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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US military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
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[Photo News] Seoul seeks 'best sleeper'
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[KH Explains] Why Korea's so tough on short selling
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US expert says N. Korea might ignore Trump if he returns to White House
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Child labor worldwide and 1930 Tariff Act
The scourge of child labor has proven difficult to eradicate. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children are still being exploited for work, much of it hazardous. In recent years, the fair-trade movement has presented itself as an answer, offering, at a premium, goods and commodities certified to have been produced without exploitation. It is thus all the more appalling that a fair-trade program in Burkina Faso has been shown, in an investigation published in Bloomb
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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After tumult of 2011, here are some global hotspots to watch in 2012
Could the world in 2012 surprise us more than it did in 2011? Certainly, after Japan’s earthquake, the Middle East’s upheavals and Osama bin Laden’s death, the bar on shockers will be high. The known unknowns for 2012 already form a daunting list: the fate of the euro zone; the war in Afghanistan and the “peace” in Iraq; turmoil in Syria, Egypt and across the Middle East; Iran’s nuclear-weapons program; Pakistan’s chronic instability; Kim Jong-un’s succession and China’s soft landing, to name a
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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Ron Paul’s surge may cause headache for GOP
Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts turned to John Sasso for help in getting a health- care bill through the state legislature, may want to solicit the Democratic operative’s advice again, this time on how to handle Ron Paul. Even before the voting started in Iowa on Jan. 3, Romney was a prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination, a 77.2 percent probability as of Dec. 31, according to InTrade.com, an online betting service. Texas Congressman Paul, with a committed following,
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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Two Models for Europe
MUNICH -- Interest rates for public debt within the eurozone have spread once again, just as they did before the introduction of the euro. Balance-of-payment disparities are steadily increasing. The sovereign-debt crisis is eating its way from the periphery to the core, and the exodus of capital is accelerating. Since the summer, 300 billion euros, in net terms, may well have fled from Italy and France.The printing presses at the Banque de France and the Banca d’Italia are working overtime to ma
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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[J. Bradford DeLong] America’s financial leviathan
BERKELEY – In 1950, finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP, according to U.S. Department of Commerce estimates. By 1960, that share had grown to 3.8 percent of GDP, and reached 6 percent of GDP in 1990. Today, it is 8.4 percent of GDP, and it is not shrinking. The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart reports that the 2010 share was higher than the previous peak share in 2006.Lahart goes on to say that growth in the finance-and-insurance share of the economy ha
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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America’s financial leviathan
BERKELEY ― In 1950, finance and insurance in the United States accounted for 2.8 percent of GDP, according to U.S. Department of Commerce estimates. By 1960, that share had grown to 3.8 percent of GDP, and reached 6 percent of GDP in 1990. Today, it is 8.4 percent of GDP, and it is not shrinking. The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart reports that the 2010 share was higher than the previous peak share in 2006.Lahart goes on to say that growth in the finance-and-insurance share of the economy ha
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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[Hans-Werner Sinn] Two models for EU in the absence of capital control
MUNICH ― Interest rates for public debt within the eurozone have spread once again, just as they did before the introduction of the euro. Balance-of-payment disparities are steadily increasing. The sovereign-debt crisis is eating its way from the periphery to the core, and the exodus of capital is accelerating. Since the summer, 300 billion euros, in net terms, may well have fled from Italy and France.The printing presses at the Banque de France and the Banca d’Italia are working overtime to mak
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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U.S. can help end child labor worldwide by amending 1930 Tariff Act
EditorialBloombergThe scourge of child labor has proven difficult to eradicate. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children are still being exploited for work, much of it hazardous. In recent years, the fair-trade movement has presented itself as an answer, offering, at a premium, goods and commodities certified to have been produced without exploitation. It is thus all the more appalling that a fair-trade program in Burkina Faso has been shown, in an investigation p
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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After tumult of 2011, here are some global hotspots to watch in 2012
Could the world in 2012 surprise us more than it did in 2011? Certainly, after Japan’s earthquake, the Middle East’s upheavals and Osama bin Laden’s death, the bar on shockers will be high. The known unknowns for 2012 already form a daunting list: the fate of the euro zone; the war in Afghanistan and the “peace” in Iraq; turmoil in Syria, Egypt and across the Middle East; Iran’s nuclear-weapons program; Pakistan’s chronic instability; Kim Jong-un’s succession and China’s soft landing, to name a
ViewpointsJan. 4, 2012
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[Editorial] Don't blame police
