Most Popular
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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Ador CEO denies allegations, accuses Hybe of mistreating NewJeans
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[Herald Interview] 'Amid aging population, Korea to invite more young professionals from overseas'
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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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Medical reform committee kicks off despite boycott from doctors
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The limits of current climate negotiations
NEW YORK ― If the world is to solve the climate-change crisis, we will need a new approach. Currently, the major powers view climate change as a negotiation over who will reduce their CO2 emissions (mainly from the use of coal, oil, and gas). Each agrees to small “contributions” of emission reduction, trying to nudge the other countries to do more. The United States, for example, will “concede” a little bit of CO2 reduction if China will do the same.For two decades, we have been trapped in this
June 25, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] A red card from Brussels?
As the Europeans fumble for a red card, Korea is mounting all-out efforts to avoid it. All government agencies are being mobilized to talk the EU out of issuing a red card. The issue at hand is IUU (Illegal, Unreported or Unregulated) fishing, and the EU still seems skeptical of Korea’s plan to eradicate it. A yellow card was already handed to Korea in November last year when Brussels included Seoul on its preliminary list of IUU fishing countries along with Ghana and Curacao, a Dutch island in
June 24, 2014
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Living in the Republic of Samsung
The oft-smiling Lee Jay-yong is both South Korea’s biggest hope and its biggest problem.The 46-year-old heir apparent to lead Samsung Electronics Co. has been the object of media obsession since his 72-year-old father disappeared into a hospital. Lee Kun-hee, Samsung’s chairman and Korea’s richest man, had emergency surgery in May after suffering a heart attack. The nation is already moving on to Lee the younger, with analysts and investors praying he’ll steer the family business well.What’s unf
June 24, 2014
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CIA’s back-channel talks with ‘the bad guys’
When reports surfaced in Washington this month that the Obama administration has been holding secret back-channel talks with Hamas over the last six months, the denials came swiftly. “These assertions are completely untrue,” proclaimed State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. “As you all know, Hamas is a designated foreign terrorist organization. ... Per long-standing U.S. policy, we do not have any contact with Hamas.”Let’s hope that’s not true. The CIA has always dealt with bad guys, and it’s
June 24, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Why we need good translators
Nonnative speakers of English often find it difficult to fully understand some English expressions. Sometimes, they fail to catch subtle nuances, and at other times they are unable to grasp the underlying meaning. For example, the English expression “I’ll see what I can do” almost always means “yes,” whereas “Let me think about it” is most likely to mean “no.” Another colloquial expression, “It’s OK,” often causes confusion, for it can mean “No thanks” or “I like it” depending on the situation.
June 24, 2014
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Globalization of Korean fine art market
The international art market reached $64.6 billion in total sales of art and antiques in 2013, close to its highest ever recorded total, and advanced 8 percent year-on-year according to the Art Market Report 2014 published by the European Fine Art Foundation. But the Korean fine art market reached just 440.5 billion won ($432 million) in total sales in 2012, according to the Survey on the Art Market 2012 published by the Korea Arts Management Service. The figure represents only 0.63 percent of t
June 24, 2014
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Give Norway’s beggars a break
Norway, one of the world’s richest nations, is about to ban begging in a move some see as a sign of rising anti-immigrant sentiment. Whatever the motivation, it’s the work of misguided people who want to hide what they can’t understand.A recent government-commissioned report says there are between 500 and 1,000 foreign beggars on the streets of Oslo. The city estimates it will spend 5 million kronor ($824,000) this year just cleaning up after them. Locals believe most of them are Roma, a group c
June 24, 2014
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[Pankaj Mishra] Remapping of Middle East
The swift victories of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Iraq bring to mind the prescient words of John Buchan in his famous 1916 spy novel “Greenmantle”: “There is a dry wind blowing through the East, and the parched grasses wait the spark.”Buchan was writing about the wildfire of revolt and secession running across the old Ottoman Empire, which had for centuries enjoyed suzerainty over much of the Middle East. Propped up through the late 19th century by Britain and France, the sick m
June 23, 2014
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Why Obama must send military advisers to Iraq
Most days an announcement that the U.S. will send up to 300 military advisers to noncombat duty in some far-off land wouldn’t get much media mention or public attention. Small deployments happen with some frequency, and many Americans never get past the headline. But these troops are going to Iraq ― dispatched by a president who has boasted of ending a long war in that nation.So Thursday’s news from President Barack Obama revived arthritic reflexes:Dovish isolationists fear that resuming U.S. mi
June 23, 2014
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[Bernard Parent] Sewol disaster ― engineering education problem
The collapse of the Gyeongju auditorium in February followed by the capsizing of the Sewol ferry in April have resulted in hundreds of high school and university students losing their lives unnecessarily at a very early age. The cause of these sad events is being attributed mostly to the greediness of entrepreneurs who sacrifice public safety in favor of monetary gains as well as, in the case of the Sewol ferry, to the incorrect behavior of the crew members. However, I would argue that, ultimate
June 23, 2014
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Airbnb is a risky neighbor
What’s not to like about the sharing economy? You take assets lying fallow (cars, homes, spare moments) and rent them out on a short-term basis to people in need. Essentially, we’re ramping up the productivity of a whole lot of capital.One group of critics is obvious: the folks who already make a living driving cars and renting rooms. Sharing cuts into their revenue, and over the last few years, they’ve been moving aggressively to stop it ― first by getting their thoroughly captured regulators t
June 23, 2014
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Can Fed Chair Yellen float above politics?
