Most Popular
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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New celebrity-endorsed therapy for face contouring requires only a pair of rubber bands
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Tensions heighten ahead of first president-opposition chief meeting
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Seoul to provide housing subsidy to married couples with newborns
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[Weekender] How DDP emerged as an icon of Seoul
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Rapper jailed after public street fight with another rapper
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Woman gets suspended term for injuring boyfriend with knife
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[KH Explains] No more 'Michael' at Kakao Games
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Doctor group's incoming head renews call for govt. to scrap medical school quota hike for dialogue
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NewJeans pops out ‘Bubble Gum’ video amid troubles at agency
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U.S. plays cyberspy vs. cyberspy
With revelations that critical infrastructure in the U.S. has been under sustained attack, likely perpetrated by Russia, it’s easy to forget that we’re not merely a victim amid the waves of repeated cyberattacks.As the online world has grown to include sensitive information and the ability to control everything from power grids to airplanes, the U.S. is an active participant in a full-scale cyberwar with some of the most powerful governments in the world. This weekend’s revelation about a sophis
Nov. 30, 2014
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Japan is running out of economic options
The New York Times recently lit up the Japanese Twittersphere with a cartoon that was a little too accurate for comfort. In it, a stretcher marked “economy” is loaded into an ambulance with “Abenomics” painted on the side; the vehicle lacks tires and sits atop cinder blocks. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looks on nervously, holding an IV bag.The image aptly sums up Japan’s failure to gain traction in its push to end deflation. The Bank of Japan’s unprecedented stimulus and Abe’s pro-growth reforms h
Nov. 30, 2014
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[Ram Garikipati] Mortgages reveal tactical shift
A lot has been written in recent months about Korea’s soaring household debt and its implications for the economy. Many experts seem to agree that the country is staring at a catastrophe waiting to happen, and call for the debt to be reined in if the country has to strengthen its economic fundamentals. Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol is also of the view that efforts need to be made to control the growth of household debt, as it may dampen consumer spending ― even though the central bank’s dec
Nov. 30, 2014
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Holding China to its pledge of peace
President Xi Jinping’s pledge that China would use peaceful means to resolve territorial disputes had barely registered with rival claimants when news came that Beijing was building defence infrastructure on a disputed reef. The latter brought home all too clearly another crucial point that Xi made in his speech to the Australian Parliament last week. He said “the Chinese people will firmly uphold the core interests of China’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity.” Implicit in China’s
Nov. 30, 2014
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Why college is necessary but gets you nowhere
This is the time of year when high school seniors apply to college ― and when I get lots of mail about whether college is worth the cost.The answer is unequivocally “yes,” but with one big qualification. I’ll come to the qualification in a moment, but first the financial case for why it’s worth going to college.Put simply, people with college degrees continue to earn far more than people without them. And that college “premium” keeps rising.Last year, Americans with four-year college degrees ear
Nov. 28, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Benefits of national service
WASHINGTON ― At Thanksgiving, Americans think about the spirit of community that animates the country at its best. But in a year characterized by so much political and racial discord, you have to wonder whether the communal quilt is fraying at the edges. Here’s an idea for reweaving the American fabric through a program of national service. This proposal was outlined by two Americans with very different backgrounds: Tom Brokaw, the former NBC News anchor, and Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former
Nov. 28, 2014
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[Kim Kyung-ho] Korea’s own historical liability
In a retrial earlier this month, a Seoul appellate court ruled against South Korea’s Vietnam War veterans demanding compensation for their exposure to defoliant. Ruling in favor of two U.S. chemical manufacturers, the court did not recognize epidemiological correlations between Agent Orange and diseases such as lymphoma suffered by the plaintiffs numbering more than 5,000.In 2006, the Seoul High Court ordered the two firms to pay compensation ranging from 6 million won ($5,400) to 46 million won
Nov. 27, 2014
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[Zhu Yuan] Chinese law’s application, not debate, is the key
Never has rule of law been talked about so much in China’s modern history. This is all because of the fourth plenary session of the 18th Party Central Committee in October, which for the first time in the history of its national plenary sessions made “governing according to law” its major topic.But the paradox is the more the rule of law becomes a hot topic in public discourse, the more explicit it becomes that more needs to be done to turn it into a reality. Yet what makes China’s rule of law d
Nov. 27, 2014
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Obama’s lesson from Hagel ― and from ‘Mockingjay’
PARIS ― Less than 10 days before Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced his resignation, he addressed a memo to senior defense leaders.“While we have been engaged in two large land mass wars over the last 13 years, potential adversaries have been modernizing their militaries, developing and proliferating disruptive capabilities across the spectrum of conflict. This represents a clear and growing challenge to our military power,” Hagel wrote. “I see no evidence that this trend will change. At
Nov. 27, 2014
