Most Popular
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Korean industries gauge impact of Biden's steep tariffs on China
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Do Korean doctors make too much money?
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Is FTC's conglomerate listing a boon or bane for Hybe?
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NewJeans to headline palace show
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Coupang's Kim Bom escapes chaebol chief designation again
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Rare mid-May heavy snow warning issued over mountainous areas of Gangwon
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CIO chief nominee to explain allegations at confirmation hearing
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Yoon vows to run country 'rightly' on Buddha's birthday
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Why Korean crime stories typically feature nameless, faceless perpetrators
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[Bridge to Africa] S. Korea-to-Zimbabwe value chains can foster ‘win-win’ cooperation
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Ariel Sharon: The ingenious general of Israeli army
WASHINGTON ― Had Ariel Sharon never entered politics, he would still be known around the world as a military commander and tactician. In both roles, he was extraordinary, because his methods diverged from normal military practices, even in the unconventional Israeli army.Consider the Yom Kippur War. On Oct. 16, 1973, 10 days after Egypt’s army surprised the Israelis by crossing the Suez Canal, Sharon turned defeat into victory by leading his own troops across the canal through a narrow gap in th
Jan. 14, 2014
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Tunisians tweet their way to democracy
At the Philadelphia convention of 1787, James Madison alone took complete notes in a rapid shorthand, a self-appointed job that he said almost killed him. But today, constitutional debates are recorded in Twitter bursts ― and in Tunisia, where the constituent assembly is compiling that nation’s new constitution, the children of the Arab Spring are using the full range of technological tools to ensure a degree of transparency never seen before in such political processes.At the heart of the techn
Jan. 14, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Obama’s problem to fix
WASHINGTON ― Reading the devastating memoir by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, people are likely to ask the same troubling questions that emerge from the morning newspapers these days: How did the Obama administration’s foreign-policy process get so broken, and how can it be put back together? Gates’ book certainly helps answer the first riddle. Obama’s “original sin” in foreign policy, by Gates’ account, was his December 2009 decision to add 30,000 troops in Afghanistan but with limits o
Jan. 13, 2014
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The conspiracy to keep Americans fat
At this time of year, a lot of Americans have vowed to develop more healthful habits. Unfortunately, most of those who have made weight loss resolutions will fail. But it won’t be entirely their fault.Americans today live in a food swamp. We are constantly exposed to marketing and advertising designed to keep food on our minds and treats at our fingertips. If you go out to dinner, you will probably be served more food than you need and eat more than you should. At the market, you’ll be encourage
Jan. 13, 2014
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U.S.-Japan rift over China’s assertiveness
TOKYO ― When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine last month, Chinese leaders predictably condemned his decision to honor those behind “the war of aggression against China.” But Abe was also sending a message to Japan’s main ally and defender, the United States. Faced with U.S. President Barack Obama’s reluctance to challenge China’s muscle-flexing and territorial ambitions in Asia ― reflected in Japan’s recent split with the U.S. over China’s new Air
Jan. 13, 2014
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‘Her’ is the perfect movie for our time
Stories of a dystopian future often depict one of two different forms of human slavery. The first invokes the fear of pain; the second points to the appeal of pleasure.“Her,” Spike Jonze’s terrific new film, depicts a dystopia of pleasure, but in an original way, because it casts new light on a phenomenon that is unique to our time: personalization. In the process, it manages to offer some fresh insights into romantic love as well.In the 20th century, the two forms of slavery were defined, respe
Jan. 13, 2014
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Advanced malaise on both sides of the Atlantic
NEW YORK ― Economics is often called the dismal science, and for the last half-decade it has come by its reputation honestly in the advanced economies. Unfortunately, the year ahead will bring little relief.Real (inflation-adjusted) per capita GDP in France, Greece, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States is lower today than before the Great Recession hit. Indeed, Greece’s per capita GDP has shrunk nearly 25 percent since 2008.There are a few exceptions: After more than two decad
Jan. 13, 2014
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Warring dogmas block climate-change progress
National debates over environmental issues are sometimes derailed by two kinds of extremists: eco-doomsayers and techno-optimists. The two positions are best captured in the most dramatic bet in social science. It is useful to recall the tale, recently cataloged by Yale University historian Paul Sabin, because the legacy of the bet is with us today, above all in the domain of climate change.Paul Ehrlich is a Stanford University biologist whose lifelong concern has been overpopulation. In the 196
Jan. 12, 2014
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[Martin Schram] Say goodbye to privacy
2014 must be the year when we finally do something to protect our privacy, now that seven months of serial scoops about government spying and snooping have gotten our attention.We are all on the case, sort of ― shaken out of our complacency and apathy by those revelations of America’s domestic and global spying, in those top-secret documents rookie contractor Edward Snowden stole so easily from the impenetrable National Security Agency.Many Americans now worry that a raging Big Brotherism is sec
Jan. 12, 2014
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[Yu Kun-ha] Corporate investment key to economic revival
