Most Popular
-
1
Korean industries gauge impact of Biden's steep tariffs on China
-
2
Do Korean doctors make too much money?
-
3
Is FTC's conglomerate listing a boon or bane for Hybe?
-
4
NewJeans to headline palace show
-
5
Coupang's Kim Bom escapes chaebol chief designation again
-
6
Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
-
7
Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
-
8
CIO chief nominee to explain allegations at confirmation hearing
-
9
Yoon vows to run country 'rightly' on Buddha's birthday
-
10
Debate on 'no-seniors zones' heats up
-
Where are the ambassadors?
Next month the United States will host dozens of African leaders in Washington. But unless something changes before then, we will still be without confirmed ambassadors in 14 countries on the African continent, including in such strategically important nations as Niger, Cameroon and Sierra Leone.This is not only an embarrassment, it is a security issue. Yet nominations to fill the positions continue to be held up in the Senate for no good reason.As retired generals, we can testify to the importa
July 27, 2014
-
[Robert Reich] The rise of the nonworking rich
In a new Pew poll, more than three-quarters of self-described conservatives believe “poor people have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything.” In reality, most of America’s poor work hard, often in two or more jobs. The real non-workers are the wealthy who inherit their fortunes. And their ranks are growing.In fact, we’re on the cusp of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history.The wealth is coming from those who over the last three decades earned
July 25, 2014
-
It takes a rancher to save a rainforest
In the ongoing pillage of tropical rainforests, villains are plenty. None has stoked imaginations like the Amazonian rancher. With his bulldozers and chainsaws, and herds that wander from horizon to horizon, the rainforest cattleman has emerged as Amazonia’s public enemy No. 1, his ruin chronicled in titles like “The World is Burning,” and “The Hamburger Connection.” America’s National Academy of Sciences is the latest to sound off.Now the genre may be due for revision. Deforestation, though sti
July 25, 2014
-
[David Ignatius] Rebuilding a spy partnership
WASHINGTON ― Given recent German indignation about the National Security Agency, it has been easy to overlook the fact that for decades the German government has cooperated extensively with the NSA on surveillance activities. But after a high-level meeting in Berlin this week, this long-standing but veiled cooperation may have a firmer legal and political base. The two countries’ past partnership became so extensive that they even developed a special logo for their joint signals-intelligence act
July 24, 2014
-
Obama alone will decide immigration debate
President Barack Obama doesn’t control Vladimir Putin, climate change or an opposition party dedicated to thwarting his every move. But he has extensive influence over the status of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and the course of the political battle about their fate.The Obama administration’s bumbling response to the influx of migrant children from Central America has complicated the politics of immigration. Scenes of young immigrants in U.S. custody have emboldened conservative opponents
July 24, 2014
-
[Andrew Sia] Is good food dependent on race or other factors?
Would Penang hawker food taste “authentic” only if it’s cooked by locals?My favorite “French” bakery-cafe (called Tous les Jours, in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur) is a place where I relive my fond memories of the boulangeries and patisseries of Paris. The taste of the pastries seems close enough to what I had during my one week stay there. However, this “French” place is actually a Korean franchise run by Malaysian and Filipino workers!On the other hand, when visiting Venice some years ago, I found tha
July 24, 2014
-
Stakes are huge if Yingluck goes to trial
The scandal over the Yingluck Shinawatra government’s rice-pledging program has reached another crucial stage with the National Anticorruption Commission urging her prosecution on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty. The case has been forwarded to the Office of the Attorney-General. This is no longer about rice or corruption alone. The aim is specifically to establish a new national standard for the way such programs are administered. Ideally, Thailand will end up one step closer to be
July 24, 2014
-
Looking beyond ASEAN Economic Community 2015
Forward-looking thinkers are already looking to 2030 even as people anticipate the coming of the ASEAN Economic Community next year. Last week saw the launch in Singapore of the book “ASEAN 2030: Toward a Borderless Economic Community.” That came with a two-day policy dialogue conference among scholars and policymakers. I’ve been privileged to be among dozens of researchers and analysts from around the region that the Asian Development Bank Institute had brought together over the last three year
July 24, 2014
-
Is MH17 catastrophe Putin’s tipping point?