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More dialogue, fewer fear tactics needed in discussion of FTAs
The subject of free trade agreements has been in the news lately, as the government warned about the ramifications of a recently inked accord between mainland China and South Korea.According to the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, after the FTA between China and South Korea takes effect, Taiwan’s GDP will drop by 0.5 percentage points, affecting a number of local industries including steel, machinery, cars, panels, petrochemical and textiles.South Korea currently enjoys 62.6 percent
Nov. 27, 2014
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What Greek accounting woes can teach Asia
Asia should care about Greece, because it offers two important lessons. One, that “Greek accounting” triggered the European crisis and weakened an important trading partner to Asia. Two, that weak Greek government financial management and reporting impaired trust and confidence in governing institutions.The impact of the European crisis continues. The European economy is still struggling. Growth is anemic at best. The crisis had an impact on the growth of Asian economies through the reduced leve
Nov. 27, 2014
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[David Ignatius] At an impasse with Iran
WASHINGTON ― The Iran nuclear talks defy easy comparison: But think of a labor negotiation where it’s too costly for workers to go on strike or for management to impose a lockout, so the two sides continue without a contract while negotiations proceed. The situation appears stable, but that’s partly because it’s at an impasse.This collective-bargaining analogy illustrates some dynamics of the nuclear talks between Iran and the West. Negotiators agreed Monday to extend for seven months their effo
Nov. 26, 2014
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Economic inequality and the age of the Internet
The conclusion that America has become vastly more unequal over the past 35 years is beyond doubt. Since 1979, the pattern has been clear: The richer you were, the far richer you have become. And if you were poor, you probably stayed poor.But the same period has also been an era of rapid technological change. The United States is undergoing a third industrial revolution, an information-age upheaval that could be as momentous as its predecessors, which transformed society through the introduction
Nov. 26, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Listening to arguments against pension reform
The issue of how to reform the public pension system has become a central talking point. The ruling Saenuri Party has drafted a revised version of the Government Employees Pension Law under the guideline of “pay more, receive less.” The 1 million members of the nation’s bureaucratic community including retirees are vehemently against the reform move while the rest of the people look on warily, many reluctant to sympathize.I subscribe to the National Pension Service system, which deposits a six-d
Nov. 26, 2014
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Harvard deserves Steve Ballmer’s millions
Now that he’s retired as chief executive officer of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has time for popular billionaire pastimes. First, he bought a basketball team for $2 billion. Now he’s gotten into big-bucks philanthropy.Ballmer and his wife, Connie, are giving $50 million in unrestricted funds to bolster the endowment of the University of Oregon, her alma mater. (She’s also on the university’s board of trustees.) They’re kicking in a seemingly comparable amount to significantly expand the computer sc
Nov. 26, 2014
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Let’s reinstate genuine, heartfelt applause
I was commenting to my freshman class on their just completed series of presentations, a harrowing process of public speaking while being observed, taped, and scored by professor and students alike. “You stepped out of your comfort zone,” I understated. “And that’s a good thing. I can guarantee you only one thing that will happen if you stay in your comfort zone. And that is: nothing.”It was a nice little sermon about the fact that growth and learning are rarely relaxing. When I ended, applause
Nov. 26, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] Generational conflict in Korea
A few days ago, Kim Dae-jung came to mind, and I decided to watch a few videos of his old speeches on YouTube. One of the most impressive was a speech in Daegu during the 1987 presidential campaign in which he challenged the sharply hostile crowd to imagine a country without regional conflict. Always articulate, he argued the point passionately and managed to finish the speech without being driven off the podium.In the 1980s, regional conflict divided Korea more than anything else. The conflict
Nov. 25, 2014
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Ukraine gave up the bomb to find a bear
With Russian tanks and other military equipment rolling into Ukraine, Kiev is learning the hard way that when you reside in a nasty neighborhood it doesn’t pay to get rid of nuclear weapons without ironclad security guarantees. But that is exactly what it did in December 1994 when it agreed to the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances co-signed by the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom.As Russia took Crimea this year and continued to support the separatists, some Ukrainian officia
Nov. 25, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Long-distance relationships
Americans are known to be hopelessly bad at long-distance relationships. When a husband has a job in New York City and his wife works in Los Angeles, their relationship is likely to gradually deteriorate to the point that they have no option but to break up. One of my American friends teaches at a college on the East Coast and his wife teaches on the West Coast. As they had to spend a whole day traveling to visit each other once in a while, they eventually broke up. The English maxim “Out of sig
Nov. 25, 2014
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The banking system is safer, simpler and fairer ― Really?
This week in Singapore, fresh from the G20 meetings in Brisbane, Bank of England Mark Carney delivered a major speech outlining the future of financial reform. As current Chairman of the Financial Stability Board, tasked with coordinating global financial stability efforts, he patted himself on the back that the Brisbane meeting had completed the monumental task of designing a post-crisis system of prudential regulation. The tough job ahead is implementation. Congratulations ― seven years after
Nov. 25, 2014