Most Popular
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Jimin of BTS, actor Song Da-eun suspected to be dating, again
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What's next for the government's push in quota hike?
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Trump may like to 'solve' N. Korean nuclear problem if reelected: ex-official
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Woman falls to death from acquaintance's home after exhibiting ‘unexplained' behaviors
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‘Malice should not undermine the system, social order,’ says Hybe's Bang
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N. Korea slams planned S. Korea-US military drills, warns of 'catastrophic aftermath'
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[Robert J. Fouser] Social attitudes toward language proficiency
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N. Korea fires short-range ballistic missiles toward East Sea: JCS
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[Graphic News] How much do Korean adults read?
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N. Korea says it test-fired tactical ballistic missile with new guidance technology
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Five more ways to fight global warming
First, the good news. President Barack Obama’s proposed rules on coal-fired power plants aren’t a last-ditch, desperate measure. They’re designed to keep a good trend going ― the U.S. is already decreasing its carbon emissions, thanks to cheap natural gas and to the fact that Americans are driving less.The drop in emissions has stalled in the last couple of years, due to the economic recovery and a recent spike in the price of natural gas. So the idea of Obama’s new rules is to resume the shift
June 4, 2014
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An Obama disconnect on foreign policy
Having just returned from Ukraine, I found it hard to recognize the world U.S. President Barack Obama described in his West Point foreign policy speech last week. The facts on the ground ― in Russia, Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan ― contradict the key points he was making. That disconnect makes friends and enemies worldwide question his ability to lead.Obama rightly says the odds of a direct attack from any foreign nation are minimal. But in a rapidly changing world, with China rising, Russia in
June 4, 2014
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[Park Sang-seek] Implications of Obama’s foreign policy doctrine
At the commencement ceremony at West Point on May 28, President Barack Obama reasserted and further elaborated his foreign policy principles (commonly called the “Obama doctrine”). His speech was important because he used it to attempt a counterattack against his critics, from the left to the right, and at home and abroad. In the process he contrasted traditional American foreign policy doctrines such as idealism, isolationism and unilateralism with his foreign policy principles.He admits that t
June 4, 2014
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Now who wants to change constitution?
We are in the midst of a shift in political thinking about constitutional amendments. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, is among many progressive thinkers now promoting constitutional change ― in her case, to allow Congress to restrict corporate spending on political campaigns. Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in a new book, calls for no fewer than six constitutional amendments, involving not only campaign finance but also gun control, capital punishment, political gerryman
June 4, 2014
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Let President Obama be dealmaker in chief
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is reaching the end of negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement almost five years in the making. The accord would wrap the U.S., Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries into a humongous free-trade zone with almost 800 million consumers and 40 percent of global output. It could increase U.S. exports by $78 billion a year and create hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next decade.A deal would provide a welcome boost to a d
June 3, 2014
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[Robert J. Fouser] Expanding local democracy
Today Korea holds elections for all levels of local government. The elections for mayor and governor, particularly in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, have attracted the most attention. The elections also include nonpartisan races for head of city and provincial boards of education. During the campaign, both major parties have tried to tie the elections to national issues, but local issues and feelings about candidates also move voters.Elected local government is relatively new in Korea. Local elect
June 3, 2014
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Sex, drugs and accounting in Europe
Europe has a new source of economic growth. In the next few months all European Union countries that do not already include drugs, prostitution, and other illegal and gray-market businesses in their gross domestic product calculations will have to do so.The 2010 version of the European System of Accounts becomes obligatory for GDP reporting by EU member states in September. It states unequivocally that “illegal economic actions shall be considered as transactions when all units involved enter th
June 3, 2014
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The war between ‘authors’ and writers
The event was no place for people like me. At least that’s what I’d read on the Internet.It was the inaugural program of an upstart association called the Authors Alliance, held in the former San Francisco church that now houses the Internet Archive. Founded by four University of California Berkeley professors, the alliance seeks to represent “authors who write to be read.”The implicit contrast is with authors who write to be paid.At least that’s how the rival Authors Guild, which dates back to
June 3, 2014
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[Kim Seong-kon] Rereading ‘The Reader’
When I first came across the film adaptation of Gunter Grass’s “The Tin Drum,” in 1978, I was shocked by the graphic scenes that powerfully but metaphorically indicted Nazi Germany. Several scenes were so shockingly blasphemous and pornographic that the powerful movie has haunted me relentlessly ever since. I immediately bought and read the novel and found it equally provocative. When I first read Bernhard Schlink’s “The Reader” in 1997, I was deeply moved by the tragic sense of history embedded
June 3, 2014
