Most Popular
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[Weekender] Geeks have never been so chic in Korea
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N. Korea says it test-fired tactical ballistic missile with new guidance technology
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NewJeans members submit petitions over court injunction in Hybe-Ador conflict
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[News Focus] Mystery deepens after hundreds of cat deaths in S. Korea
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S. Korea's exports of instant noodles surpass $100m for 1st time in April: data
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[Herald Interview] Byun Yo-han's 'unlikable' character is result of calculated acting
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[KH Explains] Why Korea's so tough on short selling
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US military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
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Actors involved in past controversies return first via streaming service originals
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[Photo News] Seoul seeks 'best sleeper'
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[Editorial] Reforming chaebol practices
As the April general election draws near, political parties are competitively pouring out corporate reform plans. The sudden impetus toward corporate reform could be seen as the customary practice of political parties bashing chaebol before a major election. But this time, there seems to be more to it. Their attack on the chaebol is gaining traction amid a growing perception that the incumbent government’s corporate policy has only benefited chaebol at the expense of small and medium-sized enter
EditorialJan. 27, 2012
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[Editorial] GNP’s name change
The ruling Grand National Party has decided to change its name next week. The party’s emergency leadership council announced on Thursday that the party would hold polls on potential names among party members from Friday to Sunday and adopt a new name on Monday. The plan reflects the scandal-ridden party’s desperate attempt to project a new image before the April general election. In recent years, the party has suffered a series of unsavory scandals that tarnished its image irreparably. Hence, a
EditorialJan. 27, 2012
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Challenges for Indonesia on way to ‘AAA’ rating
It’s a rare economic story that involves Facebook Inc., God and credit ratings. Leave it to Indonesia to serve up a saga that speaks volumes about the obstacles facing Southeast Asia’s biggest economy. Although Indonesia doesn’t often make global headlines, one event last week should have received more ink: Moody’s Investors Service returned the country to investment grade for the first time since the Asian financial crisis. It was an overdue recognition of how far Indonesia has progressed in th
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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[David Ignatius] Campaign for ‘American renewal’
WASHINGTON ― The foreign-policy theme that should dominate this year’s presidential campaign is “American renewal.” Each candidate claims to have a strategy for halting the nation’s decline, but their versions often amount to “more of the same” ― which ain’t gonna work. For a bracing discussion of what a revival of U.S. power would actually require over the next few decades, I recommend a new book called “Strategic Vision,” by Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to Presiden
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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‘Invented threat’
As disturbing as the controversy over why Salman Rushdie was misled into believing that his life, and the literature festival, would be endangered if he turned up at Jaipur is the manner in which the home ministry opted out of taking the lead role in a security-related situation. It may be technically correct that law and order is a state subject, but when the larger issue of the nation’s global prestige is at stake, and when more than one state government is involved (Maharashtra and Rajasthan
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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China, Russia, U.S. face off beneath the waves
An underwater tug-of-war is intensifying among countries such as China, Russia and the United States in the seas around Japan.Vietnamese Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh, who comes from Vietnam’s army, requested an inspection of a Maritime Self-Defence Force submarine when he visited Japan in October.He visited the Makishio, a main submarine of the MSDF Submarine Flotilla 1, in the city of Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture. Made in Japan, the state-of-the-art submarine boasts a displacement capacity
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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Major powers battle for influence in Asia
“Where there is sugar, there are ants,” is perhaps the appropriate phrase to visualize the ongoing and increasing struggle among the major powers over influence in Asia ― the continent with the world’s fastest growth and abundant natural resources. Along with these colliding interests, comes the race to exercise control and to tap the continent’s resources and huge potential.The struggle among nations, particularly superpowers like the United States and the rapidly emerging power China, to gain
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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[Park Sang-seek] Clash of Western civilization and Korean culture
Koreans celebrate the two New Years: the solar New Year and the lunar New Year. The first is based on Western civilization and the second on Chinese civilization. Their contradictory behavior is symbolic of the clash of cultures in Korea.In the present, Western civilization and Korean culture are mixed like a salad bowl, and Koreans experience a culture clash. In order to deal with this, Koreans need to understand the characteristics of Korean culture and their impact on the political, economic
ViewpointsJan. 27, 2012
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[Editorial] Selecting candidates
With the Lunar New Year holiday over, the ruling and opposition parties will have to speed up the arduous process of selecting parliamentary candidates soon. At the same time, they have to hasten the task of crafting campaign promises. They cannot afford to spend too long on these electoral preparations, with only two-and-a-half months until the April general elections.Parties’ nomination principles are already laid out. Among them are what percentage of incumbent lawmakers will be denied nomina
EditorialJan. 26, 2012
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[Editorial] Sharing as solution
The job market is gloomy, as the number of jobs to be created this year is projected to fall 30 percent. The administration says 280,000 jobs will be created in 2012, down 120,000 from last year.These worsening prospects are behind the administration’s push for job sharing. One idea in this regard is to reinterpret a labor law enforcement decree to make it unlawful to exclude hours worked on holidays and weekends from a 12-hour limit to a legally permissible extension to a 40-hour workweek.An em
EditorialJan. 26, 2012
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[Robert Shiller] Does austerity promote growth?
