In traditional Korea, the age 60 marked an important occasion. It is the year when one’s life makes a full circle according to the sexagenary (60-year) cycle of the lunar calendar. It was the point in time when one was considered to have lived a healthy and long life, so it was certainly a time for a big celebration among family members and also a memorable festivity for the entire village. However, 60 years old is now considered young in today’s Korea, as the country’s average life expectancy h

Korean schools are notorious for their brutal competition. From elementary school to high school and to college, students and parents are exhausted with a continuous wave of competition. Exams, scores and rankings over and over again. It has almost become our fate. But none of us expected to see the same school-type competition after college, and certainly not in a government training program.Consider this. The brightest students study, day in and day out, for a national exam for two to three ye

The same scenes are repeated each fall. Angry faces, shouting matches and group boycotts, and all these in front of national TV cameras. The National Assembly started this year’s plenary national audit on Oct. 12. It will run for 20 days until Oct. 31. The first four days of the audit indicate that we can expect the same this year as well. To governmental agencies and entities with state funding, the annual audit is one of the most critical moments of the year for leaders and organizations alike

The beauty of this glass rectangle is its ability to connect us to anyone, anywhere and anytime. It has freed us from the physical confinement of geographical space. The problem with this shining gadget is also its ubiquitous connectivity: it has freed others as well to reach us anytime and anywhere. The past 10 years of the smartphone, its cousin tablet and second cousin wrist band have brought about revolutionary changes in our lives. The connectivity has made virtually everything available at

The otherwise blue and crispy Sunday afternoon was juxtaposed against the shocking news from the North. The now familiar veteran lady newsreader appeared on the North’s state television channel to announce the successful blast testing of a hydrogen bomb. The latest test has brought North Korea one step closer to the completion of its nuclear program and military deployment of nuclear arsenal.With the sixth nuclear test, North Korea again thumbed its nose at the international community. This late

The June 24 incident should have never happened. This is the type of thing that wouldn’t happen in a country of law and order -- much less in a globalized metropolitan city like Seoul. Roughly 3,000 demonstrators “encircled” the US embassy in downtown Seoul marching with shouts and fist-raising, cutting off passage from the diplomatic compound to main streets. Demonstrations are part of daily life in Seoul, but such encircling (with the euphemism of “Human Belt”) has never happened in Seoul. Nor

North Korea’s missile tests on July 4 and 28 were met with one of the most stringent sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council over the weekend. A new sanction of the Security Council, known as Resolution 2371, is now going to slash North Korea’s export of coal, iron and seafood by $1 billion, roughly one third of its total annual exports. Will the measure exert more pain on North Korea? Of course, it will. Losing one third of the export revenue should be a significant blow to any country. Un

As heralded, the minimum wage is being increased substantially by the Minimum Wage Commission. The commission is raising the minimum wage from 6,470 won ($5.80) per hour this year to 7,530 won next year, a 16.4 percent increase and the largest increase since 2001. The rise will continue until the minimum payment reaches 10,000 won. As of now, Korea’s per hour minimum wage is roughly in the upper middle among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, when per capita gross n

Two years ago, my son was applying to a high school in Seoul. The application procedure included an interview. In the waiting room for the interview, teachers of the high school handed out blue gowns and shoe covers. Applicants were requested to wear the gowns on top of their middle school uniforms or plain clothes, and put on overshoes. The purpose? They were intended to hide school uniforms that would indicate which middle schools they were attending and hence which districts they were from. E

Since the inauguration of the Trump Administration, South Korea has been holding its breath. The fate of the five-year-old Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (once termed as “KORUS” FTA hinting at chorus) has suddenly become uncertain. The dreaded term “termination” finally surfaced during President Trump’s interview on April 28, where he described the trade pact as “a horrible deal that should’ve never been made,” vowing renegotiation and possible termination. This has set South Korea scr