As it came after months of pro-democracy upheavals in the Muslim world this year, the news of the death of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid on his hideout in Pakistan allows a faint but positive outlook for an end to a decade of intercultural conflicts started by the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Yet, whoever shares this somewhat wishful thinking should be wary of retaliation by al-Qaida militants for the ...

NATO’s bombing of Tripoli on Saturday, which reportedly killed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son and three grandchildren definitely went beyond the U.N. Security Council mandate. However the alliance may try to stretch the mission given under UNSC resolution 1973 on Libya, which was to establish a no-fly zone over the country to protect civilians from military attacks, NATO commanders cannot ju...

Guryong Village in the Gangnam district of Seoul represents some of the absurdities in present-day Korea. Many of the people who live in about 1,200 shacks at Guryong Village, located near the plush Tower Palace high-rise block, moved in from other parts of Seoul when they were evicted by city authorities for redevelopment projects in the 1980s. The urban migrants settled at the foot of Guryong H...

Negotiations will reportedly start on a Korean-Chinese free trade agreement in the near future, possibly as early as in June. A senior Blue House official is quoted as saying that Korea and China will hold a summit this month and declare the launch of negotiations next month. As the official said, China has a strong desire to conclude negotiations on a free trade deal with Korea. But Korea has n...

A dictionary definition of “new town” is a “planned urban community designed for self-sufficiency and providing educational, commercial and recreational facilities for its residents.” As such, it differs from “settlements that evolve in more ad hoc fashion.” Britain began to build new communities under the New Towns Act of 1946. Many other countries, borrowing from Britain, have since launched s...

The government is renewing its efforts to advance the service industry. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance has disclosed a new action plan that called for, among other things, a basic law on the promotion of the service industry, the introduction of for-profit hospitals and allowing sales of nonprescription drugs at supermarkets and convenience stores. The renewed push for the service sector i...

The Financial Supervisory Service is in need of drastic reform. The recent series of problems at financial companies and corruption cases involving FSS officials have shown the regulator is not only ineffectual in promoting stability and soundness of the financial market but is corrupt to the bone. In his inaugural address on March 28, FSS Chairman Kwon Hyuk-se disclosed his vision of making the...

Veteran singer Yoon Bok-hee said in an interview last week that she was afraid of watching TV these days because she sees so many entertainers who have undergone cosmetic surgery. “With your skin yanked and bone carved, can you correctly express your emotion? With your mouth reconstructed, can you sing normally?” she asked. The 65-year-old singer insists that a truly dedicated actor or singer s...

The electorate in the Bundang B district said no to the status quo and, instead, endorsed a call for change when it elected Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, in the April 27 parliamentary by-election. Of great concern to the conservative ruling party and the liberal opposition party is whether the electoral outcome will prove to be a tempest in a teacup or a prelude to...

Few would question the “one-share, one-vote” rule as the basic principle behind corporate governance. Nothing would be wrong if the National Pension Service exercises its voting rights, mandated by the number of common shares it possesses, at a listed company’s meeting of shareholders. The National Pension Service is one of the largest institutional investors, which holds more than 5 percent of ...

No sane person would deposit a large sum of money with a financial institution if he had no conviction that he would be able to withdraw the deposit at maturity. This depositor trust was betrayed when the Financial Services Commission suspended operations at Busan Savings Bank on Feb. 17. Worse still, what had reportedly happened at the savings bank before it was ordered to suspend operations ca...

Balloting starts at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday for the by-elections in three parliamentary districts, one gubernatorial district and several districts for municipal mayors. Though the electoral districts are small in number, the polls have good reason to draw more attention than they would normally deserve. First of all, public attention will focus on the vote in the Bundang B district in Seongnam, ...

A week after Apple Inc. filed a patent lawsuit with a California court against Samsung Electronics, the latter came up with countersuits against Apple at courts in Korea, Japan and Germany. While the battle between the two global giants will cost both sides huge legal, the suits could generate enough consumer interests in the products of both parties to more than compensate the costs of litigatio...

Singer and actor Rain was chosen as the most influential person in the world in a Time magazine poll for the third time since 2006. Rain, 28, with the Korean name Jung Ji-hoon, took the top spot in the Time 100 reader poll for the third year, trouncing competitors from Barack Obama to Lady Gaga, the U.S. news magazine said. Calling him “the unstoppable South Korean superstar,” Time reviewed how ...

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 no...