Most Popular
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Naver will consider company benefits in deciding on selling Line shares: CEO
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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[Bennett Ramberg] New threat to nuclear security
LOS ANGELES ― Nobody would dispute the danger inherent in possessing nuclear assets. But that danger becomes far more acute in a combat zone, where nuclear materials and weapons are at risk of theft, and reactors can become bombing targets. These risks ― most apparent in today’s chaos-ridden Middle East ― raise troubling questions about the security of nuclear assets in volatile countries everywhere.Two recent events demonstrate what is at stake. On July 9, the militant group now known as the Is
Aug. 17, 2014
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[Park Sang-seek] Korea must work to repair national identity
The world is witnessing the conflict between the Jewish and Islamic civilizations in Israel, the Islamic sectarian conflicts in Syria and Iraq, the tribal and Islamic sectarian conflicts in Afghanistan, an ethnic-nationalist conflict in Ukraine and the unrelenting tension between the two political systems on the Korean peninsula, while observing peace in Western Europe. This shows that the root-cause of these conflicts is the lack of national identity. In other words, the peoples in these confli
Aug. 17, 2014
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Stagflation threatens Abenomics gamble
Maybe it’s time to stop dismissing the risk of stagflation in Japan.I’ve raised this risk a couple of times during the last 12 months as inflation rose without commensurate increases in wages or productivity. But yesterday’s ugly gross domestic product report suggests it’s a clear and present threat to Japan’s best chance at economic recovery in more than a decade.The collective reaction yesterday to the 6.8 percent plunge in second-quarter growth seemed to be: “Relax, it could’ve been worse.” A
Aug. 17, 2014
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U.S. presence in Iraq and pivot to Asia
What do President Barack Obama’s decision to authorize airstrikes against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State and his previous commitment to send American military advisors and trainers back into Iraq have to do with his “pivot” to Asia? Everything and nothing.Nothing in the sense that the battle in Iraq has little bearing today on what China might do in the South China Sea tomorrow. But everything in the sense that the underlying assumption that drove Obama to pivot away from the Middle Ea
Aug. 17, 2014
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Make no mistake, we’re back in an Iraq war
Every time President Barack Obama thinks he has succeeded in establishing restraint as the central doctrine of his foreign policy, a new outburst of chaos in the Middle East draws him back in. In 2011, fears that Libya’s Moammar Kadafi would massacre opponents led the United States into an air war. In 2013, Syria’s use of chemical weapons against civilians almost drew Obama into another. Now it’s Iraq, where the president thought he had disentangled the United States, only to see a new threat ar
Aug. 17, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Confronting a new enemy
WASHINGTON ― When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his terrorist Islamic State, he ignored a warning from Osama bin Laden that jihadists should be cautious about establishing a caliphate too quickly. In torching a firestorm in Iraq and Syria, Baghdadi has united his enemies and given them a target to attack, just as bin Laden predicted.Baghdadi’s bloodbath has achieved the impossible: He has provided a common adversary for Saudis and Iranians, Turks and Kurds. He has united many of Iraq’s Sunni, Sh
Aug. 14, 2014
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Are the Philippines worth fighting for?
Nothing tells the story of where the Philippines was before Benigno Aquino and now better than Transparency International’s rankings. When he rose to the presidency in 2010 pledging to attack graft, his country was rated 134th, trailing Nigeria. Now, it’s 94th and boasts the investment-grade credit ratings to prove it.But what if Aquino’s good-governance revolution is over? What if the bad old days of predecessors Gloria Arroyo and Joseph Estrada return once Aquino’s term ends in 2016?These risk
Aug. 14, 2014
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When the pressure is on, ASEAN falls apart
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations badly needs to pay more attention to new challenges in the security landscape of both this and more far-flung regions of the globe, addressing them with intensive collective discussion. Though a few commercial airliners have been shot down over the past decades, the downing in Eastern Europe last month of a passenger jet belonging to a national flag carrier from Southeast Asia was especially shocking for our region. On board the Malaysia Airlines flight
Aug. 14, 2014
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International cooperation crucial for Ebola
A widespread infection with Ebola virus has been reported in West Africa. International cooperation is essential to prevent the expansion of this terrible disease.The deadly virus has been spreading from Guinea since February. The death toll from the epidemic has topped 900 in Guinea and its two neighboring countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, marking the largest number of victims since the first patient with Ebola virus was confirmed in 1976.Deaths from the virus have been also confirmed in Nig
Aug. 14, 2014
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[Nayan Chanda] An opportunity that India let go
Foreign pressure often provides governments with a handy lever with which to overcome domestic vested interests and push through long-overdue reforms. The rules on agricultural subsidies set by the World Trade Organisation are one such tool. A reform-minded Narendra Modi government should have taken advantage of them to make it easier to dismantle the nation’s populist and financially ruinous policy of providing food subsidies as well as free water and electricity.Instead, New Delhi stood alone