The government is all out to stimulate private investment, especially in the service sector, to strengthen the still-fragile momentum of economic recovery and ensure the nation’s long-run economic growth. In her recent New Year’s news conference, President Park Geun-hye unveiled a three-year economic revitalization plan, which can be summarized as an attempt to put the economy back on track by spurring investment. To facilitate investment, Park pledged bold deregulation efforts in the five key s
Jan. 12, 2014
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Pot and morality
A self-described aging hippie friend posted this New Year’s message on Facebook that made me laugh, and then made me think: “Twenty years ago, if someone had told me I would live to see the day that marijuana would become legal for recreational use, gays not only were out of the closet but could legally marry, an African-American president would be elected and re-elected ... I’d have said: dream on.”“Bring on 2014,” she wrote.With gay people marrying, even in Utah (the Supreme Court has that on
Jan. 12, 2014
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Obama’s grand misguided theory of injustice
Big ideas can make a big difference. Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty,” declared 50 years ago last week, yielded Medicare and other safety-net programs that matter enormously in the lives of poor Americans. President Barack Obama recently announced his own big idea: Inequality, he says, “challenges the very essence of who we are as a people.”The president’s rhetorical departure thrills progressive Democrats. It folds poverty, lack of opportunity and the supposedly ill-gotten gains of the rich in
Jan. 12, 2014
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[Robert B. Reich] Year of great redistribution
One of the worst epithets that can be leveled at a politician these days is to call him a “redistributionist.” Yet 2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history ― a redistribution upward, from average working people to the owners of America.The stock market ended 2013 at an all-time high ― giving stockholders their biggest annual gain in almost two decades. Most Americans didn’t share in those gains, however, because most people haven’t been able to save enough to inv
Jan. 10, 2014
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Partnerships offer security hope for Sochi
At the London 2012 Olympics, various media outlets probed the notion of the Olympic athletes’ village being a giant bed-hopping venue ― a phenomenon that not only disgusted my mother every time she heard it mentioned (which was often) but also puzzled me as a former international-level swimmer who spent every night before a race hunkered down doing visualization exercises. What does make sense, though, is the kind of pre-Olympic bed-hopping that we’re currently seeing among nations in the run-up
Jan. 10, 2014
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[David Ignatius] Iran’s fingerprints in Fallujah
WASHINGTON ― Four years ago, al-Qaida appeared to have been destroyed in Iraq. Last week, fighters from the group captured Fallujah, a city where hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded in the last decade fighting the jihadists. How did this stunning reversal of fortune happen? Like everything else about Iraq, this is a tragic and confusing story. But two points seem clear: First, the Obama administration, in its rush to leave the country, allowed the sectarian Shiite government of Prime Mi
Jan. 9, 2014
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Internet of Things: Utopia? Horror show? Both?
At the International CES in Las Vegas, an annual carnival of corporate hype and techno-hoopla, John Chambers, the head honcho at Cisco Systems Inc., described an emerging phenomenon in terms that were sensationalist even by Vegas standards.“It will be bigger than anything that’s ever been done in high tech,” he said. “It will change the way people live, work and play.” And, oh yes, it’s a $19 trillion opportunity.The phenomenon is commonly known as the Internet of Things. As more and more object
Jan. 9, 2014
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[Rajiv Biswas] Cautiously optimistic for Asian economies in 2014
The storm clouds that have been hanging over the global economy in recent years are forecast to gradually recede in 2014, with growth prospects improving for the United States, European Union and the Asia Pacific. Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to strengthen in 2014, supported by a rebound in East Asian exports, driven by an upturn in the U.S. and EU. However, the Asia-Pacific outlook is clouded by political risks which continue to create uncertainties in a number of coun
Jan. 9, 2014
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Good ends can’t justify bad means
“The end justifies the means.” Italian thinker Niccolo Machiavelli coined the now-famous statement, which sweeps away the need for moral action in achieving an objective. The method used to attain our goal is thus of no consequence.Had he lived, Machiavelli would perhaps be surprised at how seriously his “thought experiment” is being applied. Some Thai politicians are following his words to the letter, probably convinced that the ends they are seeking will leave Thailand cured of its ills.Chief
Jan. 9, 2014
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Bringing back sobering memories of 1914
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Boxing Day visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine (the first by a premier in seven years) has hogged international headlines.With Japan desperately seeking to reflate its moribund global fortunes, Abe clearly chose a nationalistic route, setting off a global firestorm with both China and Korea denouncing the visit.Yasukuni, which commemorates Japan’s war dead, assumed a more divisive reputation after 14 WWII war criminals were also honored there.It’s wort
Jan. 9, 2014
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[Paola Subacchi] Reconciliation of two Koreas
Can trade and commerce foster peace and mutual understanding between hostile governments? When it comes to the Koreas, this question may seem to be beside the point, given the ruthless purge now underway in the North. But it remains an essential consideration for the longer-term future of North Korea and other outcast regimes.The Gaeseong Industrial Complex, a joint venture of the North and South Korean governments, is both a tribute to the concept of diplomatic reconciliation through business a
Jan. 8, 2014