Most Popular
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul to more than double military drones by 2026 to counter NK threats
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Seoul alerts overseas missions to NK terror threats
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Over 60% of S. Koreans support W100m childbirth incentive: survey
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‘Inside Out 2’ adds four new emotions, explores teenage life
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Questions raised over fair promotion of RM, NewJeans
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[Editorial] Climate change efforts
To scientists and environmental groups, the outcome of the recently ended U.N. climate talks in Durban is a big disappointment. Ostensibly, the two-week-long conference, which was attended by more than 190 countries, delivered results. It produced a package of agreements, including, among other things, the extension of the Kyoto Protocol for another five years.The delegates also agreed to launch negotiations next year to hammer out a new legally binding treaty by 2015. The envisioned pact is aim
EditorialDec. 14, 2011
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Mr. Corzine goes to Washington, with no pull
When it comes to shining a light on the cozy relationships between Wall Street and Washington, and how the rich and powerful get access to things the rest of us don’t, there can never be too many juicy examples. Last month, thanks to Bloomberg Markets magazine, we were treated to the excellent story about how former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with a bunch of bankers and hedge fund managers in New York during the summer of 2008 and shared with them some of his early thinking on the futu
ViewpointsDec. 14, 2011
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[Robert Reich] The rebirth of Social Darwinism
Listen carefully to the Republican debates and you get a view of the kind of society many Republicans seek. The last time we had it was in the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.It was an era when the nation was mesmerized by the doctrine of free enterprise. It was also a time when the ideas of William Graham Sumner, a professor of political and social science at Yale, dominated American social thought. Sumner brought Charles Darwin to America and twisted him into a theory to fit the times.Few
ViewpointsDec. 14, 2011
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U.S. universities feast on federal student aid
The public is in a foul mood over increasing college costs and student debt burdens. Talk of a “higher education bubble” is common on the contrarian right, while the Occupy Wall Street crowd is calling for a strike in which ex-students refuse to pay off their loans. This week, President Barack Obama held a summit with a dozen higher-education leaders “to discuss rising college costs and strategies to reduce these costs while improving quality.” The administration plans to introduce some policy p
ViewpointsDec. 14, 2011
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Icebreakers needed to protect interests in the Arctic
Dramatic climate change in the Arctic is rapidly diminishing the polar ice cover, exposing serious environmental, economic and security issues across the top of the world.Ecological upheaval is producing a long coveted Northwest Passage for shipping, with all its opportunities and complications.U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is working to focus congressional attention on giving the U.S. Coast Guard the ability to protect America’s interests. As the ranking member of the House Transportation sub
ViewpointsDec. 14, 2011
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[Shashi Tharoor] Opening Burma’s doors to world
NEW DELHI ― U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to Myanmar (Burma), noted largely for a memorable photo opportunity with a wan but smiling Aung San Suu Kyi, signaled a significant change in the geopolitics surrounding a land that has faced decades of isolation, sanctions, and widespread condemnation for its human-rights violations.Twenty-one years ago, after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) swept a general election, the results were annulled, the party’s leaders a
ViewpointsDec. 14, 2011
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Readers’ voice
On taxing the wealthy ...Can imposing a new tax on the wealthy narrow the gap between the poor and the rich? No. First, I don’t understand why the government is presenting such a poor policy as an alternative to solving the gap. Forcing the rich to pay more taxes doesn’t guarantee the poor’s improvement. It can shrink the whole economy of Korea and promote hidden trade and deals. For a better economy, the government should encourage the rich to spend more money. Instead, why doesn’t the governme
Dec. 14, 2011
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[Editorial] Disorderly ‘integration’
Few were surprised that the main opposition party’s rally at a gymnasium in Seoul to approve merger with another group of progressives was marred by so much noise and violence, as such scenes are rather a tradition in the nation’s rugged political history. And true to tradition, the losers in Sunday’s Democratic Party convention are about to bring the intraparty dispute to court.Rep. Park Jie-won and his supporters contended that the vote on the merger with the Citizens Unity Party, a hurriedly
EditorialDec. 13, 2011
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[Editorial] Outrages at sea
China has become a world superpower, but some of its people behave like Somalian pirates. The frequent, rather routine violations of Korean-controlled waters by Chinese fishing boats make us doubt that Chinese authorities have any concerns about the outrages at sea perpetrated by their people. The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested for attacking Korean Coast Guard officers, killing one and seriously injuring another, as they seized his ship operating deep inside the Korean exclusive
EditorialDec. 13, 2011
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North Korea finds new course in ties with Beijing
The legacy of the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung’s decision in the early 1990s to pursue a strategic partnership with the United States has run its course. In its place, the focus of Pyongyang’s policies has decisively shifted to Beijing. However wary the North Koreans may be of their neighbor, the fact is that from Pyongyang’s viewpoint, the Chinese have delivered and the United States did not.Any shards remaining from the North’s previous, decades-long effort to normalize ties with the U
