Most Popular
-
1
[Weekender] Geeks have never been so chic in Korea
-
2
N. Korea says it test-fired tactical ballistic missile with new guidance technology
-
3
NewJeans members submit petitions over court injunction in Hybe-Ador conflict
-
4
[News Focus] Mystery deepens after hundreds of cat deaths in S. Korea
-
5
S. Korea's exports of instant noodles surpass $100m for 1st time in April: data
-
6
[KH Explains] Why Korea's so tough on short selling
-
7
Actors involved in past controversies return first via streaming service originals
-
8
[Herald Interview] Byun Yo-han's 'unlikable' character is result of calculated acting
-
9
US military commander in S. Korea during Gwangju uprising dies
-
10
‘Kim desperately wanted to denuclearize,’ Moon writes in memoirs
-
[Shlomo Avineri] Ambivalence in Turkey’s diplomacy
JERUSALEM ― The recent surge in Turkey’s military actions against the Kurds in northern Iraq is an indication that, somewhat surprisingly ― but not entirely unpredictably ― Turkish foreign policy has undergone a 180-degree turn in less than two years. The Turkish offensive is also an indication that these changes go beyond the current tensions between Turkey and Israel, which are just one facet of much deeper trends.Just a couple of years ago, after the European Union slammed the door in Turkey’
ViewpointsOct. 27, 2011
-
[Dominique Moisi] The logic of repenting for past wrongdoing
PARIS ― National repentance is in the news again, as it has been with remarkable frequency in recent years. In 2008, Australia’s then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to his country’s Aborigines, while Queen Elizabeth II offered a moving gesture of contrition in Ireland a few months ago. And now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a recent visit to the Caucasus, reiterated his advice to the Turks to “repent” for the massacres of Armenians committed by the decaying Ottoman regime in 1915.Of
ViewpointsOct. 27, 2011
-
Women of the Arab Spring: Their issues are everyone’s issues
BOSTON ― The capture and killing of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, on-going demonstrations for an end to the oppressive reigns of Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh and Syria’s Bashar Assad, and new elections in Tunisia show that one thing has not changed in the Arab Spring ― change itself. Even in Saudi Arabia, where requests for reform have not called for regime change, change is proving inevitable with the death of Crown Prince Sultan and questions about what direction the soon-to-be-named new crown prince
ViewpointsOct. 27, 2011
-
[Yang Sung-chul] Steve Jobs and the demise of two cowardly dictators
Col. Moammar Gadhafi is dead at age 69. His demise has ended 42 years of brutal and erratic dictatorship in Libya. He and his cronies have left the country in ruins after eight months of civil strife. It may take years, if not decades, to launch a viable functioning democratic government, let alone to reconstruct and rehabilitate the nation.In December 2003, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1939-2006) was captured by U.S. forces in a dirt hole at a farmhouse near his hometown, Tikrit, as a fugitiv
ViewpointsOct. 27, 2011
-
[Editorial] Time to act on U.S. FTA
With the important Seoul mayoral by-election over, rival parties are now required to tackle a still more important issue without further delay ― the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. To thrash out the differences among the parties, the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee organized four rounds of intensive debate from Oct. 20-24. Lawmakers and experts from the government and academia discussed the merits and demerits of the trade deal for more t
EditorialOct. 26, 2011
-
[Editorial] War against gangsters
Cho Hyun-oh, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, has declared war on organized crime. The police chief told a press conference on Tuesday that he has launched a sweeping crackdown on the 220 gangs that operate in the nation. The members of these factions are estimated at some 5,500.Cho said he has ordered police officers to use all devices and equipment available, including firearms, to round up these gangsters.The war against organized gangsters was prompted by the failure of po
EditorialOct. 26, 2011
-
[William Pesek] Crisis of 2012 may hurt China more than the U.S.