NEW HAVEN ― In his classic Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1724), Bernard Mandeville, the Dutch-born British philosopher and satirist, described ― in verse ― a prosperous society (of bees) that suddenly chose to make a virtue of austerity, dropping all excess expenditure and extravagant consumption. What then happened?The Price of Land and Houses falls;Mirac’lous Palaces, whose Walls,Like those of Thebes, were rais’d by PlayAre to be let; ... .The building Trade is quite
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2012
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How Democrats got their pockets picked
It’s hard to read Thomas Frank’s new book, “Pity the Billionaire,” without being astonished at what utter nincompoops Democrats are.This surely was not Frank’s primary intent. The book is subtitled, “The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right,” so it’s pretty clear where Frank coming from. But the obvious subtext is how, in a two-party system, Democrats allowed Republicans to pull off the greatest cross-dressing scam since RuPaul became America’s Drag Queen.Frank is a journali
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2012
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Shell game on the size of government
President Obama recently unveiled a plan to reorganize and streamline government agencies. “No business,” the president said, “... would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations. ... Why is it OK for our government?” Sound familiar?It should. Obama’s proposal ― a political ploy aimed at the fickle middle of American politics ― is the most recent in a long line of presidential “efficiency” measures. Every president since Richard Nixon has offered something simi
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2012
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The verdict is already in on climate change
Recently I had jury duty, and during jury selection something remarkable occurred. Early in the proceedings, the judge posed a hypothetical question to the 60 or so potential jurors in the room: “If I were to send you out now and ask you to render a verdict, what would it be? How many of you would vote not guilty?” A few raised their hands. “How many would vote guilty?” A few more raised their hands. “And how many would say you didn’t know enough to decide?” Every remaining hand ― about 50 peopl
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2012
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[Richard H. Thaler] Corporate citizens do well by doing good to others
Although the phrase is now somewhat out of fashion, the issue of corporate responsibility is at the heart of many of the debates on economic policies around the world. Should corporations simply maximize profits and let the invisible hand do its wonders, or do they have some obligation to be good corporate citizens as well? As with many politicized debates, this one has been captured by two extreme positions, neither of which are, to my mind, particularly sensible. At one extreme are “pro-respon
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2012
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[Editorial] Reshaping election culture
The forthcoming April general election is important not just because it is a precursor to the December presidential poll. It is important more because it offers a rare chance to reshape the nation’s election culture. The April 11 election is the first major election in Korea where candidates and their supporters are allowed to fully utilize the Internet for electioneering ― unless they poison the election atmosphere by attempting to defame their rivals. Previously, the Internet could not be used
EditorialJan. 25, 2012
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[Editorial] Beef trade puzzle
Many consumers wonder why beef prices in department stores and other retail outlets remain high even as cattle prices have plummeted at livestock farms. The Consumers Union of Korea has come up with an answer.According to a report released by the union, a top-notch 600 kg Korean cow fetches its owner about 5.8 million won on average. But the cow’s final consumer price is slightly over 10.04 million won, generating a distribution margin of 42.3 percent.The report has found out how the large margi
EditorialJan. 25, 2012
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New, unneeded obstacles to abortion
A federal appeals court this month upheld a Texas law that requires a woman seeking an abortion to undergo a sonogram, forces doctors to describe that sonogram in detail to her and then requires that she wait 24 hours before she can undergo the procedure. Texas was one of five states to adopt mandatory sonogram laws last year.Proponents insist these laws are about informed consent and making sure women have all the details about the procedure. They are not. The laws are about one thing only: ere
ViewpointsJan. 25, 2012
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[Robert Reich] Hubbub over ‘Bain Capitalism’
It’s one thing to criticize Mitt Romney for being a businessman with the wrong values. It’s quite another to accuse him and his former company, Bain Capital, of doing bad things. If what Bain Capital did under Romney was bad for America, the burden shifts to Romney’s critics to propose laws that would prevent Bain and other companies from doing such bad things in the future.Don’t hold your breath.Newt Gingrich says Bain under Romney carried out “clever legal ways to loot a company.” Gingrich cal
ViewpointsJan. 25, 2012
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Difficult case tests lay judges
At the Saitama District Court on Jan. 10, six lay judges ― three men and three women ― together with three professional judges started to deal with not only three murder cases but also with seven other cases involving the defendant, Kanae Kijima ― fraud, attempted fraud and theft.Kijima pleaded guilty to fraud charges of swindling two men of money but pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. As to the murder charges, there are no confessions and no concrete evidence linking her to the murders.T
ViewpointsJan. 25, 2012