Most Popular
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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[Herald Interview] 'Amid aging population, Korea to invite more young professionals from overseas'
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Ador CEO denies allegations, accuses Hybe of mistreating NewJeans
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Nicaragua shuts down Seoul embassy
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Hybe's multilabel system tested amid conflict with Ador
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Rocket engine expert, ex-NASA exec to lead Korea's new space agency
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SNU profs to suspend treatment for one day
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SK hynix pledges W20tr to ramp up DRAM production at home
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Over-50s, men, single-person households take up majority of those filing for bankruptcy
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Pianist Cho Seong-Jin named Berlin Philharmonic's artist-in-residence
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[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Egypt’s unfinished revolution will eventually succeed
NEWPORT BEACH ― A year ago, Egyptians of all ages and religions took to the streets and, in just 18 days of relatively peaceful protests, removed a regime that had ruled over them with an iron fist for 30 years. Empowered by an impressive yet leaderless movement ― largely of young people ― the country’s citizens overcame decades of fear to reclaim a voice in their future.While much has been achieved since those euphoric times, Egypt’s revolution today is, unfortunately, incomplete and imperfect
Jan. 29, 2012
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Challenges for Indonesia on way to ‘AAA’ rating
It’s a rare economic story that involves Facebook Inc., God and credit ratings. Leave it to Indonesia to serve up a saga that speaks volumes about the obstacles facing Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Although Indonesia doesn’t often make global headlines, one event last week should have received more ink: Moody’s Investors Service returned the country to investment grade for the first time since the Asian financial crisis. It was an overdue recognition of how far Indonesia has progressed in th
Jan. 27, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Campaign for ‘American renewal’
WASHINGTON ― The foreign-policy theme that should dominate this year’s presidential campaign is “American renewal.” Each candidate claims to have a strategy for halting the nation’s decline, but their versions often amount to “more of the same” ― which ain’t gonna work. For a bracing discussion of what a revival of U.S. power would actually require over the next few decades, I recommend a new book called “Strategic Vision,” by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to Presiden
Jan. 27, 2012
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‘Invented threat’
As disturbing as the controversy over why Salman Rushdie was misled into believing that his life, and the literature festival, would be endangered if he turned up at Jaipur is the manner in which the home ministry opted out of taking the lead role in a security-related situation. It may be technically correct that law and order is a state subject, but when the larger issue of the nation’s global prestige is at stake, and when more than one state government is involved (Maharashtra and Rajasthan
Jan. 27, 2012
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China, Russia, U.S. face off beneath the waves
An underwater tug-of-war is intensifying among countries such as China, Russia and the United States in the seas around Japan.Vietnamese Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, who comes from Vietnam’s army, requested an inspection of a Maritime Self-Defence Force submarine when he visited Japan in October.He visited the Makishio, a main submarine of the MSDF Submarine Flotilla 1, in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. Made in Japan, the state-of-the-art submarine boasts a displacement capacity
Jan. 27, 2012
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Major powers battle for influence in Asia
“Where there is sugar, there are ants,” is perhaps the appropriate phrase to visualize the ongoing and increasing struggle among the major powers over influence in Asia ― the continent with the world’s fastest growth and abundant natural resources. Along with these colliding interests, comes the race to exercise control and to tap the continent’s resources and huge potential.The struggle among nations, particularly superpowers like the United States and the rapidly emerging power China, to gain
Jan. 27, 2012
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[Park Sang-seek] Clash of Western civilization and Korean culture
Koreans celebrate the two New Years: the solar New Year and the lunar New Year. The first is based on Western civilization and the second on Chinese civilization. Their contradictory behavior is symbolic of the clash of cultures in Korea.In the present, Western civilization and Korean culture are mixed like a salad bowl, and Koreans experience a culture clash. In order to deal with this, Koreans need to understand the characteristics of Korean culture and their impact on the political, economic
Jan. 27, 2012
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[Robert Shiller] Does austerity promote growth?
