Most Popular
-
1
Seoul vows action over Naver's Line, Yahoo dispute
-
2
[KH Explains] Hyundai Motor’s plan for new landmark keeps hitting bumps
-
3
Key S. Korean, USFK special operations officials to hold rare meeting amid NK threats
-
4
[Grace Kao] American racism against Stray Kids
-
5
Samsung doubles down on Vietnam
-
6
In Beijing, S. Korean top diplomat aims to jumpstart ties with China
-
7
NewJeans' members' parents complained to Hybe, email shows
-
8
Controversy brews over shakeup of prosecutors amid probe of first lady
-
9
Suspect behind murder of Korean tourist in Pattaya arrested
-
10
Prosecutors summon pastor involved in Dior bag scandal
-
[Yoo Choon-sik] Praises, and concerns, over Yoon’s clampdown on borrowings
As we entered February, many of us who resolved to lose weight and achieve a healthier, slimmer body in the new year may be growing restless with the gradual pace of progress. However, it’s important to resist the urge to drastically alter your plan for the remainder of the year in a way that could compromise your health, which is the true objective of these efforts. Similar advice should work for President Yoon Suk Yeol. Having made significant progress in curbing the red-hot surge in the
Feb. 5, 2024
-
[Room Tone] If I were in charge
As a producer in the film and television industry, it's rare for us not to indulge in some sort of imaginative play. What used to be "cops and robbers" in the schoolyard has now evolved into scenarios such as "If I were in charge.” Because, let’s be honest, many of us -- correction, all of us -- producers believe we could successfully oversee a film and TV studio. In that same spirit, I offer my own take on “If I were in charge of a film and television stu
Feb. 2, 2024
-
[Doyle McManus] Will ‘double haters’ shape US election?
The general election campaign between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the rematch almost nobody wanted, began ahead of schedule last week. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is still contesting the Republican nomination, but she will need a miracle -- actually, more than one miracle -- to dethrone Trump. The chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, declared the former president to be her party's presumptive nominee even though only two stat
Feb. 2, 2024
-
[Ana Palacio] The good news from Taiwan
International media are brimming with pronouncements that the West is in decline. The institutions that have formed the foundation of the rules-based international order since World War II are on the brink of collapse, we are warned, and the principles that underpin our open societies have been eroded. These claims are not baseless, and there is plenty of reason to pay attention to them. But it is too soon to write off the West, let alone democracy. At the very least, we should wait to see what
Feb. 1, 2024
-
[Mark Jones] Will 2024 be the new 1933?
On Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. To his supporters, it was a day of “national revolution” and rebirth. Germany, they believed, needed the restorative force of an authoritarian strongman after 14 years of the liberal-democratic Weimar “system.” That night, Hitler’s torch-bearing brownshirts marched through central Berlin to mark the dawn of a new era. It was also a triumphant moment in the history of popular deception. Since the Wei
Feb. 1, 2024
-
[Kim Seong-kon] Overcoming the ‘three S words’ in our traits
In the eyes of foreigners, Koreans are often said to have many admirable, charming character traits, but one also hears of a few negative ones as well, such as having a “short memory,” “shortsightedness” and a “short temper.” These are often known as the “three S words.” As for having a “short memory,” it seems generally true that we tend to forget things too easily. For example, we seem to have completely forgotten how we have survived
Jan. 31, 2024
-
[Lisa Jarvis] Post-Roe America’s national shame
It’s now been about a year and a half since the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke the constitutional right to abortion. Over that time, new data has been gradually filling in the picture of what access to reproductive health care looks like in much of the US. And the image forming is increasingly grim. Consider a gut-punch of a research letter published this month in JAMA Internal Medicine, in which researchers estimate that nearly 65,000 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 1
Jan. 31, 2024
-
[Grace Kao] The appeal of K-pop to Americans
What is the appeal of K-pop to audiences in the United States? I am a fan and researcher of K-pop, so I think and talk to college students and fans of all ages regularly about it. If you do not live in the US, it might be difficult to imagine the level of visibility of K-pop here in the United States. It is not everywhere: We don’t see idols in advertisements and we do not hear K-pop songs in public settings, except perhaps at a Korean restaurant. Still, most Americans have heard of K-pop.
