Most Popular
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Russia sent more than 165,000 barrels of refined petroleum to N. Korea in March: White House
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Key suspects grilled over alleged abuse of power in Marine death inquiry
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S. Korean children, teens grow taller, mature faster than before: study
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Army takes group action against Hybe for neglecting BTS
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Marine Corps commander summoned by CIO for questioning on alleged influence-peddling case
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[Graphic News] Number of coffee franchises in S. Korea rises 13%
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Some junior doctors are returning: Health Ministry
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[Robert J. Fouser] AI changes rationale for learning languages
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Ador CEO's request for exclusive right to terminate NewJeans' contract with Hybe refused in February
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Woman dangling from power lines rescued by residents holding blanket
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A worthy debate on surveillance and privacy
Even as he condemned Edward Snowden’s leaks about two government surveillance programs, President Obama said he welcomed the debate about whether post-9/11 efforts to detect terrorist plots have undermined Americans’ privacy. That debate has raged since the Guardian and the Washington Post published material provided by Snowden, and two things are clear:― The American public and many members of Congress were unaware of the scope of the government’s electronic surveillance programs, which include
June 26, 2013
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[Kim Myong-sik] In defense of a dead president over NLL remarks
The political storm over the released minutes of the 2007 South-North summit brings a few questions to the mind of this annoyed watcher. First, was President Roh Moo-hyun really ready to abandon the NLL or did he just mention it as a strategic rhetoric to lead his host to a meaningful negotiation on overall inter-Korean issues? Second, who gains and who loses with the exposure of the details of the dialogue between the two men who both have died? In this summer of 2013, we are confronting a whol
June 26, 2013
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China loses control of its Frankenstein economy
The world has grown used to the idea that China’s leaders are masterful stewards of their gargantuan economy. They steered brilliantly around the iceberg of the 2008 financial crisis, maintaining growth of near-double-digit rates. So when People’s Bank of China chief Zhou Xiaochuan began clamping down on excessive liquidity last week, some observers viewed him as a Chinese Paul Volcker. Now that the worst was over, Zhou seemed to indicate, it was time for China to rein in lending and prevent a c
June 25, 2013
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[Lee Jae-min] Knowledge sharing program
It is remarkable to see the “Knowledge Sharing Program” grow and expand. This ODA program, jointly administered by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Korea Development Institute, has suddenly become popular among developing countries, and requests to participate are piling up. This is a program in which Korea “shares” its experience of economic development with developing countries: What is provided here is Korea’s own experience since the 1960s instead of products or grants. The progr
June 25, 2013
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The political demise of Hezbollah’s leader
The rebel forces in Syria have reported that in the recent bitter fighting in the strategic town of Qusair, they saw very few Syrian army troops, and that they were beaten back mainly by Hezbollah militiamen. But these victories ― important as they may be in themselves ― won’t save the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and no less significantly, they will have a largely detrimental effect on the future of Hezbollah and its leader. One can imagine that Assad’s rule might end quickly, perhaps with a burs
June 25, 2013
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Libor unplugged
LONDON ― Last year’s Libor scandal was a shock to the body politic in London. Despite all that had gone before, the public and their representatives were stunned to learn that bankers had systematically undermined the foundations of a global market benchmark ― one with London in its name to boot ― for personal gain. Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, felt compelled to launch a parliamentary inquiry. On June 19, after a year’s work, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Stand
June 25, 2013
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[Kim Seong-kon] The gulf between K-pop and Korean literature
Due to the recent popularity of Korean pop culture overseas, some Koreans naively think that the whole world is crazy about anything Korean, including Korean literature. It is undeniable that these days foreigners are increasingly interested in Korean pop culture such as Korean soap operas, movies and pop songs. Unfortunately, however, few foreigners are interested in Korean literature, because literature, in general, is sought by a smaller number of people worldwide. In the past, when books wer
June 25, 2013
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NSA whistle-blower finds no friend in Putin
The suspense did not last long: Soon after his flight from Hong Kong landed in Moscow, we were told that National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden had applied for political asylum in Ecuador. It was in Hong Kong that Snowden publicly disclosed the existence of Prism, a top-secret U.S. National Security Agency program providing the NSA with access to the servers of top Internet companies like Miscrosoft, Apple, Google and Yahoo! Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., wher
June 24, 2013
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[Marcel Fratzscher] Germany takes on the euro
BERLIN ― Usually, people or institutions are taken to court when things go wrong and a fight ensues about who is liable for the damage. So the German Constitutional Court’s hearing on June 11-12 to consider the legality of the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program was peculiar. Here is a fight over the single most successful monetary-policy measure of recent decades ― not just in Europe, but anywhere.The announcement of the OMT scheme in July 2012 reduced
June 24, 2013
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‘Soft’ partition may be best for Afghanistan
NEW DELHI ― The United States, still mired in a protracted war in Afghanistan that has exacted a staggering cost in blood and treasure, will formally open peace talks with the Taliban, its main battlefield opponent, in the coming days (apparently despite last-minute opposition from Afghan President Hamid Karzai). With the U.S. determined to withdraw its forces after more than a decade of fighting, the talks in Doha, Qatar, are largely intended to allow it to do so “honorably.”How the end of U.S.
