Most Popular
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South Korean author Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel Prize in literature
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Korea added to key bond index
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North Korea notifies UN Command of plans to fortify border with South
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NewJeans’ Hanni to attend National Assembly audit as witness
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Will Apple quit smart ring race with Samsung?
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Exploring works of Han Kang
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[Breaking] South Korea's Han Kang wins 2024 Nobel literature prize
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North Korea already cut off inter-Korean roads in Aug.: JCS chief
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More deaths in ICU following doctors' mass walkout: lawmaker
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Han Kang's 'first reactions' after winning the Nobel Prize
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[J. Bradford DeLong] US must pursue industrial policy
By the end of the 1970s, the US economy appeared to be in serious trouble. Years of inflation had caused deep discontent; measured productivity growth had fallen from its post-World War II pace of 2 percent per year to almost zero; and America’s resilience in the face of geopolitical and geoeconomic shocks seemed to be waning. The proposed solutions to these problems fell into two categories: neoliberalism and activist industrial policy. The neoliberals won. Neoliberalism called for shrink
ViewpointsSept. 9, 2024
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[Editorial] Seek breakthrough
The South Korean government now holds the position that it can discuss the option of adjusting the medical school admissions quota for 2026, a desperate move aimed at getting interns and residents back to hospitals, many of which are struggling with severe staff shortages. The deepening medical service crisis was sparked in February by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s plan to increase the medical school admission quota as part of its overall medical reform plan. The quota increase result
EditorialSept. 9, 2024
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[Robert Fouser] Learning Korean and Chinese characters
Learning Korean continues to grow in popularity around the world, but the speed of growth may be slowing as the popularity of K-pop has plateaued. Universities in many countries have seen a decline in second language learning as part of a broader shift away from the humanities. Over time, this could result in a weakening of important institutional support for Korean classes. According to the “2023 Duolingo Language Report,” an annual report produced by the popular language learning p
ViewpointsSept. 6, 2024
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[Editorial] A bitter pill
The government's national pension reform plan unveiled Wednesday is focused more on the financial stability of the pension fund than on retirees' welfare. The point of the plan is increasing pension contribution and income replacement rates simultaneously. Employees contribute part of their wages to the national pension fund, with their employers bearing the cost of half of their contributions. Upon retirement, retired workers then receive a certain percentage of their preretirement in
EditorialSept. 6, 2024
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[Peter Singer, Martin Skladany] Protesting ethically
Climate protesters have disrupted the tennis at Wimbledon, thrown tomato soup at the glass protecting famous paintings, sprayed orange powder on Stonehenge and blocked traffic. In response, European governments have been cracking down on environmental protesters with detentions and fines, and, in one case, with a five-year prison sentence for advocating civil disobedience in a Zoom call. Whether a protest is ethical is distinct from whether it is legal. As Martin Luther King, Jr., argued in his
ViewpointsSept. 5, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Roots of the dispute over martial law
The scorching summer of 2024 has finally passed, and South Korea is now entering the autumn season. While the weather has cooled down, the heated political fight continues unabated. A fierce debate revolves around allegations that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is preparing for martial law. The opposition has raised suspicions, claiming that the government's recent actions suggest preparations for martial law. In contrast, the government and ruling party vehemently deny these allegations,
ViewpointsSept. 5, 2024
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[Editorial] Keep inflation low
It is fortunate for South Korea to see inflation fall to its intended level last month. The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of prices for goods and services, rose 2 percent on-year in August, according to Statistics Korea, Tuesday. It was the lowest increase in 41 months since March 2021 when it edged up 1.9 percent. The Bank of Korea finally met its inflation target of 2 percent. Above all, it is encouraging that Korea reached the 2-percent mark earlier than the US and eurozone, who
EditorialSept. 5, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] No more specter of Marx hovering over Korea
Recently, newspaper reports said that Seoul National University canceled an undergraduate course on Marxist economics due to the lack of registered students. It is only natural in this era of the global economy. In fact, Marxist economic theory became extinct as a failed experiment in the early 1990s when communist countries in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China gave up on it and adopted free market principles. In that sense, canceling a course on Marxist economics was a much-belated me
ViewpointsSept. 4, 2024
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[Lionel Laurent] Working six days a week is no myth in Greece
Anyone who’s seen swathes of sunburnt German tourists harrying Greek workers for a beach towel this summer will know how wrong economic cliches can be. Greeks, depicted as “lazy” during the euro crisis, actually work more hours than anyone else in Europe, and supposedly workaholic Germans work among the least. Now the gap is getting starker with a divisive new law allowing some Greek firms to enforce a six-day workweek -- a first in Europe and one that runs counter to the trend
ViewpointsSept. 4, 2024
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[Editorial] Electricity supply
Electrical grids, which deliver power to households, businesses and industrial sectors, are becoming increasingly important in recent years. Grids are having greater demand placed on them not only for the transition to green energy, but also for cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence. But the global push for green energy and advanced technology has been mired in delays as a result of bottlenecks linked to grid facilities. According to a recent report by Kepco Management Resear
EditorialSept. 4, 2024
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[Eric Posner] Is a pro-labor Republican Party possible?
