Most Popular
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Debate rages over ‘overly fatty’ samgyeopsal
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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40 flights canceled on Jeju Island due to bad weather
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[Weekender] Korean psyche untangled: Musok
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N. Korea slams US, other countries for seeking alternative to UN sanctions monitoring panel
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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Gov't appears to shelve punitive measures against mass walkout by doctors
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[Eye Interview] 'If you live to 100, you might as well be happy,' says 88-year-old bestselling essayist
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From fake prostitution ring to nonexistent robber, prank calls hamper police
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Missing S. Korean traveler in Paris found safe after 2 weeks
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[Kongdan Oh] Outlook for nation’s first female leader
With the election of Ms. Park Geun-hye as president of South Korea, Korea has its first woman leader in over a thousand years. The last woman to govern Korea was Queen Jinsong, who ruled in the ninth century. Ms. Park comes from a famous political family. Her father, President Park Chung-hee, was the architect of Korea’s economic miracle. Something of a dictator, he was assassinated in 1979 by his own intelligence chief in a dispute over how long his 16-year-rule should continue. Ms. Park’s moth
Dec. 25, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Korea lucky to have a woman president
In February 2013, we will have a female president for the first time in our history. Since electing a woman is something that even the United States has not been able to do yet, Koreans are very proud. Only a few years ago, women were reluctant to vote for a female president, thinking that a male president would perform much better in the hostile political arena. In the last presidential election, however, many Korean women reportedly voted for Park Geun-hye and many men did as well. Korean poli
Dec. 25, 2012
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The price of war with Iran
WASHINGTON, DC ― One of the greatest challenges that U.S. President Barack Obama will face in his second term is Iran’s pursuit of advanced nuclear technologies. While a nuclear Iran would damage America’s strategic position in the Middle East, action aimed at forestalling Iran’s nuclear progress also carries serious strategic and economic consequences.Armed with nuclear weapons, Iran would be better able to project influence, intimidate its neighbors, and protect itself. As a result, the United
Dec. 24, 2012
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Declassify the CIA detainee torture report
Americans have known for years both the broad outlines and some of the disgusting details of the George W. Bush administration’s policy of subjecting suspected terrorists to torture, humiliation and imprisonment at “black sites” in foreign countries. But they have been denied a comprehensive accounting of how the United States decided after the 9/11 attacks to travel to what then Vice President Dick Cheney called “the dark side.”That would change if the Senate Intelligence Committee released to
Dec. 24, 2012
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North Korea’s dangerous rocket ambition
North Korea’s first successful rocket launch is a truly dangerous development. Although the North Koreans have previously detonated two nuclear devices, until now they have not demonstrated any ability to deliver them. Weaponizing a missile is hard, but Pyongyang’s close ally Iran has made great advances in miniaturizing warheads. With the combination of North Korea’s nuclear bombs and Iran’s technology, a nuclear-tipped missile could be capable of striking the West Coast of the United States in
Dec. 24, 2012
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NYSE bell tolls for exchange that fell behind
The name on the building will remain and the opening bell will continue to ring every trading day. But an era is about to end, sadly, with the agreement by the New York Stock Exchange to sell itself to IntercontinentalExchange Inc. The contrasts between buyer and seller are stark, and go a long way to explain the deal’s backstory: The NYSE is the world’s largest stock market where the trading floor and colonnaded structure in the heart of Wall Street are symbols of American-style capitalism. ICE
Dec. 24, 2012
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Time to establish nominal GDP growth targets
ZANZIBAR ― It is time for the world’s major central banks to reconsider how they conduct monetary policy. The U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are grappling with sustained economic weakness, despite years of low interest rates. In Japan, Shinzo Abe, the opposition Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate for prime minister, campaigned for a more expansionary monetary policy ahead of the general election on Dec. 16. And central banks in both the United Kingdom and China are coming u
Dec. 24, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Right fit for the Pentagon?
WASHINGTON ― The debate over whether Chuck Hagel should be appointed secretary of defense has centered on his sometimes critical views of Israel. But that’s the wrong issue. The question is whether Hagel is the right person to run the Pentagon at a delicate moment of transition in defense policy and spending. Hagel has been unusually blunt in resisting political pressure from pro-Israel groups, which led Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, to charge that his past comments “border
Dec. 23, 2012
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Irresponsible leadership casts shadow over Venezuela
Venezuela’s real-life telenovela has taken a dramatic and dangerous turn for the worse with the hospitalization and new round of cancer surgery undergone by President Hugo Chavez in Cuba. While Chavez ails, his country remains in a state of suspended animation and Venezuelans are left to wonder where their country is headed.In a genuine democracy, the traditions and independent institutions of the country offer a guarantee of political stability when the elected leader can no longer wield power.
