[Editorial] Resolve lost

The prosecution's waiver of appeal in a land development corruption case linked to President Lee Jae Myung's tenure as Seongnam mayor is causing quite a stir. Chief prosecutors for districts across the country are pressing the acting prosecutor general for a convincing explanation about his decision to waive the appeal, effectively demanding his resignation. The decision also sparked public outrage, particularly over the fact that the prosecution had become unable to recover all of the criminal

Nov. 13, 2025

[Editorial] Patience pays off

South Korea’s population is aging at a pace its economy and laws have yet to match. The debate over raising the statutory retirement age to 65 has become a matter of national urgency. The country became a superaged society this year, and a widening “income void” now separates the retirement age of 60 from the national pension’s starting point of 65. For millions of second-generation baby boomers born between 1964 and 1973, that gap has become a financial chasm. The ruling bloc, led by the Democr

Nov. 12, 2025

[Editorial] Tough on oneself

The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday reached a consensus on setting the nation's 2035 goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at between 53 and 61 percent of 2018 levels. All countries that signed the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate are required to update their goals, called "Nationally Determined Contributions," every five years. The government plans to finalize the NDC proposal this week and submit it to the United Nations next week. Once submitted, the goal can

Nov. 11, 2025

[Editorial] Free speech on trial

Few laws reveal a nation’s political temperament more clearly than those governing speech. South Korea’s latest proposal to punish insults or defamation directed at foreign countries, nationals or races claims to promote tolerance. Yet its scope and severity suggest something less virtuous: a readiness to silence, not civilize, public discourse. Ten lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and allied minor parties have sponsored an amendment to the Criminal Act that would impose up to

Nov. 10, 2025

[Editorial] Fiscal fault line

South Korea’s 2026 budget has been sold as the blueprint for an AI-powered future. In his budget speech Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung called it “the nation’s first budget of the AI era,” a financial map to transform the economy through computing power, digital infrastructure and human capital. Yet the same map also exposes a growing fault line in Korea’s public finances. For all the rhetoric about innovation, the deeper question is whether the government can afford its ambition. The proposed

Nov. 7, 2025

[Editorial] Develop capability first

President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday that South Korea's plan to retake wartime operational control, or OPCON, from the United States "within his term" would serve as a major opportunity to upgrade the bilateral alliance. Lee made the remarks during a meeting at his office with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His five-year term ends in 2030. Earlier in the day, after annual security talks with South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back in Seoul, Hegseth told reporters that the two agreed that

Nov. 6, 2025

[Editorial] Rightful reversal

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea said Monday it had decided not to push the so-called "trial suspension bill," which would halt criminal trials of sitting presidents. The decision came just a day after its spokesman hinted at advancing the bill this month. The party said that it made the decision after consulting the presidential office. It is the right move to abandon the bill seen to be an unfair interference in judicial independence. The trial suspension bill is a revision to the Criminal

Nov. 4, 2025

[Editorial] Gyeongju leap

The world rarely pauses for ceremony these days. Trade wars, transactional alliances and strategic supply chains define the fractured global backdrop. The APEC summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, could easily have been a polite gathering with little substance. Instead, it showed that diplomacy can still bend history’s trajectory, offering a critical counternarrative to global pessimism. South Korea’s ancient capital Gyeongju hosted a summit aimed squarely at the future. The theme, “Bu

Nov. 3, 2025

[Editorial] ‘Surprise’ growth

The South Korean economy expanded 1.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, driven by rising consumption and solid exports. The figure exceeds the 1.1 percent growth anticipated by the Bank of Korea in August and is also the fastest in a year and a half. Growth had lingered around zero percent for four straight quarters after the 1.2 percent posted in the first quarter of 2024. There was great concern that the economy could end up this year at around zero percent. However, the

Oct. 30, 2025

[Editorial] Beyond 4,000

South Korea’s stock market has rarely been accused of exuberance. For much of the past decade, it lagged regional peers, weighed down by export dependence, opaque governance and erratic policy. Yet this autumn the mood has shifted. On Monday, the benchmark Kospi broke the 4,000 mark, setting an all-time record high. The surge, driven by foreign capital and a growing belief that the Lee Jae Myung administration has begun to steady the economic helm, has become a moment of national pride. Yet the

Oct. 29, 2025

[Editorial] Stick to principle

US President Donald Trump said, "I think North Korea is sort of a nuclear power." This was his reply to a question from reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Asia, asking whether he was open to North Korea’s demand to be recognized as a nuclear state as a precondition for dialogue with the US. He also said that the North has a lot of nuclear weapons. His remarks give the impression that he effectively recognizes North Korea's nuclear weapons. Trump told reporters that he is open to meeting

Oct. 28, 2025

[Editorial] Seoul’s diplomatic test

President Lee Jae Myung’s diplomatic agenda this week is less a schedule of meetings and more a high-stakes tightrope walk across a geopolitical chasm. The journey began Sunday with his attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia, which is also a precursor to the main event: South Korea’s hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. This diplomatic “super week” culminates in an unprecedented convergence on Korean

Oct. 27, 2025

[Editorial] Alliance arithmetic

When US President Donald Trump demands that South Korea and Japan each provide colossal sums — $350 billion and $550 billion, respectively — to invest in the US, it stretches the limits of diplomacy and common sense. What might appear as a hard-nosed negotiation is, in truth, an act of financial coercion dressed up as economic nationalism. Even the Wall Street Journal, in an editorial, called the plan unrealistic and warned of its implications for fiscal oversight. The WSJ’s editorial goes furth

Oct. 24, 2025

[Editorial] Press freedoms

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Monday announced measures to root out false and manipulated information. The party plans to process the related bill within the year. Under the bill, news companies and YouTubers would be slapped with punitive damages if they disseminate false or manipulated information maliciously. Such damages could amount to up to five times the loss calculated by the court. If media organizations spread disinformation repeatedly, they could be fined up to 1 billion won

Oct. 23, 2025

[Editorial] Housing policy dispute

South Korea’s housing debate has long been framed as a moral issue — the young versus the rich, renters versus owners, Seoul versus the rest. Yet at its core, it is an economic one. Successive governments have treated real estate not as an ecosystem but as a battlefield, swinging between populist regulation and speculative deregulation. The result is a market that delivers neither affordability nor stability, and a public that has lost confidence in both builders and bureaucrats. The Lee Jae Myu

Oct. 22, 2025