Economists were probably too busy watching markets gyrate to contemplate last month’s big news in science. Physicists detected particles travelling faster than light, which, if the reading was accurate, means time travel is possible. Now, let’s play a quick mind experiment that would surely captivate the deans of the dismal science: Pretend you have just been transported 10 years into the future to see how this incipient global crisis pans out. It would be hard to find anyone who isn’t desperate
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
[David Ignatius] The Mideast deal that almost was
WASHINGTON ― To the catalog of missed opportunities for peace in the Middle East, we can add a tantalizing if also depressing chapter: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s secret offer in 2008 to create a Palestinian state that would feature international control of holy sites in a divided Jerusalem ― a concession many Israelis have said was impossible. Condoleezza Rice discusses the Olmert proposal in her new memoir, “No Higher Honor.” She writes that as she listened to Olmert’s plan during a M
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
Obama would be crazy to drop Biden from ticket
Vice presidents are a vestigial limb of politics. The position persists even though a vice presidential candidate rarely carries a state, leads a constituency or even commands a portfolio beyond whatever he negotiates ad hoc with the principal. Research suggests that veep candidates don’t bring many votes to a presidential ticket, although an especially bad one can do damage at the margins (see Sarah Palin) or worse (Thomas Eagleton). Once in office, a few vice presidents have been notably troub
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
U.S. troops to central Africa is a sensible ‘adventure’
As real-life bad guys go, it doesn’t get much worse than Joseph Kony. He’s the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a cultish militia in central Africa that survives by plundering villages, massacring adults and forcing boys to become soldiers and girls to become sex slaves. President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment of 100 military advisers to Uganda to help regional militaries capture or kill Kony and his commanders. It’s a modest and reasonable plan, and a good idea. The LRA, which pr
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
Libya, Tunisia still face obstacles on the road to democracy
What a glorious week for the world.Free and fair elections in Tunisia, Muammar el-Gadhafi’s demise. All the fomentation and death brought by the Arab Spring have produced two new states that stand as shining examples ― not just for the still-struggling people of Syria and Yemen, but also for China, Belarus, Cambodia, Zimbabwe and countless other unyielding authoritarian states.“You have won your revolution,” President Obama proclaimed with a big smile just after Gadhafi’s death. And on Sunday ne
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
[A. B. Yehoshua] A thousand in exchange for one
HAIFA ― The celebrations in Israel over the release of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit come after the Israeli government concluded that diplomatic rarity, an agreement with Hamas. It is as if the government had brought back an Israeli who had been sent to Mars.Of course, other Israeli soldiers and civilians have been held captive in Arab states or abducted by terrorist organizations and other militant groups over the years. And Israel has been willing in the past to barter hundreds or thousan
ViewpointsOct. 26, 2011
-
[Editorial] Moment of truth
When Seoul citizens go to the polls today, their minds will be more focused on which way the Republic of Korea should be directed rather than what the capital city administration should do.Both candidates Na Kyung-won from the conservative ruling Grand National Party and Park Won-soon supported by a coalition of opposition parties and liberal civic groups had jurist careers and no experience in municipal administration. They debated over some welfare and city development policies, but their two
EditorialOct. 25, 2011
-
[Editorial] Libya and North Korea
By all accounts, 99 percent of the North Korean people are not aware of what happened in Libya last week, let alone the violent pro-democracy movements in other Middle East and North African nations since last spring. The other 1 percent are the top-level party and administration officials and businesspeople who travel to China and other parts of the world. Agencies monitoring the North’s print and broadcast media reported that they have been completely silent about the death of Moammar Gadhafi
EditorialOct. 25, 2011
-
Bank of America too much of a behemoth to fail
The Obama administration says the Dodd-Frank financial reform law ends “too big to fail,” meaning that no financial institution will ever again need to be bailed out. The promise is alluring, but it’s already proving to be false. The argument rests on the premise that bank capital is now high enough to withstand serious shocks, so a calamity is less likely. It also assumes that Dodd-Frank’s new resolution authority allows global financial institutions to be wound down in an orderly fashion, and
ViewpointsOct. 25, 2011
-
[Daniel Fiedler] Oppressing women is not ‘culture’
The British beauty queen says a judge put his hand in an “inappropriate place.” The pageant organizer says it was a “cultural misunderstanding.” Thus we reach the heart of the matter behind the latest international media scandal for South Korea. But this is also an opportunity to examine whether it is truly culture or whether it is the oppression of women that lies at the heart of this scandal.In modern usage, culture is broadly defined as the social norms, beliefs and values that exist in a soc
ViewpointsOct. 25, 2011
-
Real grievances fuel anti-Wall Street protests
The anti-Wall Street movement has confounded Republicans, Democrats and analysts alike. The take on the right is that Occupy Wall Street is the same old riff-raff of leftist anarchists, unlike the grassroots conservative Tea Party; seen from the left, it’s an authentic uprising against the huge income disparity in America and a call for redistributing the wealth. Actually, it is part of a combustible global protest that goes beyond the professional rabble rousers. There is a focus on income ineq
ViewpointsOct. 25, 2011
-
Why Americans should care about French election
Being a geopolitical analyst and forecaster often means having to explain to people in America how and why a single event in Africa, Russia or China will directly impact them. One such event is the French presidential election set for May 2012, for which the opposition Socialists have just selected their candidate, Francois Hollande, in a final round of open primary voting.For most people, the knee-jerk reaction to an event on the other side of the world is, “Why should I give a toss what happen
ViewpointsOct. 25, 2011
-
[Kim Seong-kon] Political ideology and culture in film
Movies are one of the most effective media for disseminating and propagating political ideologies to people. In communist countries where propaganda is imperative, the government controls the movie industry in order to produce and promote movies filled with propaganda. Unable to perceive latent political messages, people are vulnerable to such subtle brainwashing and thus are easily manipulated by ideologically-charged movies. During the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, at a time w
ViewpointsOct. 25, 2011
-
Readers’ VOICE
On cultural heritage...When asked about cultural heritage, most people come up with Bulguksa, palaces and so on.But few think Hangeul is cultural heritage which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage property.Therefore, I would like to talk about Hangeul.These days, animated by The Korean Wave, many countries are running Hangeul classes.Though it is through the Korea Wave, I would like to highly praise the government’s efforts.Also, I have some things I would like the government to do.The firs
Oct. 24, 2011