0312-Credibility gap

Seoul should practice what it preaches on CO2 emissions

At the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, former President Lee Myung-bak vowed to reduce Korea’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in 2020.

But the nation’s discharge of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases surged 9.8 percent in 2010, marking the biggest increase in 17 years and exposing its leader’s pledge as an empty words. There are whispers within the international community about the Lee administration’s hollow, even deceitful, promise.

The government attributes the steep increase to an unusually hot summer and cold winter of that year, as well as brisk manufacturing of steel and automobiles. It still falls short of explaining the near 10 percent growth, compared with the average 1.7 percent gain in the preceding four years. 

Even if the officials’ explanations are true, it only reaffirms the need for Korea to step up efforts to turn its words into deeds. For how long should the nation remain trapped in a vicious circle in which emissions of hothouse gases leads to extreme weather, which in turn results in even more emissions to meet the continuously growing demand for warming and cooling fuel until the abnormal climate becomes the new normal?

The manufacturing boom, while not bad for short-term recovery, also shows how far the nation’s industry must go in order to become a truly advanced economy. 

It is, of course, not easy to persuade domestic businesses to take the lead in “green growth” as Lee so confidently boasted. Almost all of Korea’s major competitors, not just the industrialized economies of the U.S. and Japan but also large emerging ones such as China and India, have bowed out of the extended regime of the Kyoto Protocol on mandatory emission cuts. Local firms might as well ask why Korea, an environmentally-developing country with no obligations to reduce emissions, has remained under the agreement.

There are at least three reasons. 

First of all, Korea is no longer an exception from the various disasters of climate change. Currently environmental harm is mostly limited to uncomfortable weather but could soon change to the creation of unlivable conditions. Second, there is a race for new markets. China, which many Koreans regard as home to smokestack industries, is rapidly growing into a clean energy power. If Korea lags behind its giant neighbor even in future industries, the nation’s industrial outlook will be grim. Third, the nation has a credibility gap if it reneges on an international commitment.

It was only months ago that the nation rejoiced over its hosting of the headquarters of the Green Climate Fund, one of the “signature feats” of the former President. How can Korea, the world’s seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gas and the largest in per capita emissions, persuade skeptical foreigners of an environmental bridge between advanced and developing nations unless it provides an example as a model reducer? 

All this explains why the nation should hasten to introduce emission trading, levy carbon taxes, and forgo the scheduled construction of 18 thermal power plants. 

The businesses need incentives to move on. The best person to provide them is President Park Geun-hye, who preaches on having a “creative” economy.  

This is The Korea Times editorial for Friday, March 1, 2013.

0311-Healthcare reform

There are two ways middle-class Koreans fall into poverty: through losing their jobs or getting serious illnesses. So, during last year’s presidential election, Park Geun-hye vowed to cure four of the most common, and costly, diseases free of charge, while Moon Jae-in promised that the government would take care of all medical bills on portions exceeding 1 million won ($910).

Now President Park is backing away from her pledge amid outcries from families with chronically-ill members and sneering from political opponents. Even if Moon had taken the top job, he might have done largely the same, however, given the fiscal health of the nation’s health insurance system. 

A recent report by the National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC) shows that the rapidly-aging population and low birthrate would swell its yearly deficit up to 132 trillion won by 2060 in a worst-case scenario.

Korea’s health insurance system has achieved astounding success despite its relatively late debut: the number of its beneficiaries increased from 3.2 million (9.8 percent of population) in 1977 to 49.3 million (96.8 percent) in 2011 to become national insurance both in name and function. But the low-burden, low-coverage and high-deficit system needs to reform itself to be sustainable.

In brief, there are two contrasting systems of health insurance - those in the U.S. and the U.K. The former minimizes government’s burden by taking care of only the old and poor - although Obamacare has sharply expanded the scope of beneficiaries recently - leaving too many people in the dead angle of health services. The latter requires the state to provide healthcare for all people free of charge. This seems to be far better, except that services are sometimes delayed and of poor quality. 

Korea should seek best equilibrium between costs and benefits, and between the state and individual burdens, befitting of its own circumstances.

