Most Popular
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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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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Hankook Tire takes over control of Hanon Systems
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[Herald Interview] ‘Time to Be Strong’ follows retired K-pop idols’ self-discovery
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Samsung chief returns from Europe after meeting with Pope, business leaders
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Crying for single moms and their children
I wanted to start my column with “Let’s celebrate single moms,” but since Mother’s Day has been overshadowed by a tragedy that has made so many mothers childless, I have chosen to start with the grief of Sewol.The tragedy of the Korean ferry Sewol, carrying a great many children, has had a profound impact on the whole of Korea. People are angry, sad and shocked, and demand that the captain be severely punished. While the more violent emotions will eventually disappear, many will never forget how
May 7, 2014
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What Putin should know about Russian history
KGB agents are apparently not taught history, or so it would seem from Vladimir Putin’s recent statement that only “God knows” how a part of southeastern Ukraine ever became part of that country. The Russian president refers to the region as “New Russia,” an old idea that has always been ― and remains ― an aspiration rather than a fact. Luhansk, Donetsk, Odessa and other New Russian cities have been a part of Ukraine for nearly a century. And even before that, they were never truly Russian.It wa
May 7, 2014
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China buys friends and influences nations
If you can’t beat them, outspend them. That seems to be the thinking behind a huge new infrastructure investment fund being promoted by China as an alternative to established international lending agencies. It’s a terrible rationale for starting a bank ― and a good reason to reform the current international system, which remains dominated by Americans, Europeans and Japanese.Japan, in particular, seems to be the target of China’s proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Tensions between th
May 6, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] Moving toward a better Korea
Korea has been crying for itself since the Sewol cruise ship sank on April 16. The ship was carrying 476 people, most of them high school students on a school trip, sank en route to Jeju from Incheon. A staggering 264 people died, and as of press time, another 38 are missing, but most certainly dead. Cargo weight far exceeding capacity made the ship hard to maneuver, causing it to capsize during or after a turn.The scope of the tragedy alone was enough to send the nation into shock, but it was m
May 6, 2014
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Gary Becker explains your dinner check
Saturday marked the death of Gary Becker, perhaps the greatest social scientist of the last 50 years. More than anyone else, Becker is responsible for the rigorous pursuit of the idea that human beings are rational and responsive to incentives. That’s a simple idea, but Becker used it to produce path-breaking insights into countless areas, including crime, discrimination, addiction, politics and the structure of the family.Becker was a colleague and a friend of mine, and he was a quintessentiall
May 6, 2014
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Tougher Russia sanctions can’t wait
At the same moment last Friday when U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel set a late-May deadline to get serious about sanctioning Russia over Ukraine, a pitched battle was under way in Odessa that killed, at current count, at least 34 people. The two Western leaders couldn’t have known about the deadly fire raging at the time. Yet the coincidence of timing demonstrates how far the U.S. and Europe have fallen behind events in Ukraine.The clash in Odessa matters not just
May 6, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Memory loss may be a blessing
We all grow old. As we grow older, we experience inevitable changes physically and mentally. For example, we feel deterioration of our minds and bodies, such as the gradual loss of memory and physical strength. Sadly, however, there is nothing much we can do about aging. As we grow older, we develop a myriad of undesirable symptoms, such as being garrulous, stingy and oblivious. That is the reason for the maxim, “When you become old, zip up your mouth and open your purse instead.” Old people als
May 6, 2014
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Thomas Piketty poses problem to conservatives
BERKELEY, California ― In the online journal The Baffler, Kathleen Geier recently attempted a roundup of conservative criticism of Thomas Piketty’s new book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.” The astonishing thing to me is how weak the right’s appraisal of Piketty’s arguments has turned out to be.Piketty’s argument is detailed and complicated. But five points seem particularly salient:1. A society’s wealth relative to its annual income will grow (or shrink) to a level equal to its net saving
May 6, 2014
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[Naomi Wolf] Football versus freedom
NEW YORK ― Last year, Brazilian authorities were taken by surprise when a wave of protests erupted during the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, a sort of warm-up to this year’s main event, the World Cup, which will be staged in 12 cities across the country beginning in June. The protesters, complaining that the $11 billion spent on new stadiums and other World Cup-related infrastructure would be better invested in improving Brazil’s poor public services, were met with official violence. And
May 2, 2014
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Going cashless effective in fighting crime
Since the early 1990s, crime rates have generally been falling in the U.S. In particular, there has been a big drop in the incidence of robbery, burglary and larceny. How come?New research suggests an unexpected factor. In the 1990s, the national government started requiring states to deliver welfare benefits through the new Electronic Benefit Transfer system instead of paper checks. EBT allowed beneficiaries to get their money via debit cards ― meaning a big reduction of cash on the street and,
