Most Popular
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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Indonesia’s KF-21 fighter jet deal cut back -- what’s next?
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[KH Explains] Can tech firms' AI alliances take on Nvidia?
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Korean battery makers heave sigh of relief over 2-year IRA reprieve
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Over 80,000 millionaires, 20 billionaires in Seoul: report
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Police seek arrest warrant for med student who killed girlfriend
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Local filmmakers criticize ‘The Roundup: Punishment’ monopoly of screens
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Will China's self-sufficient dream in HBM come true?
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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
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[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
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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
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[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
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[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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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[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
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[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
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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
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[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
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Meningitis outbreak exposes need to cope with drug shortages
The outbreak of fungal meningitis has exposed more than one dangerous weakness in the U.S. drug supply network. The need for better oversight of large-scale compounding pharmacies might be the most glaring; it was such a facility that produced the moldy steroid injections that have caused, at last count, 23 deaths and 297 illnesses. Yet the outbreak also calls attention to the growing problem of drug shortages. A shortage in the generic form of the steroid injection may have encouraged health-ca
Oct. 24, 2012
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[Yang Sung-chul] ‘Sterile’ excitation or political paradigm change?
South Korea is experimenting with e-democracy in the Dec. 19 presidential election. The “person to watch” in this test is Ahn Cheol-soo, 50, a medical doctor-turned antivirus software guru.Though the popularity rating can be dicey, the independent presidential candidate Ahn is leading or running neck-and-neck in a two-way or three-way matchup in most polls against the candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, Park Geun-hye, 60, and that of the main opposition Democratic United Party, Moon Jae-in, 5
Oct. 24, 2012
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[Daniel Fiedler] Costco and comparative law
One of the struggles in teaching U.S. and international law to South Korean lawyers and law students is imparting a thorough understanding of the power of prior court decisions in the common law. South Korean lawyers and law students are steeped in a civil law tradition imported from Japan that finds its roots in 19th century German and French law; both of which have as their foundation the law of ancient Rome.In this civil law system legislative enactments reign supreme and courts are generally
Oct. 23, 2012
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One ‘yes’ vote that will save money
For years now, thanks to deregulation, a lot of people have been cutting their electric bills by signing up with suppliers who charge less than the local utilities, Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois.Cities and counties have started to get in on the act, cutting deals to buy power in bulk for their residents and small businesses. About 200 communities across the state have made such deals.The savings have been substantial. ComEd and Ameren locked in long-term electricity contracts that made
Oct. 23, 2012
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A simpler way for U.S. to end too big to fail
Does size matter? When it comes to U.S. banks, the answer is increasingly yes. Limiting banks’ size is a rare example of agreement among prominent Democrats and Republicans, who complain equally that U.S. banks have grown too big, too complex and too risky. They also agree that big banks benefit unfairly from an implicit government guarantee despite the authority Congress gave regulators in the Dodd-Frank Act to dismantle troubled banks. (Does anyone really believe Washington would let JPMorgan
Oct. 23, 2012
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China’s economy shows optimistic growth signs
For the world economy, caught between an unfolding eurozone debt crisis and a looming U.S. fiscal cliff, that China’s economy has slowed for a seventh straight quarter appears to be cause for concern. Yet the world’s second largest economy is actually offering reasons for some much-needed confidence that it can continue to drive the global economy, despite the fact that its 7.4 percent GDP growth in the third quarter from a year earlier represents the first time the official target has not been
Oct. 23, 2012
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Arms control should be high on president’s agenda
The presidential campaign has focused primarily on the economy and domestic issues, with foreign policy receiving relatively little attention ― especially if it doesn’t involve the tumultuous Middle East.One foreign policy issue that shouldn’t be ignored is arms control. The president in 2013 ― whether it’s Barack Obama or Mitt Romney ― will have an opportunity to use arms control to make the United States and the world safer.With the New START arms deal now in force, the strategic nuclear balan
Oct. 23, 2012