Most Popular
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Yoon’s jailed mother-in-law excluded from latest parole list
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[Herald Interview] 'Amid aging population, Korea to invite more young professionals from overseas'
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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[Pressure points] Leggings in public: Fashion statement or social faux pas?
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Nicaragua shuts down Seoul embassy
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Rocket engine expert, ex-NASA exec to lead Korea's new space agency
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SK hynix pledges W20tr to ramp up DRAM production at home
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SNU profs to suspend treatment for one day
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Hybe's multilabel system tested amid conflict with Ador
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Over-50s, men, single-person households take up majority of those filing for bankruptcy
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Did North Korea recycle your laptop?
Did Kim Jong-un recycle your old laptop?That’s the question hovering over last week’s news that Chinese authorities had recently broken up an e-waste smuggling ring responsible for delivering 72,000 metric tons of prohibited junk via North Korea to China’s shores in 2013. Chinese news accounts hailed the bust as the biggest in recent e-waste history, requiring a four-month investigation involving 500 police officers. Most of the goods originated in Japan, with some also coming from the United St
March 9, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Time for political parties to finish their work
With the June 4 local elections still about three months away, rival political parties are already gripped by election fever. They are making all-out efforts to position themselves for the coming electoral battle, putting other important matters on the back burner.The main opposition Democratic Party is engrossed in creating a unified coalition party with an opposition group led by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo. The party is desperate to merge with Ahn’s soon-to-be-created New Political Vision Party becaus
March 9, 2014
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Reality check on Crimea
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told President Obama on Sunday that Vladimir Putin was out of touch with reality. When it comes to Ukraine, however, it’s not just Putin who seems to be operating in a parallel universe. In Washington, this crisis is causing politicians from both parties to lose their grip.I don’t just mean Republican hawks, who see an opportunity to bash Obama for foreign-policy weakness. Or Florida’s presidential hopeful, Sen. Marco Rubio, who opposed authorizing forc
March 9, 2014
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[Marc Champion] Putin isn’t crazy, he’s KGB
On the road to Sevastopol, Russian flags and a Russian Orthodox cross adorn a checkpoint manned by Crimea’s pro-Russian civilian defense force. A banner announces: “Where We Are, There Is Russia.”That sentiment explains why we should all be concerned about what is happening in Crimea, even if, as seems increasingly possible, Russia’s intervention ends without bloodshed or formal annexation of the peninsula. The banner sets out the principle according to which Russian President Vladimir Putin is
March 7, 2014
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Annexing Crimea will cost Putin dearly
Just when the crisis in Crimea appeared to be easing, it has suddenly grown more dangerous. In a decision that surprised even the peninsula’s pro-Russians, the local parliament has changed both the date and question for a referendum: On March 16, Crimea may vote to join Russia.Any plebiscite held within 10 days of its announcement is by definition a joke, yet the implications here are serious: No major country has annexed territory since World War II. Unless it can be prevented, the damage will
March 7, 2014
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[Robert Reigh] Lousy work, lousy wages kill jobs
House Speaker John Boehner says raising the minimum wage is “bad policy” because it will cause job losses.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says a minimum wage increase would be a job killer. Republicans and the chamber also say unions are job killers, workplace safety regulations are job killers, environmental regulations are job killers, and the Affordable Care Act is a job killer. The California Chamber of Commerce even publishes an annual list of “job killers,” including almost any measures that
March 6, 2014
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Strangelove logic may fuel Asia arms race
Let’s congratulate the real winners from China’s latest economic disclosures: Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautics Defense and Space.Forget the Potemkin growth target Premier Li Keqiang served up today at the opening of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress. It’s always hard to take Chinese numbers seriously. Who among you economists really believe Chinese leaders can simultaneously “declare war” on the pollution choking Beijing and Sh
March 6, 2014
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China warned not to push Philippines to the wall
The strong diplomatic protest against China’s water-cannon attack on Filipino fishers on Jan. 27 in Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea was followed by an announcement by the armed forces of the Philippines that the disputed islet, which Manila claims as Bajo de Masinloc, would now be under the jurisdiction of the Western Command.The shift sent a strong signal that the Philippines was using all its diplomatic and military resources, no matter how limited, to protect its fishers from Chi
March 6, 2014
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[Jonathan Eyal] Asia can learn from German model of contrition
Diplomats are paid to dream up clever ways of promoting their country’s interests. But occasionally, diplomatic ingenuity can go too far, as a team of Chinese diplomats tasked with planning President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to Germany recently discovered.Beijing offered to set aside a big chunk of President Xi’s visit to commemorative events praising the way Germany dealt with its historic responsibility for World War II. Chinese officials assumed that this would please their German hosts
March 6, 2014
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Vandalism of Anne Frank books a blow against intellectual heritage
Who was behind the many recent acts of vandalism against books relating to Anne Frank, and why did they do it? This sort of criminality can never be pardoned.At public libraries and bookstores in and outside of Tokyo, Japanese-language copies of “The Diary of a Young Girl,” which tells of Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jewish people, and related books have been found vandalized with pages ripped out. All told, the number of books damaged exceeded 300.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga exp
March 6, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Russian leader’s mistake
WASHINGTON ― Napoleon is said to have cautioned during an 1805 battle: “When the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him.” The citation is also sometimes rendered as “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Whatever the precise wording, the admonition is a useful starting point for thinking about the Ukraine situation.Vladimir Putin has made a mistake invading Crimea, escalating a crisis for Russia that has been brewing for many months. It m
March 5, 2014
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Putin would be humbler without toilet paper
Walk into a supermarket anywhere in Russia and you’ll find shelf upon shelf stocked with familiar European brands, from Barilla pasta to Danone yogurt.Under President Vladimir Putin and his predecessors, Russia has singularly failed to develop its domestic industries, and has imported ever-larger amounts of consumer goods from Europe, its top trade partner. They include Dior handbags and BMW autos, but also huge amounts of staples from toilet paper to chocolate bars.If the European Union truly w
March 5, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Has Sochi weakened our confidence about 2018?
