President Yoon Suk Yeol’s newly unveiled “Aug. 15 Unification Doctrine” is loaded with lofty goals for “freedom-based unification” without any acknowledgement of the formidable challenges ahead. Unfortunately, it is more arbitrariness from a leader wanting in analysis and foresight. What the nation has heard lacks feasible action plans and consideration for regional geopolitics conducive to inter-Korean peace and reconciliation, let alone his would-be counterpart in

ViewpointsSept. 9, 2024

By the end of the 1970s, the US economy appeared to be in serious trouble. Years of inflation had caused deep discontent; measured productivity growth had fallen from its post-World War II pace of 2 percent per year to almost zero; and America’s resilience in the face of geopolitical and geoeconomic shocks seemed to be waning. The proposed solutions to these problems fell into two categories: neoliberalism and activist industrial policy. The neoliberals won. Neoliberalism called for shrink

ViewpointsSept. 9, 2024

Learning Korean continues to grow in popularity around the world, but the speed of growth may be slowing as the popularity of K-pop has plateaued. Universities in many countries have seen a decline in second language learning as part of a broader shift away from the humanities. Over time, this could result in a weakening of important institutional support for Korean classes. According to the “2023 Duolingo Language Report,” an annual report produced by the popular language learning p

ViewpointsSept. 6, 2024

Climate protesters have disrupted the tennis at Wimbledon, thrown tomato soup at the glass protecting famous paintings, sprayed orange powder on Stonehenge and blocked traffic. In response, European governments have been cracking down on environmental protesters with detentions and fines, and, in one case, with a five-year prison sentence for advocating civil disobedience in a Zoom call. Whether a protest is ethical is distinct from whether it is legal. As Martin Luther King, Jr., argued in his

ViewpointsSept. 5, 2024

The scorching summer of 2024 has finally passed, and South Korea is now entering the autumn season. While the weather has cooled down, the heated political fight continues unabated. A fierce debate revolves around allegations that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration is preparing for martial law. The opposition has raised suspicions, claiming that the government's recent actions suggest preparations for martial law. In contrast, the government and ruling party vehemently deny these allegations,

ViewpointsSept. 5, 2024

Recently, newspaper reports said that Seoul National University canceled an undergraduate course on Marxist economics due to the lack of registered students. It is only natural in this era of the global economy. In fact, Marxist economic theory became extinct as a failed experiment in the early 1990s when communist countries in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and China gave up on it and adopted free market principles. In that sense, canceling a course on Marxist economics was a much-belated me

ViewpointsSept. 4, 2024

Anyone who’s seen swathes of sunburnt German tourists harrying Greek workers for a beach towel this summer will know how wrong economic cliches can be. Greeks, depicted as “lazy” during the euro crisis, actually work more hours than anyone else in Europe, and supposedly workaholic Germans work among the least. Now the gap is getting starker with a divisive new law allowing some Greek firms to enforce a six-day workweek -- a first in Europe and one that runs counter to the trend

ViewpointsSept. 4, 2024

Following a speech by Sean O’Brien, the president of the Teamsters union, at the Republican National Convention last month, a New York Times analysis considered whether the party could really carry out a populist agenda in support of workers. While Donald Trump has never shown much interest in workers’ rights, many of his acolytes have. Republican Sens. Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall, Marco Rubio and JD Vance (the party’s vice-presidential candidate) have all sided with workers in

ViewpointsSept. 3, 2024

For the past four years, I’ve taught a first-year seminar titled “Race and Place in British New Wave, K-pop and Beyond” at Yale University. Since it’s the beginning of the Fall semester here, it seems like an appropriate time to share what my course is like. At Yale, we have special seminars that are only open to our first-year students. These courses are introductory and offer unique content. First-year seminars give our newest students a chance to interact with other st

ViewpointsSept. 3, 2024