The Korea Herald

[David Ignatius] Kingmaker’s tale recalls CIA’s purpose

May 8, 2011

WASHINGTON ― As Washington buzzes about yet another restart for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, I have been reading a book that summarizes the past 44 years of botched peacemaking, blown opportunities and, sometimes, sheer folly. The book is a posthumous memoir by Jack O’Connell, a former CIA operative who was for many years King Hussein’s “case officer” in Jordan. Yes, you read that rig...
[Meghan Daum] Big breaking news is now impossible to escape

May 8, 2011

When it emerged Sunday night that Osama bin Laden had been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, some people thought I might not hear about it for weeks. Not because I only consume news about Sarah Palin but because, for the last month, I’ve been in semi-isolation in the New Hampshire woods. I’m on a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony, a hallowed institution that provides artists of all kinds ― writ...
[Trudy Rubin] Now, we can put terrorist movement into perspective

May 8, 2011

“Al-Qaida. Bin Laden. Old news. This is the time to move forward.” So said President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan last week, and his words couldn’t be more true. For Americans, for President Obama, for the landscape of security threats we face, for the war in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s death is a game changer. Yes, there is still a terrorist threat, but the death of this killer c...
[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Sleepwalking through America’s unemployment crisis

May 8, 2011

NEWPORT BEACH ― It was relegated to the Q&A session, rather than featured prominently in the opening statement, at last week’s first-ever press conference of U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It is an issue that too many in Washington, DC are willing to dismiss as “transitory,” despite visible evidence to the contrary. It is extremely vulnerable to high oil and food prices. And it...
[Editorial] Follow-up action

May 6, 2011

With the Korea-EU free trade agreement ratified earlier in the week and set to take effect in July, Korean companies are gearing up for an opportunity to expand their exports to the 27-member European Union. At the top of the list of potential beneficiaries are automakers, television manufacturers and footwear companies, whose products would be exempted from high tariffs. The EU is set to phase ...
Despite the euphoria, this is still the long war

May 6, 2011

When you cut the head off a snake, it dies. U.S. officials would be wise to stop making allusions to decapitated reptiles when referring to al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden’s death because this organization remains alive and active across the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and, yes, the United States. Killing bin Laden deals a significant blow to al-Qaida, but be assured, it lives to fight agai...
[Hans-Werner Sinn] The ECB’s secret bailout strategy

May 6, 2011

MUNICH ― Why did Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have to seek shelter under the European Union’s rescue umbrella, and why is Spain a potential candidate? For many, the answer is obvious: international markets no longer want to finance the “PIGS.” But that is only half true. In fact, international markets have not financed any of them to a considerable extent for the past three years; the European ...
[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Global economy’s corporate crime wave

May 6, 2011

NEW YORK ― The world is drowning in corporate fraud, and the problems are probably greatest in rich countries ― those with supposedly “good governance.” Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich countries that host the global companies that carry out the largest offenses. Money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world....
Triple disaster and the Constitution

May 6, 2011

Japan on Tuesday marked the 64th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution just as the entire nation, including its people, private enterprises, and the central and local governments, is struggling to overcome the consequences of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan. The anniversary also came at a time when the lives of the people in Fukushima P...
Game makers must boost security measures

May 6, 2011

There was a time when all one had to worry about from video games were ― for parents ― their affects on children’s homework and eyesight, possible violent content, their cost and ― for game makers ― pirated game cassettes. Those good old days were officially over yesterday (May 2) as video game giant Sony apologized for a security breach that caused the loss of some 77 million accounts’ personal...
[Suthichai Yoon] None willing to serve in Thai opposition

May 6, 2011

Now that we are on the verge of a new election, the important questions to ask are: Should a mediocre Thai government be given a second chance? Does a failed opposition party deserve to be the next government? To put it in another way: How do we know that a party that doesn’t perform well as a government would do better if voted back in? And how do we know that a party that refuses to be a stron...
[Matthew Lynn] The next stage of euro crisis

May 5, 2011

Greece? Been there. Ireland? Done that. Portugal? Got the T-shirt. For the past year, countries sharing the euro have been going bust one by one. So where’s next? Plenty of people will point the finger at Spain. Some at Italy. A few single out Belgium, a country with high debts, and no government. But they should be looking somewhere else: France. It is increasingly politically unstable, its d...
U.S. ties with Middle East after Osama bin Laden

May 5, 2011

The dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden after a 40-minute gun battle in a Pakistani hill station mansion is, as President Obama rightly said, a triumph of justice. It is a symbolic and historic milestone in the war on terror, marking the end of a frustrating, decade-long manhunt. By continuing to pursue bin Laden years after 9/11, the United States sought to demonstrate that it has staying power...
[J. Bradford DeLong] Economics profession faces a crisis

May 5, 2011

BERKELEY ― The most interesting moment at a recent conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire ― site of the 1945 conference that created today’s global economic architecture ― came when Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf quizzed former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, President Barack Obama’s ex-assistant for economic policy. “(Doesn’t) what has happened in the past few years,” Wolf...
[Trudy Rubin] How could birther nonsense happen in U.S.?

May 5, 2011

When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you’ll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot ― and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theorie...