June 24, 2013
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Obama’s legacy may hinge on this summer’s achievements
There are two widely discussed scenarios that could unfold in Washington this summer. The first, embraced by the White House and some Democrats, is upbeat: The immigration bill passes the Senate with a big margin, making it almost impossible for House Republicans to resist; more people start signing up for President Barack Obama’s health-care law, and even though no fiscal grand bargain is in the offing, an improving economy gives the president a stronger hand in dealing with Republicans on exte
June 24, 2013
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[Pankaj Mishra] Turks are fighting over the future, not religion
The protests in Turkey, which now involve an extraordinarily diverse group of people, illuminate an altered political landscape. Yet much coverage of the demonstrations betrays an intellectual lag ― worse than the one that plagued many journalists and pundits when anti-Mubarak protesters filled Tahrir Square in 2011. Hasty proclamations of a “Turkish Spring” have given way to sophisticated-sounding but shallow dualisms, which seem to come straight from Flaubert’s “Dictionary of Received Ideas.”
June 24, 2013
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How many are needed to put the screws in Kim?
As U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, he’s facing an unlikely spoiler: Japan. Traditionally, China has played this irksome role. The six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear program ― suspended since 2009 ― never got anywhere largely because China refused to put the screws on its ally. No matter how many missiles the Kim Dynasty fired off, how many nuclear tests it conducted, or how many North Koreans starved or ended up in prison camps, Chin
June 23, 2013
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[David Ignatius] The sequester’s harsh bite
WASHINGTON ― For people (like me) who worry that the U.S. government is becoming dysfunctional, it’s worth studying the subtle and largely hidden effects of sequestration on the U.S. military and other agencies. What’s happening is the slow-motion decay of programs and readiness, which should scare the heck out of most citizens. Sequestration, you will remember, was the meat-ax approach to budget cutting whose consequences were thought to be so capricious and damaging that Congress would have to
June 23, 2013
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How to best manage $406b of Korean Pension Fund
Fifty million Koreans will count on the Korean National Pension Plan in their retirement years. Clearly, managing the $406 billion national pension fund in the best manner possible is one of the most critical missions of the national government, right next to national defense and economic growth. Is the Korean national pension fund being managed well? Let’s consider the quality of the national pension fund by three criteria: safety of the assets, rate of return on the portfolio, and steadiness o
June 23, 2013
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Tied in knots over interfaith weddings
Wedding season is officially upon us, and one needn’t be marrying a “Bridezilla” star to find the planning comes with some stress. Interfaith couples seem to have more than most as they try to satisfy not only each other but two extended families and two religious communities.I interviewed dozens of interfaith couples from across the country for a book on interfaith marriage. One husband and wife I met had planned to get married in a Catholic church to accommodate the bride’s family. Which was a
June 23, 2013
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[Simon Chesterman] U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Inc.
SINGAPORE ― Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden’s leaking of classified material ― whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand ― the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States.Around a third of the 1.4 million people with “top secret” U.S. security clearances are contractors, according to the Office of the U.S. Director of National Int
June 23, 2013
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Edward Snowden and the dangers of amateurism
PARIS ― Anyone who knows anything about the real world of intelligence and espionage knows that James Bond is a joke who wouldn’t survive his first day on the job (and not just because he’d fall asleep during static surveillance). But just try explaining to people that Agent 007 bears absolutely no resemblance to the reality of espionage profession. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that intelligence-leaking NSA contractor Edward Snowden ― with his lack of understanding of the intelligence ap
June 21, 2013
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[Joel Brinkley] A costly effort in Afghanistan
They’re stealing from our people who are trying to help them and killing our soldiers who are trying to train them. And when called on it, they say we are lying.It’s probably no surprise that I’m talking about Afghanistan. But a new U.S. government auditors’ report puts glistening new icing on the cake.The Afghan Finance Ministry has levied nearly $1 billion in unwarranted taxes on United States aid agencies that “build roads, schools, hospitals” for the Afghan people, the auditors’ report said
June 21, 2013
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Two centers of unaccountable power in U.S.
There are two great centers of unaccountable power in the American political-economic system today ― places where decisions that significantly affect large numbers of Americans are made in secret, and are unchecked either by effective democratic oversight or by market competition.One goes by the name of the “intelligence community,” and its epicenter is the National Security Agency within the Defense Department. If we trusted that it reasonably balanced its snooping on Americans with our nation’
June 20, 2013