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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Hybe and Min Hee-jin, CEO of Hybe sublabel Ador, lock horns
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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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Obama’s legacy may hinge on this summer’s achievements
There are two widely discussed scenarios that could unfold in Washington this summer. The first, embraced by the White House and some Democrats, is upbeat: The immigration bill passes the Senate with a big margin, making it almost impossible for House Republicans to resist; more people start signing up for President Barack Obama’s health-care law, and even though no fiscal grand bargain is in the offing, an improving economy gives the president a stronger hand in dealing with Republicans on exte
June 24, 2013
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[Pankaj Mishra] Turks are fighting over the future, not religion
The protests in Turkey, which now involve an extraordinarily diverse group of people, illuminate an altered political landscape. Yet much coverage of the demonstrations betrays an intellectual lag ― worse than the one that plagued many journalists and pundits when anti-Mubarak protesters filled Tahrir Square in 2011. Hasty proclamations of a “Turkish Spring” have given way to sophisticated-sounding but shallow dualisms, which seem to come straight from Flaubert’s “Dictionary of Received Ideas.”
June 24, 2013
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How many are needed to put the screws in Kim?
As U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, he’s facing an unlikely spoiler: Japan. Traditionally, China has played this irksome role. The six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear program ― suspended since 2009 ― never got anywhere largely because China refused to put the screws on its ally. No matter how many missiles the Kim Dynasty fired off, how many nuclear tests it conducted, or how many North Koreans starved or ended up in prison camps, Chin
June 23, 2013
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[David Ignatius] The sequester’s harsh bite
WASHINGTON ― For people (like me) who worry that the U.S. government is becoming dysfunctional, it’s worth studying the subtle and largely hidden effects of sequestration on the U.S. military and other agencies. What’s happening is the slow-motion decay of programs and readiness, which should scare the heck out of most citizens. Sequestration, you will remember, was the meat-ax approach to budget cutting whose consequences were thought to be so capricious and damaging that Congress would have to
June 23, 2013
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How to best manage $406b of Korean Pension Fund
Fifty million Koreans will count on the Korean National Pension Plan in their retirement years. Clearly, managing the $406 billion national pension fund in the best manner possible is one of the most critical missions of the national government, right next to national defense and economic growth. Is the Korean national pension fund being managed well? Let’s consider the quality of the national pension fund by three criteria: safety of the assets, rate of return on the portfolio, and steadiness o
June 23, 2013
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Tied in knots over interfaith weddings
Wedding season is officially upon us, and one needn’t be marrying a “Bridezilla” star to find the planning comes with some stress. Interfaith couples seem to have more than most as they try to satisfy not only each other but two extended families and two religious communities.I interviewed dozens of interfaith couples from across the country for a book on interfaith marriage. One husband and wife I met had planned to get married in a Catholic church to accommodate the bride’s family. Which was a
June 23, 2013
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[Simon Chesterman] U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Inc.
SINGAPORE ― Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden’s leaking of classified material ― whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand ― the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States.Around a third of the 1.4 million people with “top secret” U.S. security clearances are contractors, according to the Office of the U.S. Director of National Int
June 23, 2013
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Edward Snowden and the dangers of amateurism
PARIS ― Anyone who knows anything about the real world of intelligence and espionage knows that James Bond is a joke who wouldn’t survive his first day on the job (and not just because he’d fall asleep during static surveillance). But just try explaining to people that Agent 007 bears absolutely no resemblance to the reality of espionage profession. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that intelligence-leaking NSA contractor Edward Snowden ― with his lack of understanding of the intelligence ap
June 21, 2013
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[Joel Brinkley] A costly effort in Afghanistan
They’re stealing from our people who are trying to help them and killing our soldiers who are trying to train them. And when called on it, they say we are lying.It’s probably no surprise that I’m talking about Afghanistan. But a new U.S. government auditors’ report puts glistening new icing on the cake.The Afghan Finance Ministry has levied nearly $1 billion in unwarranted taxes on United States aid agencies that “build roads, schools, hospitals” for the Afghan people, the auditors’ report said
June 21, 2013
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Two centers of unaccountable power in U.S.
