Most Popular
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Court refuses injunction on medical school expansion
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Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
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Debate on 'no-seniors zones' heats up
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Is NewJeans headed for a long 'break'?
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Jimin of BTS, actor Song Da-eun suspected to be dating, again
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S. Korea, Cambodia forge strategic partnership
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Police raid popera singer Kim Ho-joong's house over hit-and-run suspicions
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[KH Explains] Hyundai-backed Motional’s struggles deepen as Tesla eyes August robotaxi debut
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Trump may like to 'solve' N. Korean nuclear problem if reelected: ex-official
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What's next for the government's push in quota hike?
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Heckling: An effort to pierce political bubble
It might have escaped your notice that a heckler interrupted oral arguments at the Supreme Court the other day. He wasn’t the first protester to sneak inside, and he won’t be the last. The main reason anybody paid attention ― and not many did ― was that his rant was deleted before the court’s official audio recording of the argument was released to the public. A handful of bloggers briefly debated the sleepy issue of whether the justices were engaged in censorship before returning to their regul
March 10, 2014
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Pope Francis is listening
The Pew Research Center poll released yesterday showing that American Catholics strongly favor allowing the use of birth control ― and allowing priests to marry and women to be ordained ― comes as no surprise. It has long been thus. Catholics also continue to give high marks to His Humbleness, Pope Francis, whose approval rating remains in the mid-80s, unchanged from a year ago. Even the fact that half of Catholics think the church should recognize same-sex marriage is old news, given past polls
March 10, 2014
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[Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg] Key principles in disrupting Putin’s game plan
MUNICH ― No sooner did the Sochi Winter Games end than Russia bade farewell to the Olympic spirit by invading and occupying a foreign country. With its aggression against Ukraine, the Kremlin has breached the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and other international agreements, including the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and the Black Sea basing agreement, which spelled out Russia’s relations with Ukraine.Crimea has been turned into a military zone, and its inhabitants
March 10, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Obama’s Ukraine gamble
Since the Ukraine crisis began, Obama administration officials have talked about pushing Russia toward the “offramp” and de-escalation. That’s the best diplomatic outcome, but it will require an unlikely public reversal by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The premise of the administration’s approach is that Putin will decide that he made a mistake by seizing the Crimean region of Ukraine and, as he faces ever-greater costs, will negotiate a face-saving compromise, concluding that Russia’s inter
March 9, 2014
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How Europe and the U.S. are losing Ukraine
There are heated debates here and abroad about what exact policies should be put in place in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity by sending Russian troops to Crimea. And although that debate is obviously important, we shouldn’t ignore the lessons from the past that brought us to this point and, in turn, should help guide policies going forward.The first is that Putin paid no price for the Russian invasion of Georgia i
March 9, 2014
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Did North Korea recycle your laptop?
Did Kim Jong-un recycle your old laptop?That’s the question hovering over last week’s news that Chinese authorities had recently broken up an e-waste smuggling ring responsible for delivering 72,000 metric tons of prohibited junk via North Korea to China’s shores in 2013. Chinese news accounts hailed the bust as the biggest in recent e-waste history, requiring a four-month investigation involving 500 police officers. Most of the goods originated in Japan, with some also coming from the United St
March 9, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Time for political parties to finish their work
With the June 4 local elections still about three months away, rival political parties are already gripped by election fever. They are making all-out efforts to position themselves for the coming electoral battle, putting other important matters on the back burner.The main opposition Democratic Party is engrossed in creating a unified coalition party with an opposition group led by Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo. The party is desperate to merge with Ahn’s soon-to-be-created New Political Vision Party becaus
March 9, 2014
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Reality check on Crimea
German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told President Obama on Sunday that Vladimir Putin was out of touch with reality. When it comes to Ukraine, however, it’s not just Putin who seems to be operating in a parallel universe. In Washington, this crisis is causing politicians from both parties to lose their grip.I don’t just mean Republican hawks, who see an opportunity to bash Obama for foreign-policy weakness. Or Florida’s presidential hopeful, Sen. Marco Rubio, who opposed authorizing forc
March 9, 2014
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[Marc Champion] Putin isn’t crazy, he’s KGB
On the road to Sevastopol, Russian flags and a Russian Orthodox cross adorn a checkpoint manned by Crimea’s pro-Russian civilian defense force. A banner announces: “Where We Are, There Is Russia.”That sentiment explains why we should all be concerned about what is happening in Crimea, even if, as seems increasingly possible, Russia’s intervention ends without bloodshed or formal annexation of the peninsula. The banner sets out the principle according to which Russian President Vladimir Putin is
March 7, 2014
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Annexing Crimea will cost Putin dearly
