Now that the Korean people have chosen their new leader, who will steer the country for the next five years. Many Koreans are full of hope and expectation about the upcoming new era in South Korea. While congratulating the winner, I have 10 propositions for a brighter future for South Korea, which President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol might want to consider. First, our political leaders should be mindfu...

When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, a spate of wishful thinking ran through the West that China, a great power with friends on both sides, might step in to mediate a cease-fire. China’s government struck a pose of neutrality, called for a peaceful resolution and said it supported the principle of “territorial integrity.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a public plea to China’s X...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 was the beginning of a third world war that has the potential to destroy our civilization. The invasion was preceded by a long meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Feb. 4 -- the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations and the Beijing Winter Olympics. At the end of that meeting, the two men release...

Four weeks ago I visited the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and spoke with residents about a possible Russian invasion. None of them imagined they would soon be besieged by a Russian military that has cut off their water, electricity and food supplies, and that deliberately attacks civilian targets -- including a maternity hospital and civilian convoys trying to leave. My translator is now hunk...

Since Russia’s invasion, more than 2 million people have fled Ukraine. An additional 4 million might not be far behind in what’s shaping up as Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. But is Europe ready to handle it? The European Union and member states have shown a massive outpouring of support. Countries bordering Ukraine, including Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania have rapid...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caught almost everyone by surprise. US President Biden had repeatedly warned the world that Russian President Vladimir Putin would move on Ukraine, but few people thought he would launch a massive invasion. Fewer still thought that he would intimate at the possible use of nuclear weapons. In the two weeks since the full invasion began, Ukrainian forces have mounte...

Suppose Russia succeeds in toppling the Ukrainian government or seizing much of the country. Moscow’s slow start notwithstanding, this could well happen: The balance of combat power is likely to favor Russian President Vladimir Putin as the war rolls on. So what happens then? One option being debated in Western policy circles is funneling arms, money and other support to a Ukrainian insurgency. ...

By the time this article is published, the National Election Commission should have already announced the winner of the 2022 presidential election of South Korea. The new president will take office on May 10 to lead a nation that offers him many tasks that have grown heavier during the past five years of the Moon Jae-in administration. My first advice to the president-elect, with sincere wishes ...

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent 90 minutes on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron, who asked him to declare a cease-fire in Ukraine. Not interested, Putin replied. “He refuses to stop his attacks,” Macron wrote on Twitter after the call. A French official said Putin seemed determined “to take control of all of Ukraine.” “The worst is yet to come,” the official ad...

Until Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine last week, the standoff between Russia and a US-led Western alliance had produced, on balance, a net strategic benefit for China. Now that Putin has pulled the trigger, the geopolitical game has completely changed. The months of tension had distracted the US from China, which Washington sees as its most formidable long-term threat. And looki...

In recent days the world has watched with astonishment and admiration as the people of Ukraine have put up fierce -- and so far, successful -- resistance against Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of their country. Putin has united the world against him like never before. Unexpectedly severe sanctions are starting to bite deeply into the Russian economy. Even thousands of brave Russians have taken...

Some weeks can feel like decades, and this week has been one of them. With Russia’s naked act of aggression against Ukraine, the tragedy of war has erupted in Europe once again. Russian forces have shelled residential housing, schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure. The Kremlin’s propaganda machine has been pushed into overdrive in its effort to justify the unjustifiable. More than...

No matter how Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine ends, it already marks a turning point in history: the end of a 30-year period of relative peace in Europe and a return to hostility between Russia and its neighbors -- a kind of Cold War 2.0. If we’re lucky. The first Cold War, from 1947 until 1991, divided the world between two hostile blocs. The United States and the Soviet Union reached the...

The US investigation into mysterious symptoms known as the “Havana syndrome” could provide Americans with long-overdue insights into the emerging threats of directed-energy devices. Hundreds of US government personnel -- mostly spies and diplomats abroad -- have reported piercing pain, unexplained sounds, vertigo, vision loss, memory loss, insomnia and signs of brain damage since 2016, when doze...

When Gimpo, right outside of Seoul in Gyeonggi Province, began a “new town” project in cooperation with the Land and Housing Corp. about 10 years ago, it conceived an eco-friendly community where residents could enjoy the spectacle of migratory birds flying over and resting in the wetland along the Han River estuary. The Gimpo delta is on the migration route of birds from Siberia and Alaska to J...