North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, like his late grandfather and father, is striving to make a parade of the communist country’s military power both internally and on the international stage.　The young dictator appears more paranoid, compared to his late father and grandfather, about the possibility of regime collapse by a coup led by the country’s high-profile military officials.　It seems that Kim’s alleged trepidation over a military coup or civil revolt is pressing him to create habitual geopol

　Undeniably, some negative external factors created big hurdles for the export-driven economy last year. Among those were economic slowdowns in some of South Korea’s key export destinations.　Nevertheless, it would be an irresponsible stance if any enterprise focused only on finding reasons to justify a retreat in its trade performance.　Cheap crude oil has been one of the few frequent excuses raised by some business lobbies and conglomerates for their sluggish exports and overseas development pro

Following the deal between the South Korean and Japanese governments on wartime sex slavery last month, Taiwan is striving to open similar negotiations with Japan over the same issue for an apology and compensation.　Some foreign news outlets reported that the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry has already reached a consensus with its Japanese counterpart on starting discussions as early as this month on compensating Taiwan’s victims.　Historic records show that about 200,000 Asian women were dragged into

National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa has been under strong pressure from President Park Geun-hye and the ruling Saenuri Party to play the villain in enacting a set of reform bills. But Chung, a fifth-term lawmaker, is not a pushover. 　On Wednesday, Saenuri lawmakers held a general meeting to adopt a resolution calling on the speaker to directly refer the bills to a plenary session for voting, as the relevant standing committees could not be convened for deliberations due to the split of the ma

Investors as well as policymakers around the world are on alert as the U.S. Federal Reserve has finally raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade.　The U.S. central bank hiked Wednesday the federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 0.25 percent and 0.50 percent, putting an end to the era of zero interest rates.　The Fed’s move did not cause turmoil in global financial and commodities markets. In fact, stock markets in Korea and other major coun

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to donate virtually all of their wealth to help children live in a better world.　What motivated the couple to make the philanthropy pledge was the birth of their daughter, named Max Chan Zuckerberg. In a long, open letter to the newborn, they said they would give 99 percent of their Facebook shares, currently worth about $45 billion, during their lives.　Zuckerberg and Chan are not simply giving away their wealth

The response of a major Protestant organization to the legislation of a bill to levy income taxes on members of the clergy shows why the general public has lost faith in some religious groups. 　The Christian Council of Korea said in a statement that it opposed the legislation because it was more desirable for the clergy to pay taxes “voluntarily,” rather than under a binding law.　This is totally mistaken. What’s at stake here is not donating to a disaster relief fund, but paying taxes. It is sim

Less than a week remains before the legal Nov. 13 deadline for redrawing the electoral map. Yet talks on the matter between the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy still remain stalled amid the escalating confrontation over history textbooks.　The two parties need to rush to hammer out an agreement on the issue because a further delay in fixing the parliamentary boundaries would create a big mess. 　At every election, the electoral map has been redrawn

The Financial Services Commission has unveiled a plan to reform the present system of supplying credit guarantees to small and medium-sized enterprises. The reform is welcome as serious abuses have long been waiting for remedy　The current credit guarantee system was introduced in the 1970s to provide government guarantees to SMEs that had difficulty accessing bank loans due to their lack of tangible collateral.　Since then, the system has remained virtually unchanged, although the business enviro

TORONTO -- This week marks Canada’s first change of government in nearly a decade, following the unexpectedly large victory of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party in mid-October’s general election. To understand what the change will mean for Canada’s relations with the world requires taking stock of the country’s international posture under Trudeau’s Conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper.　Broadly speaking, the election of Trudeau (whose father, Pierre, was prime minister when he was

Thai ambassador to Washington Pisan Manawapat said he will not waste a minute rebuilding Thailand’s badly bruised relationship with the United States, especially since his counterpart, Glyn Davies, is on the ground back home. Last Friday, 10 days after his arrival in Bangkok, Davies’ credentials were quickly accepted so he could start performing his diplomatic duties right away. The Thai envoy was accorded the same privilege in the exact same time frame last April. It was a perfect start.　From n

A group of 1,000 intellectuals issued a statement earlier this week to appeal to political parties to accelerate work to follow up on the recent labor reform agreement reached by the tripartite committee of government, labor and employers. 　The statement, signed by economists, professors, former government ministers, attorneys and journalists, was addressed to the floor leaders of the ruling and the main opposition parties and the chairman of the National Assembly Environment-Labor Committee. 　P

Two key Blue House aides -- presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook and Park Jong-joon, the deputy head of the presidential security service -- have resigned from their posts to run in the parliamentary elections next April. 　The two join Jun Kwang-sam, a former Blue House press officer who stepped down last month with the same parliamentary ambition. The Blue House said that they asked all the presidential staff about their future plans and that no more Blue House staff would run in the upcoming

Today Koreans celebrate the 569th anniversary of the promulgation of Hangeul, the Korean writing system. When Koreans are asked to name the one part of their cultural heritage that they are most proud of, many will respond “Hangeul” without hesitation.　King Sejong the Great, one of the most revered of all Korean rulers, together with a group of royal scholars, invented Hangeul, also known as Hunminjeongeum, in 1443. After three years of fine tuning, Hangeul was officially promulgated with the pu

Last week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, despite the opposition of her country’s closest ally, the United States, stood together with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tiananmen Square to watch the military parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of World War II’s end in Asia. 　The decision provided the most visible image yet of an emerging China-South Korea alliance, one that China believes may prevent the region from sliding into cold war.　The region’s other major actors — the U.S., Ja

The National Assembly’s annual inspection of the government is a unique institution in that lawmakers audit almost all major ministries and public offices, including the prosecution and the court, in a short period of time. 　On the surface, it is a fairly good democratic institution as it intends to ensure checks and balances among the three branches of government, with the legislature acting as a watchdog against the executive and judiciary branches. In fact, the yearly parliamentary audit expo

Moon Jae-in’s announcement that he will step down as head of the main opposition party if the party does not endorse reform proposals drawn up by an independent panel was yet another blunder by the already troubled leader. 　It was evident that by staking his seat on the endorsement of the proposals by the Central Committee -- which is very likely because he has a firm control over it as the party leader and head of the mainstream faction -- he was seeking to put an end to his opponents’ consiste

It is welcome that the tripartite committee has resumed its negotiations for labor market reform, which had been in hiatus since April. The Federation of Korean Trade Union’s decision to return to the table paved the way for the resumption of the talks. 　Heads of the three parties — Labor Minister Lee Ki-won, FKTU leader Kim Dong-man and Bahk Byong-won, president of the Korea Employers Federation — met with the head of the tripartite panel, Kim Dae-hwan, Thursday. On the surface, the meeting see

The word “south-south conflict” describes the different — often opposite — positions South Koreans take on North Korea, be of its leader, its security threat or how to achieve reunification. 　The conflict escalates when there is a major crisis — like the North’s torpedo attack on the South’s Cheonan corvette in 2010. Some South Koreans still dispute the Seoul government’s finding that the naval ship and 46 of its crew sank after a torpedo attack from a North Korean submarine. 　Sometimes oppositi

As Labor Day looms, more Americans than ever don’t know how much they’ll be earning next week or even tomorrow.　This varied group includes independent contractors, temporary workers, the self-employed, part-timers, freelancers and free agents. Most file 1099s rather than W2s, for tax purposes.　On demand and on call — in the “share” economy, the “gig” economy or, more prosaically, the “irregular” economy — the result is the same: no predictable earnings or hours.　It’s the biggest change in the Am