Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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When there is no evidence
The British government are deploying missile launchers across London and have posted the Royal Navy’s largest ship in the Thames as part of the security for the Olympic Games to respond to a terrorist attack although there is no evidence that such an attack will take place.For the record, I would like to say that if there is a terrorist attack in the U.K. during the Olympics it will be far from the sporting event where there is no security buildup. Terrorists act in this way to remind us that th
May 15, 2012
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About Okinotorishima
Japan has touched off strong opposition from its neighbors by promoting an unreasonable project aimed at maximizing its maritime profits. The main point of the project is to acquire an exclusive economic zone and continental shelves based on Okinotorishima, a coral reef about 1,740 km south of Tokyo, which is only 70 centimeters above the surface of the sea. The EEZ that Japan is about to declare through Okinotorishima is 430,000 square kilometers, which is even wider than the nation’s total lan
May 15, 2012
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Newest Kennedy may renew family’s franchise
For more than half a century, the Kennedys were a force in U.S. politics. Their dominance began with John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential run and lasted until the death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 2009. The family’s return as a major political presence isn’t imminent; it may not be that far off, though. A candidate for a Massachusetts seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is Joseph P. Kennedy III, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy and a grandnephew of the president and the senator. He’s r
May 15, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] Living in Korea tough but hopeful
When I gave a talk at the State University of New York at Buffalo a few weeks ago, I briefly mentioned my father’s turbulent personal history. During the Japanese occupation, he was arrested by the Japanese police on the charge of being a non-conforming, anti-Japanese political dissident who owned Marx’s “Das Kapital.” He was found guilty and consequently had to spend six months in prison. After the liberation, my father decided to become an interpreter and worked for the U.S. Military Governmen
May 15, 2012
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Europe can save union for 320 euros per German
Europe’s chaotic political landscape is doing an excellent job of exposing a fundamental flaw in the euro area: the lack of a mechanism to revive growth in hard-hit economies. Recent elections in Greece, France and Italy, where anti-austerity candidates made major gains, have demonstrated the failure of policies that seek to solve the euro area’s debt problems through spending cuts and tax increases alone. Economic strife has brought Greece to the brink of a political breakdown and exit from the
May 14, 2012
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[Noeleen Heyzer] Shock-proofing Asia’s economies
BANGKOK ― Uncertainty and volatility have quickly become the “new normal” of the global economy. For several reasons, this turbulent external environment poses the most significant threat to Asia-Pacific growth in 2012.One of this environment’s main features is the ongoing weakness of major developed economies. The expected V-shaped global recovery, from the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, proved short-lived. The world economy entered a second stage of crisis in 2011, owing to eurozone’s so
May 14, 2012
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A fundamental solution to adoption problems
Korea was very poor when the Korean War ended in 1953. It was the second poorest country in the world at that time. So, the government carried out overseas adoption for orphans and children dying of starvation as a national policy with the intention of keeping those children alive. The government’s adoption policy is still going on without change. About 1,000 children are being adopted to foreign countries each year. Absolute poverty was the fundamental reason for adoption until the 1970s. Recen
May 14, 2012
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For Volcker rule, JPMorgan’s $2 billion loss says it all
It’s never polite to say I told you so, but JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s $2 billion trading loss has proponents of a tougher proprietary trading ban saying . . . well, you know what. JPMorgan’s admission is a shocker. The bank said the losses resulted from errors, sloppiness and bad judgment, which top bank executives didn’t know about or understand until it was too late. On Wall Street and around the globe, JPMorgan was a standard-setter for risk management. If regulators can’t trust JPMorgan to get
May 14, 2012
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[Yannos Papantoniou] Requirements for steering clear of the euro precipice
ATHENS ― Renewed turbulence in the eurozone bond market underlines the need to reappraise the policies now being pursued in order to overcome Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis. Indeed, the recent election results in France and Greece, reflecting a much broader anti-austerity mood, leave Europe’s authorities with little choice.The European Union, the European Central Bank, and private-sector lenders have spent more than 1 trillion euros over the past two years, but the eurozone remains in no better
May 14, 2012
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Mad cow reason to change rules, not swear off beef
The discovery last month of a case of mad-cow disease in California could be taken as good news. The cow in question was found at a rendering plant, where spent animals are sent for processing into leather, soap, cosmetics and pet food. Tests detected the illness before slaughter. There was never any chance that meat from the cow would enter the human food chain. Cattle futures prices, which initially plunged, are higher now than before the announcement. Agriculture officials say the animal was
