[Editorial] Pricing out talent

It is one thing to put a price on opportunity, quite another to place it beyond reach. By signing a proclamation last Friday to raise the H-1B visa fee from $1,000 to an eye-watering $100,000, US President Donald Trump has turned what was a bureaucratic formality into an economic moat. A gateway for global talent has been recast as a tollbooth designed less to collect revenue than to block passage altogether. The move is more than fiscal bravado. It is the clearest signal yet that the Trump admi

Sept. 24, 2025

[Editorial] Raise productivity

The government is pushing for legislation of a 4.5-day workweek this year. The Ministry of Government Legislation on Wednesday said that it will submit a new bill to support working hours reduction to the National Assembly this year as one of 123 legislative tasks of the government. The Ministry of Employment and Labor on Thursday said that it had set aside a related budget and that it plans to revise the law on working hours this year. Current statutory working hours are 40 hours per week, and

Sept. 23, 2025

[Editorial] Cybersecurity red flags

Once dismissed as the acts of foreign governments, obscure start-ups or the occasional reckless teenager, cyberattacks have become an immediate domestic threat. South Korea’s largest telecoms, leading card issuers and major insurers have all seen their systems breached, customer data exposed and reputations shredded. The breaches at KT, Lotte Card and SK Telecom are not anomalies but symptoms of a systemic national vulnerability. The numbers tell their own story. More than 7,000 corporate breach

Sept. 22, 2025

[Editorial] Losing traction

A Hyundai sedan that once undercut Toyota’s Corolla by thousands of dollars in the US is now, courtesy of Washington, the pricier option. On Sept. 16, US tariffs on Japanese cars were cut to 15 percent, while Korean vehicles remain saddled with 25 percent. What was once an advantage has turned into a brake on competitiveness. The flagship auto sector, long a pillar of South Korea’s economy, now finds itself boxed in by geopolitics, domestic discord and new competitors. The numbers show how quick

Sept. 19, 2025

[Editorial] A spider's web of regulations

Every previous government attempted to abolish or ease regulations. It is true of the current government, too. President Lee Jae Myung presided over the first "strategy meeting to rationalize core regulations" on Monday. He emphasized that his government's goal is to clear away a cobweb of regulations that impede corporate innovation and growth. Lee vowed efforts to ensure this does not become empty rhetoric, saying that it must be very hard to run a business. He also pledged to change unnecessa

Sept. 18, 2025

[Editorial] Taiwan tops Korea

Economic rankings rarely change without fanfare. Yet this year, for the first time in 22 years, Taiwan’s per capita income will edge past South Korea’s. The symbolism is rich: A supposed imitator has overtaken its former model. For Koreans, long used to viewing themselves as the exemplar among Asia’s “tiger” economies, the reversal is jarring. The numbers are unambiguous. Taiwan’s per capita GDP is set to reach about $38,000 in 2025, with South Korea nearer $37,400. Taipei should join the $40,00

Sept. 17, 2025

[Editorial] Respect court’s opinion

Regarding some ruling party lawmakers' demand for Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de's resignation, the presidential office said Monday that the reasons for making such a demand should be considered and that elected officials (like the legislature) should be given top priority. This is understood to mean that if the National Assembly demands Jo resign, he should consider the background of that demand. A day earlier, Choo Mi-ae, chair of the National Assembly judiciary committee, said on socia

Sept. 16, 2025

[Editorial] Unequal terms

South Korea finds itself in the awkward position of being treated less like a treaty ally than a cash dispenser. Washington’s message has been blunt: Accept the terms of a $350 billion investment package or face a 25 percent tariff wall. That ultimatum, delivered by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, is not the language of partnership but of coercion — and it is straining the credibility of an alliance that has long been framed as mutually beneficial. The backdrop is the July agreement betwee

Sept. 15, 2025

[Editorial] Unseen threat

South Korea’s telecom companies have long boasted of running the world’s fastest, most sophisticated mobile networks. That distinction now carries a paradoxical risk: The density and ubiquity of the system have turned it into a hacker’s playground. The latest breach at KT, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, underscores the fragility of digital security in a hyper-connected society. It also exposes a startling new vector of cybercrime. What corrodes public trust most, however, is the co

Sept. 12, 2025

[Editorial] Heed dissenting views

Jung Chung-rae, chair of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, emphasized the eradication of forces behind the alleged insurrection on Dec. 3, 2024, in about half of his National Assembly speech Tuesday. The word "insurrection" was mentioned 26 times. He warned the main opposition People Power Party that "if it fails to sever ties with the insurrection forces, it could be the target for the Constitutional Court's judgment on whether it is an unconstitutional party to be disbanded." Cooperation w

Sept. 11, 2025

[Editorial] Blueprint gamble

When governments redraw their wiring diagrams, citizens should pay attention. Boxes and arrows on a chart often reveal more about power than efficiency. South Korea’s reorganization plan, unveiled on Sunday, promises streamlined governance and a sharper focus on future challenges. In practice, it risks concentrating authority, eroding fiscal discipline and sowing confusion where clarity is needed. With the National Assembly set to vote on Sept. 25, the country deserves more than a hurried experi

Sept. 10, 2025

[Editorial] Alliance jolted

South Korea concluded negotiations for the release of more than 300 nationals detained in a recent US immigration raid. They were arrested Thursday at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery plant operated by a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Georgia. Reportedly, they are likely to return home voluntarily instead of facing deportation. It is fortunate to receive news of their early release, but the very fact that this happened between South Korea

Sept. 9, 2025

[Editorial] China’s nuclear calculus

In diplomacy, what is left unsaid can speak louder than what is declared. On Sept. 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Beijing for their first summit in six years, a spectacle at once familiar and revealing: Warm words of friendship, pledges of economic cooperation and paeans to a shared destiny that concealed a more consequential omission. What was missing was the phrase that had anchored China’s Korean Peninsula policy for three decades: “denuclearization.

Sept. 8, 2025

[Editorial] Strategic crossroads

Sixty-six years is a long time to wait for a photo opportunity. Yet on Wednesday in Beijing, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un stood shoulder to shoulder on Tiananmen Square, reviewing troops and missiles as if history had rewound to 1959. The tableau was designed to impress: three leaders, long cast negatively in Western capitals, reclaiming center stage to signal solidarity against the US-led order. For Xi, the occasion marked both China’s wartime triumph and signaled its present ambi

Sept. 5, 2025

[Editorial] Unconstitutional try

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is pushing ahead with its efforts to enact a "special insurrection law" that would set up a special tribunal for the crime. Jeon Hyun-heui, chair of the party's committee for responses to three special counsel investigations, said Sunday that she would expedite the process of legislating the establishment of the exceptional court for insurrection. Special counsels are currently investigating insurrection charges related to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's Dec

Sept. 4, 2025