Back to square one The Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the biggest and last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation, is in danger of collapse. As have been the cases with most incidents between the two Koreas, the North picked on the South for fe..
Raid on spy agency Prosecutors raided the nations intelligence agency Tuesday over allegations it meddled in the December presidential election. A team of 25 prosecutors and investigators confiscated digital files and documents from the National Intelligence Servic..
Chaebol strikes back They are at it again: A new president takes office with an ambitious slogan of curing bad habits of family-controlled conglomerates. The industrial behemoths hit back mainly in the form of sabotaging new investment, inducing outcries from chaebol-f..
Vacant Assembly A popular joke says parliamentarians have the best job in Korea and one of the reasons for this allegation - interestingly enough - is that legislators have no obligation to report to work. This joke sounded more plausible last week, when the natio..
N. Korea's miscalculation South Korea pulled 126 workers, including one Chinese national, out of the troubled Gaeseong Industrial Complex Saturday in accordance with its decision a day earlier. The remaining 50 people at the inter-Korean factory zone - mostly government emp..
Unnecessary argument The government and the central bank are in a fresh war of nerves over the state of the economy in the wake of a report that showed the Korean economy grew more than expected in the first quarter of this year.
Saving factory park The inter-Korean tug-of-war over their joint factory park is moving in a least desirable way.
An executive's case April is the cruelest month, and especially so for POSCO, one of the best and most celebrated corporations in Korea.
Asia's new headache Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has finally crossed the diplomatic red line. The nationalistic leader is not just rubbing salt in the barely-healed wounds of Asian neighbors but defying the universally agreed historical views of the internationa..
Political realignment The election of former presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and two ruling party political heavyweights in Wednesday's by-elections raises the possibility that a political realignment may be in store in the run-up to local elections in June next ye..
Weak yen blues Korean exporters used to say they were more scared of the Japanese yens weakness than North Koreas nuclear threat. Now that the G20 meeting in Washington last week all but endorsed additional monetary easing by Tokyo, local firms' fears are tur..
Let more firms return More Korean companies are jumping on the bandwagon of bringing back their manufacturing home in the face of worsening management conditions abroad.
Unrepentant neighbor Emboldened by a recovering economy, the newly confident Japanese government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is showing its dangerously nationalistic colors.
Extending retirement age A proposed bill to extend the legal retirement age of workers to 60 was agreed by a subcommittee of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee Tuesday. Given that there is no legal retirement age currently, the proposed bill will serve..
Anti-discrimination law Liberal politicians efforts to prohibit discrimination for reason of gender, race, political beliefs and other differences suffered yet another setback in the face of a formidable opposing force: the church.
Public debt blues Public companies' debts are steadily developing into a possible time bomb for the Korean economy. Given that this debt is tantamount to national debt, the government needs to take preemptive extraordinary measures.
Korea-US nuclear deal The virtual breakdown of Korea-U.S. nuclear talks last week showed the long way Seoul has to go before exercising full sovereignty in its energy policy.