Imagine that the Federal Reserve’s policy makers were as divided on monetary policy as members of Congress are on almost everything. Imagine that this lack of consensus also typically blocked action. The Fed’s post-crash moves on interest rates and its adventurous use of unorthodox measures such as quantitative easing simply couldn’t have happened.Not everybody agrees with me that this would have been a terrible thing. (To get a flavor of the alternative, skeptics could take a look at the euro z
June 23, 2014
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[Robert Reich] Right-wing lies about poverty
Rather than confront poverty by extending jobless benefits to the long-term unemployed, endorsing a higher minimum wage or supporting jobs programs, conservative Republicans are taking a different tack.They’re peddling three big lies about poverty. To wit:Lie No. 1: Economic growth reduces poverty.“The best anti-poverty program,” wrote Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, in the Wall Street Journal, “is economic growth.”Wrong. Since the late 1970s, the economy has grown 147 percent pe
June 22, 2014
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Putin diverts Obama from focus on terrorism
PARIS ― The fact that U.S. President Barack Obama is putting hundreds of boots back onto the ground in Iraq to protect American interests is the result of some bad decisions and missed opportunities to correct course. Except that Russian President Vladimir Putin had already staked out the proper course ― and the Obama administration seems intent on turning every action into a political spitball aimed at getting Putin’s attention.The administration’s preoccupation with economic warfare against Eu
June 22, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Park needs soul-searching on nomination mess
While President Park Geun-hye was on a Central Asia tour last week, her approval rating took a harsh beating. It turned negative for the first time since she took office in February last year. A Gallup Korea poll showed only 43 percent of respondents approved of the job that Park was doing, down 4 percentage points from the previous week. The share that disapproved of her gained 5 percentage points, reaching 48 percent.As the main cause of the drop in public support for Park, the pollster cited
June 22, 2014
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United States needs ideologues, not partisans
Americans are too worried and at the same time not worried enough about political polarization. Ideological rivalry is a good thing, not a bad thing: It’s the reason for democracy, not a drawback of democracy. However, when rivalry hardens into a sullen standoff ― not a contest of ideas but a bloody-minded refusal to engage ― you have a problem. And to put it mildly, the U.S. has a problem.The Pew Research Center’s new report on the polarization of U.S. public opinion is essential reading. It do
June 22, 2014
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Mexico’s breakout moment?
MEXICO CITY ― Less than two years into Enrique Pena Nieto’s presidency, Mexico is implementing an ambitious structural-reform package designed to lift its economy out of a multi-decade low-growth trap and create new opportunities for its citizens. The reforms involve restructuring economic sectors once deemed politically untouchable, and are backed by constitutional amendments and a bold legislative agenda.Indeed, thanks to the “Pact for Mexico,” much of this agenda has the support not only of P
June 22, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Obama’s tough choices in Iraq
WASHINGTON ― President Obama came nearly full circle on Iraq Thursday, sending military advisers back to cope with that country’s disintegration, as U.S. officials lobbied for replacement of the prime minister that America helped install. These were the right choices, but they were a measure of how badly U.S. policy has gone awry. Obama has concluded that Iraq faces all-out civil war and partition unless it replaces Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with a less sectarian and polarizing leader. U.S.
June 20, 2014
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Abe has a bad case of the slows
One thing is painfully clear about Shinzo Abe’s program to revive Japan: The man’s in no hurry.What else can be said about a prime minister who pledged in June 2013 to provide specifics on how he planned to make Japan relevant again ― only to wait until June 2014 to reveal them? If Abe wonders why stock markets yawned this week when he unveiled his deregulation agenda, that lack of urgency provides a partial explanation. Two other reasons: policy vagueness and a lack of audacity.Japanese chief e
June 20, 2014
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ISIS ― is it too extreme to survive?
Just how terrifying is the Sunni Muslim extremist group that’s taken over a huge swath of territory in northern Iraq? Here are some clues:After seizing Iraq’s second-largest city, the group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, boasted of massacring 1,700 prisoners in cold blood.ISIS leaders have announced that they intend to assassinate Iraq’s Shiite Muslim religious leaders and destroy their shrines.ISIS is so extremist that even al-Qaida expelled the group earlier this year
June 19, 2014