Dec. 23, 2012
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Park Geun-hye returns to the Blue House
Park Geun-hye has eked out a victory in South Korea’s presidential election. The conservative candidate narrowly bested progressive rival Moon Jae-in in a contest whose outcome was not apparent until the votes were counted.Her win is an important moment for her country, not only because she is South Korea’s first female leader but also because of her pedigree ― she is the daughter of assassinated dictator President Park Chung-hee. Her return to the Blue House marks a closing of the circle on her
Dec. 23, 2012
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Sex scandals, succession shaped Asia’s 2012
Few people are happier to see 2012 end than Hu Jintao, Yoshihiko Noda or Lee Myung-bak. It was a rocky year for the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, who leave office with legacies in tatters. Gripes about President Hu doing little about China’s biggest challenges outnumbered the accolades. Noda’s premiership ended as ingloriously as those of the other five leaders Japan has had in the past six years. Lee’s time as president will be remembered for South Korea’s widening rich-poor divide a
Dec. 23, 2012
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[Eli Park Sorensen] The gigantic, confusing library of the universe
In the story “The Library of Babel” (1941), the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges imagines the universe as a gigantic library, consisting of an indefinite number of hexagonal rooms, each filled with rows of books. “Each book,” writes Borges, “is of four hundred and ten pages; each page, of forty lines, each line, of some eighty letters which are in black color.” Most of the text inside the books, however, consists of sequences of letters utterly incomprehensible and unreadable to the people inh
Dec. 23, 2012
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Put prospective gun owners under microscope
PARIS ― Anyone who can’t withstand a rational debate on the subject of gun control ― particularly in light of last week’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut ― should be automatically prohibited from ever owning a firearm. In fact, this should be the number-one requirement of gun ownership: Can someone applying for ownership of a deadly weapon withstand an hour-long debate against someone in favor of gun control without resorting to physical or verbal assault?Is it too much to a
Dec. 21, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Take care of the children
America’s children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society.Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns, we’re not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising - even faster than the rate of adult poverty. We now have the highest rate of child poverty in the developed world.And we’re not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb. America has the third-worst
Dec. 21, 2012
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[David Ignatius] A defector’s chilling report
WASHINGTON ― Reports from inside two Syrian chemical weapons facilities offer some chilling new evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime developed special vehicles last year for moving and mixing the weapons ― and an unconfirmed allegation that Lebanese allies of the regime, presumably in Hezbollah, may have been trained 11 months ago in the weapons’ use. A Syrian source provided a detailed account in a telephone conversation over the weekend, drawing on intelligence provided to him by a
Dec. 20, 2012
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Hypocrisy over infrastructure spending
If you want to see where rank hypocrisy sits in full flower, you have only to observe Republicans at their desks in the House and Senate. There, they are openly ridiculing President Obama’s proposed $50 billion stimulus bill for desperately needed infrastructure work.When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell heard of the president’s plan, he derisively laughed out loud, as if he’d been handed a piece of road kill. At about the same time, Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican who is incoming
Dec. 20, 2012
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Japan’s LDP must regain public’s trust
Japanese voters handed down a stern judgement on the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led government. They obviously opted for a stable administration from which realistic policies can be expected.The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its likely coalition partner New Komeito together garnered more than 320 seats in the 46th House of Representatives election Sunday to secure a return to power. It was an overwhelming victory but was not met with an air of excitement.The DPJ, on the other hand, suf
Dec. 20, 2012
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[Andrew Sheng] Risks from shadow banking
In 2007, bond market guru Bill Gross coined the term “shadow banking” to illustrate the role of non-bank institutions in creating money-like credit that could implode and affect the traditional banking system. Four years later, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) finally gave its initial recommendations on how to oversee the shadow banking system to G20.Last month, FSB published its Monitoring Report on Global Shadow Banking, revealing that the global shadow banking system rose from $26 trillion
Dec. 20, 2012
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Japan’s swing to the right will have consequences
Japanese voters have turned their frustration into a strong vote for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which they had kicked out of office three years ago after more than five decades of political dominance. Now, the old hands, mostly aging, conservative leaders of the LDP, are back in force. It is rather unusual for a former Japanese prime minister, in this case Shinzo Abe, to hold the position for a second time. This follows his stint of one year from 2006 to 2007. His return, despite his pa
Dec. 20, 2012
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IMF rethink on capital controls a good start
The International Monetary Fund has rethought its doctrine on capital controls. The IMF, which previously favored unfettered flows of money across borders, now accepts that controls are sometimes necessary. This is a real improvement, yet it’s incomplete because it lacks a mechanism for supervision and enforcement. The fund can’t rectify that omission by itself. Member governments can and should. The previous orthodoxy said that restricting international flows of capital is almost always wrong:
Dec. 19, 2012