Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Speaker floats dual citizenship as solution to falling births
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A better welcome for Iran’s new president
The U.S. House of Representatives has a peculiar way of welcoming Iran’s new president. Just days before today’s inauguration of Hassan Rohani, who has vowed to improve relations with the outside world and bring transparency to Iran’s nuclear program, the House approved legislation that would impose the harshest sanctions to date on Iran. It’s possible to doubt both the sincerity of Rohani’s pledges (or at least his ability to follow through on them) and the value of the House’s legislation. Par
Aug. 5, 2013
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[Terri Chung] Free my brother from N. Korea
I will never forget the sound of anguish my mother made as we watched the recently released video footage of the American citizen ― my brother, Kenneth Bae ― in a North Korean labor camp. Our family had been devastated by my brother‘s 15-year sentence of hard labor, but nothing could have prepared us for this.My mother drew in a sharp breath and broke into heaving sobs, gasping for breath, at the sight of her son so diminished. We could see the heavy toll his long imprisonment, since November, h
Aug. 5, 2013
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Obama, Republicans gird for another debt chicken
Democrats and Republicans, bracing for a game of chicken over a possible government shutdown and a debt-ceiling default, should rewatch the 1955 movie, “Rebel Without a Cause,” starring the American icon James Dean. A thug challenges Dean’s character to race their stolen cars toward an abyss. The first driver who jumps out of his speeding vehicle is a coward. Dean leaps just as his car is about to go over the cliff; the other guy’s leather jacket gets ensnared in the door handle, and he plunges
Aug. 5, 2013
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Follow basic safety rules to prevent water accidents
On July 15, six workers were killed at the flooded Noryangjin Reservior in Seoul. When the cause of the accident was disclosed, it became clear that the accident was a “man-made disaster.” If even one of the several dozens of people responsible for the construction of the Noryangjin Reservoir had fulfilled their roles properly, the accident could have been avoided; however, it happened as all of them handled it with insensibility and complacency.Three days later, on July 18, five second-year stu
Aug. 5, 2013
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Protectionist shadows cast over solar power
CAMBRIDGE ― As July ended, a settlement was reached in the world’s largest anti-dumping dispute, with China agreeing to a minimum price for the solar panels that it exports to the European Union. The solution is much less severe than what had been the imminent alternative: EU tariffs on Chinese solar panels were set to rise to 47.6 percent, as a result of the European Commission’s “finding” that China ― whose market share now stands at 80 percent in Europe ― had been “dumping.” Nonetheless, the
Aug. 5, 2013
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Our hotter, wetter, more violent future
Earth’s atmosphere seems to have found a way to get back at the human race. For almost three centuries, we humans have been filling the air with carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. Now, it turns out, the climate change these emissions have wrought is turning people against one another. So says a review, published today, of 60 studies on how climate change helps spark conflict throughout the world. The researchers found a surprisingly close link between climate change and civil wa
Aug. 4, 2013
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[William Pesek] Asia’s $7 trillion problem
“It’s our currency, but it’s your problem.” This musing from Nixon-era Treasury Secretary John Connally is about to find new relevance as the White House battles Republicans over raising the U.S. debt limit. Connally couldn’t have foreseen how right he would be 42 years on as Asia sits on almost $7 trillion in currency reserves, much of it in dollars. Asia’s central banks engaged in a kind of financial arms race after a 1997 crisis, stockpiling dollars as a defense against turmoil. That altered
Aug. 4, 2013
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Six of Janet Yellen or half-dozen of Larry Summers?
