Most Popular
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Humor in Korea: Navigating the line between what's funny and not
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[Exclusive] Korean military set to ban iPhones over 'security' concerns
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Yoon seeks rebound, taps 5-term lawmaker as chief of staff
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Medical standoff deepens as doctors reject new med school plan, talks
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Korean, Romanian leaders discuss defense tech, nuclear energy
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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[Herald Interview] Why Toss invited hackers to penetrate its system
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S. Korean envoys convene to navigate strategy amid Middle East tensions
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North Korea fires several short-range ballistic missiles into sea: JCS
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Samsung, SK hynix investors dump shares on Nvidia crash
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[Editorial] Greater cause
Medical schools across the country will admit 2,000 more students starting from the next school year, raising the total annual quota to 5,058, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Tuesday. The planned increase in the number of people trained as physicians comes as South Korea suffers from a deadly shortage of doctors outside the greater Seoul area and in life-saving specialties such as pediatrics, general surgery, cardiothoracic surgery and emergency medicine. The government plans to revise t
EditorialFeb. 10, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] An argument for more smoking booths
On a recent visit to Seoul, I noticed something that had never caught my attention before: smoking in outdoor nonsmoking areas. As a nonsmoker, I try to avoid secondhand smoke, but I began to look at smoking areas after noticing groups of smokers in front of a restaurant with a no-smoking sign on the side of the building. The sidewalks near the restaurant also had a sign stating that smoking was prohibited and punishable by a fine. I wondered what caused people to ignore the sign, even at the ri
ViewpointsFeb. 9, 2024
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[Editorial] Diverging trends
South Korea’s policymakers on Wednesday received two positive signals that share largely the same conclusion: A recovery in exports continues to ease the economic slowdown. The first piece of good news came from the Bank of Korea, whose preliminary data shows the country recorded a current account surplus for the eighth month in a row in December, helped by an increase in trade surplus and dividends from overseas. The second piece of upbeat news was reported by the state-run Korea Developm
EditorialFeb. 9, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Diplomatic disaster and message management
Relations between South Korea and Russia are facing a severe crisis. The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry belittled the South Korean president's remarks publicly. Under normal diplomatic relations, disparagement is an entirely unacceptable diplomatic provocation. In response, the spokesperson of the South Korean Foreign Ministry directly criticized the Russian president. It might be self-defensive as a draw because both nations exchanged accusations against each other. However
ViewpointsFeb. 8, 2024
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[Mark Gongloff] California floods and Chile fires
After a 2023 filled with climate disasters, 2024 seems in a hurry to top it, with atmospheric rivers in California, wildfires in Chile, drought in Spain and more in just the first weeks. Even as humanity is missing its goals for limiting global warming, nature is reminding us that every tenth of a degree of heat we can avoid will be precious. While Joni Mitchell sang “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now” at the Grammy Awards in the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunda
ViewpointsFeb. 8, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] 'The most depressed country in the world'
A video on South Korea uploaded by a famed American author, Mark Manson, has become the talk of the town lately. In the video, “I traveled to the most depressed country in the world,” Manson poses a question: “How come a dynamic, vibrant country influencing the world with advanced technology, K-pop and K-drama suffers the world’s highest rate of suicide, alcoholism, anxiety and depression?” In his intriguing video, Manson argues that Korea’s unique blend of Co
ViewpointsFeb. 7, 2024
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[J. Bradford DeLong] What Is US Fed Thinking?
At its monthly meeting on Jan. 31, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee held firm on interest rates. “The Committee judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are moving into better balance,” the FOMC explained in its press release. But the “economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks.” As a result, “the Committee does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the targ
ViewpointsFeb. 7, 2024
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[Editorial] Project financing debacle
South Korea’s financial regulators remain jittery about growing risks linked to real estate project financing loans. No wonder, then, that financial officials have been actively issuing more warnings with more details. One notable change is that their warnings are now coming with more explicit expressions. For instance, Lee Bok-hyun, governor of the Financial Supervisory Service, called real estate PF risks a “detonator” hooked up to the Korean economy at a press conference hel
EditorialFeb. 7, 2024
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[Op-ed] Holding firm in support of Ukraine
This month we mark a grim anniversary; two years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This period has seen Russia breach international law, commit war crimes and engage in unlawful military cooperation with the DPRK. The Ambassadors of the European Union reiterate their condemnation of these actions, and their appreciation for the solid support of the Republic of Korea for Ukraine. We are confident that the ROK’s support will remain firm, including in full implementation of sanction
Foreign AffairsFeb. 6, 2024
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[Antara Haldar] Populism’s great replacement of economics
In 1944, as World War II neared its end, the exiled Hungarian economic sociologist Karl Polanyi published The Great Transformation, a treatise that focused on the dangers of trying to separate economic systems from the societies they inhabit. Eighty years on, Polanyi’s warnings about a market economy unleashed from human needs and relations may prove prescient. In fact, the future that he foretells bears a strong resemblance to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which the doctor’s
ViewpointsFeb. 6, 2024
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[Editorial] Medical reform
The government unveiled a set of measures on Sunday to revamp the national health insurance system to raise the compensation for general surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, emergency physicians, pediatricians and obstetricians in a bid to ease the shortage of doctors in those lifesaving fields. As the dearth of physicians has reached deadly levels in provincial regions, the Ministry of Health and Welfare also plans to announce this week a major increase of the annual medical school admission quot
EditorialFeb. 6, 2024
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[Jan-Werner Mueller] The case for banning anti-democratic candidates
What should democracies do about parties that use elections and other democratic means to destroy democracy itself? One well-established, but not universally accepted, answer is to ban the party before it comes to power. But what about individual politicians? Americans are heatedly debating that question now that various legal challenges have sought to disqualify former President Donald Trump from running for a second term, owing to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. The
ViewpointsFeb. 5, 2024
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[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
ViewpointsFeb. 5, 2024
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[Editorial] Gap in economic growth
The US and Europe have long been deemed the twin pillars driving prosperity in the Western world. Recent trends, however, suggest the center of gravity is shifting toward the US, according to a report released by the Bank of Korea. In the report titled “Background and Implications of Differential Growth Trends in the US and Europe," the BOK analyzes the key factors that resulted in different paces of growth in the two economic heavyweights, and offers takeaway points for a Korea that
EditorialFeb. 5, 2024
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[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
ViewpointsFeb. 2, 2024
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[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
ViewpointsFeb. 2, 2024
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[Editorial] Rules of the game
With under 70 days left to the general election on April 10, South Korea's two main parties are yet to decide on the rules of the game. As separate splinter parties formed by former leaders of the People Power Party and the Democratic Party of Korea may or may not join forces, the process of setting election rules is likely to drag on until the last minute. The key question is over the method of proportional representation, through which 47 lawmakers are elected to the 300-member National A
EditorialFeb. 2, 2024
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[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
ViewpointsFeb. 1, 2024
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[Editorial] Deepfakes pose real threat
Sexually explicit fake images of Taylor Swift, widely believed to have been generated by artificial intelligence tools, spread on social media last week at a dizzying pace, deeply alarming government officials, security experts, actors and many others. The high-profile incident might be blamed on the widely expected side effects of generative AI, which is capable of creating fake photos using real images circulating on the internet. This creates an environment in which "deepfakes," fak
EditorialFeb. 1, 2024
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[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
ViewpointsFeb. 1, 2024