Most Popular
-
1
Ador CEO denies allegations, accuses Hybe of mistreating NewJeans
-
2
Medical reform committee kicks off despite boycott from doctors
-
3
10-man S. Korea lose to Indonesia to miss out on Paris Olympic football qualification
-
4
Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
-
5
Second Gimpo civil servant found dead, after apologizing for not finishing work
-
6
DP leader says he will meet Yoon without conditions
-
7
Over 9,000 hotline calls made by stalking victims in 2023
-
8
Monthly users on local streaming platforms outpace Netflix, Disney+
-
9
[Hello India] Hyundai Motor vows to boost 'clean mobility' in India
-
10
Seoul to promote luxurious side of the city
-
[Hans-Werner Sinn] Europe’s path to disunity
MUNICH ― The motto of the United States of America is: “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one). The European Union’s motto is “In varietate concordia,” which is officially translated as “United in diversity.” It is difficult to express the differences between the U.S. and the European model any more clearly than this. The U.S. is a melting pot, whereas Europe is a mosaic of different peoples and cultures that has developed over the course of its long history.That difference raises the question of w
Oct. 29, 2012
-
Korea-EU free trade deal benefits both sides
The free trade agreement between Korea and the EU was signed on Oct. 15, 2009, and came into force on July 1, 2011. Under the FTA, the EU agreed to eliminate or phase out tariffs on 96 percent of goods, and Korea for 99 percent of goods, within three years. Within five years, 98.7 percent of imports would be tariff-free. Beside tariff reduction, the FTA brings reductions in non-tariff barriers to market access, including elimination of quotas, standardization of product specifications, agreement
Oct. 29, 2012
-
Experience with Moroccan trainees in Korea
It’s no secret that some Korean public officials have misused overseas training programs, financed with precious taxes, by enjoying them as their freebie tours abroad. Those programs, thanks to such accumulative scandals over time, now tend to be considered a waste of government money. Had it not been for those few who neglected their duties and responsibilities as civil servants, overseas training programs could be welcomed or even encouraged as valuable opportunities to learn exemplary cases f
Oct. 29, 2012
-
[Zaki Ladi] Obama’s foreign policy scores
PARIS ― To evaluate an American president’s foreign-policy performance after one term is challenging, given the complex diplomatic and strategic environment and significant domestic constraints that confront every U.S. president. Nevertheless, in advance of November’s presidential election, it is important to distinguish the forces that have shaped Barack Obama’s foreign policy, and to assess his handling of them.Obama kept his promise to withdraw American forces from Iraq during his first term.
Oct. 29, 2012
-
How the election could go wrong for Romney
PARIS ― There’s a good chance that American voters will screw up the presidential election.“How could you say such a thing when in a democracy the people are, by definition, correct?” you ask.Because there’s no such thing as collective intelligence, that’s why. Sure, there are individuals within a given society who happen to be informed and intelligent ― but it requires work to overcome the sort of inertia that has so many other people in that society pinned to their recliners watching “Dancing
Oct. 28, 2012
-
[Robert B. Reich] Romney’s uncertain economy
We’re closing in on Election Day, but the questions about what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would do if elected are only growing larger. Rarely before in American history has a presidential ticket campaigned on such a blank slate.Yet, paradoxically, not a day goes by that we don’t hear Romney, Ryan or some other exponent of the GOP claim that businesses aren’t creating more jobs because they’re uncertain about the future. And the source of that uncertainty, they say, is President Obama ― especially
Oct. 28, 2012
-
The point of principle in American politics
My late father taught me that what defines a principle is the willingness to adhere to it even when that adherence hurts. Maybe that’s why the newfound appreciation of the Electoral College among many of my friends on the left has struck me as a weirdly compelling spectacle. After the 2000 election, when George W. Bush lost the popular vote but (after the Florida debacle) won a majority of Electoral College votes, liberal commentators spent years calling for the direct election of the president.
