Opinion - The Korea Times

ED Affordable brokerage fees

Maximizing consumer benefits must be prioritizedThe Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held a public hearing Tuesday to discuss how to change brokerage commissions on property purchases and rents in accordance with a recent surge in real estate prices. The proposed revision, the first of its kind since 2014, seems belated, given that people have been complaining about the increased fees while the service they receive from realtors hasn't changed.The ministry proposed three options on how to change the commission rates, in an effort to select one and make an announcement by the end of this month. The second option is highly likely to be adopted and envisions allowing real estate agents to charge up to 0.4 percent of commissions for transactions from 200 million won ($170,000) to 900 million won; 0.5 percent between 900 million won and 1.2 billion won; 0.6 percent from 1.2 billion won to 1.5 billion won; and 0.7 percent for all transactions above 1.5 billion won. For a sale price of 1 billion won, which is the median price of an apartment in Seoul in June, the commission wi

Aug 18, 2021

ED Fierce internal disputes

Provide voters chances to assess presidential hopefulsThe main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has been entangled in severe internal factional disputes. Despite the need to push forward the primary contest for selecting its presidential candidate, disputes are intensifying between presidential aspirants and PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok.The PPP has decided to scrap the policy debates originally planned by its primary preparatory committee and instead hold a vision presentation event. This is a setback from the committee's previous plan to hold debates on Aug. 18 and 25 over economic and social issues, respectively. Yet, the plan faced opposition from the party's leading presidential hopeful, former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. The party's decision is disappointing as it deprives voters of the opportunity to assess policy options of the PPP presidential hopefuls. The committee announced primary schedules to select its own presidential candidate during the party's national convention slated for early November. The committee planned to hold a maximum 20 debates, but this plan was

Aug 18, 2021

ED Taliban's return

World should learn lessons from AfghanistanThe United States' longest war ended in Afghanistan over the weekend after 20 years. On Sunday, the Taliban insurgents recaptured the Afghan capital of Kabul and declared victory with little bloodshed. The Taliban's rapid takeover of the country is shocking not only to America, but also the world.It is all the more shocking because the insurgents' return to Kabul came much faster than had been expected. The problem does not seem to lie with President Joe Biden's plan for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Rather, Biden appeared to miscalculate the situation after the troop withdrawal. He was also blamed for having done too little in way of preparations for any possible contingencies there.On Monday, Biden defended the troop pullout and put the blame on Afghans for the Taliban's faster-than-expected re-conquest of the war-torn country. In fact, the U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsed due to rampant corruption, incompetence and political division. Its President Ashraf Ghani fled the country hurriedly. Its armed forces

Aug 17, 2021

ED Address structural problems

Scarce jobs, soaring home prices lead to low birthrateThe Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Friday that the country has made little progress in boosting the birthrate despite spending 380 trillion won ($325 billion) over the past 15 years. While announcing the results of its audit on the government's demographic policy, the state agency also released a report analyzing the causes of the low birthrate, which pointed out that high private educational costs, runaway housing prices and high jobless rates have pulled down young people's desire to have children. All of these indicators have continued their trajectories under the Moon Jae-in administration.Private tutoring costs have jumped 25 percent because of the government's inconsistent college entrance system. In addition, ill-conceived real estate policies have pushed home prices in Seoul up 86 percent in four years. Worse still, excessively rapid minimum wage increases have brought down the annual net growth of jobs to the 5,000-mark. To sum up, the government has allowed the socioeconomic environment to worsen, which encoura

Aug 17, 2021

ED Another sex crime in barracks

Thorough probe, harsh penalty needed to prevent similar deaths A female Navy chief petty officer was found dead in her quarters Thursday. The military said she apparently killed herself after being sexually harassed by a senior noncommissioned officer (NCO). The alleged harassment took place May 27 while the victim and the suspect were having lunch together at a restaurant near their base on an island off the western city of Incheon. The victim promptly reported the case to her immediate superior, but asked for it to remain undisclosed.She then informed the commander of her unit about the case Aug. 7, and a formal report was filed two days later at her request. The case was reported to the top military brass, including Defense Minister Suh Wook, Aug. 11, 76 days after the harassment took place. Her death comes after the suicide of an Air Force master sergeant in May, who had accused a colleague of sexual abuse, sparked a national outcry that forced the Air Force chief to resign. What's dumbfounding is that the incident took place at a time when the military was striving to stamp out