A refusal by police to follow a directive from prosecutors has renewed a debate on the roles the two law-enforcement agencies play in criminal investigations. But the police are not to blame if they have acted strictly in accordance with the law, as they claim.At the core of the dispute are the rules on initial inquiries, as opposed to pre-trial full-scale criminal investigations. A new presidential decree on the enforcement of the Criminal Procedure Act, which went into force on Jan. 1, does no
EditorialJan. 4, 2012
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[Editorial] Violence in school
In the olden days, Koreans were advised not even to step on the shadows of a schoolmaster, whom Confucianism put in stature equal to that of fathers and the ruling monarch. Nowadays, it would be anachronistic to demand such etiquette. Nor would schoolteachers expect any such respect from their students.Even so, it cannot be put aside as a simple educational problem if many schoolteachers often find themselves helpless in dealing with unruly students in classroom, some of them affiliated with sch
EditorialJan. 4, 2012
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[Daniel Fiedler] Dishonor in the Korean courts
A license to practice law opens many doors in life. A lawyer can choose to open a private practice, to work in business, to teach as a law professor, to work as a prosecutor protecting society from criminals, to work at an NGO protecting the environment or the less fortunate, or, for the chosen few, to work as a judge. Many lawyers often aspire to a judgeship as the position is one of the more honorable ways to use their legal education and license. In America judges are referred to as “your hon
ViewpointsJan. 3, 2012
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[Editorial] Around the president
Korea’s presidents may believe it grossly unfair that people tend to assess their performances by the number of scandals involving their families and close associates instead of their positive achievements in domestic and external affairs.President Lee Myung-bak’s approval rating now hovers around the 30 percent mark, the average figure of his predecessors in the final year of their five-year tenures. Any improprieties that are exposed in the months to come ― or the lack of them ― will mean he i
EditorialJan. 3, 2012
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[Editorial] International matchmaking
It was in 2007 that a newspaper picture showed a dozen young women in a Southeast Asian country standing in line before a couple men from Korea in what was described as a matchmaking session. By the time the picture was published here, the international marriage brokerage that resembles human trafficking had created anti-Korean sentiment in the countries from which many brides came to Korea.It took five long years to bring legislation to prohibit such indecent practices. A revision to the Law on
EditorialJan. 3, 2012
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New Year’s resolution: No major overhauls
I’ve been making the same New Year’s resolutions since I was 11: be nicer, get organized and lose weight. And although I still have friends who speak to me, can easily locate 1,392 pencils in my office without searching and am not yet being hauled around by a winch, I haven’t exactly exceeded my expectations.In the spirit of new beginnings, and yet aware that, if certain fringe groups are correct, the world will end before I pay off my 2011 Visa bills, I’d like to propose a new vision for New Ye
ViewpointsJan. 3, 2012
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[Meghan Daum] Mitt Romney’s dog days less seedy than others’
Surely you’ve heard the story about Mitt Romney’s dog. If you haven’t, just wait. The more desperate the GOP primary campaign gets, the more likely you are to hear it again.In 1983, a 36-year-old Romney and his wife and five young boys piled into the family station wagon for a 12-hour drive from Boston to Lake Huron in Canada. As was the custom, Seamus, their Irish setter, rode in a crate strapped to the top of the car.Somewhere along the way, the dog began to experience, shall we say, digestive
ViewpointsJan. 3, 2012
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Job creation is price for new U.S. health law
I am not an expert on health-care policy, but I do know something about job creation. So when a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee asked me to testify about the effect on employers of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare, I thought I could offer some insights. As I told the committee in a July 28 hearing, it is critical that Congress does a good job of balancing the benefits of new legislation against the costs of that legislation. That pro
ViewpointsJan. 3, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] South Korea’s prospects in the Year of the Dragon
As the New Year dawns, people are concerned about what will happen on the Korean Peninsula in 2012. Rumors say that Mount Baekdu in North Korea may erupt soon, possibly in 2012. They say the clock is ticking and the eruption will bring about disaster affecting the whole peninsula. With Kim Jong-il’s abrupt death due to a heart attack this past December, North Korea’s situation, too, seems quite uncertain and nebulous in the New Year. In South Korea, parliamentary and presidential elections are s
ViewpointsJan. 3, 2012
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Readers’ voice
On the NSL ...In a democratic society, a government shouldn’t be in the business of patrolling people’s ideologies and belief systems. Isn’t that what free speech is all about?― Holly Hamilton, Gunpo, via Facebook On Internet censorship ...Teacher A: “How is the student in Class 6 when you teach class? He is not improving even though I’ve told him to pay better attention many times.”Teacher B: “It’s the same in my class, too.”If the above dialogue occurs on a Social Network Service like Twitter
Jan. 2, 2012
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[VOICE] Should the National Security Law be abolished?
With response to Kim Jong-il’s death reigniting the debate ...Should the National Security Law be abolished?Divisive debateThe National Security Law has divided Korean public opinion since its introduction in 1948. To its proponents, more often on the conservative side of politics, the law is a necessary safeguard against North Korea and communist subversion of the state. To its critics, generally on the political left, it is used a tool to stifle criticism of the government and economic status
Jan. 2, 2012