NEW YORK ― When incompetence in the Kremlin turns murderous, its incumbents can begin to tremble. As news of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine trickled into Russia, people with a long memory recalled the Soviet Union’s attack, 31 years ago this September, on Korean Air Lines Flight 007, and its political consequences.Back then, the Kremlin first lied to the world by saying that it had nothing to do with the missing KAL plane. Later it claimed that the South Korean jet was o
July 23, 2014
-
[Kim Ji-hyun] The art of criticism
A couple nights ago, I had dinner with a best-selling author who complained that people were constantly bad-mouthing him behind his back. He bemoaned the fact that these people never approached him in person so that he could have a chance to explain. I had to agree. I always say, if you have something to say, say it to my face. I can take it. This is probably why I have cultivated the strange habit of going directly up to someone if I have been talking behind this person’s back, not to apologize
July 23, 2014
-
Repatriation of POWs remains unresolved
This year marks the 61st anniversary of the Armistice Agreement that suspended the Korean War. Yet, full repatriation of ROK POWs remains unresolved. Considering these veterans detained in North Korea are now over 80 years old, their return is an urgent matter. The hostilities cannot be said to have ceased in the true sense until the all POWs held in forced custody are returned. The fundamental cause behind their detention lies in the POWs policy of the North Korea. Unlike the U.N. Forces, North
July 23, 2014
-
Europe’s options
STANFORD ― Many Europeans have come to believe that they have weathered the economic and financial storm. In the last two years, deficits and debt have stabilized. Yields on the sovereign debt of the eurozone periphery’s weak economies have fallen sharply. Portugal and Ireland have exited their bailout programs. Talk of Greece leaving the euro has subsided.All of that is true, but there is a big catch: economic growth in the European Union remains anemic. GDP in Holland and Italy shrank in the l
July 23, 2014
-
[Kim Myong-sik] Nation reluctant to bid farewell to rice
If someone asked me to identify three things that most profoundly changed our lifestyle in the past decades, I would readily choose the computer, smartphones and free trade. Not much explanation would be necessary, but I should mention that the third item is related to my dinner table.In restaurants and in grocery stores, we face the onslaught of the outcomes of free trade agreements. Australian beef, Belgian pork, Chinese chicken and even North Korean gosari (bracken) and mushrooms are vying fo
July 23, 2014
-
[Lee Jae-min] The unspeakable tragedy
While the details are still being confirmed, the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is going to be the deadliest disaster in aviation history. Blame games are going on over the origin of the surface-to-air missile, but the latest evidence strongly suggests that it was a Russian-made missile shot by a separatist group in the eastern part of Ukraine. The commercial jetliner was tragically mistaken for a military target. The latest tragedy reveals the vulnerability of civilian airliners
July 22, 2014
-
Europe must stand up to Putin
Vladimir Putin has become a global menace.There is an irrefutable link between the Russian leader’s reckless policies on Ukraine and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. This tragedy is the direct outgrowth of his decision to train and arm Ukrainian separatists with heavy weapons in an effort to destabilize Ukraine.It doesn’t matter whether the triggerman thought he was targeting a Ukrainian military plane rather than a civilian airliner. More than 200 European civilians, along with dozen
July 22, 2014
-
Disasters in the centenary of WWI
NEW YORK ― Karl Marx famously wrote that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Yet when we look around nowadays, we can’t help but wonder whether tragedy will be followed by yet more tragedy. Here we are, at the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, and we find ourselves surrounded by cascading violence, duplicity, and cynicism of the very sort that brought the world to disaster in 1914. And the world regions involved then are involved again.WWI began
July 22, 2014
-
[Kim Seong-kon] Strange parts of Korean society
Foreigners often find it very convenient to live in Korea. For example, they can easily find numerous coffee shops, convenience stores and ethnic restaurants in major cities. They can also take advantage of Korea’s excellent quick delivery system that comes in handy when they want to send something to someone. They may also find Korea to be the most wired country on earth because Wi-Fi and Internet access are available virtually everywhere throughout the country. And they can use their cellphone
July 22, 2014
-
The inflation truther crank index
There is a group of folks who believe that inflation is much higher than the numbers in the official reports. Paul Krugman calls them “inflation truthers.”In the 2000s, I might have been considered part of that crowd. I recognized that inflation data weren’t being reported accurately, and said as much. I coined the phrase “inflation ex-inflation’’ to show the absurdity of reporting inflation data without food and energy prices, which were rising fast then. Owner’s equivalent rent, hedonic adjust
July 22, 2014
-
[David Ignatius] The risk of sanctions on Russia
WASHINGTON ― Energy politics underlie the explosive Ukraine crisis, as Europeans weigh U.S. calls for tougher sanctions against the ability of Russia to disrupt gas supplies this winter. The dilemma for European governments increased this week, as the Obama administration announced strong new penalties against the Russian energy and financial sectors. Europe’s initial response was tepid, in a sign that many of its governments fear Moscow’s energy leverage more than U.S. displeasure. The Russians
July 21, 2014
-
Malaysia can’t botch another air tragedy
There’s nothing funny about Malaysia Airlines losing two Boeing 777s and more than 500 lives in the space of four months. That hasn’t kept the humor mills from churning out dark humor and lighting up cyberspace.Actor Jason Biggs, for example, got in trouble for tweeting: “Anyone wanna buy my Malaysia Airlines frequent flier miles?” A passenger supposedly among the 298 people aboard Flight 17 that was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday uploaded a photo of the doomed plane on Facebook just
July 21, 2014