Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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[KH Explains] Will alternative trading platform shake up Korean stock market?
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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S. Korea lowers COVID-19 warning level, lifts last-remaining antivirus mandates
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[David Ignatius] A tool to fill the power gap
TAMPA ― The emblem of the U.S. Special Operations Command pointedly illustrates its mission: It shows the tip of a spear. Now SOCOM is expanding this arsenal to create a global network that can project power even as America’s armies withdraw from the battlefields of the last decade. Adm. William McRaven, the SOCOM commander, has been developing this ambitious new role at his headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base here. McRaven is among the nation’s most celebrated warriors. He planned the operat
April 1, 2013
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The BRICS expose the West’s hypocrisy
Who do they think they are, these upstart economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa? That might sum up the feeling in the U.S., Europe and Japan as the BRICS nations consider a new development bank that might challenge the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The move brings to mind Alice Amsden, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who died last year, and her 2001 book, “The Rise of ‘the Rest.’” The richest nations can stew about this turn of events, as thos
April 1, 2013
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For whom the Cyprus crisis bell tolls?
Ernest Hemingway pieced together the quintessence of the Spanish Civil War in his captivating novel “For whom the bell tolls?” The novel’s protagonist, a young American, gets embroiled in the war while serving in the International Brigade, chronicling senseless inhumanity of man to man as society’s fabric is shredded.One of the most memorable passages of the novel is “For what are we born if not to aid one another?” The novel has many themes, and one is the dependency of society’s individuals on
April 1, 2013
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High court seals the case for gay-marriage inevitability
The substantive case against gay marriage collapsed in the Supreme Court last week. Legally, Supreme Court watchers say, advocates won’t win the sweeping victory they once anticipated as they made arguments last week. The court is likely to overturn a California law that precludes same-sex marriage, on technical grounds. The 17-year-old federal Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as between a man and woman, and thus denying federal spousal benefits to gays and lesbians, almost certainly wi
April 1, 2013
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Paths to sustainable power for world economy
NEW YORK ― The surest bet on the future of energy is the need for low-carbon energy supplies. Around 80 percent of the world’s primary energy today is carbon based: coal, oil, and gas. We will need to shift to no- or low-carbon energy by mid-century. The big questions are how and when.Low-carbon primary energy means three options: renewable energy, including wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and biomass; nuclear energy; and carbon capture and sequestration, which means using fossil fuels to c
April 1, 2013
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Letting the U.S. economy bleed a mistake
BERKELEY ― In the 12 years of the Great Depression ― between the stock-market crash of 1929 and America’s mobilization for World War II ― production in the United States averaged roughly 15 percent below the pre-depression trend, implying a total output shortfall equal to 1.8 years of GDP. Today, even if U.S. production returns to its stable-inflation output potential by 2017 ― a huge “if” ― the U.S. will have incurred an output shortfall equivalent to 60 percent of a year’s GDP.In fact, the los
March 31, 2013
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[Dominique Moisi] France’s German mirror
BERLIN ― Berlin’s Tegel Airport, which still greets most of the passengers arriving in the capital of Europe’s leading economic power, is outdated and provincial. The opening of Schnefeld Airport, transformed into an international hub, has been delayed for more than a year for technical reasons (a somewhat reassuring challenge to Germany’s reputation for efficiency). Yet, despite the gray and chill of March in Central Europe, Berlin exudes confidence. More than ever, the city is a work in progre
March 31, 2013
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On gay marriage, moderation could be disastrous
Conventional wisdom formed quickly last week after oral arguments in the two same-sex marriage cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. The gist is that the court would duck the fundamental question of whether the Constitution guarantees everyone the right to marry ― implied in the California Proposition 8 case ― and strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act on the limited ground that it interferes with states’ rights. Don’t be too sure. It’s not just that oral arguments can be deceiving. (Rem
March 31, 2013
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Korea should turn all ODA loans into grants
Today is the 22nd anniversary of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, the implementing organization of Korea’s official development assistance. KOICA has earned a good reputation by transferring Korea’s development experience to developing countries around the world. It has also dispatched more than 10,000 volunteer workers abroad. ODA is classified into two types ― grants and loans. Grants are provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and KOICA while loans are offered by the Ministry o
March 31, 2013
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[Michael Boskin] Debt reduction cannot wait much longer
STANFORD ― Around the world, raging debates about whether, when, how, and how much to reduce large budget deficits and high levels of sovereign debt are dividing policymakers and publics. Diametrically opposed spending, tax, monetary, and regulatory policies and proposals are proliferating. To consolidate (the budget), or not to consolidate, that is the question.The political left clamors for more spending, higher taxes on high-income earners, and delayed fiscal consolidation. For example, the e