Most urgent in this regard is to expand its revenue base, which now unduly relies on salaried workers, as the nation’s pension system does. The authorities should ferret out up to 5 million free-riders in the system, wealthy individuals with financial assets and high-income professionals who often disguise themselves as low-wage workers. Officials will need to consult the tax authorities to grasp overall incomes and properties of the insured. Some doctors and patients also show moral laxity, slipping through loopholes to obtain excessive treatment and prescription abuse.

As far as healthcare pledges are concerned, we think Moon’s plan was better because there are numerous types of chronic diseases besides the four major illnesses inflicting needy families. President Park might as well adopt her former rival’s idea, and develop it into “Geun-hye care.”

This is The Korea Times editorial for Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013.

0308-Park’s views on labor

Korea cannot be happy if most workers remain unhappy

During her 20-minute inaugural speech Monday, President Park Geun-hye used the words “people” and “happiness” 54 times. But she mentioned her key campaign slogan of “economic democratization” only twice, and “underprivileged classes,” just once. 

It is difficult then, to know how she intends to make a majority of working-class Koreans happy.
Nowhere is the gap between the new leader’s rhetoric and reality, or the gulf between her good intentions and lack of specific policies, more noticeable than in her views - or lack thereof - on major labor issues. 

Park disappointed unionized workers with her outdated labor agenda when she visited the Federation of Korean Trade Unions on the last leg of her transitional itinerary last week. She emphasized two things - autonomous labor-management relationship and a crackdown on unlawful labor struggles. 

Few can take issue with these principles in theory. In reality, however, doing nothing about the current extreme imbalance between the powers of management and labor is nothing but a regrettable avoidance of the government’s responsibility. And dealing sternly with labor struggles that go to extremes sometimes lacks equity in law enforcement because the government has been blamed for being too tolerant of employers’ egregious legal violations.

Worse yet, in calling for the creation of a new labor-management culture, Park excluded the more progressive umbrella union of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, instantly sparking its denunciation about her labor policy which it said is based on “oppression” and “exclusion.” 

Further illustrating the new President’s relative neglect of unionism are the appointments of her labor minister and chief aide, both of whom are welfare experts and have little, if any, experience of dealing with labor-management disputes. 

Park used to emphasize, while campaigning and after her election, the restoration of the middle class to make a happier nation. Studies in the United States show in this regard the climax of America’s middle class came when its rate of union membership reached a peak of 40 percent in the 1950s and’60s.  Income equality in the world’s largest economy has widened in reverse proportion to its unionization rate, which stands at around 10 percent, similar to Korea’s.

Park is right to move toward a more “democratized” economy, marked by better redistribution and more balanced growth between big and small businesses, by forcing family-run conglomerates to change. But she will soon run into limitations until and unless 88 percent of working-class Koreans are able to freely join unions and conduct brisk activities without fear of dismissal and disadvantages. 

The nation’s first female leader also vowed to make a “second miracle on the Han River.” When her father, late President Park Chung-hee accomplished the first miracle, it was at the expense of countless workers, but the second miracle should not, and cannot, be made through similar ways. The restoration of the labor movement and better protection of workers’ rights are minimal prerequisites for another miracle and a “happy” nation.

When as a presidential candidate Park tried to visit the memorial hall of a famous labor martyr from the 1960s, his bereaved family members urged her to first call on dismissed workers conducting high-altitude sit-ins. Their advice is still valid. 

0307-Policy on N. Korea

President Park Geun-hye starts her tenure in one of the harshest security environments in decades. This is due in considerable part to her predecessor, who reversed the inter-Korean relationship from relative amity to absolute hostility in just five years with his clueless, hard-line policies.

Now it is up to the nation’s first female commander-in-chief to turn this around, yet again. The only consolation for Park is she begins from where it is hard to go down much lower.

North Korea Saturday warned the top American military commander here that if the United States pressed ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea scheduled to begin early next month, it would set off a war in which American forces would “meet a miserable destruction.”

Neither the annual war game of allies nor Pyongyang’s hysterical reaction to this is new. This time around, however, they are coming against the backdrop of heightened tension in the wake of the communist regime’s successful rocket launch and nuclear test. And the consequent tightening of sanctions by the international community is certain to push up the possibility of conflict to another level in the months to come.