May 13, 2012
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[Robert B. Reich] Omnipresent tinderbox societies
On May 1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its highest peak since December 2007. But April’s jobs report was a disappointment ― only 115,000 new jobs were created. At least 125,000 are required each month just to keep up with the growth of our working-age population.What’s going on?Shares are up because corporate profits are up, and profits are up largely because companies have figured out how to do more with less.One of the most striking legacies of the Great Recession has been the decline
May 13, 2012
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How Korea’s achievement can inspire India
India and Korea are two flourishing democracies in the modern world. There is much in common, although not very obvious, in the social and cultural spectrum. In the past, Indian culture, especially Buddhism, inspired Korean society in a big way. However, today things are different. Korea has leapfrogged economically, as well as socially, way ahead of India, while India is struggling. A role reversal has taken place and today it is Korea that can inspire India in many ways.What Korea has achieved
May 13, 2012
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Austerity takes a hit in Europe
Political upheaval in Europe reached a new apex over the weekend when French voters threw out their incumbent president and Greeks gave the heave-ho to the ruling parliamentary coalition. The results suggest that a new consensus is emerging in Europe in favor of more economic stimulus, but they also call into question the continent’s ability to agree on a plan to keep its fiscal problems from spreading uncontrollably.European leaders had agreed to a series of pacts that would rescue Greece and o
May 13, 2012
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Emergence of Asian-Pacific emissions trading hub
On May 2, the South Korean National Assembly passed a law introducing a national carbon trading scheme by 2015. This is a truly significant moment not only in terms of Korea’s national efforts to tackle climate change, but also because it underlines the emergence of a nascent Asian-Pacific carbon emissions trading hub with the potential to be a tipping point in the global fight against climate change.So why is Korea’s move so important when the country is responsible for fewer than 2 percent of
May 13, 2012
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[Noelle Lenoir] Francois Hollande meets the world
PARIS ― When Francois Hollande, fresh from his election as France’s next president, was asked by a journalist which language he would use when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time, his answer was revealing. “I speak English more fluently than the former president,” the Socialist leader insisted, referring to the outgoing Nicolas Sarkozy. “But a French president must speak French!”In proclaiming his mastery of the lingua franca of global affairs, Hollande was asserting himself
May 13, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Libyan missiles on the loose
WASHINGTON ― Whenever the CIA uncovers a new plot overseas, like al-Qaida’s latest scheme to blow up civilian aircraft using advanced, hard-to-detect explosives, people breathe a sigh of relief. But this is a multifront war, and almost by definition, the attack that gets you is the one you didn’t see coming. For the past few months, I’ve been hearing private warnings about another threat to commercial planes ― namely, the spread of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles from Libya after the overt
May 11, 2012
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Austerity strategy is fatally flawed
European elections over the last few days dealt a stunning blow to austerity, one of most profoundly mistaken economic policies propounded in modern times.The French voted President Nicolas Sarkozy out of office. In Greek parliamentary elections, anti-austerity parties triumphed. The same held true for local elections in Britain and elsewhere.For several years now, German politicians and technocrats, primarily, have directed their profligate southern European neighbors to impose brutal austerity
May 11, 2012
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If Ozawa opposes tax hike, he should leave DPJ
The Democratic Party of Japan decided Tuesday to lift the suspension of former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa’s party membership. The move followed last month’s court decision that found Ozawa not guilty of falsely reporting political funds handled by his political funds management body, Rikuzan-kai.In February 2011, after Ozawa had been indicted on charges of violating the Political Funds Control Law, the then party leadership “suspended his party membership until a court ruling on his case becomes
May 11, 2012
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Cool heads prevailed in Chen’s Beijing drama
The case of the blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng could well have trapped China and the United States in a test of strength from which neither side would have found it easy to back down. A prolonged confrontation might have ensued if the incident had happened at a time when China was not as self-confident and America habitually acted out of a sense of all-knowing might. The way the impasse was resolved is a development to be thankful for, as it might be something of a full-dress preview of
May 11, 2012
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Philippine elections: Killing season opens
The killing of Vice Mayor Abel Martinez of Mambusao, Capiz in central Philippines may have unofficially but bloodily opened the 2013 election season, violence being a trademark of Philippine elections. No less than Interior Secretary Jesse M. Robredo has warned that he expects political killings to rise in the months leading to the midterm elections, following the assassination of Martinez. But Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Senior Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr. has cautioned against li
May 11, 2012