Most Popular
-
1
S. Korea, Singapore seal supply chain agreement
-
2
North Korean troops killed, wounded in Ukraine war: Seoul defense minister
-
3
Korean language teaching expert says demand has outstripped supply
-
4
[KH Explains] Samsung chief says he is still ‘hungry’ for foundry growth
-
5
Conscripting women to lead to 'more babies,' claims military think tank
-
6
Who is pollster roiling politics with claims of government string-pulling?
-
7
Kim Jong-un vows to thwart S. Korea-US 'nuclear alliance'
-
8
Taking away phones during school hours not a human rights violation: watchdog
-
9
Korea launches antidumping probe into Chinese steel
-
10
[Grace Kao] Why K-pop lip-syncing doesn’t bother me
-
[Grace Kao] American racism against Stray Kids
As a K-pop fan, I was delighted that Stray Kids were attending the Met Gala on May 6, 2024. K-pop fans generally and Stays (the name of Stray Kids’ fandom) specifically celebrated the increasing inclusion of K-pop. Perhaps the US media now took K-pop seriously and would treat its artists respectfully. We were wrong. A few members of the paparazzi’s treatment of Stray Kids was shameful and racist, and embarrassed me as a fellow American. However, none of it was surprising and all of i
May 14, 2024
-
[Lilja Dogg Alfredsdottir] How to close the gender wage gap
Last year, a 24-hour women’s strike was organized to protest the country’s gender pay gap and gender-based violence. Thousands gathered in central Reykjavik to demonstrate their solidarity. For the 14th year running, Iceland (91.2 percent) takes the top position in the Global Gender Gap Report 2023. It also continues to be the only country to have closed more than 90 percent of its gender gap. The Economist’s glass-ceiling index rates Iceland as the best place in the world for
May 14, 2024
-
[Yoo Choon-sik] Promises for living cost problems
President Yoon Suk Yeol promised to do his best to control consumer prices as he resumed activities to interact directly with the public on Friday for the first time after the ruling party’s crushing defeat in the early April parliamentary election. The government also announced fresh measures to help counter the surging cost of living, led by rising food prices. This came a day after Yoon apologized for failing to solve the issues people face during his first news conference in nearly two
May 13, 2024
-
[Ken Taylor] Reshaping the discourse on heritage
The focus of the proposal by Korea‘s Cultural Heritage Administration to shift the emphasis of the Korean system on perceptions of heritage is a landmark decision. Notably, it reflects international scholarly discourse and professional best practice thinking in the field of cultural heritage and natural heritage management in that over the last thirty years or so, the concept of heritage, its management processes and the very role it plays in the social arena have gone through significant
May 13, 2024
-
[Wang Son-taek] Problems in press freedom and democracy
The 2024 World Press Freedom Index, released recently by Reporters Without Borders, an international organization for monitoring press freedom, contains a severe warning to democracy in Korea. In the index, which reflects the media situation in 2023, South Korea ranked 62nd out of 180 countries surveyed. Korea received its worst report card since it ranked 69th in the 2009 index and 70th in the 2016 index. It was 43rd in the 2022 index, when the index methodology was changed significantly, but f
May 9, 2024
-
[Andrew Sheng] Protecting trade is protecting yourself
Until 2016, it was almost taken for granted that free trade is good for everyone. That was before Donald Trump started the tariff war on Chinese imports, which his successor Biden turbocharged with even more sanctions against individuals, companies and countries. The IMF has estimated that since 2019, the number of new sanctions imposed yearly has tripled to over 3,000. The European Union is about to impose Carbon Border taxes on imports, which will further add costs and administrative burdens o
May 8, 2024
-
[Kim Seong-kon] A time to leave your parents
It is nature’s law that children leave their parents when they enter adulthood. Whether we are talking about humans or animals, there comes a time when children leave their parents and become independent. No one can expect to live with his or her parents or children forever. Traditionally in America, when your child turns 18 years old and enters legal adulthood, your parental duties and responsibilities are finally over. Your child becomes independent by either leaving home for college or
May 8, 2024
-
[Grace Kao, Meera Choi] Has money displaced romance on dates?