After the Winter Olympics in Sochi, many people here have been expressing concern that Korea may not be able to stage the 2018 Games in PyeongChang with opening and closing ceremonies as impressive as those in the southwestern Russian city. I am neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic. My humble suggestion is that we simply hold a different kind of Olympics. Last week, local newspapers ran headlines about Korea ranking ninth among the G20 on the National Power Index, quoting a report by a Seo
March 5, 2014
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Revisiting the Federal Reserve’s crisis
BERKELEY, California ― Reading through the just-released transcripts of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meetings in 2008, I found myself asking the same overarching question: What accounted for the FOMC’s blinkered mindset as crisis erupted all around it?To be sure, some understood the true nature of the situation. As Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal points out, William Dudley, then the executive vice president of the New York Fed’s Markets Group, presented staf
March 5, 2014
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The West needs Russia’s help more than it realizes
PARIS ― Remember when you were a kid and packed your bag to run away from home, only to quickly realize that you lacked the requisite means to follow through on your threat? Mom and Dad, after giving you a little time to save face, had to drive down the road and toss your penniless little behind and your Transformers backpack into the backseat. We’re now witnessing a similar scenario with the pathetic display of political theater underway between the West and Russia over Ukraine.Those first few
March 5, 2014
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[Lee Jae-min] Learning a new playbook
Has the Trans-Pacific Partnership scheme hit a stumbling block? Questions are lingering as the ministerial-level talks in Singapore in late February ended without a final deal. This outcome raises a red flag as it is the second failure to meet the deadline in as many months. Nor has there been any mention of a new deadline, for that matter. Of course, the issue is not simply about deadlines: after all, deadlines can be missed and adjusted. What grabs outsiders’ attention, however, is that the Si
March 4, 2014
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South Korea’s wildly plausible growth plan
Clearly, marketing isn’t Park Geun-hye’s thing. That’s become painfully apparent as the South Korean president pitches a “474 vision” to revitalize the nation’s economy ― a task her predecessor failed at, despite deploying an eerily similar slogan.Park’s numeric acronym stands for generating 4 percent growth, a 70 percent employment rate and average per capita income of $40,000. You’d think Park would’ve steered very clear of any catchprase that reminded the world of Lee Myung-bak’s “747 plan” f
March 4, 2014
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Actions needed to check Putin’s adventurism
BRUSSELS ― Russia’s seizure of Crimea is the most naked example of peacetime aggression that Europe has witnessed since Nazi Germany invaded the Sudetenland in 1938. It may be fashionable to belittle the “lessons of Munich,” when Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier appeased Hitler, deferring to his claims on Czechoslovakia. But if the West acquiesces to Crimea’s annexation ― the second time Russian President Vladimir Putin has stolen territory from a sovereign state, following Russia’s seiz
March 4, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Embracing those who are different
At the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia declared internationally well-known Russian writers as its cultural icons. The great writers proudly presented included Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Nabokov. No one would argue that these celebrated writers have influenced the world enormously. When I was in high school, for example, I burned the midnight oil reading Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter,” Tolstoy’s “Resurrection,” Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” and Chekhov’s “The Cherry
March 4, 2014
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India’s task: From poverty to empowerment
MUMBAI ― As India gears up for its general election next month, it has some cause to celebrate: extreme poverty is finally in retreat. In 2012 ― two decades after the government launched a series of economic reforms aimed at opening up the economy ― the official poverty rate had reached 22 percent, less than half the rate in 1994. But it is time for India to raise its aspirations. Escaping abject destitution, though an important milestone, is not the same as achieving a decent standard of living
March 4, 2014