Jan. 30, 2024
-
[Yvette Wohn] The need to protect intellectual property in K-pop
All able-bodied South Korean men are obliged by law to serve in the military for a minimum of 18 months. The Camp is a commercial Web and mobile application sanctioned by the country’s Ministry of Defense to enable communication between service members and their families, friends, and loved ones. The app provides photos and updates of the soldiers and allows those “waiting on the outside” to send letters to the soldiers and create online communities. Active duty soldiers have l
Jan. 30, 2024
-
[Yoo Choon-sik] More money to boost child births? Ask babies, not politicians
The phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” is generally recognized for emphasizing the significant effort required to ensure a child’s upbringing in a safe environment, but the proverb holds particular relevance for South Korea as it grapples with a desperate battle to halt or, at the very least, slow the decline in birth rates. In a race against time, the South Korean government and provincial administrations are rolling out a range of financial incentives and benefits t
Jan. 29, 2024
-
[Jieun Kiaer] AI natives: How children should read in our time
The term digital native was coined in 2001 by Marc Prensky. In his article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," Prensky applied the term to young people who grew up surrounded by computers, mobile phones and other tools of the digital age. The devices and technologies that Prensky was referring to were greatly different to those we use now. We no longer have dial-up internet connections or clunky computers. Our digital experience has undergone dramatic changes. ChatGPT was released t
Jan. 29, 2024
-
[Robert J. Fouser] The 'local' bookstore boom
For much of January, I had the privilege of being invited to give talks on two books that I wrote in Korean. “Why Do Cities Preserve History” is a new book, while “How to Read Cities” is a revised edition of a 2019 book. As I met readers and signed books, I thought about the meaning of bookstores in South Korea in 2024. Bookstores have a prominent place in the history of South Korea. For decades after the Korean War, bookstores, both new and used, were an important center
Jan. 26, 2024
-
[Michael Bröning] Should Germany’s AfD be banned?
The recent revelation that politicians from Germany’s far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) met with right-wing activists last November to discuss an extremist “re-migration” plot has brought the debate over banning the party to a fever pitch. The clandestine meeting, held at a lakeside hotel near Potsdam, reportedly centered on the possibility of mass deportations of non-ethnic Germans if the far-right were to come to power. Alarmed by this horrifying vision, leaders fro
Jan. 25, 2024
-
[Wang Son-taek] Is war coming on the Korean Peninsula?
These days, Seoul is very confused about the possibility of war breaking out. There is a hard, cold warning that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has decided to go to war, and that the Korean Peninsula is seriously in danger. On the other side, there is fierce opposition that the threats from Kim are only psychological warfare. The two voices contain different assumptions and premises, leading to different responses. If the former "war decision" argument is correct, half a million regul
Jan. 25, 2024
-
[John M. Crisp] Our dangerous failure of imagination
Generally, comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler aren’t particularly persuasive. They often reflect an over-the-top, sky-is-falling semi-hysteria. Trump and Hitler? Let’s not get carried away. On the other hand, do we have something to fear from a too-casual complacency engendered by a failure of imagination? I was thinking about this last week as I read an op-ed entitled “American democratic system will endure,” by Jonathan Turley, a commentator and law prof
Jan. 24, 2024
-
[Kim Seong-kon] “The Batman”: from an avenger to a healer
The 2022 American film, “The Batman,” is different from previous versions of the Batman series. Throughout the film, the screen is dark and gloomy, and the story revolves around vengeance. Bruce Wayne, who is the Batman, is preoccupied by a personal vendetta for the murder of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, by a street mugger when he was a child. That is why he has been fighting crimes in Gotham City as “Batman.” It is only natural that his nickname is “Vengea
Jan. 24, 2024
-
[Ashoka Mody] The slow death of India’s brief secular democracy
On Jan. 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Executive power will symbolically fuse with the Hindu religion -- harking back to myths of Indian rulers as incarnations of Supreme Lord Vishnu -- at the former site of the Babri Mosque, demolished by self-styled “angry Hindus” in 1992. Indian children will celebrate the mythological Lord Ram. State-owned railways have promised to transport more than a thous
Jan. 23, 2024
-
[Antoinette Burton] The AI irony around Claudine Gay
When the history of Claudine Gay’s six-month tenure as Harvard’s president is written, there will be a lot of copy devoted to the short time between her appearance before Congress and her resignation from the highest office at one of the most prestigious and powerful institutions of higher education. Two narratives will likely dominate. One will be the highly orchestrated campaign -- outlined in clinical, triumphant detail by conservative activist Chris Rufo -- by the right to mobili
Jan. 23, 2024
-
[Ashwini Deshpande] Main cause of low female employment
In China, the painful custom of binding young girls’ feet to alter their shape began in the 10th century and continued for a millennium, until it was outlawed in 1911. Although the practice did not truly end until the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, by 1990 China’s female labor-force participation rate had climbed to 73 percent – well above the OECD average. In fifteenth-century Europe, women started wearing corsets, often reinforced with wood, bone or eve
Jan. 22, 2024
-
[Patricia Lopez] Time to scrap the Iowa caucuses
The Iowa caucus has become an outdated relic. Like eight-track cassettes and checkbooks, it served a valuable purpose at one time, but no longer. Donald Trump, as he has with so many things, reset the rules of the political game here, essentially turning the state into a backdrop for his brand of theatrics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, played by the old rules. He dutifully visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties, poured money into building the ground game that everyone said w
Jan. 19, 2024