According to a March 29, 2023 article in The Korea Herald, 83 percent of couples have argued over how to split dating expenses. Increasingly, it seems that young people are measuring love and romance in won. Meera Choi, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Yale University, has interviewed 130 women aged 20 to 40 in Korea for her dissertation research. These women all believed in women’s rights, and some had strong opinions about how dating expenses (for heterosexual couples) ought to be split
May 7, 2024
-
[Yoo Choon-sik] Saemaul Geumgo and trust in financial system
Some of the business irregularities involving MG Community Credit Cooperatives, better known as Saemaul Geumgo within the country, have again grabbed media headlines in recent weeks, even as their stretched exposure to the depressed real estate market remains a potential risk to South Korea’s financial stability. The Korea Economic Daily and other local media reported that Saemaul Geumgo cooperatives paid out some 500 billion won ($367 million) in dividends to their members last year, more
May 7, 2024
-
[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
As the AI boom spreads and puts down ever deeper roots, questions about the future of foreign language education have arisen. If AI can translate and interpret on demand, then why learn foreign languages in the first place? Is there some innate value in learning foreign languages that negates the convenience of AI? These questions are important for South Korea because foreign languages have an important place in the educational curriculum and in career development. Foreign language learning on a
May 3, 2024
-
[Wang Son-taek] 'Lattice-like architecture' to manage alliances
Mr. Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, introduced the concept of "lattice-like architecture," which can be a new US alliance management system in the Indo-Pacific region, replacing the current "hub-and-spokes" system. Emanuel explained that the new system will help allies in the Indo-Pacific area work together and increase collective deterrence to counter China's coercive and aggressive behavior. The concept metaphorically describes several small-size cooperation
May 2, 2024
-
[Richard K. Sherwin] Trump‘s enablers on Supreme Court
The fate of American democracy was on the US Supreme Court’s docket last week as lawyers argued over the nature and limits of presidential immunity. The case before the Court concerns federal criminal charges arising from former President Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to thwart the peaceful transition of power following the 2020 election. The acts charged include fraudulently asking state officials to “find” non-existent pro-Trump votes and coercing Vice President Mike P
May 2, 2024
-
[Jeffrey Frankel] The election-devaluation cycle
The proposition that major currency devaluations are more likely to come immediately after, rather than before, an election is being tested anew. In the biggest voting year in history, the implications could be far-reaching. Economists will recall the Nobel laureate economist William D. Nordhaus’ influential 1975 paper, “The Political Business Cycle.” According to Nordhaus, in the year leading up to an election, governments are more inclined to pursue fiscal and monetary expans
May 1, 2024
-
[Kim Seong-kon] Between the ‘Free World’ and authoritarian countries
Today, we are witnessing a sharp confrontation between authoritarian countries and democratic countries. It is like deja-vu for those of us who recollect the clashes between Communist countries and the “Free World” after World War II. Authoritarian countries have a nostalgic longing for their glorious past and dream of recovering their former power and territories. The democratic countries try to stop them from invading other countries and promote peaceful coexistence instead. So
May 1, 2024
-
[Mariana Mazzucato, David Eaves] Central banks in a cashless world
Economics has always had a strange and much-debated relationship with money. For a long time, economists -- including Nobel laureates like Merton Miller and Franco Modigliani -- regarded money merely as a medium of exchange. But by building on the work of John Maynard Keynes and Hyman Minsky, economists have since moved beyond a narrow focus on the quantity of money to consider its structural influence on the real economy and the financial system. A structural understanding of money and finance
April 30, 2024
-
[Grace Kao] Hybe vs. Ador: Inspiration, imitation and plagiarism
Min Hee-jin, CEO of Ador (a subsidiary of Hybe) has accused Hybe and its other subsidiary Belift Labs of plagiarism over the similarity between supergroup NewJeans (Ador) and new girl group Illit (Belift Labs). In turn, Hybe has asked Min Hee-jin to step down and has accused her of “breach of trust” in its press release. To any casual K-pop fan familiar with both groups, there is little doubt that Illit’s sound and choreography is reminiscent of NewJeans. However, many other ne
April 29, 2024
-
[Yoo Choon-sik] What stellar GDP data masks
South Korea's economy expanded at a much faster pace than expected in the first quarter of this year, offering relief to those concerned about the severe slump experienced last year persisting for an extended period. This news is especially welcome for a country still grappling with domestic instability and uncertain global geopolitics. However, beyond the social and political instability at home and longstanding global geopolitics, there are other pressing issues that demand attention: t
April 29, 2024
-
[Kim So-hyun] The quiet taxi driver from Paris
Last week, a man named Hong Se-hwa passed away at age 76. Those who were old enough to read Hong’s 1995 bestseller “I’m a Taxi Driver in Paris” remember him as a writer with a heart for the underdog and a social activist who lived up to his words. The book of essays was about Hong's experiences as a taxi driver in Paris, French society and where he thought Korean society should be headed. He wrote about the French concept and practices of tolerance toward differences
April 26, 2024
-
[Career Compass] Preparing for a job interview?
I just graduated from university and will interview for a multinational company. What are the qualities the interviewers look for? How do I show my best self? Congratulations on your graduation. In addition to my opinion, I also sought insights from 20 multinational company executives. Here are the seven attributes that were considered the most significant. 1. Great attitude and curiosity This quality was the most frequently mentioned. An individual with a great attitude is more likely to be p
April 25, 2024
-
[Takatoshi Ito] How risky is Japan‘s monetary-policy normalization?
Last month, the Bank of Japan took its first important step toward monetary-policy normalization. The BOJ ended its negative interest-rate policy, setting the policy rate between 0.0 percent and 0.1 percent. It abandoned yield-curve control, which had been introduced to keep the ten-year government bond yield around 0 percent. And it announced that it would taper off new purchases of exchange-traded funds and real-estate investment trusts, but maintain the current pace of government-bond purchas
April 25, 2024