Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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G20 summit needs a change in perspective
Four issues will be in the spotlight at the upcoming G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia: boosting confidence in global economic growth, promoting reform of global governance, increasing unity and cooperation among developing countries, and evaluating China’s economic growth trend.The G20 emerged in response to the unprecedented 2008 international financial crisis, with its top priority promoting global economic growth.Over the years, thanks to the United States’ fiscal cliff and the debt crisi
Sept. 5, 2013
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[Karim Raslan] India’s financial crisis a drag
After many years of galloping growth rates, India is grinding to a halt, and countries in the region may soon feel the impact.India is in the news and for all the wrong reasons. With the rupee collapsing, the current account deficit exploding and corporate debt set to melt down (trimming its contribution to Forbes billionaires’ list), China’s strategic challenger looks set to drag the rest of Asia-Pacific into a prolonged economic crisis.After many years of galloping GDP growth rates, India is g
Sept. 5, 2013
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Deng Xiaoping’s lessons for today’s China
What would Deng Xiaoping make of Charles Xue? It’s a surprisingly edifying question. In the past few weeks, Chinese authorities have been eager to show their allegiance to the rule of law. They have gone after Western pharmaceutical companies for bribery, milk-powder suppliers for price-fixing and a well-known British investigator for illegally obtaining information about Chinese citizens.The most riveting spectacle ― the often salacious testimony in the trial of Bo Xilai, a former Politburo mem
Sept. 4, 2013
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[Nina L. Khrushcheva] Can Navalny save Russia?
MOSCOW ― In 1811, assessing the possibility ― or, rather, the impossibility ― of Russia ever undergoing a Western-style transformation, the diplomat and counter-Enlightenment philosopher Joseph de Maistre famously wrote, “Every nation has the government it deserves.” Fourteen years later, the Decembrist revolt ― a movement of poets and army officers to topple Czar Nicholas I and establish a constitutional monarchy ― seemed to refute de Maistre’s claim. Yet the revolt was suppressed, and the Dece
Sept. 4, 2013
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Obama’s strange strategy on striking Syria
If President Obama ever does get around to targeting Syria, with congressional approval, it will be the strangest U.S. military strike in recent memory.The administration has made a convincing case that the Syrian regime gassed 1,400 of its own people to death last month, including 426 children. And yes, the use of poison gas violates longstanding international norms.Yet Obama can’t seem to make up his mind if he wants to punish Syria for using chemical weapons or not.On Saturday, he made a stro
Sept. 4, 2013
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Unique teacher training program needed for Korean English teachers
Teachers teach the way they were taught. They pay more attention to receptive skills (listening and reading) than productive skills (speaking and writing). What most teachers do in class is reading and translating English, and they think they have done a fine job. They monopolize most of the class hour without letting students talk because they never learned how to reduce their teacher talk. How can a swimmer learn to swim by watching their coach swim in the pool most of the time? Depending on t
Sept. 4, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] Parties must firm up stance on Lee’s absurdity
I spent hours studying the transcript of remarks made by Lee Seok-ki and his United Progressive Party colleagues in an allegedly secret meeting in a hall in Mapo, western Seoul, in May. The full text was published by the Seoul-based Hankook Ilbo newspaper in two installments this week while other papers printed excerpts. After reading the material, I thought of two possibilities for Lee to avoid punishment in the Republic of Korea: He may claim insanity ― it smacked of a degree of insanity to me
Sept. 4, 2013
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The charade of CEO ‘performance pay’
If anyone still believes this country has a “pay for performance” system for corporate executives, it’s time to put the notion to rest. For more than two decades, corporations have gotten away with this sham ― at the expense of workers, shareholders and taxpayers.The good news: there’s reason to hope that members of Congress could come together across the aisle to help end this charade by closing one loophole in the tax code.The “pay for performance” myth has been unraveling for years. Most of t
Sept. 3, 2013
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[Lee Jae-min] Cellphone use while driving
Turn on the radio in the morning. Surf different channels. One common feature is the remarkable increase in listener participation. The radio show host endlessly receives phone calls and text messages from all over Korea just when the roads are busiest. A question is aired and thousands of phone calls and text messages arrive instantly. The host then selects certain phone numbers and sends gifts. Then, the listeners text message their comments on the song that has just been played, followed by t
Sept. 3, 2013
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[Naomi Wolf] Britain’s retreat from the tradition of free speech
NEW YORK ― The ordeal of David Miranda ― the partner of Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald detained at London’s Heathrow Airport, interrogated for nine hours, and forced to surrender his electronic devices (some of which allegedly contained documents leaked to Greenwald by the former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden) ― is a shocking demonstration of the changed climate surrounding the press.So is the fact that state officials threatened Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger with criminal ch
