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CEO & Publisher: Oh Young-jinDigital News Email: webmaster@koreatimes.co.krTel: 02-724-2114Online newspaper registration No: 서울,아52844Date of registration: 2020.02.05Masthead: The Korea TimesCopyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.

ED Rebuild opposition party

New DPK leader should focus on people's livelihoodsRep. Lee Jae-myung has become the chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) by winning 77.7 percent of the votes during the party's national convention held at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in southeastern Seoul, Sunday.His ascendance to the party's leadership came about five months after he lost the March 9 presidential election to Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party (PPP) by a slight margin of 0.73 percentage point. Lee managed to consolidate his position as his associates, such as Reps. Jung Chung-rae and Park Chan-dae, took four of the five Supreme Council seats. This is likely to provide him with the momentum to steer the party. Lee's election certainly reflected party members' aspirations for him to transform the DPK into a stronger opposition party so that it can better keep the Yoon administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in check after the DPK lost power for the first time in five years. They might have needed a new powerful leader who can rebuild the party and retake control in the ne

Aug 29, 2022

ED Deaths of mother, 2 daughters

It's time to overhaul flawed social welfare system The tragic deaths of a poverty-stricken mother and two daughters in Suwon, south of Seoul, have sent shock waves through the country yet again. The 60-something mother and her two daughters in their 40s were found dead in their small home, Aug. 21, in what appeared to be suicide owing to illness and financial difficulties. Police said the mother was fighting cancer, while the two daughters had rare incurable diseases. In a letter found at their home, she said, “Life was difficult due to chronic illness and debts.”The incident is a fresh wakeup call to the nation's social welfare system following a similar suicide case of a poverty-stricken family in Songpa, southeastern Seoul, in 2014 when a mother and her two adult daughters living in a basement were found dead. After the 2014 case, the government made strenuous efforts to reduce “blind spots” in the welfare system, but some loopholes have resulted in the deaths of another family.What is even more regrettable is that the three would have been saved had they a

Aug 29, 2022

ED Rudderless ruling party

PPP faces worsening leadership crisisThe ruling People Power Party (PPP) is reeling from a continuing leadership crisis after a district court suspended its interim leader Rep. Joo Ho-young from duty last week. The suspension has dealt a setback to the factional strife-torn party which was struggling to normalize its operations under Joo's interim leadership. It is also likely to undermine the credibility of the leadership of President Yoon Suk-yeol whose approval rating plunged to the 20-percent level in early August, only three months after his inauguration.On Friday, the Seoul Southern District Court granted an injunction requested by ousted PPP leader Lee Jun-seok, barring Joo from serving as the PPP's interim leader until the court makes a final decision on the case. The move came 17 days after Joo was elected to lead the party, which is in emergency mode following a decision by a disciplinary committee to suspend Lee's party membership for six months for his attempt to cover up his alleged acceptance of sexual bribery.The problem is that the disciplinary action has gone beyond

Aug 28, 2022

ED Pain of higher interest rates

Businesses, households must manage debt at affordable levelsLast Thursday, the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point from 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent. Unusual global inflation and the U.S. Federal Reserve's swift and sharp monetary tightening led the BOK to hike its policy rate four times in a row for the first time in the central bank's history. Since August last year, the BOK has raised its key interest rate by 2 percentage points on seven occasions. Economic and monetary officials should hurry to come up with measures to prevent an economic slowdown and a debt crisis.The central bank's additional rate hike was due to lingering uncertainties at home and abroad, such as soaring consumer prices and the rapid fall of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar. “If the inflation rate exceeds 6 percent, a much higher cost will likely follow,” BOK Governor Rhee Chang-yong said. “Regrettably, we have no choice but to maintain the trend of raising interest rates until the price spiral slows down.” Monetary authorities also stress

Aug 28, 2022

ED Injecting fresh air

Deal for Egyptian plant will help boost nuclear power industry State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) has won a 3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) project to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, giving an important boost to the struggling domestic nuclear reactor industry. KHNP struck a deal with Russia's Atomstroyexport, or ASE, for equipment supply and construction of turbine buildings for the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant in Cairo, Thursday.ASE is the main contractor for the 40 trillion won project designed to build four 1,200 megawatt (MW) nuclear reactors in El Dabaa, 300 kilometers northwest of Cairo, by 2030. This is the nation's largest export of a nuclear plant project since the construction of the Barakah nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009. The new project is inspiring as it will inject fresh air into the nation's nuclear power industry which has been reeling from the nuclear phase-out policy of the previous Moon Jae-in administration. Besides the deal, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has been proactively seeking to win similar projects

