Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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[John M. Crisp] Our dangerous failure of imagination
Generally, comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler aren’t particularly persuasive. They often reflect an over-the-top, sky-is-falling semi-hysteria. Trump and Hitler? Let’s not get carried away. On the other hand, do we have something to fear from a too-casual complacency engendered by a failure of imagination? I was thinking about this last week as I read an op-ed entitled “American democratic system will endure,” by Jonathan Turley, a commentator and law prof
Jan. 24, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] “The Batman”: from an avenger to a healer
The 2022 American film, “The Batman,” is different from previous versions of the Batman series. Throughout the film, the screen is dark and gloomy, and the story revolves around vengeance. Bruce Wayne, who is the Batman, is preoccupied by a personal vendetta for the murder of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, by a street mugger when he was a child. That is why he has been fighting crimes in Gotham City as “Batman.” It is only natural that his nickname is “Vengea
Jan. 24, 2024
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[Ashoka Mody] The slow death of India’s brief secular democracy
On Jan. 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Executive power will symbolically fuse with the Hindu religion -- harking back to myths of Indian rulers as incarnations of Supreme Lord Vishnu -- at the former site of the Babri Mosque, demolished by self-styled “angry Hindus” in 1992. Indian children will celebrate the mythological Lord Ram. State-owned railways have promised to transport more than a thous
Jan. 23, 2024
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[Antoinette Burton] The AI irony around Claudine Gay
When the history of Claudine Gay’s six-month tenure as Harvard’s president is written, there will be a lot of copy devoted to the short time between her appearance before Congress and her resignation from the highest office at one of the most prestigious and powerful institutions of higher education. Two narratives will likely dominate. One will be the highly orchestrated campaign -- outlined in clinical, triumphant detail by conservative activist Chris Rufo -- by the right to mobili
Jan. 23, 2024
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[Ashwini Deshpande] Main cause of low female employment
In China, the painful custom of binding young girls’ feet to alter their shape began in the 10th century and continued for a millennium, until it was outlawed in 1911. Although the practice did not truly end until the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, by 1990 China’s female labor-force participation rate had climbed to 73 percent – well above the OECD average. In fifteenth-century Europe, women started wearing corsets, often reinforced with wood, bone or eve
Jan. 22, 2024
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[Patricia Lopez] Time to scrap the Iowa caucuses
The Iowa caucus has become an outdated relic. Like eight-track cassettes and checkbooks, it served a valuable purpose at one time, but no longer. Donald Trump, as he has with so many things, reset the rules of the political game here, essentially turning the state into a backdrop for his brand of theatrics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, played by the old rules. He dutifully visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties, poured money into building the ground game that everyone said w
Jan. 19, 2024
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[Daniel DePetris] Strikes on Houthis yet another example of Congress sidelined
President Joe Biden’s decision on Thursday to order a wave of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen was inevitable the moment the Yemeni militia disregarded Washington’s warnings a week earlier and sent a swarm of 18 drones and three anti-ship ballistic missiles in the direction of US warships. Last week’s strikes, which took place with the cooperation of the United Kingdom and were aimed at 60 locations, were designed to degrade the Houthis’ capabilities and hopefully
Jan. 18, 2024
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[Andreas Kluth] World is feeling angst of liminality
The crisis of 2024 “consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” Symptoms such as extreme polarization, democratic corrosion and neo-fascism in the US and elsewhere, in turn boding conflict, serfdom and war. Oh, wait. That line above was meant to describe the year 1930. That’s when it appeared in prison notebook number 3, written by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist philosopher in Beni
Jan. 18, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] If America chooses to 'leave the world behind'
Currently, the United States of America is experiencing a plethora of domestic and overseas crises. Internally, there is unprecedented political bipolarity, severe inflation and the surge of a COVID-19 variant called JN 1 that have caused widespread deaths. Externally, the Ukraine war, the South China Sea dispute and North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launches threatening mainland America come to mind. Under the circumstances, many Americans no longer want their country to in
Jan. 17, 2024
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[Claudia Sahm] Don't worry about US debt. Seriously
US federal government debt ended 2023 at a record $34 trillion. The worries are bipartisan, with both Republicans and Democrats hearing about out-of-control borrowing from their constituents. In fact, almost six in 10 Americans say reducing it should be a top priority, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. So, it’s not a surprise that Congress is moving closer to passing a budget for fiscal year 2024 that would cap spending at $1.59 trillion which is a bit less than the $1.7 tr
Jan. 17, 2024