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[Michael R. Bloomberg] Obama keeps his promise
Less than a week before the 2012 election, I endorsed President Barack Obama for one main reason: his commitment to confronting climate change with bold new initiatives. New York City had just come through Hurricane Sandy, and it was painfully clear that rising sea levels and intensifying storms could no longer be ignored in Washington.We needed the federal government to take action, but almost nothing had been done since cap-and-trade legislation failed to pass the Democratic-led Senate in 2010
June 2, 2014
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NSA leaker still doesn’t look like a hero
Accused National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was handed a golden opportunity to justify himself Wednesday when he was asked by NBC’s Brian Williams whether the American public should view his unauthorized release of thousands of classified U.S. government documents to the media as a principled act of civil disobedience or as a betrayal of his country ― and he blew it.The interview, taped last week, took place at a hotel in Moscow, where Snowden fled last year in order to avoid prosecut
June 2, 2014
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No, China isn’t really rebalancing economy
“Tolerance” and “slowdown” clearly mean something different in Beijing’s dictionary.Since November, when the Communist Party announced epochal reforms, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have rarely missed a chance to say China must accept slower growth. Downshifting to a “new normal” is a necessary evil to regear the economy’s growth engines to services. Six months on, all they’ve done is add more and more stimulus to ensure no end to massive investment and exports.The first sign of sl
June 2, 2014
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[Naomi Wolf] Feminine leadership mystique
NEW YORK ― In a single week earlier last month, Jill Abramson, the first woman to serve as executive editor of the New York Times, resigned under duress, and Natalie Nougayrede resigned as editor-in-chief of France’s leading newspaper, Le Monde, complaining in an open letter of having been undermined. What, if anything, do these high-profile dismissals tell us about women in senior workplace positions?The Times announced Abramson’s departure in a front-page story filled with barbs and swipes, th
June 2, 2014
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Obama’s new strategy: Outsource war on terror
President Barack Obama on Wednesday charted a vision for protecting America that relies less on military power and more on training foreign security forces to fight on their own soil. His context: Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taught American leaders about the power ― and limits ― of U.S. military options.The U.S. still has a vital interest in dismantling terror networks and havens, the president said. Terrorism remains “the most direct threat to America at home and abroad.” But “a strategy
June 2, 2014
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Piketty entangles economics with moral philosophy
BERKELEY, California ― The best review of Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” that I have read so far is the one published by my friend and frequent coauthor Lawrence Summers in Michael Tomasky’s Democracy Journal. Go read the whole thing now.Still here? You are, you say, unwilling to read 5,000 words? It would be time well spent, I assure you. But if you are still here, I will offer you neither a synopsis nor highlights, but rather a brief expansion of a very small and minor
June 2, 2014
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[David Ignatius] A time-limited foreign policy
WASHINGTON -- President Obama‘s measured defense of his foreign policy at West Point on Wednesday made many cogent points to rebut critics. Unfortunately, the speech also showed that he hasn’t digested some of the crucial lessons of his presidency.Obama wisely said he wants “to see the world as it is, with all its dangers and responsibilities.” And he repeated several interventionist applause lines, from touting America as the “indispensable nation” to affirming “American exceptionalism.” But Ob
June 1, 2014
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Why women ― and voters ― prefer jerks to fops
PARIS ― An intriguing social phenomenon prompted a horrific killing spree in Santa Barbara, California, last week, and the same phenomenon might help explain the surprising results of last weekend’s European Parliament elections.The suspected Santa Barbara killer, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, left behind a 141-page diatribe and multiple online videos expressing frustration over a failure to score with the opposite sex, despite ticking what he considered to be all the right boxes: a BMW, nice cloth
June 1, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Ferry fiasco casts long shadow over local elections
On Wednesday, Koreans go to the polls to select some 4,000 local administrative and legislative officials, including mayors for Seoul and seven other major cities, governors for the nine provinces and education superintendents for these cities and provinces. The upcoming local elections are much different from previous ones, as they come in the wake of the Sewol ferry tragedy, one of the worst maritime disasters in Korea that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly young students.The ferry capsized
June 1, 2014
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Our last chance for a safe planet
MELBOURNE ― Humanity has just about run out of time to address climate change. Scientists have pointed out that a rise in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will put the Earth in dangerous, uncharted territory. Yet we currently are on a path toward an increase of 4 degrees or more this century. The last chance for action has arrived.That chance lies in Paris in December 2015, when the world’s governments meet for the 21st annual United Nations climate-change meeting. Bu
June 1, 2014
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Is George Soros trying to spark a Japan rally?
Takahiro Mitani finds himself between George Soros and a hard place.Mitani is Japan’s $1.26 trillion man. The Government Pension Investment Fund that he runs tops Mexico’s annual output and dwarfs the Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds that investors are always cooing about. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants the notoriously conservative fund to crank up returns by putting more money in stocks ― with an unlikely assist from billionaire Soros.In January, the world’s most famous short seller chatt
June 1, 2014