Following a speech by Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, at the Republican National Convention last month, a New York Times analysis considered whether the party could really carry out a populist agenda in support of workers. While Donald Trump has never shown much interest in workers’ rights, many of his acolytes have. Republican Sens. Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall, Marco Rubio and JD Vance (the party’s vice-presidential candidate) have all sided with workers in
ViewpointsSept. 3, 2024
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[Grace Kao] My K-pop class at Yale University
For the past four years, I’ve taught a first-year seminar titled “Race and Place in British New Wave, K-pop and Beyond” at Yale University. Since it’s the beginning of the Fall semester here, it seems like an appropriate time to share what my course is like. At Yale, we have special seminars that are only open to our first-year students. These courses are introductory and offer unique content. First-year seminars give our newest students a chance to interact with other st
ViewpointsSept. 3, 2024
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[Editorial] Keep dialogue going
People Power Party Chair Han Dong-hoon and Democratic Party of Korea Chair Lee Jae-myung took the first step toward cooperation in supporting public livelihoods through their meeting in the National Assembly on Sunday. It was the first official talks between the leaders of the ruling and main opposition parties in about 11 years. The interval indicates that confrontational politics has lasted a long time in Korea. However, with signs of legislative normalization emerging recently after both part
EditorialSept. 3, 2024
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[Jean Pisani-Ferry] What is needed to awaken Europe?
The European Union is facing three major crises. The first is a competitiveness crisis that was already apparent in the late 2010s but has worsened, leading to lackluster productivity and growth performance. More recently, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine created a security crisis that is compounded by the bloc’s deteriorating relationship with China. The war also triggered an energy crisis that puts Europe at a disadvantage relative to its major competitors, the United States and China.
ViewpointsSept. 2, 2024
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[Yoo Choon-sik] Rising housing prices in Seoul and trust in policy
An efficient economic policy is not necessarily one that simply achieves its intended goal regardless of side effects, but rather one that economic players trust, believing it was based on a correct assessment of the situation and expected effects from the policy. Measured against this criterion, South Korea’s recent policies and top officials' comments on rising house prices in the capital area fall short of being efficient -- not because they will fail to curb housing prices, but be
ViewpointsSept. 2, 2024
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[Editorial] Discrepancy in views
President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a televised briefing Thursday on state affairs that the South Korean economy is on a clear path for recovery and is set to take off in a big way in the future, painting a rosy picture. The next day, however, Statistics Korea data showed that the country’s industrial output dropped for the third-straight month in July. The reason was the shrinking production in the country’s mainstay industries of semiconductors and automobiles. Industrial output fell 0
EditorialSept. 2, 2024
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[Lee Byung-jong] Gen Z’s growing gender gap
The upcoming US presidential election in November has a surprising degree of similarities with the South Korean presidential election in 2022. For starters, both elections feature candidates who are being tried for various criminal charges, facing prosecutors-turned-candidates on the other side. But more importantly, both elections highlight a remarkably sharp gender divide among young people, particularly Generation Z. In both countries, young men predominantly support conservative candidates,
ViewpointsAug. 30, 2024
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[Editorial] 2025 Budget
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has revealed its determination to keep a tight budget to “normalize” public spending in the face of a growing tax revenue shortfall, but there are voices that any belt-tightening should be more selective and strategic in a way that benefits the public. The Finance Ministry on Tuesday announced that the budget for 2025 has been set at 677.4 trillion won ($507.7 billion). The figure marks a 3.2 percent on-year increase, which is higher than 2.8 percent
EditorialAug. 30, 2024
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[Contribution] Towards responsible AI in military domain
On Sept. 9-10, South Korea will host the second summit on the Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (REAIM). The first-ever summit on this topic was held last year in the Netherlands. REAIM 2024 in Seoul will continue to deepen understanding and awareness of the issues surrounding the application of AI in the military domain, and will explore ways to ensure that AI is used responsibly by militaries around the globe. AI is transforming all facets of human existence at an asto
ViewpointsAug. 29, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Were they not Koreans?
A nasty specter of historical revisionism has again shaken the Republic of Korea. This time, a comment in question came from Kim Moon-soo, the labor minister nominee. During his confirmation hearing in parliament, he denied the nationality of Koreans in the Japanese occupation period from 1910 to 1945. He asserted, “Our country was completely taken over and forcibly incorporated in Japan. How could there be such a thing as (Korean) nationality?” Shockingly, there exists a faction in
ViewpointsAug. 29, 2024