Just when the crisis in Crimea appeared to be easing, it has suddenly grown more dangerous. In a decision that surprised even the peninsula’s pro-Russians, the local parliament has changed both the date and question for a referendum: On March 16, Crimea may vote to join Russia.Any plebiscite held within 10 days of its announcement is by definition a joke, yet the implications here are serious: No major country has annexed territory since World War II. Unless it can be prevented, the damage will
March 7, 2014
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[Robert Reigh] Lousy work, lousy wages kill jobs
House Speaker John Boehner says raising the minimum wage is “bad policy” because it will cause job losses.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says a minimum wage increase would be a job killer. Republicans and the chamber also say unions are job killers, workplace safety regulations are job killers, environmental regulations are job killers, and the Affordable Care Act is a job killer. The California Chamber of Commerce even publishes an annual list of “job killers,” including almost any measures that
March 6, 2014
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Strangelove logic may fuel Asia arms race
Let’s congratulate the real winners from China’s latest economic disclosures: Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautics Defense and Space.Forget the Potemkin growth target Premier Li Keqiang served up today at the opening of China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress. It’s always hard to take Chinese numbers seriously. Who among you economists really believe Chinese leaders can simultaneously “declare war” on the pollution choking Beijing and Sh
March 6, 2014
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China warned not to push Philippines to the wall
The strong diplomatic protest against China’s water-cannon attack on Filipino fishers on Jan. 27 in Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea was followed by an announcement by the armed forces of the Philippines that the disputed islet, which Manila claims as Bajo de Masinloc, would now be under the jurisdiction of the Western Command.The shift sent a strong signal that the Philippines was using all its diplomatic and military resources, no matter how limited, to protect its fishers from Chi
March 6, 2014
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[Jonathan Eyal] Asia can learn from German model of contrition
Diplomats are paid to dream up clever ways of promoting their country’s interests. But occasionally, diplomatic ingenuity can go too far, as a team of Chinese diplomats tasked with planning President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to Germany recently discovered.Beijing offered to set aside a big chunk of President Xi’s visit to commemorative events praising the way Germany dealt with its historic responsibility for World War II. Chinese officials assumed that this would please their German hosts
March 6, 2014
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Vandalism of Anne Frank books a blow against intellectual heritage
Who was behind the many recent acts of vandalism against books relating to Anne Frank, and why did they do it? This sort of criminality can never be pardoned.At public libraries and bookstores in and outside of Tokyo, Japanese-language copies of “The Diary of a Young Girl,” which tells of Nazi Germany’s persecution of the Jewish people, and related books have been found vandalized with pages ripped out. All told, the number of books damaged exceeded 300.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga exp
March 6, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Russian leader’s mistake
WASHINGTON ― Napoleon is said to have cautioned during an 1805 battle: “When the enemy is making a false movement, we must take good care not to interrupt him.” The citation is also sometimes rendered as “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Whatever the precise wording, the admonition is a useful starting point for thinking about the Ukraine situation.Vladimir Putin has made a mistake invading Crimea, escalating a crisis for Russia that has been brewing for many months. It m
March 5, 2014
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Putin would be humbler without toilet paper
Walk into a supermarket anywhere in Russia and you’ll find shelf upon shelf stocked with familiar European brands, from Barilla pasta to Danone yogurt.Under President Vladimir Putin and his predecessors, Russia has singularly failed to develop its domestic industries, and has imported ever-larger amounts of consumer goods from Europe, its top trade partner. They include Dior handbags and BMW autos, but also huge amounts of staples from toilet paper to chocolate bars.If the European Union truly w
March 5, 2014
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[Kim Myong-sik] Has Sochi weakened our confidence about 2018?
After the Winter Olympics in Sochi, many people here have been expressing concern that Korea may not be able to stage the 2018 Games in PyeongChang with opening and closing ceremonies as impressive as those in the southwestern Russian city. I am neither too optimistic nor too pessimistic. My humble suggestion is that we simply hold a different kind of Olympics. Last week, local newspapers ran headlines about Korea ranking ninth among the G20 on the National Power Index, quoting a report by a Seo
March 5, 2014
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Revisiting the Federal Reserve’s crisis
BERKELEY, California ― Reading through the just-released transcripts of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meetings in 2008, I found myself asking the same overarching question: What accounted for the FOMC’s blinkered mindset as crisis erupted all around it?To be sure, some understood the true nature of the situation. As Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal points out, William Dudley, then the executive vice president of the New York Fed’s Markets Group, presented staf
March 5, 2014
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The West needs Russia’s help more than it realizes
PARIS ― Remember when you were a kid and packed your bag to run away from home, only to quickly realize that you lacked the requisite means to follow through on your threat? Mom and Dad, after giving you a little time to save face, had to drive down the road and toss your penniless little behind and your Transformers backpack into the backseat. We’re now witnessing a similar scenario with the pathetic display of political theater underway between the West and Russia over Ukraine.Those first few
March 5, 2014