Sept. 3, 2013
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A no-fly zone for Syria
BRUSSELS ― There is a saying, too often used in interpreting international relations, that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Sometimes it proves true; often it does not.Thirty years ago, the Afghan mujahedin were mistaken for friends of the West when they fought their country’s Soviet invaders. But how lazy that assumption seems now, given all that has since happened.Syria’s deepening crisis, and the criminal use of chemical weapons there, has created a similar dynamic and dilemma. But the West nee
Sept. 3, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] The folly of capsizing our own Noah’s Ark
With communism long dismissed as “the God that failed,” capitalism is now under fire. Leftist writers and scholars argue that capitalism, albeit better than communism, has serious side effects like the polarization of the rich and the poor, mammonism and dehumanization. Indeed, capitalism is certainly not impeccable and must be applied judiciously to reduce its many problems. In 2011, a Hollywood movie entitled “In Time” poignantly criticized the inherent problems of capitalism using intriguing
Sept. 3, 2013
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Indian economy needs second phase of reform
India’s economy has stalled. Growth in the second quarter fell to 4.4 percent at an annual rate, down from 8 percent two years ago. The rupee has slumped. Consumer-price inflation is about 10 percent and rising. The country faces what could be a full-scale financial crisis. This would be a testing situation even if India had a well-functioning government, but it doesn’t. With a general election due next May, politics are paralyzed. Between now and the vote, the Reserve Bank of India, led by its
Sept. 2, 2013
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Obama is about to undermine Mideast doctrine
For five years, President Obama has more or less successfully adhered to a very specific, though not immediately discernible, doctrine when formulating American policy in the Muslim world.Many foreign policy experts believe that Obama doesn’t have a Middle East policy at all ― a clear-cut set of ideas that guide American engagement in the greater Middle East. This, we are told, is a big problem.But the conventional wisdom is wrong. There is, in fact, an Obama doctrine. And for the first time sin
Sept. 2, 2013
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The risk of taking on Syria
So the U.S. launches a military strike. Then what?As the Obama administration and the U.S. military plot military action against Syria, they should be spending just as much time ― and arguably more ― considering what happens next. Once Washington crosses the threshold of action, there’s no retreating from blame for anything that follows, whether through action or inaction. And in the weeks and months to come, dangers will only deepen.First, quick hits rarely achieve enduring political goals ― an
Sept. 2, 2013
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Global development goals make a difference
NEW YORK ― The world’s governments meet at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 25 to discuss how to accelerate progress on the Millennium Development Goals, and also to agree on a timetable for a new set of Sustainable Development Goals. The MDGs, adopted in 2000, will conclude in 2015, to be followed by the SDGs, most likely for the 2015-2030 period.The MDGs focus on ending extreme poverty, hunger, and preventable disease. They have been the most important global d
Sept. 2, 2013
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Saving Europe’s real hegemon
MUNICH ― Last June, the European Commission announced its about-face on bank restructuring. The money for recapitalizing distressed banks would now come primarily from creditors, not European taxpayers, with a pecking order to specify which lenders would be repaid first. All of this is welcome, at least in principle. In practice, however, the scheme leaves much to be desired.The problem is that a very long list of exceptions reduces the recoverable assets to such an extent that in many cases it
Sept. 1, 2013
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[William Pesek] Korea faces midlife crisis
As economists scour the earth for clues on which country is headed for a crash next, should they be worrying about South Korea (KOSPI)? An oddly timed question, perhaps, given Korea’s resilience compared with its Asian compatriots. Even if the region is not on the verge of a 1997-style meltdown, scary drops in the Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit and Thai stocks are fueling anxieties almost everywhere. Korea is a rare exception: It has a current-account surplus equal to 4.9 per
Sept. 1, 2013
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America’s new pastime: JPMorgan probes
Hardly a week goes by without a new report about a government investigation of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and how much money the bank might have to pay because of some alleged violation of the law. The ritual is familiar by now. Details of the probe emerge, then settlement talks get leaked by one side or the other before the case is resolved, perhaps as a pressure tactic or to alert the market so that the final deal is barely news once it’s unveiled. And the outcome proves unsatisfying because the com
Sept. 1, 2013
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A report card for U.S. policy in the Mideast
Think the United States is fairing badly in the Middle East? Convinced that our policy is chaotic, confused and contradictory, from North Africa to the Persian Gulf?Think again. It may not be politically correct to admit it, but when it comes to furthering America’s core national interests, Washington isn’t doing badly at all. And here’s why.Defining U.S. national interests is a critically important task, and not enough attention is paid to it. If you don’t know where you’re going, the old saw g
Sept. 1, 2013