The Korea Herald

Kwon steps up fight against desert expansion in China

PeopleMay 1, 2011

For Kwon Byong-hyon, former South Korean ambassador to China, almost everything should be considered in terms of the long-term health of the earth. “What do you think the earth has done for you so far?” Kwon asked in an interview. “And what, if anything, have you done for the earth in return?” His questions are hard to answer without taking a moment to ponder their implications at a time when t...
Kim Jae-dong to speak to KAIST students

PeopleMay 1, 2011

South Korean entertainer Kim Jae-dong plans to give a lecture at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology on May 10 to comfort distressed students there, according to reports. In the lecture entitled “Be the Master of Your Life,” Kim will stress the importance of having dreams and hopes to students at the university in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul. Students and faculty ...
[Editorial] FTA with China

EditorialMay 1, 2011

Negotiations will reportedly start on a Korean-Chinese free trade agreement in the near future, possibly as early as in June. A senior Blue House official is quoted as saying that Korea and China will hold a summit this month and declare the launch of negotiations next month. As the official said, China has a strong desire to conclude negotiations on a free trade deal with Korea. But Korea has n...
[Editorial] New town plans

EditorialMay 1, 2011

A dictionary definition of “new town” is a “planned urban community designed for self-sufficiency and providing educational, commercial and recreational facilities for its residents.” As such, it differs from “settlements that evolve in more ad hoc fashion.” Britain began to build new communities under the New Towns Act of 1946. Many other countries, borrowing from Britain, have since launched s...
Japan Diet shows some respect for diplomacy

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

It has long been accepted for the Japanese prime minister and other Cabinet members to cancel official visits to foreign nations because of Diet deliberation schedules. Japan’s standing on the diplomatic stage is thus degraded, and national interests are negatively affected. Such a long-standing but wrongheaded custom must end now. Ruling and opposition parties have agreed to allow Foreign Minis...
President Barack Obama: Born in the U.S.A.

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

“Well, I’ll be damned. It looks OK!” That was Chicago’s own Andy Martin ― self-proclaimed “King of the Birthers” ― on the phone with a reporter for Mother Jones magazine after the White House released a copy of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate on Wednesday. Martin, who announced in December that he’s running for president on the Obama-wasn’t-born-here ticket, brags that he s...
[Jennifer A. Marshall] Marriage an ideal, not a fairy tale

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

An audience of 750 million tuned in July 29, 1981, to watch Lady Diana Spencer marry the Prince of Wales. In America, little girls were glued to the television from before dawn, enthralled by Diana’s dress with its billows of silk taffeta, 10,000 pearls and 25-foot train. To a young girl’s eye, the only blemish of this perfect day was that the bride’s signature feathered hair succumbed to the su...
[David Ignatius] Will Pakistan erupt like Egypt?

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Think of Pakistan for a moment as the equivalent of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt. Both countries have strong militaries and weak civilian governments. Both are nominally America’s partners in the war against al-Qaida, but both chafe at U.S. pressure. In each nation, the street is buzzing with talk of the nation’s shame and humiliation under American hegemony. In Egypt, this pressure cooker...
[Meghan Daum] Princess Kate: Her royal blandness

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

I admit it: I love Kate Middleton. I love that she defied the usual dating advice and waited years for her prince to come around. I love that she’s a commoner but still wears those outrageous feathered hats. Most of all, I love that the hats are the most remarkable thing about her. Pretty without being distractingly gorgeous, fashionable without pushing boundaries, reserved without being shy, Ca...
[William Pesek] If Bill Gross sees U.S. as shaky, check Japan

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

Salvador Dali or M.C. Escher? This question leaps to the mind navigating the ruins of Japanese cities like Tagajo. Skylines now look as if Dali’s surrealist brush had a hand in rendering things so out of place. Escher’s mind seems at work, too. Interlocking shapes that shouldn’t exist in the three-dimensional world litter cityscapes that before March 11’s earthquake and tsunami were pretty run o...
[Yoon Young-kwan] Can East Asians cooperate for regional community?

ViewpointsMay 1, 2011

SEOUL ― As China continues its unremitting rise, people throughout East Asia are wondering whether their states will ever be able to achieve the peaceful, stable relations that now characterize Europe. Given the regularity of serious diplomatic spats ― over everything from tiny atolls in the South China Sea to the legacy of World War II ― this may sound like an elusive dream. But, with nationalis...
Criticism up on Japan P.M.’s handling of nuke crisis

World NewsMay 1, 2011

TOKYO (AP) ― Criticism of the Japanese government’s handling of the crisis at a radiation-spewing nuclear power plant increased Saturday, with a new poll indicating three-quarters of the people disapprove and a key adviser quitting in protest. A Kyodo News service poll released Saturday showed that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s support ratings were plunging. The poll reported that 76 percent of th...
Year’s worst yellow dust chokes Korea

Social affairsMay 1, 2011

The worst yellow dust storm this year covered the Korean Peninsula on Sunday as winds blew a thick layer of the dust from deserts in northeastern China. The weather agency issued a yellow dust watch for five northwestern islands, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan, Ulsan, Gwangju, and Chuncheong, Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces. It posted yellow dust advisories for the afternoon in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Gangwo...
IIE to help expand TaLK language exchange program

Social affairsMay 1, 2011

A governmental education institute has joined hands with its U.S. counterpart in a program to bring overseas Koreans as volunteer English teachers for students in rural areas here. The National Institute of International Education signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of International Education in New York on Friday, officials said. The agreement covers TaLK (Teach and Learn i...
Korean fathers don’t talk enough with kids

PoliticsMay 1, 2011

A third of South Korea’s fathers feel they don’t talk enough with their children, with the lack of dialogue experienced most among single-parent and poorer families, a survey showed Saturday. More than 34 percent of fathers said they don’t spend enough time talking to their children, while 19.8 percent of mothers felt the same way, according to the survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and F...