Most Popular
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Ador CEO denies allegations, accuses Hybe of mistreating NewJeans
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Korea’s homegrown nanosatellite successfully launches into space
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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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Medical reform committee kicks off despite boycott from doctors
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Hybe's multilabel system tested amid conflict with Ador
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SNU profs to suspend treatment for one day
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Rocket engine expert, ex-NASA exec to lead Korea's new space agency
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Over-50s, men, single-person households take up majority of those filing for bankruptcy
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SK hynix pledges W20tr to ramp up DRAM production at home
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[David Miliband] A plan for Syria’s refugees
BEIRUT, Lebanon ― After spending just three days with refugees and aid workers in Lebanon and Turkey, the apocalyptic nature of the Syria crisis is all too apparent: more than 100,000 deaths, nine million people displaced, two million children out of school, diseases like polio resurfacing, and neighboring countries struggling to cope with waves of refugees.Countless heartrending stories of lost husbands, wives, siblings, and children, to say nothing of homes and livelihoods destroyed, provide y
Dec. 16, 2013
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North Korea’s purge message to China: Pay up
Chinese President Xi Jinping must have felt pretty pleased with himself earlier this year, after he dispatched rival and former Politburo member Bo Xilai in a dramatic, humiliating show trial. When it comes to staging purges, though, North Korea’s brash young leader Kim Jong-un has him beat.Kim didn’t just arrest his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, the second-most powerful man in the country. The boy-dictator appears to have had Jang brought out of seclusion in order to arrest him again at a televised l
Dec. 16, 2013
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[Mohamed A. El-Erian] America’s partisan peril undermines economy
NEWPORT BEACH, California ― The United States’ reputation for sound economic policymaking took a beating in 2013. Some of this was warranted; some of it was not. And now a related distorted narrative ― one that in 2014 could needlessly undermine policies that are key to improving America’s economic recovery ― is gaining traction.The 2008 global financial crisis left the U.S. economy mired in a low-level equilibrium, characterized by sluggish job creation, persistently high long-term and youth un
Dec. 16, 2013
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Mastering English ― the impossible dream?
There are over 6,000 international organizations around the world and all of them need a place in which they can set up camp and carry out their mission. Recently the headquarters of the Green Climate Fund, located in Songdo, the new city that is forming near Incheon, was opened to much fanfare with many dignitaries present including President Park Geun-hye, Deputy Prime Minister Hyun Oh-Seok and even World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. The United States is home to 3,646 international organ
Dec. 16, 2013
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Irrational exuberance overtakes today’s Asia
What does Alan Greenspan have to do with rallies in Indian stocks, hopes for a resurgent Japan and the blind faith that China can grow at a rate of 7 percent forever? More than you’d think.Call it the Greenspanization of Asia. The former chairman’s tenure at the Federal Reserve, from 1987 to 2006, established a new political compact of sorts, whereby governments abdicated responsibilities to unelected central bankers. The “Greenspan put” that flooded markets with cash whenever things got dicey h
Dec. 16, 2013
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[Robert B. Reich] U.S. corruption starts at home
The Justice Department has just obtained documents showing that JPMorgan Chase, Wall Street’s biggest bank, has been hiring the children of China’s ruling elite in order to secure “existing and potential business opportunities” from Chinese government-run companies. “You all know I have always been a big believer of the Sons and Daughters program,” says one JPMorgan executive in an e-mail, because “it almost has a linear relationship” to winning assignments to advise Chinese companies. The docum
Dec. 15, 2013
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The trouble with oil palm trees
What’s so wrong with palm oil, from the palm trees that bear fruit, not coconuts?Well, if you listen to environmentalists and animal-rights advocates along with nutrition and health experts, they’ll tell you it’s something close to poison.Once the United States and other Western countries began condemning and banning trans-fat oils a few years ago, palm oil became a popular substitute. You can find it in shampoo, lipstick, soap and a host of snack and other foods, including some ketchups, margar
Dec. 15, 2013
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[Nina Khrushcheva] Putin’s presidency echoes that of Peron
MOSCOW ― Russian President Vladimir Putin has been compared to many strongmen of the past ― Joseph Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev, and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, to name a few. But, after nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparison now may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Eva (“Evita”).In the early 1940s, Colonel Peron, as minister of labor and secretary of war, was a “gray cardinal” to Argentina’s rulers. Before communism collapsed
Dec. 15, 2013
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Most courageous victory is that of self control
There are times when those who can’t control themselves are held in high esteem and become our leaders. Here are two recent instances of this in the U.S. and Korea. The mayor of San Diego was arrested on the morning of Dec. 10 and now has to wear an electric ankle bracelet for the rest of his life. He was brought in on charges of sexually harassing 19 women in the city government. Of course, he resigned from office and appeared on TV to apologize to the women he wronged as well as to the citizen
Dec. 15, 2013
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How did the 1 percent get ahead so fast?
