[Editorial] Dry reality

A nation accustomed to typhoons and floods has now declared a natural disaster over something rarer: drought. On Saturday, President Lee Jae Myung designated Gangneung, Gangwon Province, a disaster zone after its main reservoir fell below the threshold needed to sustain household supply — the first time in South Korea that drought alone has triggered such a measure. If typhoons and floods once defined the nation’s natural perils, today scarcity is the more menacing force. Gangneung’s plight is s

Sept. 3, 2025

[Editorial] Budget carefully

Obligatory expenditures, which are government spending required by laws, are expected to increase by more than 100 trillion won ($72 billion) for four years. According to the government finance management plan for the 2025-2029 period, unveiled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Friday, mandatory spending will swell by 100.9 trillion won from 364.8 trillion won this year to 465.7 trillion won in 2029. The growth in obligatory expenditures is largely due to an increase in subsidies provide

Sept. 2, 2025

[Editorial] Chips fall unevenly

Just four days after last Monday’s summit, Washington punctured the glow of alliance diplomacy and reminded Seoul where power is measured. On Friday, the Donald Trump administration revoked the “validated end-user,” or VEU, status of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, a technical detail buried in the Commerce Department’s Federal Register. In reality, it escalates the US-China technology rivalry, leaving South Korea’s semiconductor giants squarely caught in the middle. For years, VEU status allow

Sept. 1, 2025

[Editorial] Seoul’s digital dilemma

Only hours after South Korea and the United States wrapped up what looked like a smooth summit on Monday, US President Donald Trump delivered a jolt reverberating through Seoul’s policy circles. On his social media platform, Trump threatened “substantial” tariffs and export restrictions against any country that dares to regulate American technology giants. He did not list targets, but the implication was clear: Europe first, and possibly South Korea next. At first glance, it may seem to be anoth

Aug. 29, 2025

[Editorial] Rebuild the party

Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, a two-term lawmaker, was elected the new leader of the main opposition People Power Party on Tuesday. He trailed Kim Moon-soo, his runoff rival, in public opinion polls, but party members' overwhelming support tipped the balance in Jang's favor. The new leader should think deeply about how to narrow the gap between his support among party members and that of the general public. Amid intraparty conflict between supporters and opponents of the impeachment of former President

Aug. 28, 2025

[Editorial] Charm and consequence

Diplomatic theater often flatters before it unsettles. The summit between President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday ended with smiles, jokes about golf and talk of shipyards. Yet beneath the conviviality lay reminders that the most difficult chapters of the alliance — from trade disputes to security dilemmas — remain unwritten. The challenge for Seoul is to turn a promising opening into something more durable than a handshake photo. Lee seems to have achieved

Aug. 27, 2025

[Editorial] Minimize side effects

An amendment to Articles 2 and 3 of the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, widely known as the "Yellow Envelope" bill, passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on Sunday. Not only Korean companies, but also foreign companies invested in Korea requested reconsideration of the pro-labor bill, but the ruling Democratic Party of Korea railroaded through its passage. Businesses had demanded a one-year grace period, but that was halved to six months. The previous president veto

Aug. 26, 2025

[Editorial] AI push: reform or relapse

The Lee Jae Myung government’s new economic blueprint, unveiled Friday, has the sweep of a manifesto: a wholesale “AI transformation” meant to lift the nation out of stagnation and restore growth to 3 percent. The symbolism was not lost on investors. In a year when Korea officially conceded that gross domestic product growth would sink below 1 percent, Lee promised that algorithms, robots and data models would put the country back among the global top five powers. The plan is ambitious, almost d

Aug. 25, 2025

[Editorial] Restraint faces defiance

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report this week leaves little room for comfort. It points to continuing construction and activity at Yongbyon, suggesting that North Korea is not only maintaining but possibly expanding its capacity to produce fissile material. Inspectors have been barred for more than a decade, yet satellite imagery and seismic readings reveal a disquieting truth. Even without declared tests, facilities are active, shafts at Punggye-ri are preserved and reprocess

Aug. 22, 2025

[Editorial] Focus on jobs

The economic cost of young people who "just rested" while not actively seeking employment is estimated to have totaled 44.5 trillion won ($31.8 billion) for the five years spanning 2019 to 2023, according to a Federation of Korean Industries study on Monday. The cost was calculated on the assumption that they missed out on earning about 80 percent of the wages that employed youth earned. The population of young Koreans aged 15-29 shrank by 870,000 over the same span, while the number of "discour

Aug. 21, 2025

[Editorial] Timely action needed

South Korea has seen this cycle before. Global demand lifts an industry, firms expand capacity, China builds even more and margins collapse. Then comes the painful stage: state-led restructuring, with mergers, closures and political fallout. Shipbuilders endured it in the late 2010s. Now, petrochemicals are at the center of the storm. The warning signs have long been visible. China has nearly tripled its ethylene output over the past decade, colliding with soft global demand and pushing South Ko

Aug. 20, 2025

[Editorial] Keep deterrence

President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that he would restore the Sept. 19, 2018, military deal between South and North Korea proactively and in stages. In his speech marking the 80th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule, he also said that he would wait patiently for North Korea's response. His remarks were intended to ease inter-Korean tension and build mutual trust, but it is worrisome that Seoul may be getting ahead of itself when Pyongyang has not

Aug. 19, 2025

[Editorial] Pricing power

President Lee Jae Myung has said what most of his predecessors avoided: If South Korea is serious about cutting greenhouse gases, electricity must cost more. On Aug. 14, Lee told aides that the public must be prepared for higher costs to meet climate targets. For a politician once critical of price hikes, the candor is striking — and politically perilous. Few policies are as explosive as a power bill. The backdrop is the Paris Agreement, which requires nations to submit progressively tougher emi

Aug. 18, 2025

[Editorial] A vision or a venture?

The Lee Jae Myung administration on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping five-year national governance blueprint, a document that blends bold reforms with cautious caveats. Presented by the State Affairs Planning Committee just 70 days into his presidency, the plan is framed by Lee not as a fixed policy, but as a “set of proposals,” signaling a pragmatic approach in an era of economic uncertainty and geopolitical flux. The blueprint outlines 123 national tasks across five strategic objectives. Its exec

Aug. 15, 2025

[Editorial] Industrial death phobia

President Lee Jae Myung instructed relevant ministries to report all industrial accident fatalities directly to him as quickly as possible. This was the first instruction given by the president after returning from vacation. A day earlier, on Aug. 4, he is said to have received a report that a worker fell to death at an apartment construction site. Recently, he has escalated criticisms of industrial accident deaths and instructed the preparation of strong measures. He called fatal industrial acc

Aug. 14, 2025