Oct. 28, 2012
-
On immigration, don’t hold economy hostage to politics
The third presidential debate, concerned mainly with foreign policy, was frustrating for many commentators because it gave them little to chew on. What’s to debate when there’s so much agreement ― or the semblance of it, at least? Our frustration is quite the opposite: There is genuine agreement between Democrats and Republicans on some issues and yet that consensus fails to drive action. We see this playing out especially on immigration. The larger immigration picture certainly remains contenti
Oct. 28, 2012
-
[Eli Park Sorensen] The comfort of Bedford Falls’ alternative scenarios
Alternative scenarios have always exercised a particularly strong grip on the modern imagination; countless of books and novels have outlined counterfactual versions of almost any crucial event in history. Past events generally emit an aura of inevitability, that these events were destined to unfold the way they did; alternative versions remind us that events are often the outcome of arbitrary, contingent circumstances ― for example, a moment’s sudden impulse whose consequences we live with, per
Oct. 28, 2012
-
U.S. needs orderly pullout from Afghanistan
After Monday night’s third presidential debate, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who was a stand-in for Mitt Romney during President Obama’s prep sessions, said he never expected Romney to agree with President Obama’s timetable for leaving Afghanistan in 2014.For most of the campaign, after all, Romney has attacked Obama for setting any date at all for withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan ― at 11 years, now the nation’s longest war. Yet the Republican did a reverse on Monday, promising that he to
Oct. 26, 2012
-
[Jonathan Schell] New Obama: harder, chillier
NEW YORK ― After the second debate between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, Obama’s supporters chorused in near-unison, “He’s back!” The languid, disengaged, and lackluster performer of the first debate had disappeared, and the impressive, beloved figure of the victorious 2008 campaign had reappeared. As the commentator Andrew Sullivan put it, “I saw the person I first saw...I saw the president I thought I knew.”To my eye, however, the old Obama was not bac
Oct. 26, 2012
-
[David Ignatius] A country united, for a change
WASHINGTON ― There are moments when you can glimpse an emerging bipartisan consensus on foreign policy, and Monday night’s presidential debate was one of them: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney knew they were speaking to a war-weary country and talked in nearly identical terms about bringing troops home, avoiding new conflicts ― and countering terrorism without embracing a “global war.” Obama has been articulating versions of this foreign-policy approach for the last four years, not always with clari
Oct. 25, 2012
-
Romney’s approach on China smacks of overkill
In last week’s debate, President Barack Obama turned to Republican Mitt Romney and said, “Governor, you’re the last person who’s going to get tough on China.”I hope Obama is right.The tougher-than-thou poses on China have become routine in presidential campaigns, but these threats, if carried out, could hit American consumers with higher prices and spark damaging tit-for-tat responses from Beijing.Obama, with his ties to organized labor, was always expected to be a reluctant free trader. He’s li
Oct. 25, 2012
-
Winter blackout in Hokkaido would threaten lives
If a massive blackout occurs during a severely cold winter in Hokkaido, many people’s lives will be in danger.The government and Hokkaido Electric Power Co. must avert a potential electricity crisis by using every option at their disposal to ensure there is enough power to meet demand in cooperation with local communities.The nation’s electric utilities have forecast their power supply capacity will exceed demand this winter. This is probably because they made efforts to increase supply from the
Oct. 25, 2012
-
Myanmar a game-changer in U.S. relations in Asia?
It was inevitable that the U.S. would eventually initiate some form of military cooperation with Myanmar, but few expected that it would come so early. Washington’s invitation for Nay Pyi Taw to join the annual Cobra Gold U.S.-Thai military exercise is a reward for Myanmar’s rapid process of reform. It also demonstrates just how desperate the U.S. is to make trade inroads into a country that has been isolated from the international community for the past five decades. Given that nearly all trade
Oct. 25, 2012
-
Newsweek going digital: End of an era?
The decision by the management behind Newsweek magazine to go all-digital by next year has been hailed or mourned ― depending on which side of the digital divide the observer is shouting from or looking at ― as the end of an era. For readers of a certain age, who got their fill of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal or tantalizing reports on the Marcos dictatorship from the magazine, it certainly felt that way.For several decades, especially when it was published by the Washington Post, Ne
Oct. 25, 2012
-
[Tessa Morris-Suzuki] N.K. showing signs of spring?
Ever since its formation in the 1950s, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, which represents pro-Pyongyang members of Japan’s ethnic Korean minority, has sent lavish gifts to North Korea to mark national celebrations.The choice of gifts is deeply symbolic ― a delicate matter involving much discussion and negotiation. As well as being suitably generous, the presents should accord with the current policies of the North Korean government. In 1972, when North Korean leader Kim Il-su
Oct. 25, 2012
-
[Volker Perthes] Syria’s splintered opposition
BERLIN ― Syrian opposition activists regularly express disappointment with the level of international support that they receive. Although the last meeting of the so-called “Friends of Syria” (a group of countries that convenes periodically to discuss Syria’s situation outside of the United Nations Security Council) brought more financial aid, the degree of genuine outside commitment to their cause remains questionable.The United States, the European Union, Turkey, and most Arab countries agree t
Oct. 24, 2012
-
Turkey’s not-so-free speech and journalists
For a long time, it has been possible to overlook Turkey’s human rights failures. After all, the country was making remarkable progress after starting from a very hard place. Now, however, ignoring such failures is no longer possible. A 53-page report released Oct. 22 by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists is the most detailed on Turkish media freedoms to date. It makes for shocking reading. As of Aug. 1, Turkey was holding at least 76 journalists in jail, the report found, while pro
Oct. 24, 2012
-
[Jeffrey Frankel] Four magic tricks for fiscal conservatives
CAMBRIDGE ― The United States is famous for its ability to innovate. Aspiring fiscal conservatives around the world thus might be interested in learning four tricks that American politicians commonly use when promising to cut taxes while simultaneously reducing budget deficits.These are hard promises to keep, for the simple reason that a budget deficit equals government spending minus tax revenue. But, each of the four tricks has been refined over three decades. Indeed, they first acquired their
Oct. 24, 2012