“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 change

Viewpoints May 8, 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 out

Viewpoints May 6, 2011

It is a matter of course that prevention is better than cure. But an Asian financial safety net, designed to fight off future financial crises, cannot be relied to prevent them. Instead, it may be used to take action only when a financial crisis is confirmed to have dealt a blow to a country.This weakness in the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) program, a $120 billion pool of funds

Editorial 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 again.T

Viewpoints 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 Pref

Viewpoints May 6, 2011

The prosecution’s conclusion on Tuesday that North Korea was to blame for the paralysis of the computer network of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is a chilling reminder of the pariah regime’s determination and capability to launch cyber attacks against the South. The prosecutors defined the North’s hacking into the NACF’s computer system as a new form of cyber terrorism. Before t

Editorial May 6, 2011

Last Saturday, we called for drastic reform of the Financial Supervisory Services as the powerful regulatory agency exuded the stench of corruption. We were not alone in smelling the odor. President Lee Myung-bak did as well. On Wednesday, Lee made a surprise visit to the FSS to express his fury and disappointment over the regulator’s failure to prevent irregularities at financial companies and FS

Editorial 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 an

Viewpoints 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 theories d

Viewpoints May 5, 2011

One of the most important tasks for a diplomat is to settle disputes and resolve conflicts through negotiations. But what if he himself should cause a dispute or a conflict, as a former ambassador to an African country may have done?The case in point involved the ambassador who recently returned home after his assignment in the Ivory Coast. Among the items he brought with him from the African coun

Editorial May 4, 2011

The nation’s holdings of foreign currency surpassed the $300 billion mark at the end of April. Should the nation confront any financial crisis in the future, these bulging state coffers will be of great help in cushioning the blow.To hold $300 billion in foreign reserves is nothing short of a sea change for a nation that has been exposed to the threat of sovereign bankruptcy on two occasions durin

Editorial May 4, 2011

You’ve no doubt been hearing the harrowing warnings about what might happen if Congress refuses to lift the federal government’s debt ceiling, as some conservative Republicans have threatened.If the federal government gets anywhere near defaulting on its debts, President Obama warned this month, that “could plunge the world economy back into recession.”Even House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, O

Viewpoints May 4, 2011

Pop quiz: Who is Fred Karger?I doubt you’d know. Sounds like a guy who’d sell you Sheetrock or life insurance.And yet, the folks who run the South Carolina Republican Party are very interested in Fred Karger ― so interested, in fact, that they want him on stage on Thursday as a presidential candidate in the first Republican debate of the 2012 campaign, slated for airing on Fox News. They’ve invite

Viewpoints May 4, 2011