The strangest part of the increasingly bitter shadow campaign for chairman of the Federal Reserve is that the contest is not really about monetary policy. It’s about financial regulation. The two leading candidates for the job are Janet Yellen, the current vice chairman of the Fed, and Larry Summers, the former Treasury secretary and an economics adviser to President Barack Obama. When it comes to monetary policy, they don’t differ drastically. Both support the Fed policy to maintain low interes
Aug. 4, 2013
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Same old stories from the new China
In July, two stories out of China were big news. One focused on watermelon seller Deng Zhengjia, a poor urban migrant in Hunan province, who became newsworthy only when reports circulated that thuggish chengguan ― members of para-police units ― allegedly beat him to death. A week later, someone very different, Bo Xilai, was back in the news when he was formally charged with “abuses of power” and corruption. Bo ― the former party boss of one of China’s biggest cities, Chongqing, a Politburo membe
Aug. 4, 2013
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[Enrico Letta] New model for Europe needed to beat crisis
ROME ― It is becoming increasingly clear that if Europe is to overcome its crisis, business as usual will not suffice. We need a Europe that is more concrete, less rhetorical, and better suited to the current global economy. We need to focus not only on the European Union’s specific policies, but also on how to change its “politics” ― a change that must place economic growth at the top of the agenda.Europe does not need a debate between austerity and growth; it needs to be pragmatic. A good exam
Aug. 4, 2013
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Mideast negotiations far from ‘peace process’
Perhaps the most promising thing that can be said about anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is that we don’t know much about them. After hosting talks about talks in Washington this week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said formal discussions would begin within two weeks. No terms of reference were announced, so it’s not clear whether the two sides will begin where previous negotiations left off, from scratch or somewhere in between. This is a plus. When commentators, politici
Aug. 2, 2013
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[Naomi Wolf] Through the lookism glass
NEW YORK ― Do women suffer from a double standard in the workplace in relation to how they look? Have we gotten past the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) shade of sexism in hiring and promotion ― disproportionately affecting women ― that I identified in 1991 as “the professional beauty quotient”?It is hard to believe that we are still talking about this 20 years later ― but we must. When anti-feminists make the case that there is now a “level playing field” for women, and that any gender gap
Aug. 2, 2013
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‘Zero Option’ might be best option in Afghanistan
For American forces in Afghanistan, this should be the last straw.It started in early July, when President Obama was once again so furious with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that for the first time he began talking about the so-called “Zero Option” ― bringing home the entire American military presence next year.This came after Karzai lambasted the U.S. for trying to arrange peace negotiations with the Taliban. Lost in his latest fit of pique, Karzai summarily terminated the continuing negotiatio
Aug. 1, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Kerry’s big-bang diplomacy
WASHINGTON ― How can Secretary of State John Kerry succeed in the “Mission Impossible” of negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement when he faces the same intractable issues that have derailed so many previous peacemaking efforts? Skepticism about Kerry’s project is nearly universal, and it’s understandable when you look at the graveyard of past negotiations. But there are some interesting dynamics beneath the surface that should make observers cautious about premature burial announceme
Aug. 1, 2013
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Buying justice in Indonesia
Few Indonesians would feel surprised by last week’s arrest of a lawyer and a Supreme Court staff member for alleged bribery as the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had sent shockwaves in its attempts to unveil corruption within the judiciary.The KPK caught an advocate from Hotma Sitompul’s legal practice, Mario C. Bernardo, who was reportedly about to hand over a 80 million rupiah ($8,000) bribe to Supreme Court staff member Djodi Supratman on Thursday. The next day KPK investigators sear
Aug. 1, 2013
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Cambodian election result must be respected for now
The result of the general election held in Cambodia over the weekend might allow Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party to retain their grip on power for another term. But the slim margin of their victory indicates a number of possibilities for the future.First of all, and most important, Cambodian voters have proved that elections are the most legitimate method of assigning power to the people whom they want to run the country. Before the election there was widespread criticism
Aug. 1, 2013
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A more belligerent Japan is still in the cards
Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki visited China on Monday and Tuesday, which was widely interpreted by Japanese and Western media as a sign of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s willingness to try and sweeten the soured ties with China.However, the triumph of the hawkish Abe in the upper house election has caused anxiety in East Asia, as he has made it clear he wants to revise the country’s pacifist constitution and bolster Japan’s military. Many Japanese politicians are expecting him to visi
Aug. 1, 2013
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[BA Hamzah] Is ASEAN centennial possible?
Malaysia’s Minister of International Trade and Industry Mustapa Mohamed caught me off-guard with his recent remarks on the lack of awareness of ASEAN integration plans among those surveyed by the ASEAN Secretariat. However, on closer examination of the report, “Surveys on the ASEAN Community Building Effort, 2012,” the situation doesn’t appear to be that gloomy.The regional gropuping will celebrate its golden jubilee in 2017, but we can only guess whether there will be a centennial celebration f
Aug. 1, 2013
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Can Iran’s new president make a difference?
Iran will inaugurate its seventh president on Aug. 4. Hassan Rouhani assumes power at a time when the Islamic Republic is confronting international isolation and simmering domestic discontent. He has already changed the tone of the regime, promising moderation and a fresh look at Iran’s many quandaries. The temptation to embrace an Iranian politician who speaks the language of pragmatism may prove irresistible. However, as Rouhani settles into office, it is best to hold back and see how much aut
July 31, 2013
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[Robert Reich] Stop subsidizing executive pay
Almost everyone knows CEO pay is out of control. It surged 16 percent at big companies last year, according to the New York Times, and the typical CEO raked in $15.1 million.Meanwhile, the median wage continued to drop, adjusted for inflation.What’s less well-known is that you and I and other taxpayers are subsidizing this sky-high executive compensation. That’s because corporations deduct it from their income taxes, causing the rest of us to pay more in taxes to make up the difference.This tax
July 31, 2013