March 31, 2013
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Chinese hacking was made in America
Ten years ago, while visiting International Business Machines Corp.’s software-research lab in Beijing, I observed dozens of Chinese employees moving about seemingly free of any security-related limitations. I asked the lab’s manager two questions: “Do you have any way of knowing whether any of your Chinese staff is also working for the Chinese government? “Do you have any way of knowing whether any of your Chinese staff is a spy?” The manager unhesitatingly answered “No” to both. He hastily add
March 29, 2013
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[Robert Reich] America’s morality brigade
We’re still legislating and regulating private morality, while at the same time ignoring the much larger crisis of public morality in America.In recent weeks Republican state legislators have decided to thwart the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which gave women the right to have an abortion until the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually around 24 weeks into pregnancy.Legislators in North Dakota passed a bill banning abortions after six weeks or after a fetal heartbeat had bee
March 29, 2013
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NATO cyber warfare treatise is long overdue
PARIS ― The Internet went crazy last week over what was described in hyperventilating tweets as NATO’s plan to kill hackers. “NATO-Commissioned Report Says Killing Hackers Is Basically OK,” blared one tech blog headline, nicely reinforcing the paranoia. That makes it sound as if the governments of NATO countries are looking for any excuse to vaporize anyone with a computer, doesn’t it? The more irrationally jumpy among us might imagine that these governments are just waiting for the guy beside u
March 28, 2013
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[Richard Weitz] Nuke disarmament’s Asian pivot
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to seek a world without nuclear weapons. But, while he delivered on his promise to negotiate a New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia a year later, progress has since stalled. To break the deadlock, the current bilateral framework for negotiation, which has remained largely unchanged since the Cold War, must be transformed into a trilateral framework that includes China.To be sure, such a move would significantly complicate
March 28, 2013
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Greater role for BRICS
The fifth summit of the BRICS countries, which concluded in Durban, South Africa on Wednesday, has sent positive signals of solidarity, partnership and win-win cooperation. With their pledge to enhance cooperation and coordination in such fields as international politics, economy, finance, trade and development, the group is poised to play a bigger role on the world stage, which should be interpreted as a good trend. Among the many initiatives that were approved by leaders of the BRICS countries
March 28, 2013
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The case of the baker
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education moved last week to amend existing regulations that would block an application by renowned baker Wu Pao-chun for the country’s Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program.The MOE’s uncharacteristically rapid response came after President Ma Ying-jeou publicly instructed the government to keep Wu in Taiwan by all means necessary. Wu was contemplating further education to boost his business skills but was reportedly put off by Taiwanese regulations, whi
March 28, 2013
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Pile pressure on N.K. over human rights violations
The U.N. Human Rights Council recently unanimously adopted a resolution on establishing a panel to investigate human rights abuse in North Korea.It is important for the international community to seize this momentum and step up pressure on the reclusive country to improve its human rights conditions, which would pave the way for the swift resolution of North Korea’s abduction of Japanese.The resolution was jointly submitted by Japan and the European Union, and denounced North Korea’s “systematic
March 28, 2013
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[Ching Cheong] Reform fades with ‘China Dream’
Chinese President Xi Jinping has expounded on his “China Dream” in the hope of perpetuating the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.In his inaugural speech on March 17 after assuming the presidency, he devoted much time to elaborating on the China Dream, a notion he first mooted last December shortly after becoming the party’s general secretary.He defined the China Dream as the aspiration of the Chinese people for a great national revival. Although he did not spell out in specific terms what tha
March 28, 2013
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[David Ignatius] Tug of war over Syria’s future
WASHINGTON ― The moderate political and military command structure the United States has been trying to foster within the Syrian opposition appears to be fracturing, a victim of bitter Arab regional rivalries. The regional tension splitting the Syrian rebel movement is between Qatar and Turkey, on one side, and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates on the other. The former group would like to see an Islamist government headed by the Muslim Brotherhood after the fall of President Bash
March 27, 2013
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Settlements still blocking Middle East agreement
President Obama’s makeup visit to Israel was a great success, by most measures, but don’t expect peace between Israelis and Palestinians anytime soon ― despite Obama’s ringing call for it.Relations between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been prickly, at best, since Obama first took office in 2009. During last year’s presidential election Netanyahu tacitly campaigned for Mitt Romney, certainly angering Obama.But now that Obama has begun his second term, he realized that
March 27, 2013