The Korea Herald

[Robert J. Fouser] South Korea’s post-pandemic future

Jan 1, 2021

The world begins 2021 with hope amid continuing despair. The roll out of vaccines in wealthy countries offers hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will wind down as the year moves along. This hope contras...
[Kim Myong-sik] Yoon Seok-youl looms large in 2021 Korean politics

Dec 31, 2020

We are sadly sending off “Twenty-Twenty” and entering 2021 with very little hope for a better year. In the New Year, people will continue to live with the inconvenience of wearing face masks and in f...
[Kim Seong-kon] Reminiscing about 2020 with woe and remorse

Dec 30, 2020

Undoubtedly, history will remember 2020 as the Year of the Global Pandemic. For the first time since the Spanish flu hit the world in the early 20th century, a worldwide disease caused society to cha...
[Shuli Ren] China shows Ma what an activist can do

Dec 30, 2020

The rare activist moment at China’s central bank was too late and too crude. For years, when it came to innovative business ideas, Beijing’s stance has been to let them flourish -- there’s always ro...
[Therese Raphael] Now we know how Boris Johnson’s movie ends

Dec 29, 2020

Now we know how this movie ends. “Brexit means Brexit,” Theresa May declared in those electric but mystifying opening scenes after the referendum back in 2016. It wasn’t clear then or for a long whil...
[J. Bradford DeLong] What lifted Trump could sink Biden

Dec 29, 2020

Very few of the people who voted for US President Donald Trump in the 2020 election are plutocrats who benefited from his and congressional Republicans’ tax cut, or even wannabe plutocrats who can ho...
[Tyler Cowen] Tech progress is silver lining of 2020

Dec 28, 2020

For obvious reasons, 2020 will not go down as a good year. At the same time, it has brought more scientific progress than any year in recent memory -- and these advances will last long after COVID-19...
[Trudy Rubin] How can Biden approach Russia mess that Trump left?

Dec 28, 2020

This column is about a massive cyberattack and a pair of poisoned underpants that lead to a giant question: Can Joe Biden figure out how to handle Vladimir Putin’s Russia after President Donald Trump...
[Serendipity] I love you. That is why I am staying away, for now

Dec 25, 2020

I have been working from home for most of the last two weeks after the government implemented the Level 2.5 social distancing scheme. During the period, I have stepped outside the house on three occa...
[Lee Kyong-hee] Ringing out the pandemic year -- with hope

Dec 24, 2020

As 2020 draws to a close, a loud sigh will be heard around the world. But the daunting battle against the COVID-19 pandemic remains. It is as widespread and deadly as ever, a situation unimaginable o...
[Doyle McManus] Can Biden get out of mess in Iran?

Dec 24, 2020

Joe Biden is going to have a lot of complicated issues competing for his attention when he takes office next month. Among the thorniest is Iran. During his presidential campaign, Biden promised to r...
[Kim Seong-kon] Grateful for everything, even in the pandemic

Dec 23, 2020

Christmas is just around the corner, but sadly, this year Santa Claus may not be able to come due to the pandemic. Still, however, we should be grateful for his lifetime of service to children, comin...
[Bobby Ghosh] Europe waking up to Iran’s bad behavior

Dec 23, 2020

In the Persian version of the fable of the scorpion and the frog, the frog is replaced by a turtle, but the rest of the tale is familiar. The turtle is stung even as it is doing the scorpion a good t...
[Ivo Daalder] Europe’s problems will persist, even with Biden in White House

Dec 22, 2020

The election of Joe Biden produced a huge sigh of relief in Europe. “Welcome back America!” tweeted Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. “Let’s work together!” exclaimed French President Emmanuel Macron. And i...
[Lionel Laurent] Macron has same issue as Louis XVI

Dec 22, 2020

When King Louis XVI, his two brothers and his sister-in-law were inoculated against smallpox in 18th-century France, the public worried about the risks. Though the experiment was a success, even spar...