The Seoul government has resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the heavily fortified border with North Korea. As the rogue state has crossed the red line again by testing what it claimed to be a hydrogen bomb, the South’s strong reaction is warranted.　The South’s loudspeakers installed along the Demilitarized Zone began to blurt out messages critical of the North’s young leader at noon on Friday, two days after it carried out its fourth nuclear weapons test.　The propaganda broadcast

Korea’s public sector debt is continuing to grow at a fast pace, as welfare expenditures have increased sharply without a corresponding increase in the government’s tax income. As debt-financed welfare expansion is unsustainable, the government needs to find a remedy before the problem gets worse.　A tally released by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance shows Korea’s public sector debt reached 957.3 trillion won in 2014, amounting to 64.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.Of the to

The foreign ministers of Korea and Japan are to meet today to resolve the long-standing issue of the Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army.The meeting raises expectations for a breakthrough as Japan appears more willing to resolve the knotty problem than before. It was arranged after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on Dec. 24 to travel to Seoul to wrap up the drawn-out talks over the issue by the end of the

This week, South Korea was elected chair of the U.N. Human Rights Council for next year. Foreign Ministry officials boast about the fact that it will be the first time that Korea has assumed the leadership post of an international rights body since the establishment of the republic in 1948. 　As the officials say, taking the UNHRC chair may attest to the progress this country has achieved in human rights and civil liberties over the past decades. 　Indeed, things have changed much since 30 to 40 y

What happened at the head temple of the Jogye Order in Seoul over the past weeks offers many things to think about. Most of all, the case exposed some of the abnormalities this society has to overcome.  The most ridiculous abnormality was that a fugitive could defy law enforcement for 25 days by using a religious facility as a shield. Where does the law stand?  Don’t we live in a country where the law should be applied fairly and equally to all — labor activists, thieves, fraudsters or rapists —

Some 30 Saenuri Party lawmakers, led by National Assembly Vice Speaker Jeong Kab-yoon, have proposed a bill to ban individuals from wearing masks or other face coverings during violent demonstrations. 　The legislative move was prompted by the violent protests in Gwanghwamun Plaza last weekend. A huge crowd of demonstrators from an array of civic groups and labor organizations gathered in the center of Seoul to protest the government’s push for state-authored history textbooks and labor market re

At first glance, the World Talent Report 2015 released by the Institute for Management Development is encouraging, as it shows that Korea’s overall ability to develop, attract and retain talent has improved. Korea placed 31st among the 61 countries surveyed this year, up nine notches from 2014.　Yet the elevation in the overall ranking offers little comfort, as the report sheds light on some of the serious problems Korea faces. One such problem is the worsening brain drain, which hurts Korea’s gl

If you’re cringing this Thanksgiving at the homicidal youth gang that calls itself the Islamic State, you might consider the narratives of three young people in the Middle East who are trying to make a positive difference. The killers and fanatics may get the headlines, but these three represent an untold part of the story.One is an Egyptian journalist who bravely investigated the growth of extremism and official corruption in the Sinai Peninsula. The threat there became obvious to the world las

The National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee has started deliberations on the five labor reform bills. For the deliberations to be productive, lawmakers on the committee are strongly advised to respect the landmark Sept. 15 agreement among labor, management and the government.　　This advice applies especially to the ruling Saenuri Party members of the parliamentary committee as they are determined to push the five government-proposed bills en bloc through the Assembly during the ongoin

South and North Korea will hold a working-level meeting on Nov. 26 to prepare for high-level government talks. The two sides need to sit at the negotiating table with common sense and an open mind to arrange the proposed government-level talks at an early date.　　The Thursday talks are a follow-up to the landmark Aug. 25 inter-Korean deal, which was concluded to end a military standoff over the North’s land mine attack in early August. Two South Korean soldiers were maimed by the incident that to

Terrorist attacks on civilians, whether the downing over Sinai of a Russian aircraft killing 224 civilian passengers, the horrific Paris massacre claiming 129 innocent lives, or the tragic bombing in Ankara that killed 102 peace activists, are crimes against humanity. Their perpetrators -- in this case, the Islamic State -- must be stopped. Success will require a clear understanding of the roots of this ruthless network of jihadists.　Painful as it is to admit, the West, especially the United Sta

The next president of the United States will confront a virulent jihadist threat, mounting effects of climate change and an economy becoming ever more unequal.We’re going to need an especially wise and able leader.Yet our process for choosing that person is a circus, and several leading candidates are clowns.How have we come to this?First, anyone with enough ego and money can now run for president.This wasn’t always the case. Political parties used to sift through possible candidates and winnow

Extending Korea’s participation in the multinational naval operations in the Gulf of Aden and extending the stationing of a military unit in the UAE when the matter comes up for vote in the National Assembly later this month would demonstrate Korea’s commitment to playing an active role in the international community.　A 4,000-ton Navy destroyer and some 320 military personnel which make up the Cheonghae unit have been stationed in the Gulf of Aden since March 2009 as part of the Combined Task Fo

Forty-seven remaining survivors, most of them around 90 years old. This is the stark reality that Korea and Japanese officials should bear in mind as the two sides discuss the issue of Japanese military sex slaves during World War II. 　Wednesday’s 10th working-level meeting between Korean and Japanese Foreign Ministry officials on the issue ended without making much headway and without fixing a date for the next meeting. That no progress was made hardly comes as a surprise — nine meetings had le

The lives of billions of people, for centuries to come, will be at stake when world leaders and government negotiators meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris at the end of the month. The fate of an unknown number of endangered species of plants and animals also hangs in the balance.　At the “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, 189 countries, including the United States, China, India, and all European countries signed on to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Chang

For every South Korean president, dealing with superpower neighbors like China and Japan always poses challenges. Yet, no Korean leader in recent years has faced as tough a challenge as President Park Geun-hye will encounter when she hosts the Korea-China-Japan summit and the bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  A look at some background of the three-way talks and the Park-Abe summit will indicate how heavyheartedly Park and the other two leaders will be taking their seats. 

We have already got used to downbeat economic data -- be it the growth rate, exports, youth unemployment or household debt. But the news that the combined sales of manufacturers in the country contracted last year -- for the first time since 1961 -- should ring alarm bells, and ring them very loud. The Bank of Korea said that manufacturers posted combined sales of 1,726 trillion won ($1.5 trillion) last year, 1.6 percent down from the previous year. It is hard to believe that this is the same se

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when asked about American support for the notorious Nicaraguan despot Anastasio Somoza, purportedly replied, “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch.” Whether or not the quip is apocryphal, it sums up a longstanding Western approach to much of the world -- and one that underpinned U.S. foreign policy throughout the Cold War.But lately an even more troubling sentiment seems to have emerged, with Western leaders willing to settle not for “our

We are dumbfounded to hear that trillions of won in taxpayers’ money has to be poured into Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering again as the company reels under mounting debts and losses.The company reportedly suffered operating losses of more than 3 trillion won ($2.66 billion) in the first half of the year alone. By year-end, its losses are expected to reach 5.3 trillion won.We are left speechless by the totally irresponsible behavior of the troubled company’s management and workers. Des

The third-quarter economic growth data released by the Bank of Korea last Friday had both good news and bad news.The good news is that Korea’s economic growth hit a five-year high in the July-September period. Korea saw its gross domestic product expand 1.2 percent on quarter, the fastest pace since the second quarter of 2010, when GDP grew 1.7 percent.The third-quarter growth rate compares favorably with the 0.8 percent in the first quarter and 0.3 percent in the second quarter. The GDP expansi