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[Lara Williams] Prod people into acting more greenly
If there’s a month dedicated to self-betterment, it’s dark and dreary January. The gyms are full, the pubs are empty and green juices are flying off the shelves. At least for now. Even with the best of intentions, the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t last very long at all. Many goal-setters give up on their commitments within just three months. We’re now in the second week of January, and some of you may have already slipped up on your promises. There&r
Jan. 16, 2024
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[Dr. Joannes Ekaprasetya Tandjung] Let creativity be core of Indonesia-Korea relations
“If there is one thing that unites us, it is our never-ending creativity. The world salutes the power of individuals to remain creative, to put forward our most thought-provoking ideas and turn those ideas into real events and sellable products,” Gandi Sulistiyanto, Indonesia’s ambassador to South Korea, said at the opening of the Korea-Indonesia Cooperation Forum in Jakarta on Nov. 30 last year. Launched by The Korea Herald CEO Choi Jin-young, the Korea-Indonesia Cooperation F
Jan. 16, 2024
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[Thitinan Pongsudhirak] Myanmar's military junta is losing power
As autocratic leaders gain influence, if not power, in more countries than proponents of democracy care to count, Myanmar is a remarkable exception: its military junta appears untenable. In fact, Myanmar’s people are putting their lives on the line to break the generals’ grip on power and reclaim their future. After nearly a half-century of military dictatorship, starting in 1962, a decade of political liberalization, economic reform and development progress followed, lasting from 20
Jan. 15, 2024
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[Jieun Kiaer] Hangeul should be at the heart of Hallyu
"I want my country to be the most beautiful country in the world. I don't want it to be the richest country. I don't want my country to invade other countries because I've been heartbroken by invasions. I’m satisfied if we have enough wealth to provide for ourselves and enough strength to keep us safe from invasion. Yet one thing that I deeply wish to have is a culture that has lasting legacy and power." ("My Wish" from Kim Ku, 1876-1949) As I start a new
Jan. 15, 2024
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[Media Art Now] TZUSOO engenders new cybernetic imagination
When advanced technologies bring about radical changes in society, there is always a collision of utopian and dystopian views. The heated debate last year over generative AI is one example. If you want to learn how to have your own point of view, why not turn to artists of our time, to their “anthropologically” attentive exploration of the contemporary conditions of the world? A group of young, free-spirited Korean artists stands out in this respect. Born digitally and technologica
Jan. 12, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] A visit to Osaka’s Koreatown
For the first time in years, I spent the holidays in Japan. One of the highlights of my visit was a long afternoon walk through Osaka’s Koreatown. The area has changed dramatically since my first visit in the mid-1990s. As I walked around, I thought about what the many changes mean and about how the area might change in the future. Located near Tsuruhashi Station in south-central Osaka, the Koreatown here had historically been the largest in Japan. An influx of people from South Korea in t
Jan. 12, 2024
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[Takatoshi Ito] When will Japan normalize its monetary policy?
Japan has had a difficult year so far. On Jan. 1, as Japanese families gathered to celebrate the new year, a powerful earthquake shook the Noto peninsula, causing buildings to collapse and forcing mass evacuations. More than a week later, the death toll -- already in the dozens -- continues to rise, as road damage, heavy rains, and landslides impede rescuers’ ability to reach affected villages. The next day, a Japan Airlines plane landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport collided on the run
Jan. 11, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] When ‘misreading’ met ‘misleading’
On the earliest days of the new year of 2024, South and North Korean military forces have conducted artillery drills in the West Sea, causing an anxious atmosphere in which residents must evacuate. Notably, there are concerns over the situation since it was right after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made hostile remarks against the South at a plenary session of the Workers' Party late last year. As the South has also made violent remarks against the North, a confrontational structure in wh
Jan. 11, 2024
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[Eric Posner] The AI octopus
With long-gestating antitrust cases against Google, Apple and Amazon coming to fruition, many observers think that 2024 could be a turning point for Big Tech. Yet even as authorities press ahead with this litigation, they risk being blindsided by the rise of artificial intelligence, which is likely to reinforce Big Tech’s dominance of the economy. The recent firing and rehiring of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was interpreted as a conflict between cautious board members who worried about the risks
Jan. 10, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] Liberal democracy will be at stake in 2024
Experts have pointed out that the year 2024 will continue to pose major challenges from many quarters, from the far-reaching devastation of climate change to the negative impact of artificial intelligence, including a massive rise in disinformation and fake news. For these and many other reasons, democracy will continue to be at stake worldwide. Indeed, hosts of specialists and scholars have recently warned of a worldwide crisis and decline of democracy in the international community. In 2016, f
Jan. 10, 2024