Articles on the housing market in the South Korean media are frequent and focus entirely on two topics: cost and scandal. Cost concerns the steady rise in prices, both for buying and renting. Scandal concerns the various tactics that the rich and powerful use to profit from real estate. The thread running through the media’s interest in cost and scandal is that owning a home is critical to buildi...

Last Monday, Canada held an election to choose a new House of Commons. Next Sunday, Germany will hold an election to choose a new Bundestag. And sometime in October, Japan will hold an election to choose a new House of Representatives. Rarely have major elections in G-7 powers taken place close together. Last August, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a snap election in the hope of st...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The attacks brought the two 110-story towers down, killing 2,606 people. Another 125 died at the Pentagon, and 265 died on the four airplanes hijacked for the attacks. In response to 9/11, then-President George W. Bush began a “war on terror” to weaken terrorists around the world and pr...

To Koreans, Aug. 15 marks the end of Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. It is celebrated as a national holiday in South and North Korea alike. As South Koreans were enjoying a three-day weekend in the middle of summer, news spread quickly that Taliban soldiers had captured Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and had overthrown the government. The sudden collapse caught the US government of...

In response to the surging delta variant of COVID-19 around the world, more countries are requiring proof of vaccination for employment and access to public places. A range of institutions in the US is now requiring employees to get vaccinated. France and Italy require proof of vaccination to enter businesses and public places. These measures have produced vocal resistance, but a strong social co...

July began with tentative hopes that the world was finally turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic. After peaking in late April, new cases around the world fell steadily until the end of June. They ticked up a bit in early July and began to rise quickly as the delta variant spread rapidly around the world. The speed of delta’s spread has caught public health authorities around the world off g...

The 2020 Summer Games open in Tokyo a week from today on July 23, a year later than scheduled. The COVID-19 pandemic forced a year delay in holding the games, though many in Japan and elsewhere have argued that they should be canceled. A recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Japan prompted the government to bring back emergency measures that will prevent spectators from attending events. Athletes will...

July marks the beginning of the second half of the year. In the first half, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news in South Korea as it has elsewhere. As vaccine rollout continues around the world, with predictable difficulties, hope for an end to the pandemic is tempered by fears of new variants. After a slow start, the pace of vaccination in South Korea has picked up, raising hopes for th...

For decades, education has sat at the center of political discourse in South Korea. As the country developed, the center of discourse moved from educating the masses for the needs of a growing industrial economy to preparing for university admission and the high social status that it bestowed. Since the 2010s, however, interest in education has cooled somewhat as other issues have come to the for...

As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, countries around the world are returning to in-person life. Families are gathering, schools are opening, and city streets are coming back to life. The pandemic is not over, and much suffering remains, but the trajectory is moving toward an end. As the world returns to normal, speculation abounds about the lasting influence of the pandemic on society and institution...

Over the last 10 days, COVID-19 cases have exploded in Taiwan, which has stood out as the world leader in controlling the disease. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, cases in the United States, which ranks number one in total cases and deaths, have seen a sharp drop in cases. Social distancing restrictions and mask mandates are being eased as Taiwan locks down. The sudden change in the...

At the end of April, Seoul’s new mayor Oh Se-hoon announced that remodeling work on Gwanghamun Plaza would continue, but with several modifications. The plaza took its present form in 2009 toward the end of Oh’s first term as mayor. Plans to remodel the plaza again moved forward in the late 2010s under former Mayor Park Won-soon and construction began in the fall of 2020. Oh’s victory in the Apr...

The by-elections for mayors in Seoul and Busan ended in landslide defeats for President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party. Winning 57.5 percent of the vote, former Mayor Oh Se-hoon returned to City Hall 10 years after resigning over opposition to free school lunches. In Busan, that Democratic Party candidate won only 34.4 percent of the vote, a huge drop from the 55.2 percent it won in June 2018. T...

As of this writing, polls are open in by-elections for mayor in Seoul and Busan. The election offers a chance to assess public opinion only 13 months before the next presidential election in May 2022. President Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have dropped recently, suggesting that his ruling Democratic Party may face strong headwinds moving toward 2022. Since 1987, presidents in South Korea have ...

On March 18, the US and China met in Anchorage, Alaska, for the first time since Joe Biden took office in January. The two days of talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi were contentious, suggesting a long and tense competition between the two nations. Like previous great power competitions, the one between the US and China i...