NEW HAVEN ― In his classic Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1724), Bernard Mandeville, the Dutch-born British philosopher and satirist, described ― in verse ― a prosperous society (of bees) that suddenly chose to make a virtue of austerity, dropping all excess expenditure and extravagant consumption. What then happened?The Price of Land and Houses falls;Mirac’lous Palaces, whose Walls,Like those of Thebes, were rais’d by PlayAre to be let; ... .The building Trade is quite
Jan. 26, 2012
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How Democrats got their pockets picked
It’s hard to read Thomas Frank’s new book, “Pity the Billionaire,” without being astonished at what utter nincompoops Democrats are.This surely was not Frank’s primary intent. The book is subtitled, “The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right,” so it’s pretty clear where Frank coming from. But the obvious subtext is how, in a two-party system, Democrats allowed Republicans to pull off the greatest cross-dressing scam since RuPaul became America’s Drag Queen.Frank is a journali
Jan. 26, 2012
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Shell game on the size of government
President Obama recently unveiled a plan to reorganize and streamline government agencies. “No business,” the president said, “... would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations. ... Why is it OK for our government?” Sound familiar?It should. Obama’s proposal ― a political ploy aimed at the fickle middle of American politics ― is the most recent in a long line of presidential “efficiency” measures. Every president since Richard Nixon has offered something simi
Jan. 26, 2012
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The verdict is already in on climate change
Recently I had jury duty, and during jury selection something remarkable occurred. Early in the proceedings, the judge posed a hypothetical question to the 60 or so potential jurors in the room: “If I were to send you out now and ask you to render a verdict, what would it be? How many of you would vote not guilty?” A few raised their hands. “How many would vote guilty?” A few more raised their hands. “And how many would say you didn’t know enough to decide?” Every remaining hand ― about 50 peopl
Jan. 26, 2012
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[Richard H. Thaler] Corporate citizens do well by doing good to others
Although the phrase is now somewhat out of fashion, the issue of corporate responsibility is at the heart of many of the debates on economic policies around the world. Should corporations simply maximize profits and let the invisible hand do its wonders, or do they have some obligation to be good corporate citizens as well? As with many politicized debates, this one has been captured by two extreme positions, neither of which are, to my mind, particularly sensible. At one extreme are “pro-respon
Jan. 26, 2012
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New, unneeded obstacles to abortion
A federal appeals court this month upheld a Texas law that requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo a sonogram, forces doctors to describe that sonogram in detail to her and then requires that she wait 24 hours before she can undergo the procedure. Texas was one of five states to adopt mandatory sonogram laws last year.Proponents insist these laws are about informed consent and making sure women have all the details about the procedure. They are not. The laws are about one thing only: ere
Jan. 25, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Hubbub over ‘Bain Capitalism’
It’s one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It’s quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Romney’s critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future.Don’t hold your breath.Newt Gingrich says Bain under Romney carried out “clever legal ways to loot a company.” Gingrich cal
Jan. 25, 2012
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Difficult case tests lay judges
At the Saitama District Court on Jan. 10, six lay judges ― three men and three women ― together with three professional judges started to deal with not only three murder cases but also with seven other cases involving the defendant, Kanae Kijima ― fraud, attempted fraud and theft.Kijima pleaded guilty to fraud charges of swindling two men of money but pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. As to the murder charges, there are no confessions and no concrete evidence linking her to the murders.T
Jan. 25, 2012
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Korea’s tradition of propriety: Godsend for network age
In this age the complex relations developing between individuals outside of the workplace or the family, whether those that develop through online communications within organizations, or those found in social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, are having a profound impact on our society. Connections between people from vastly different backgrounds, who serve at different levels within organizations, can subtly, or bluntly, influence policy. Almost all actions within social networks
Jan. 25, 2012
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A ‘New Model’ for engaging North Korea
In North Korea, the king is dead, long live the king. Now what? I say we need to find a new way forward. Let me explain. At its meeting last October, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Korea (http://www.weforum.org/content/global-agenda-council-korea-2011) called for a “New Model” for relations between North Korea and the world. That call is even more valid with the death of Kim Jong-il. I chaired that Global Agenda Council and I will present the “New Model” at the WEF’s full m
Jan. 25, 2012
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[Benedicta Marzinotto] What will banks do with the ECB’s wall of money?
BRUSSELS ― Throughout the crisis period, the European Central Bank’s behavior has been conditioned by the tension between what it can do and what it is allowed to do.The ECB is the only institution in the European Union that is able to provide unlimited funding to governments, but its governing statute prohibits government bailouts. Nonetheless, the ECB has provided large amounts of liquidity to the financial system, indirectly softening the pressure on government debt refinancing. For 18 months
Jan. 25, 2012
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U.S. forces not retreating from Europe
In planning to withdraw two of the U.S.’s four combat brigades from Europe, the Barack Obama administration is drawing on an unlikely inspiration: Donald Rumsfeld, when he was secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, wanted to do the same thing (the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan made the idea moot). Not that this will make Obama immune to partisan criticism: Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, likened the administration’s proposed de
Jan. 24, 2012
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[Lee Jae-min] Who rates sovereign states?
Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings are the troika of U.S.-based global credit rating agencies. The roots of these credit rating agencies date back to the middle of the 1800s in the U.S. The origin of Standard & Poor’s was when Henry Varnum Poor published History of Railroads and Canals of the United States in 1860, which compiled information on railroads companies, the most capital intensive industry at the time. Their scope of information coverage expanded gradually
Jan. 24, 2012