It was pleasant to see President Moon Jae-in welcoming Korean and US personnel from the Joint Security Area and Lee Kuk-jong to the Blue House last week. The president praised them for their acts in saving the life of a North Korean defector who was shot and critically wounded when he ran across the demarcation line in the truce village of Panmunjeom on Nov. 13.　Lee from the Regional Trauma Center at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, wearing a black Navy officers’ uniform, impressively introduc

“They are more worried about us than we are about them.” These words of self-reproach are often heard in open prayers during Sunday services or revival sessions at retreat centers held by members of Christian churches. “They” of course means the outside world, which is the common subject of Christians’ pleas to God for protection from all kinds of evil. Secular matters that are often mentioned in church services, in both individual and collective prayers by the clergy as well as congregants, inc

History does repeat itself. Jeong Yeon-ju, a liberal journalist, took the helm of the state-run Korea Broadcasting System at the start of the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2003. He was sacked in 2008 in his second term as Lee Myung-bak’s conservative rule began. To force his departure, the new government reshuffled the KBS board, which then charged Jeong with a host of personal misdeeds. 　Nine years later, no sooner had Moon Jae-in been elected president in May 2017 than the CEOs of KBS and Mun

It was too bad that internal confusion here deepened while national security concerns grew with North Korea’s rising nuclear and missile provocations. South Koreans have passed the past year in ever-worsening political turmoil, including a presidential impeachment and under fears of war as the North has tested the patience of the world community by exploding a hydrogen bomb and firing missiles of various ranges one after the other. During this extraordinary period, people’s political minds were

My long extended Chuseok holiday consisted of a one-day trip to the ancestors’ gravesite on a South Coast hill, two movies on the full moon day and another on the following day, a family luncheon and a four-day stay at a friend’s country villa. The highlight, of course, was beholding the perfect lunar circle hours after watching the sun set into the horizon of the West Sea off the coast of Anmyeondo. Experts were right that the moon is “more round” on the night after Chuseok, Aug. 16 by the luna

As warm air from the south lets flowers bloom further north, it allows for reflection on Seoul’s aid to Pyongyang. The worse the tensions become, the greater the impact of aid on the international community and its beneficiaries.It’s chrysanthemum season. Hampyeong in South Jeolla Province, famous for its butterfly festival in spring, is inviting flower lovers to what has been dubbed the biggest chrysanthemum fair in the country. All across the country, people are joining in preparation for the

The scenes on TV screens were heartbreaking and incomprehensibly absurd. Just a few days after North Korea tested what it called a hydrogen bomb, hundreds of people clashed violently with a large police force as they attempted to obstruct the installation of an anti-missile system delivered here to protect them against missiles from the North -- possibly those mounted with nuclear bombs.　It took eight hours from midnight Sept. 6 to complete the transportation of the components of a US Terminal H

The wet, sultry summer is finally over and above us are high, blue skies filled with cool, crisp air. Salaried workers are looking forward to a long Chuseok holiday, which could be the longest ever if the seemingly most generous government ever inserts a onetime holiday into the October calendar. That gift is expected for the first Monday of the month, which will link the previous weekend to the Oct. 3 National Foundation Day and the official three-day Korean Thanksgiving holiday to then be exte

People seriously think of war here on the Korean Peninsula. Life goes on as usual on the surface for the Republic of Korea, but unease turns into fear as increasingly fierce words about war are delivered from the capitals of our ally and enemy. War means destruction and deaths inevitably, win or lose. Will it be possible to rebuild the nation from the ashes of a second Korean War and get back to where we are today in the world, we ask. Our minds’ eyes see power stations, auto plants, shipyards,

Thousands of workers are on forced vacation since the construction of two nuclear reactors at the Shin Kori site stopped late in June. They must feel deeply frustrated because the fates of what would be Korea’s 26th and 27th reactors, and their own, are being put on trial by a “citizens’ jury,” a novel process proposed by the Moon Jae-in administration. 　This particular body of unique power has no statutory basis yet and no manual has been made of its operation, except that it will consist of 35

It was regrettable that Vice Defense Minister Lee Joo-suk had to represent the Korean government in the significant ceremony last week marking the opening of the new headquarters of the US Forces in Korea in Pyeongtaek because of domestic political complications. President Moon Jae-in had just returned home from attending the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the day before, and newly appointed Defense Minister Song Young-moo had yet to receive his letter of appointment at the Blue House because

South Korea is at a crossroads in both the peaceful and military uses of nuclear power. The Moon Jae-in government shut down the oldest nuclear power plant in the nation and then announced a halt to two reactor construction projects, envisioning a total phasing out of nuclear energy in a few decades. In the area of military use, the new government says it remains committed to the international nonproliferation regime, but public opinion is turning heavily in favor of going nuclear. The governmen

What does it mean to have a change of power in the Republic of Korea?　Quite disturbingly, it means that the most prestigious medical facility in the nation rewrites the death certificate for a civic activist who died after being hit by police water cannon during a violent demonstration. It also means that the head of the National Police Agency publicly apologizes to the family of the dead more than 19 months after the incident and nine months after his death.　When the Seoul National University H

From my new home in Gimpo, I can see a lot of Republic of Korea Marines at checkpoints and coastal strips, in open trucks moving to and from exercise sites and even in “makguksu” noodle restaurants where they spend time with their families on weekend visits. Marines are a proud bunch of people. Their octagonal service caps, red-and-yellow name tags and beige suede boots look good and so do their sprightly movements with which they seem to distinguish themselves from other service members. I hear

Gallup Korea has assessed an 87 percent approval rate for President Moon Jae-in (saying he “will do well for the next 5 years”) in the second week after he took office on May 10. This high rate of endorsement for Moon, who was elected with 41.4 percent of votes cast in the May 9 election, is surprising. 　Pollsters and analysts attribute the figure to a number of image factors that portrayed a “real person” who breathes and works in the middle of the people, in contrast to his reclusive predecess

Moon Jae-in enters the Blue House with the heaviest presidential task ever: protecting the security of the nation’s 50 million people under the worst possible circumstances. He has to do this with 41 percent of popular support and only 119 seats in the 299-member legislature. 　The unsuccessful presidential candidates have done their best during the short two-month campaign and are poised to be possible strong contenders for the next presidency. Dispirited though they might be now, they might acc