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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[Lee Jae-min] After $1tr in trade still much to do
The nationwide gold ring collection in Korea in November 1997 was an interesting phenomenon in the eyes of Westerners. Seeing the country undergoing unprecedented economic turmoil in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, ordinary people chipped in to rescue the country by donating gold rings that they kept at home.Of course, piles of gold rings themselves may have hardly made a dent in the total borrowing of Korea from the International Monetary Fund, but it was the spirit of collective e
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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Smartphones, dumb drivers
Can you safely talk on a cellphone ― or for that matter, check your email or scroll through Google Maps ― while driving? Well, of course you can. But those other folks with their hands off the wheel and their eyes off the road are a public menace.Unfortunately, that sums up the attitude of many American motorists, who widely acknowledge using their phones while behind the wheel but insist they’re safe drivers. Meanwhile, the number of people worried about the other guy is soaring. When the state
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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The causes behind SlutWalk protest marches
Imagine walking down the street and on the other side of the road stands young women in provocative clothing holding up signs saying “I’m a slut.” What do you think would be the first thing that comes to your mind? This kind of movement is spreading all over the world, starting in Toronto. It first took place on April 3 when one police officer suggested that, in order not to be victimized, women “should avoid dressing like sluts.” Then what does this have to do with young women on the roads shou
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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Trade-pact plans may split Latin America into Pacific and Atlantic blocs
President Barack Obama’s recent announcement that he will seek to create what may be the world’s largest trading bloc along the Pacific rim raises an interesting question in this part of the world: whether we will see a de facto split of Latin America into a Pacific bloc and an Atlantic bloc.It may be already happening. Obama’s recent proclamation that “the United States is a Pacific country” and his announcement that Washington will seek to dramatically expand the nine-member Trans-Pacific Part
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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[Kim Seong-kon] The ‘Angry Generation’ in Korea
When they say there are two Koreas, it naturally means North and South Korea. These days, however, it also means the division of South Korea into two antagonizing groups like east and west, conservatives and progressives and left and right. It is lamentable that today’s South Korea is radically divided into two hostile extremes, tearing the already half-reduced country into two again.Perhaps the only comfort is that Korea is not alone in experiencing such a phenomenon; people say that there are
ViewpointsDec. 13, 2011
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Reader's Voice
On Incheon Airport...If a public enterprise is privatized, the general public tends to think we can have a variety of benefits such as improvement of service and price competitiveness through competition. However, if you take a close a look Incheon International Airport, you’ll realize that such thoughts are wrong.It has been in the black for seven consecutive years. A profit of 1.5 trillion won is expected this year. Especially because of 400 duty-free shops, good service and cheap prices, it i
Dec. 12, 2011
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[VOICE] Should Incheon Airport be privatized?
Skyhigh sell-offThe President Lee Myung-bak administration proposed a partial privatization of Incheon International Airport in 2008 with a plan to sell off a 49 percent stake, including 15 percent to a foreign airport operator. Lee said the move would improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the country’s main gateway. The plan was ultimately shelved in the face of public antipathy. Last year, the Grand National Party drew up a bill for a similar plan, only to see it stalled indefinitely a
Dec. 12, 2011
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[David Ignatius] Receding U.S. global influence
WASHINGTON ― Is American power in decline, relative to the rest of the world? That question is at the center of a provocative study by the U.S. intelligence community exploring what the world might look like in 2030. The answer, judging by comments from a panel convened to discuss the topic, is that America faces serious trouble: The U.S. economy is slowing, relative to its Asian competitors, which will make it harder for the country to assert its traditional leadership role in decades ahead. Th
ViewpointsDec. 12, 2011
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Carbon tax is best way to fight climate change
The Durban climate-change talks ended in what negotiators agreed to call a success. Governments, including China and India for the first time, said they would devise a new global system for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases and make it operational by 2020. This promise, however, has uncertain legal force, the form of any new regime is unclear, and the meeting failed to set any new binding targets. Don’t be too disappointed. The ambition to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a similar but truly
ViewpointsDec. 12, 2011
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[Editorial] President’s brother
Rep. Lee Sang-deuk announced Sunday he would not run for the 19th National Assembly election next April. His retirement, we believe, was four years too late. He had been advised by people in and outside the Grand National Party to make an exit from politics when his younger brother Lee Myung-bak was elected president in December 2007. But “SD” decided to seek his sixth term ― and won it ― “to play the role of the bridge” between the new ruling party and the president, who lacked firm roots in th
EditorialDec. 12, 2011