There are two great centers of unaccountable power in the American political-economic system today ― places where decisions that significantly affect large numbers of Americans are made in secret, and are unchecked either by effective democratic oversight or by market competition.One goes by the name of the “intelligence community,” and its epicenter is the National Security Agency within the Defense Department. If we trusted that it reasonably balanced its snooping on Americans with our nation’
June 20, 2013
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[Mehdi Khalaji] Rowhani gives facelift to Iran
WASHINGTON ― On June 17, at his first press conference as Iran’s President-elect, Hassan Rowhani broke little new ground in the Islamic Republic’s relations with the West. On nuclear policy, he said that the “era of suspension is over”: Iran will not accept the suspension of uranium enrichment in upcoming negotiations but will seek to make its nuclear activities more transparent in order to build international confidence. Moreover, Iran would welcome direct negotiations with the United States if
June 20, 2013
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Ward off capital risks
The yuan keeps rising, inter-bank rates have shot up, and foreign exchange purchases have slumped, such conflicting trends have caused worries among puzzled China watchers. But are such fears justifiable?The yuan hit new highs on Monday in terms of the official central parity rate, rising to 6.1598 against the U.S. dollar before edging down on Tuesday. It has risen by more than 2 percent since the start of this year.While the economic fundamentals are out of line with the currency appreciation m
June 20, 2013
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All eyes on China’s post-1965 cohort
Talk of China’s future leaders usually revolves around those born in the early 1960s, such as Guangdong party boss Hu Chunhua and Chongqing chief Sun Zhengcai.But lately, the focus has been shifting to the “liu wu hou” cohort ― those born in or after 1965 ― as more emerge in key Communist Party and government posts.There are 15 now in the party committees governing China’s provinces and municipalities, making them a minority among the 400-plus provincial leaders nationwide.Another four post-1965
June 20, 2013
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Peat fires and the return of Malaysian haze
It’s the same old script, year after year. Right around this time, the clear blue skies in parts of our country and a few other countries in the region will turn grey.It is that time of the year when forests are being cleared the easy way by small-time farmers and big-time plantation companies.And so the fires rage on and, aided by the monsoonal wind patterns, bring unhealthy pollutants into our lives. The haze is no respector of geographical or international boundaries. It simply goes where the
June 20, 2013
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[Salman Haidar] Chinese president in America
As China has risen, the U.S. has grappled with the task of coming to terms with this constantly more prominent reality on the international scene. This has not been a smooth process, indeed it has been marked by many disagreements and considerable friction. From time to time, various negative features of China’s emergence have been emphasized in the U.S. and other Western countries, such as its record on democracy and human rights.Official agencies have led the criticism, and, taking their cue f
June 20, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Playing for time in Syria
WASHINGTON ― Critics are correct when they argue that President Obama doesn’t have a strategy for military victory in Syria. The reality is that despite his decision last week to arm the opposition there, Obama is still playing for a negotiated diplomatic transition. It’s a confusing policy with multiple objectives: Obama wants to bolster moderate opposition forces under Gen. Salim Idriss until they’re strong enough to negotiate a transition government. He wants to counter recent offensives by H
June 19, 2013
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Protests in Brazil fueled by middle-class anxiety
It is tempting to liken this week’s surprising protests in Brazil, which have attracted huge crowds in the country’s biggest cities, to another movement a couple of years ago in the Northern Hemisphere. But there are important differences between Brazil’s unrest and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Both succeeded in organizing the discontent of the middle class. Both started with specific complaints ― in Brazil, a 20-centavo (9 cents) rise in bus fares; in the U.S., the excesses of Wall Street a
June 19, 2013
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Immigration reform is more than border security
Federal spending on border security is at a historic high. Illegal crossings are at a 40-year low. Deportations reached record numbers in President Barack Obama’s first term. Let’s get on with the business of fixing the rest of our dysfunctional immigration system.We’re talking to you, Sen. Mark Kirk.Last week, the U.S. Senate began debating an immigration bill, the product of months of negotiations by the Gang of Eight, a group of four Republicans and four Democrats who are serious about gettin
June 19, 2013
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Who’s the real winner of Iran elections?
Hasan Rowhani’s victory in the first round of the presidential elections in Iran is presented in the international media mostly as an ignominious defeat to the hard-line clerics and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Indeed, prima facie, Rowhani’s victory seems as a ray of hope for a change in Iran’s domestic and international policy. However, a closer look at the “democratic” procedure that took place in Iran last weekend and at its implications suggests that Khamenei and the hard-lin
June 19, 2013
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[Simon Johnson] Trade deal could stick U.S. with EU bank bomb
With grand rhetoric, Group of Eight leaders this week seized upon the prospect of a deal between the U.S. and Europe that would reduce or eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers. David Cameron, the U.K. prime minister, called it “the biggest bilateral trade deal in history” and “a once-in-a-generation prize” that “we are determined to seize.” But would the proposed trans-Atlantic trade agreement really be a prize, or would it more closely resemble a poisoned chalice for the U.S.? I think the
June 19, 2013