insolvent or are nearing insolvency, but junior colleges and universities whose finances are in bad shape. One of the first steps to be taken in this regard is to pass a bill on restructuring private schools. The presidential office and the ruling Grand National Party agreed on the bill’s ea...

As Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announces tomorrow the schedule for the Seoul residents’ referendum on free school meals which is likely to be held on Aug. 24, he will be most anxious about how the so-called “Gangnam leftists” would react to his policy of limiting the benefits to only children from low-income families. Gangnam leftists, according to Korea Herald columnist Kim Seong-kon, refer to leftis...