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Offering protective items to Japan deserves praise, not criticism Gyeongju Mayor Joo Nak-young is under fire for providing some Japanese cities with coronavirus-related quarantine products. The southeastern city of Gyeongju delivered 1,200 sets of protective clothing and 1,000 protective eyewear to Nara, its sister city, and Kyoto, its exchange city, respectively, May 17. Since then some interne..

Bold investment, deregulation needed to keep travel industry afloat The government unveiled measures aimed at stimulating domestic tourism and spurring deregulation at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, Tuesday. The package is intended to reinvigorate the ailing tourism industry amid the coronavirus pandemic. The measures include handing out one million accommodation coupons off..

At this vegan cafe where I sometimes drop by, customers can enjoy vegan beverages and deserts. The husband who is a barista uses soy milk instead of milk to make coffee and cocoa. The wife bakes dairy-free, egg-free bread every morning. Her freshly baked bread is delicious. Many people would agree that the climate crisis due to global warming is serious. More and more people are realizing that a..

Rep. Kim Sang-hee should serve substantive vice speaker role When Rep. Park Byeong-seug of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea becomes first speaker of the 21st National Assembly, he will likely be flanked by the nation's first female deputy speaker. Rep. Kim Sang-hee of the same party is the sole candidate for the deputy speaker post ― afforded to parties with minimum 20 seats to qualify as ne..

Ruling party must show where it stands on former activist With the controversy over lawmaker-elect Yoon Mi-hyang, former chief of a wartime sex slavery victims' advocacy group, showing no signs of abating, the conundrum deepens for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). Since survivor Lee Yong-soo on May 7 publicly raised question about inappropriate management of funds donated for the vict..

Jennifer Strout is an English teacher in Korea and has been working to found a nonprofit school for low-income families. She said her hopes are to contribute to the community which she now calls home and to become a Korean citizen in the future. Yet, her plan is likely to become a distant dream with the Ministry of Justice's recent proposal for rule changes for the F-2-7 visa. The changes are no..

Solution lies in keeping jobs under initiatives of private sector South Korea's income distribution gap widened early this year because the COVID-19 pandemic hit the most vulnerable people hardest. According to Statistics Korea, the top 20 percent of the income bracket earned 5.41 times higher than the bottom 20 percent in the first three months of the year, up from 5.18 times a year before. Thi..

Sufficient deregulation and consensus-seeking should follow In the wake of the dismal fall in employment for April, the government has swiftly put forward a plan to create 1.56 million jobs in the public sector. In April, the number of employed here stood at 26.6 million, with Korea shedding 476,000 jobs during the month, year-on-year, a figure close to the 658,000 lost in February 1999, accordi..

Reveal truth about 1980 Gwangju Uprising Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of the May 18, 1980, Gwangju Uprising. It has been referred to as the pro-democracy movement for more than 20 years. But the truth behind the uprising has yet to be fully revealed. Thus it is of urgent importance to get to the bottom of the tragic massacre of around 200 civilians by the military junta under the command ..

Gov't inquiry, dialogue required for resolution A regrettable feud has erupted between Lee Yong-soo, a 92-year-old survivor of wartime sex slavery by colonial Japan, and Yoon Mi-hyang, former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. Lee made bombshell remarks last week when she said she was quitting the Wednesday rally in front of..