Some predict Pyongyang will soon make another provocation in the form of an additional satellite launch, detonation of an atomic device, or limited attacks in part to “test” the new government in Seoul.

President Park was right in this regard by vowing to “sever the vicious circle of provocations with resolute retribution” when she visited the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, last week. There can be no denying Park’s avowed principle that firm security should be the foundation of everything her government does.

We hope the new President will go one step further from there to push ahead with her campaign pledge of trust-based inter-Korean policy despite, or because of, harsh exchanges of rhetoric between the two capitals, whose relationship may not get better before it gets worse for the time being.

North Korea for its part must realize that any reckless attempts to put the new South Korean government to a test will backfire in a self-destructive way.

Victor Cha, a former policy advisor to ex-U.S. President George W. Bush, predicts the overall policy direction on North Korea among the U.S., Japan and South Korea will be “hers (Park’s) to decide.” Whether Park wants to contain or engage Pyongyang, Washington will go along with her, Cha told the Associated Press.

The Barack Obama administration has done so over the past four years, but has seen inter-Korean ties fall to a nadir. Park should make far better use of the U.S. policy in the next four years.

This is The Korea Times editorial for Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013.

0306-Japan’s new provocation

Japan’s central government Friday dispatched a vice-ministerial official to a ceremony aimed at promoting its territorial claims on Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo. More than 10 Japanese lawmakers and right-wing figures also attended the event.

This is the first time that Tokyo has sent a government official to the so-called "Takeshima Day," annually hosted by the Shimane prefectural government. Takeshima is the Japanese name for Dokdo.

The dispatch is another provocation following its creation of an agency exclusively responsible for territorial issues, including Dokdo, under the direct control of the Prime Minister’s Office.

We see the dispatch as an act "going against history," as a Korean foreign ministry spokesman warned, and urged Seoul to take appropriate measures. This incident will certainly aggravate the already-strained Seoul-Tokyo relations.

It’s quite disappointing and frustrating to confirm a two-faced Japan once again, given that the neighboring country will send Taro Aso, its deputy prime minister and minister of finance, as a special envoy to President-elect Park Geun-hye’s inauguration ceremony on Monday.

Even the Japanese press has been skeptical of Japan playing up the Dokdo issue in the middle of Seoul’s power transition. In an editorial, the Asahi Shimbun strongly urged the Japanese administration to reconsider sending Aiko Shimajiri, a parliamentary secretary of the Cabinet Office, to the ceremony, arguing that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "needs to assess this matter in the broader context of Japan’s relations with South Korea."

We concur with this paper’s notion and sincerely hope that Abe will try his best to build a trustful relationship with Seoul’s first female president as soon as possible, as he said earlier. It simply defies our understanding that the Japanese prime minister says one thing and does another.

Still, it’s encouraging that Abe has yet to upgrade the "Takeshima Day" event despite his election pledge to let the central government host the ceremony every year. Considering that both Seoul and Tokyo are in the initial stages of new administrations, Abe and the Japanese government should have been more cautious.

We feel it unnecessary to any longer refute Japan’s absurd claims to Dokdo and want to emphasize that Japan’s wayward provocations are just for internal political purposes and will result in international isolation of the island country running deeper. For both Seoul and Tokyo, now is a crucial time to put their heads together to find a solution to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

0305 - Is Korea becoming paradise of revolving-door symbiosis?

Local law firms have long vied to recruit retired judges and prosecutors to exploit their lingering influence on incumbent former colleagues. This practice, called the “favorable treatment of former officials,” has infiltrated into many other areas of state administration _ the economy, defense and even diplomatic circles _ basically wherever lobbying can affect results.  
  
Nothing shows this better than the list of nominees for President-elect Park Geun-hye’s inaugural Cabinet. 

A case in point is Park’s pick for justice minister, who received 1.6 billion won ($1.45 million) over 16 months from a large law firm, meaning the former prosecutor earned his previous yearly salary every month after retirement. Little wonder then that her nominee for prime minister, who also made 30 million won a month for years, said the amount was below-average for his caliber.

