The Korea Herald

[Naomi Wolf] WikiLeaks’ release of cable: A press without principles

ViewpointsFeb 13, 2011

NEW YORK ― Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is in the news again, this time after former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer turned over to him confidential records on roughly 2,000 wealthy individuals that Elmer claims contain evidence of money laundering and tax evasion. Elmer was quickly convicted of violating Switzerland’s bank-secrecy law, but few journalists have demanded that Assange be pro...
[Editorial] Home rental crisis

EditorialFeb 11, 2011

For urban tenant families, the difficulty of finding a place to live at an affordable rent does not show any sign of easing. On the contrary, it is worsening as the early spring moving season is approaching. For many families with modest income, it will not be like spring at all when it has already come, as the old Chinese saying goes. The rise in rent is so steep that few hesitate to call it a ...
[Editorial] Ad hoc panel

EditorialFeb 11, 2011

In a follow-up to a recent congress of its lawmakers on constitutional amendment, the ruling Grand National Party is debating a proposal to create a high-powered ad hoc committee tasked to build a favorable consensus among the public. But its advocates, mostly senior party members close to President Lee Myung-bak, are wasting what little is left of their political capital. The advocates, who had...
Competition feeding drive for healthier food

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

The broad strokes of the “2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” report released last week are elegantly simple: Eating is and should be as pleasurable as it is necessary, but we also need to eat less, eat smarter and get more exercise. If we do, we’ll feel better and weigh less, we’ll enhance the development of our children, everybody will be less likely to get chronic, diet-related diseases su...
U.S. must reverse its image as apologist

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

While much attention focuses on how gracefully to dislodge President Hosni Mubarak from his 30-year reign, the Obama administration should be asking how U.S. policies helped him remain in office that long to begin with. The United States has grown far too comfortable with an Arab world dominated by unmovable, abusive rulers while assuming that the Arab people couldn’t be trusted with democracy. ...
[Tim Rutten] Beware Islamists in the wings

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

From the American perspective, the transition now underway in Egypt confirms John Kenneth Galbraith’s famous appraisal of politics as a choice between “the disastrous and the unpalatable.” What the Obama administration must dread is not the prospect of Cairo repeating the disaster that was Tehran in 1979 but St. Petersburg in 1917, when one revolution ― its leadership democratic but hopelessly d...
[David Ignatius] Struggle is just beginning in Egypt

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Wael Ghonim, the charismatic young Google executive who helped launch the protests in Tahrir Square, sounded the trumpet in a first Twitter message Thursday afternoon: “Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the brave young Egyptians.” But he soon sent another message urging protesters to wait for official news ― and when President Hosni Mubarak finally made his speech late Thursday, i...
[Editorial] New questions raised about death penalty

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

Imagine what was going through the mind of Taiwanese Air Force private Chiang Kuo-ching as he was being led to his execution in August 1997. What a horrifyingly surreal moment it must have been for the 21-year-old man to know he was about to die for a crime he did not commit. Stomachs knot and nerves shudder when we visualize the moment Chiang was escorted into the death chamber. The story broke...
[Editorial] Temple of gloom

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

ASEAN unity is again under strain as Cambodian and Thai troops keep up their animus over an 11th-century temple astride their common border. Ownership of the Preah Vihear Hindu temple had been determined in Cambodia’s favor by the International Court of Justice in a 9-3 vote half a century ago. Why the border squabble should have persisted to this day tells vividly how the emotive weight of histo...
[Editorial] War only means both countries stand to lose

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

There are people in both Thailand and Cambodia who want their soldiers to go all the way. The problem is, even though this might bring the territorial dispute to a conclusion, it would only be for the short term. In 10 or even five years, when one side gets weaker or stronger, the conflict will flare up once again. That is absolutely certain, if force is used to settle this conflict. Diplomacy c...
[Andrew Sheng] Financial crisis: Out with the tiger, in with the rabbit

ViewpointsFeb 11, 2011

As the Year of the Tiger faded, a year of drama and change came to an end. The last Year of the Tiger was 1998, an unforgettable year because of the Asian financial crisis. As the tiger year faded, there was regime change in Tunisia and big demonstrations for change began in Egypt. The Year of the Wood Rabbit in a metal year means that some of the tiger volatility might remain. Surprisingly, from...
[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Tunisian catalyst for Arab democracy

ViewpointsFeb 10, 2011

DAVOS ― The whole world celebrates Tunisia’s democratic revolution, which has set off a cascade of events elsewhere in the region ― particularly in Egypt ― with untold consequences. The eyes of the world are now set on this small country of 10 million, to learn the lessons of its recent experience and to see if the young people who overthrew a corrupt autocrat can create a stable, functioning dem...
[Editorial] Financial ‘big bang’

EditorialFeb 10, 2011

When the Capital Market Consolidation Act went into effect in February 2009, the government expected a “big bang” in the domestic financial industry. As the new law lowered barriers separating financial services, policymakers anticipated financial companies would actively pursue mergers and acquisitions among themselves to grow into large, multifunctional investment banks. The much expected big ...
[Editorial] N. Korea and talks

EditorialFeb 10, 2011

North Korea’s military said Thursday that it would not engage in dialogue with its South Korean counterpart any longer, laying the blame for the collapse on Wednesday of the two-day working-level military talks between the two Koreas on the South. The North’s state media quoted its delegation to the failed talks as saying that “the South do not wish for improvement of inter-Korean relations and ...
Women’s right to make reproductive choices

ViewpointsFeb 10, 2011

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act” introduced Jan. 20 in the U.S. House of Representatives is a broad attack on women’s reproductive health care. The talk for the last couple of days has been the bill’s supposed attempt to redefine rape ― limiting a “rape” exemption to “forcible rape” ― but the potential harm to women is larger. The bill would prevent the use of taxpayer funds for abort...