The Jogye Order’s disclosure of the finances of the four largest Buddhist temples in the country will certainly help enhance transparency of religious organizations and overall public confidence in religion. According to the nation’s largest Buddhist sect’s announcement this week, Bongeunsa Temple in southern Seoul and Jogyesa Temple in central Seoul recorded revenues of 21.09 billion won ($18.3 million) and 20.05 billion won, respectively, last year. The disclosure of the finances of the major

In terms of public interest, the April 13 general election remains an average parliamentary poll, with few big issues grabbing the attention of the voters. But there is at least one positive aspect, which should be maintained until voting day and beyond. There are apparent signs that in the southeastern and southwestern regions, an increasing number of voters are abandoning their traditional blind allegiance — based on regional favoritism — to certain political parties. As a result, the ruling S

An alleged sexual assault on an Australian woman, Airdre Mattner, in September 2015 has received wide attention thanks to an article in The Korea Herald last week and follow-up by other news outlets.The Seoul police station in charge of the case has said that it has yet to find sufficient evidence to arrest any suspect. While Mattner said that she was drugged, abducted and raped, it seems that investigators have faced hurdles though they said they had collected an unidentified DNA sample from he

It takes years or decades for businesses to commercialize futuristic projects. However, after mass production starts, the speed of the products’ penetration into ordinary consumers’ daily lives often goes beyond estimations.Korean consumers saw simple mobile phones being rapidly replaced by smartphones, and they are about to enter a big bang in commercial banking thanks to the emergence of fintech and Internet-only banks.Another drastic change is foreseen in the automobile industry, which U.S. f

The eldest son of disgraced former President Roh Tae-woo has been found to have established three paper companies in an offshore tax haven in 2012, raising suspicions that he might have attempted to hide some of his father’s slush funds.The finding was reported by Newstapa, an independent online news outlet that analyzed, in cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the leaked documents of Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm known for helping clients hide their w

The Minimum Wage Council will kick off negotiations Thursday to set the national minimum wage for next year. Discussions among the labor, management and government representatives are expected to be unusually stormy this year, as labor groups are determined to raise the wage floor drastically. Last year, the trilateral council set the minimum wage for 2016 at 6,030 won (about $5.30) per hour, up 8.1 percent from that for 2015. The increase rate was the highest since the 8.3 percent hike in 2008.

A high-profile prosecutor reaped stock gains worth 3.7 billion won ($3.23 million) last year, then offered to resign amid growing public suspicion over the weekend. He posted the highest in 2015 wealth growth among the nation’s 2,300 ranking officials, who were subject to private property disclosure.Jin Kyung-jun, a senior prosecutor of the Korea Immigration Service at the Ministry of Justice, had bought some unlisted shares of local mobile game developer Nexon. He took gains by selling about 80

South Korean citizens are asking their government what it has done about the North’s provocations, apart from the shutdown of the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong. Though economic sanctions, including the U.N.-led move against the communist country, may help to a certain extent, these will not guarantee the security of South Koreans.On June 7, Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security Office said that the military was fully prepared, stressing that the South’s military would sternly retaliate if

Campaigning for the April 13 general election is in full swing and, as usual, some negative aspects of Korean elections are rearing their ugly heads, with regionalism standing out. The recent flip-flop at the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea over whether to promise the relocation of the National Assembly to Sejong City in South Chungcheong Province shows clearly that political parties still regard fanning regional sentiment as an easy way to get votes. In the face of mounting criticism of a

Apart from indirect investment, such as seeking equity trading gains, foreign investment in South Korea remains in the doldrums. The sluggish inbound investment can be seen in a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.Korea saw the ratio of foreign direct investment to its gross domestic product stay at 12.7 percent from 2010 to 2014 on the average. The figure is far behind the world average, which came to 31.3 percent. The average emerging country and developed country

Around 7 in 10 citizens are willing to take up arms to fight in a war, according to a recent survey released by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs. The highest proportion of those willing to do so was made up of those in their 50s and 60s, while those in their 20s and 30s were less willing. The poll also found that women were more passive about participating in war than men. It also showed that white-collar employees had much less desire to participate in armed conflict, compared to f

The Ministry of Employment and Labor has found that a quarter of the nation’s corporations still have “job inheritance arrangements” set out in their collective bargaining agreements.The ministry recently examined the collective bargaining agreements of 2,769 corporations with more than 100 workers on their payrolls. It found that the bargaining agreements of 694 companies contained a clause that either required management to hire the children or family members of former workers who had died or

The government has unveiled a set of measures to improve the long-term sustainability of the seven social insurance programs that constitute the main pillars of the nation’s social safety net.The seven social insurance plans consist of the four public pension programs -- the national pension, government employees’ pension, military personnel pension, and private school teachers’ pension -- and the three social insurance systems -- national health insurance, employment insurance and industrial ac

 One of the many weird, yet unavoidable things in Korean politics is that many people with dubious pasts and low ethical standards are allowed to seek elected office. One need look no further than the candidates for the April 13 parliamentary election, in which 1,102 candidates are running -- 944 for 253 constituency seats and 158 for 47 seats allotted for proportional representation. Of the total, 38 percent have at least one count of criminal record. This ratio goes up to 41 percent for those

The Minjoo Party of Korea, the country’s main opposition party, looks like a man who is still carrying a torch for his estranged lover. Moon Jae-in, the party’s former leader, was one of its most recent members to express his abiding love for the People’s Party. Moon said that alliance between the two parties was “absolutely necessary” if they were to reap good results in the April 13 general election. Kim Hong-gul, a son of the late president Kim Dae-jung, joined Moon and other Minjoo members i

Many Korean universities claim to be going global. However, it seems that most of them are still far from globalized in the way they treat foreign students, whose collective numbers have rapidly risen over the past several years.Given continuous side effects involving disharmony between Korean and inbound students, there is an urgent need for the nation to overhaul its policies on studying in Seoul and major cities nationwide with the goal of the students’ smooth acclimation and attracting more

A Chinese manufacturer is poised to pour $30 billion of investment into the semiconductor business, backed by a government initiative. The movement is a de facto announcement that the Chinese electronics and smartphone-makers will scale back dependency on Samsung Electronics and SK hynix over component procurement.Though the project is to undergo a certain period of research and investment before commercialization, it is undeniable that the two Korean chipmakers will face tough challenges from a

Former government officials still account for a large share of the outside directors serving on the boards of major corporations. This is not desirable given the role they are expected to play.　A recent survey by CEO Score, a corporate performance evaluation service, showed about 41 percent of the outside directors appointed this year by the listed subsidiaries of the nation’s top 30 business groups were former government officials.　The survey said that compared with last year, the share of ex-g

The three main political parties in Korea -- the ruling Saenuri Party, The Minjoo Party of Korea and the new People’s Party -- have all wrapped up the process of nominating candidates for the April 13 general election. Hence, a review of how they selected their candidates is in order.　In Korea, there has never been a general election in which political parties picked their candidates without any fuss, and this was no exception. In fact, the nomination process at each party was more conflict-ridd

In Korean politics, “migratory birds” is a term used to refer to politicians who change their party affiliations in pursuit of short-term political interests, like obtaining nominations or increasing their chances of winning an election. The migration becomes brisker ahead of major elections. The upcoming April 13 general election is no exception. In fact, the phenomenon has become more serious partly because of the launch of the People’s Party, which was set up by figures who had broken away fr