The money involved may be a smaller amount but even more egregious was Park’s designate for defense minister, who worked as a lobbyist for a German arms dealer, and received 200 million won for his services. 

Five years ago, Koreans felt an ominous foreboding regarding the personnel appointments to the administration of then President-elect Lee Myung-bak. This was crammed with cronies from his region, school and church. Many of them also showed ethical lapses in areas such as real estate speculation, academic plagiarism, tax evasion and dodging mandatory military service. Add to these some of the most glaring cases of revolving-door symbiosis and deduct church, and one has Park’s first Cabinet.

The nation’s first female President said she would prioritize job skills in selecting her people, while relatively ignoring other factors such as regional origins. However, it seems as if she placed priority on the candidates’ asset-swelling skills while neglecting their ethical standards.

Former public officials can of course work for private businesses after retirement, and even receive jaw-dropping wages, depending on their abilities. But they must stay there instead of seeking to return to officialdom. They must choose between money and reputation, or people will think their resumption of public office is nothing but another stepping-stone to even higher-paying jobs afterwards. 

Many other nominees have similar problems with the only difference being their scale and degrees of seriousness. Opposition lawmakers say they have found more than 40 suspicions involving Park’s nominees for 17 Cabinet posts. We hope, but are uncertain, that not all of these will be true. The time is long past for Korea to drastically toughen ethical rules for retired officials, and _ implement _ them.  

While campaigning, Park posed herself as the “prepared woman President.” Watching her performance over the past two months or so, Park neither seems to be prepared nor even gender-conscious: there are only two female ministers, or just one beside that for the ministry of gender equality.

All this is certainly a baleful omen. There is talk that Park’s administration will be the one that most unashamedly reneges on its campaign promises. All nominees in question should bow out or Park ought to withdraw her designation. Koreans have endured five years of extremely self-centered leadership _ they can ill afford to stand another.

0304-Law and common sense

The Supreme Court confirmed Thursday a prison term for Rep. Roe Hoe-chan for violating the Communication Privacy Act, stripping the opposition lawmaker of his parliamentary seat.

 

Roh’s crime: releasing a list in 2005 of seven former and incumbent prosecutors who allegedly received bribes from Samsung Group, the nation’s largest family-owned conglomerate. Neither Samsung officials nor the prosecutors were punished in the eight-year-long lawsuit for reasons of little hard evidence or the statute of limitations.

 

In a lamentably narrow interpretation of the law, the top court ruled the progressive lawmaker illegally uploaded the suspects’ names on the Internet, although the public might have not much interest in the bribery case that happened in 1997. 

 

This may conform with legal logic but not with common sense, considering eight years is not such a long time for the people to stop paying attention to this egregious bribery case, which illuminated how the top chaebol controlled the nation’s most influential politicians and ranking law enforcement officers with money. It defies our understanding how the court could rule Roh’s act was not for the public good.

 

We agree with the purport of the law, which is aimed to prevent reckless eavesdropping and wiretapping. But too strict an interpretation of it can produce unintended results by punishing journalists and activists who expose corruption while protecting those who should be punished, thus discouraging whistleblowers. Granted, laws cannot foresee all unexpected loopholes, which should be filled by judges at courts. The top court justices abandoned their role in this regard.

 

Equally problematic were the prosecutors who first handled the case, bent on wrapping it up with a bizarre “fruit of the poisonous tree theory” _ which ignores evidence obtained by the illegal process. These prosecutors, probably to protect their seniors, threw away Roh’s evidence based on unlawful eavesdropping of Samsung officials by National Intelligence Service officers. They didn’t even summon Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, just handing him written questionnaires.

 

Funnier still, prosecutor Hwang Kyo-ahn who closed the case with just a slap on Samsung’s wrist has been nominated as justice minister by President-elect Park Geun-hye.

 

At the end of the day, a politician who tried to expose filthy collusion between the moneyed and powerful has lost his job, while a prosecutor who virtually covered it up has been promoted to the top. Lawmakers should press Hwang at the confirmation hearing while revising the law in ways to protect bona fide whistleblowers.

 

President-elect Park should ask herself how this incident fits her slogan of creating a society governed by “principles and common sense.”