Aug. 14, 2014
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Dangers of equating reform with stricter control
Siam Cement Group’s latest TV commercial is worth watching.Featuring children from all 10 ASEAN nations, it shows what our younger generation expects from technology. A Vietnamese boy hopes that one day a house will be able to generate electricity on its own. A Thai girl foresees medical advancements. A Myanmar girl dreams of clean food. Yes, all this requires technological development ― which fits SCG’s vision of itself as an innovative organisation. Importantly, it also fits its ambition to be
Aug. 14, 2014
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[Chun Sung-woo] Learn from Yi’s leadership
The popularity of “Roaring Currents,” a period movie on Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s (1545-1598) great victory over a much larger Japanese invading fleet in 1597, continues its sweeping upturn. The film broke another box-office record on Sunday, passing the 10 million viewer mark at the fastest pace for a flick screened in Korea, a nation of about 50 million people. It took just 12 days from its premiere to pass the milestone and the number of movie goers is still rising.At first, few expected the movie
Aug. 13, 2014
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Responding to Ebola epidemic
NEW YORK ― The horrific Ebola epidemic in at least four West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria) demands not only an emergency response to halt the outbreak; it also calls for re-thinking some basic assumptions of global public health. We live in an age of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that can spread quickly through global networks. We therefore need a global disease-control system commensurate with that reality. Fortunately, such a system is within rea
Aug. 13, 2014
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How to fight Islamic State jihadists
About a century ago, after World War I, British and French leaders carved up the Middle East and set the modern borders of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.Now a growing force of Sunni extremists fighting under the banner of the Islamic State are creating a new nation in the same region ... at gunpoint. Its boundaries are not yet set in ink on a map. But the jihadists have seized vast chunks of Syria and Iraq with a clear goal: Establish a new “caliphate,” an Islamic state led by a supreme religi
Aug. 13, 2014
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Japan needs more Jim Beam
Two things caught my eye last week: the Bank of Japan, which decided to lay off the monetary stimulus, and Jim Beam ― the latter not for reasons you might think.BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda is a smart and battle-tested policymaker. By now, he has to know that pumping more money into the econony won’t end Japan’s deflation. Falling prices are as much about the aging population as anything else, and only structural change can arrest the trend. Kuroda seemed to admit as much by taking no new action as
Aug. 13, 2014
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Corrections come on regular basis
Last month, we discussed how we might be on the verge of a correction. We also noted the futility of trying to time the start and finish of such events. What actually matters is how you react ― or overreact. As my colleague Josh Brown has observed, “since the end of World War II (1945), there have been 27 corrections of 10 percent or more, versus only 12 full-blown bear markets (20 percent or worse).”However, the data show that the distribution of corrections isn’t smooth. Indeed, almost half (4
Aug. 13, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] What’s in your bibimbap?
Over the past month, people from different walks of life have told me that much of the kimchi served in restaurants is imported from China. A chef friend at a local restaurant told me that most of the ingredients in bibimbap come from China. The same holds true for vegetable side dishes. Imported food from China costs less than growing it and preparing it in Korea because of the cost of labor. This is particularly true of vegetables that require time-consuming preparation.Much imported food cont
Aug. 12, 2014
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Another Apple alibi sours
Complacency is a sin in business in general and a deadly one in technology; now that devices with the Android operating system have surpassed Apple’s iOS in web-browsing share, the iPhone maker is guilty of hubris. The day is coming when Apple will either need more aggressive pricing, or a qualitative jump echoing the one that first made it a leader in mobile.Few remember now that in 2009, the year Samsung introduced its first Galaxy smartphone running Google’s Android OS, the South Korean compa
Aug. 12, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Korea needs colorless and color-free men
We know those who subscribe to political correctness prefer the term “a man of color” to “a colored man,” which they believe is tainted with racial bias. Indeed, “a man of color” sounds more positive and attractive since it implies that the person has a unique charm and personality. Even in Korean, “a man of color” (saekal itneun namja) has good connotations and refers to a man of charming and inimitable character. In Korean society, however, we certainly need colorless or color-free men because
Aug. 12, 2014
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Ebola provides a painful lesson on Liberia
Dr. Elinor Graham and her friend, Dr. Roseda Marshall, are two remarkable doctors united by their concern for the well-being of the Liberian people. In recent weeks they have been gathering medical supplies and raising awareness about Liberia among Americans.Liberia is one of several West African countries struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak that as of late last week had taken almost 900 lives. And it is one of the three most affected countries, along with Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau, non
Aug. 12, 2014