May 2, 2014
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[Robert Reich] A proposal to check CEO pay
Until the 1980s, corporate CEOs in America were paid, on average, 30 times what their typical worker was paid. Since then, CEO pay has skyrocketed to 280 times the pay of a typical worker; in big companies, to 354 times.Meanwhile, over the same 30-year time span, the median American worker has seen no pay increase at all, adjusted for inflation. Even though the pay of male workers continues to outpace that of females, the typical male worker between the ages of 25 and 44 peaked in 1973 and has b
May 1, 2014
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Differences between U.S. and Russian mindset
PARIS ― A Cold War is purely an intelligence war. If you go on a Ukrainian geopolitical bender in front of a former KGB chief like Russian President Vladimir Putin without having a firm grasp of the opposition’s mindset, you risk launching yourself into a wall like some kind of drunken frat bro on a Slip ‘N Slide.Here are a few handy tips for understanding the Russian intelligence modus operandi and how it differs from America’s.HUMINT vs. OSINT: Russia has higher standards and capacity for espi
May 1, 2014
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[Endy M. Bayuni] Disconnection with voters undermines democracy
As the official count of the April 9 legislative election winds up, Indonesians will soon learn who will represent them at the House of Representatives. Some big names will return, new ones will enter, but some big incumbents will lose their seats. That is what democratic elections are all about, at least partially. The result of the legislative election also determines which parties have the right to nominate candidates for the July 9 presidential election.More than seats and power, the legisla
May 1, 2014
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Why Thailand’s political system isn’t working
Democracy’s biggest flaw, perhaps, is its tendency to force everyone to bite off more than they can chew. When an overwhelmed team runs a corporation, the worst-case scenario is bankruptcy for those concerned. When a group of people has to do everything “for” a country after winning an election, there is no limit to how bad things can get.This is not an anti-democracy argument. This is an argument for some serious reconsideration of the orthodox belief that, in a democracy there must be only one
May 1, 2014
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Empowering Nepali women ― moving beyond tokenism
One of the key differences between Nepal and Scandinavian countries is that equality between men and women is a real thing there and not merely a slogan of NGOs or footnotes in job advertisements. In Norway, it was around the 1960s when women began demanding and were given equal status as men. Currently 40 percent of its parliamentarians are women. Working women there lead a life similar to men who have to handle both work and family. Similarly in Latin America, a Facebook post, courtesy of Deve
May 1, 2014
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[David Ignatius] In camps, a yearning for home
ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan ― Ask Yousef Bargash when he might go home to his village of Mahaja in southern Syria and he turns his palms skyward in supplication. The old man says it’s his “main hope,” but his manner implies he won’t be leaving soon. The war is too brutal.Getting refugees such as Bargash back home from camps and squatters’ apartments in Jordan and other neighboring countries is at the heart of solving the Syria mess. But talking to refugees, it’s obvious this won’t happen unless
April 30, 2014
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Averting another ferry disaster
In the aftermath of the ferry tragedy in which 302 passengers, most of them high school students, may have died, South Koreans have had more than one target for their rage: not only the captain and crew of the Sewol, who botched the evacuation and then abandoned ship, but, more important, the shipping company and regulators, who appear to have cut corners on safety.The test of whether South Korea has learned anything from this disaster will be whether it can finally sever the ties that have long
April 30, 2014
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Racist eruptions reveal that prejudice still lives
This country has come a long way on race. The law no longer tolerates discrimination and most institutions, public and private, have accepted diversity as the new normal.But all too often somebody stuns the nation by saying something so appallingly racist that it reveals just how far we still have to go.Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team, is the latest example. Recordings of racist ravings from a man believed to be him in a conversation with his g
April 30, 2014
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Gone too soon
Gone too soonTo Poseidon duneThe netherworld of cold cocoons’twas the break of dawnWhen the ship’s alarmDisturbed the foggy morning calmSailing on the Sewol was your final voyageAn overloaded vessel with excess tonnageWith untrained crew devoid of courageThe helms mate lacked experiential knowledgeGuiding the vessel through a treacherous passageWith faulty steering, she could barely manageSteering the ship from its deadly wreckageYour smiles we’ll missYour memory’s a cherished blissYour future’s
April 30, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Media should have warned of maritime dangers
As the nation remains in grief two weeks after the tragedy in the southwestern sea, people are pointing their fingers at those they believe are responsible. Journalists need to reproach themselves for their failure to expose the chain of corruption in our close-knit society before it sacrificed 300 lives.Had a newspaper, a broadcaster or a single investigative reporter taken a close look at the murky world of the coastal shipping business earlier, things would have been a little different and th
April 30, 2014