Aug 26, 2022

ED Don't abuse state audits

Ensure political neutrality of the Board of Audit and InspectionThe state inspection agency has caused controversy over its plan to conduct an audit into the previous Moon Jae-in administration's renewable energy projects. It has also invited criticism for looking into whether the Moon government properly handled the supply and management of COVID-19 vaccines.On Tuesday, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) announced a list of 34 planned inspections for the second half of this year. The list included audits on the energy projects and the vaccine issue. Most of the plans seem to be politically motivated because they apparently target the Moon administration. That's why they are drawing a strong backlash from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).First of all, the BAI should conduct its audits and inspections in an objective, impartial and fair manner, in order to assuage criticism and clear up controversy. It is necessary to probe alleged abuse of power and other misdeeds by the previous government after a new administration has been installed. Yet, the purpose of its

Aug 25, 2022

ED Shameful state violence

Time to reveal whole truth and support victimsOn Wednesday, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) confirmed widespread human rights abuses and illegalities at a detention facility in Busan decades ago. It concluded that the state committed such violations by unjustly exercising governmental authority. The commission made the announcement after 15 months of investigations into the now-defunct Brothers Home, a confinement facility in the nation's largest port city, in the 1970s and 80s. It pointed out that the law enforcement authorities, including police, isolated and abused tens of thousands of adults and children by arbitrarily identifying them as vagrants, infringing on their human rights.The TRC confirmed 675 deaths caused by abuses, 105 more than previously known. The operators of Brothers Home also chemically controlled “rebellious inmates” with psychiatric drugs. The facility reportedly detained about 38,000 people from 1975 to 1986. Central and local government officials sent as many as 4,355 people there in 1984 when former President Chun Doo-hwan's dictat

Aug 25, 2022

ED Impact of plunging won

Korea should prepare for worst-case scenarioThe Korean economy is bearing the brunt of the rapidly falling value of the won against the U.S. dollar. The local currency closed at 1,345.50 won per dollar Tuesday, down 5.70 won from the previous day. The closing price marked the won's lowest level seen since April 28, 2009.President Yoon Suk-yeol and financial authorities called for tight risk management in the Seoul foreign exchange market. The Ministry of Economy and Finance verbally intervened in the market by saying that it would step up monitoring of any speculative factors causing the won's slide. But such intervention was not good enough to prop up the won.More seriously, the losing streak shows no signs of ending. The won has lost about 10 percent of its value against the greenback over the past one year. Some pessimists even predict the Korean currency to fall further to the 1,400 won level, raising concerns about the impact of the weakening won on the economy.The won's depreciation is attributed to the gaining value of the dollar against other currencies such as the euro, the

Aug 24, 2022

ED Appoint special inspector

Swift action is key to establishing disciplineThe ruling and opposition parties are in a tug of war over the appointment of a special inspector. The presidential office said Monday that it is waiting for the parties to recommend candidates, reaffirming its position that President Yoon Suk-yeol will appoint someone once the National Assembly makes its recommendations.However, Woo Sang-ho, interim leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), urged the presidential office to first send an official document requesting the recommendation of three candidates for the position of special inspector. Joo Ho-young, interim chief of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), blasted the DPK for failing to appoint the inspector during the five-year tenure of former President Moon Jae-in and asked the opposition party to nominate directors for the North Korean Human Rights Foundation simultaneously.While all three parties concerned stress the need for the swift appointment of the inspector, the appointment procedure has not yet even started. They seem to be preoccupied with shifting th

Aug 24, 2022

ED Need for win-win diplomacy

Korea, China should prepare for another 30 yearsWednesday marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China. The anniversary is significant as the two countries have made phenomenal progress in bilateral ties over the past three decades. However, it is doubtful whether Seoul and Beijing can deepen their partnership further down the road. In fact, the escalating Sino-U.S. rivalry is casting a dark cloud on the diplomatic horizon in Northeast Asia.Now the Korea-China relationship stands at a crossroads: whether to move forward toward co-prosperity, or backward to confrontation and conflict. It depends on how both countries redefine their bilateral ties in the rapidly changing world. If China sees South Korea as a pawn in the chessboard of great power games with the U.S., the two sides cannot maintain their strategic cooperative partnership anymore.Against this backdrop, the new Yoon Suk-yeol administration has vowed to strengthen the country's alliance with the U.S. to ensure its security amid growing military threats from North Korea. Of course, this doe

Aug 23, 2022
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