From 2009 to 2012, the U.S. experienced a significant economic recovery, in which average real income growth jumped by 6 percent. That’s the good news. The bad news is that almost all of that increase ― 95 percent ― was enjoyed by those in the top 1 percent of the income distribution.To appreciate this remarkable finding, set out in an important paper by University of California economist Emmanuel Saez, we need to add some context. From 2007 to 2009, the recession produced a 17.4 percent decline
Dec. 15, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Obama’s pragmatic diplomacy
ABU DHABI ― This has been a year when America re-embraced diplomacy after a frustrating decade of war, displaying a relentlessly pragmatic approach that recalls the days of such deal-making former secretaries of state as Henry Kissinger and James A. Baker III. The secret diplomatic machinations have been dizzying, and sometimes disorienting. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have opened doors and created opportunities for settling intractable conflicts. But the administration’s t
Dec. 13, 2013
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A report card for U.S. top community organizer
PARIS ― When U.S. President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, it marked the first time that a local “community organizer” had risen to the highest office on the planet. I wasn’t entirely optimistic. Granted, the geopolitical competition (Russia) is also led by a community organizer of sorts, Vladimir Putin, except that the community he was organizing was the Russian domestic intelligence service.At the time, it was hard to see how Obama’s community-organizing background could bode well for Ameri
Dec. 13, 2013
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[Shahid Javed Burki] Pakistan’s political renaissance
LAHORE, Pakistan ― Pakistani institutions are evolving rapidly. With executive authority increasingly in the hands of elected representatives, rather than dispersed among various competing institutions, the political establishment has been revitalized ― and it has taken three important steps toward strengthening democracy and the rule of law. Is Pakistan, a country long prone to military coups, finally developing a well-functioning political system?On Nov. 27, Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain
Dec. 12, 2013
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Coca-Cola steps up for Cambodian victims
Many Southeast Asians and others around the world owe their thanks to the Coca-Cola Company.No, I’m not expressing gratitude for the sugary drinks that can help make people fat. But to make those drinks, Coke is one of the world’s largest sugar consumers. The company buys sugar from distributors all over the world.Well, it happens that some of the largest growers and distributors are in Thailand and Cambodia. And as a recent lawsuit made clear, much of the Cambodian sugar is grown on large plant
Dec. 12, 2013
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[Dan Steinbock] Overcoming economic woes in Hong Kong
For three decades, Hong Kong has thrived economically along with the Chinese mainland. Now its economic future is at a crossroads. According to a poll conducted by South China Morning Post, Hong Kong residents are far more unhappy with life than those in cities on the mainland. Usually, people feel happier when their living standards are better. In Hong Kong, the per capita GDP at purchasing power parity is $52,000. In the polled mainland cities, it is between $16,000 and $21,000, that is, only
Dec. 12, 2013
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Downplaying university degrees in Singapore
With thousands of unemployed graduates, the Singapore government plans to cap campus enrolment.It is clearer now why the government had been discouraging Singaporeans from depending too much on university degrees.The reason is that the pool of unemployed graduates is expanding in this wealthy city, despite a general shortage of workers.Almost by the week, new cases are being reported about well-educated professionals struggling to find jobs.The latest example: A 29-year-old accountancy and finan
Dec. 12, 2013
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Xi and Abe hold region’s hopes in their hands
China’s surprise declaration of a discretionary air reporting zone over the East China Sea caught the region unawares. There was neither any warning nor consultation on its plans. More troubling was that precisely what China would choose to do to enforce implied restrictions was left more than a little vague, because there has been no normative behaviour demonstrated although defensive air zones have a history going back 60 years. The American B-52 planes’ fly-past, which drew no response, looke
Dec. 12, 2013
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The Thai king’s birthday message for unity
“Unity” can be a powerful political rallying cry, intended to destroy one thing as much as to protect another. Or it can be uttered out of pure love and concern. We heard Thai King Bhumibol say it last week without expecting cheers or fists in the air in response. The monarch’s long pauses during his birthday speech meant the word did not even come in a complete sentence. But the message was perfectly loud and clear: He wants a nation at war with itself to stop and think it over.The king’s voice
Dec. 12, 2013
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[Peter Singer] America’s drone dilemma
PRINCETON, New Jersey ― Last month, Faisal bin Ali Jaber traveled from his home in Yemen to Washington, D.C., to ask why a United States drone had fired missiles at, and killed, his brother-in-law, a cleric who had spoken out against al-Qaida. Also killed in the attack was Jaber’s nephew, a policeman who had come to offer protection to his uncle.Congressional representatives and government officials met Jaber and expressed their condolences, but provided no explanations. Nor has the U.S. admitte
Dec. 11, 2013
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Are America’s students falling behind?
The standardized tests known as the Program for International Student Assessment are considered so important that when the latest results were released last week, the U.S. Department of Education participated in a so-called PISA Day.The leaders of the nation’s teachers unions immediately fired off news releases asserting that the mediocre PISA scores of American students showed that more than a decade of testing-based reform had failed our schools. Prominent reform leaders, by contrast, conclude
Dec. 11, 2013