Aug 16, 2021

ED Digital coupon dispute

Financial authorities, shopping malls deserve flaks A dispute is escalating over digital coupon company Mergeplus, which has yet to refund many users, mostly general customers and small businesses. The company runs Mergepoint, a service model which enables subscribers to prepay cash so they can purchase goods and services at a 20 percent discount at some 20,000 franchises of 200 enterprises nationwide.For instance, if a customer pays 800,000 won ($686.69) into Mergepoint's app, they can make 1 million won worth of purchases at the contracted locations. Mergeplus began its business operations in January 2019, and has seen rapid growth, riding on the effect of “limitless 20 percent discounts.” Currently, the app has 1 million subscribers, with average monthly transactions reaching 30 billion won to 40 billion won and cumulative points amounting to 100 billion won.The dispute was triggered when the company announced abruptly, Aug. 11, that it would reduce the number of participating businesses to 20 from the current 200. Hundreds of customers stormed Mergeplus headquarters i

Aug 16, 2021

ED Don't waste vaccines

It is necessary to regain trust in inoculationThe government decided Friday to allow people aged 30 or older to get leftover AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses, after media reports that unused shots have been discarded. Yet it is questionable if the move will address the supply problem as many people are reluctant to have the AstraZeneca vaccine due to its rare side-effect of blood clots.It is regrettable to hear that local hospitals have been discarding the AstraZeneca vaccine despite the overall shortage of COVID-19 vaccines. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), more than 15,000 doses of vaccines manufactured by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm have so far been discarded because people prefer vaccines supplied by Pfizer and Moderna.The problem emerged after the health authorities began to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to 1.26 million people aged between 60 and 74 early this month. But in July, the government decided to limit the use of the vaccine to people aged 50 or older ― previously from those over 30 ― due to the potential side-effec

Aug 15, 2021

ED Apply equal labor rights

Time to eliminate discrimination against workers at small firmsThe Union for Rights, a labor group, filed a petition with the Constitutional Court, Friday, claiming that a law excluding workers at businesses with fewer than five employees from enjoying substitute holidays was unconstitutional. The law on public holidays promulgated last month calls for designating alternative statutory day-offs for public holidays that fall on weekends but excludes firms with fewer than five workers from its application. The labor group has raised the question of whether it is in the spirit of the Constitution to refuse to guarantee fundamental rights for workers just because they work for small companies.Specifically, the union cited Article 4 of the Public Holiday Act as violating or infringing on the people's “right to rest.” However, Article 4 does not specify the targets of its application. The legal grounds for discriminating against employees at firms with fewer than five workers is based on the Labor Standards Act.Article 11 of the Labor Standards Act reads: “This act shall

Aug 15, 2021

ED Korea outpaces Japan

Strenuous efforts needed to catch up with Japan in science and technology Korea has outpaced Japan in many economic indicators, though the neighboring country has so far been regarded here as an “insurmountable wall.” Yet, Seoul still lags behind Tokyo in terms of technological competitiveness, according to the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), Thursday. The FKI came up with these and other facts in its report titled “Changes in rankings of economic competitiveness between Korea and Japan since 1990.”The FKI cited figures released by the Institute for Management Development (IMD), based in Switzerland, which placed Korea at 23rd among 64 countries surveyed in terms of overall performance in 2020, while ranking Japan at 34th. This compares with 1995 when Japan ranked fourth, far surpassing Korea at 26th. The IMD released its annual report on national competitiveness, based on assessments of macroeconomic indices, efficiency of governments and corporations, the health environment, education, infrastructure facilities etc., in June. Of particular note, the F

Aug 13, 2021

ED Need for new response

It's getting harder to achieve herd immunityThe health authorities need to overhaul their response to COVID-19 as they have yet to bring the fourth wave of infections here under control. Experts are calling for a paradigm shift in how to deal with the resurging coronavirus. Consensus is growing that the country will have to map out a new strategy to enable people to coexist with the virus, instead of struggling too hard to defeat it.The major reason for the uphill battle against COVID-19 is the fast spread of the more contagious Delta variant. An increasing number of travelers during the summer holiday season and a shortage of vaccines have also prompted an upsurge in mass infections. The number of new daily infections hit an all-time high of 2,223 Wednesday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). This is casting a dark cloud over the Moon Jae-in government's efforts to win its fight against the pandemic.The coronavirus is showing no signs of receding, although the authorities have been enforcing the highest Level 4 social distancing rules in Seoul and i

Aug 12, 2021

Editorial