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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Probe of first lady on Dior bag allegations set to begin
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'Super Rich in Korea' will leave viewers appreciating Korea more: producers
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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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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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Mali crisis requires political, military action
The parallels are inescapable. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they stoned fornicators, demolished shrines they considered idolatrous, and gave sanctuary to foreign jihadists. The Islamic extremists in control of northern Mali are doing the same things. The fear that rebel-held northern Mali has become the new Afghanistan figured in the last presidential debate, in which Mitt Romney said the country’s name four times. The deteriorating situation has provoked calls for swift military action,
Oct. 31, 2012
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[Park Sang-seek] Seoul’s new N. Korea strategy
According to newspaper reports, the main presidential candidates are putting forward a more or less similar North Korea strategy: They seem to agree that President Lee Myung-bak’s perception of the North Korean regime is too antagonistic and his strategy too rigid.Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party emphasizes trust building between the two Koreas and a balanced policy approach. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party advocates the building of trust and the foundation of
Oct. 31, 2012
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Investing in children, young people pays off
NEW YORK ― A country’s economic success depends on the education, skills, and health of its population. When its young people are healthy and well educated, they can find gainful employment, achieve dignity, and succeed in adjusting to the fluctuations of the global labor market. Businesses invest more, knowing that their workers will be productive. Yet many societies around the world do not meet the challenge of ensuring basic health and a decent education for each generation of children.Why is
Oct. 31, 2012
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Voters should replace death penalty process
The process for administering the death penalty in the United States is broken beyond repair, and it is time to choose a more effective and moral alternative. California voters will have the opportunity to do this on Election Day.Although our government has a fundamental responsibility to protect its citizens, there is little evidence that the death penalty acts as a strong deterrent to murder and other violent crimes. One recent study found that 88 percent of the nation’s leading criminologists
Oct. 31, 2012
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[Kim Myong-sik] Koreans’ elusive obsession with national prestige
Of the many news reports last week, the following three items were particularly painful:The launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 was postponed indefinitely due to a glitch in the fuel system. It was the third attempt to put a satellite into earth’s orbit after two failures in 2009 and 2010, the first a malfunction of the fairing device and the second a mid-air explosion because of a still unknown cause.Suh Nam-pyo announced he would resign as KAIST president in February 2013, a year and a
Oct. 31, 2012
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Mali 2012 different from Afghanistan 2001
The parallels are inescapable. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, they stoned fornicators, demolished shrines they considered idolatrous, and gave sanctuary to foreign jihadists. The Islamic extremists in control of northern Mali are doing the same things. The fear that rebel-held northern Mali has become the new Afghanistan figured in the last presidential debate, in which Mitt Romney said the country’s name four times. The deteriorating situation has provoked calls for swift military action,
Oct. 30, 2012
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[Jeffrey D. Sachs] Lost generations of the U.S.
NEW YORK ― A country’s economic success depends on the education, skills, and health of its population. When its young people are healthy and well educated, they can find gainful employment, achieve dignity, and succeed in adjusting to the fluctuations of the global labor market. Businesses invest more, knowing that their workers will be productive. Yet many societies around the world do not meet the challenge of ensuring basic health and a decent education for each generation of children.Why is
Oct. 30, 2012
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Australia’s Asian focus in 21st century
Australia’s Asian century white paper, released on Sunday, has sent an unmistakable message to the outside world that it wants to shift away from the “old countries” of Europe toward broader and deeper engagement with its neighbors in Asia, especially China and India. Given Asia’s rising significance in the world’s economic and security landscape, it is no surprise that the biggest country in the Southern Hemisphere seeks to benefit more from Asia’s economic and social progress. In fact, Canberr
Oct. 30, 2012
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Italy blames the messengers in quake case
I used to say, during doctoral examinations in theoretical physics, that the stakes were a bit more relaxed than passing or failing a medical student. After all, granting a doctorate was unlikely to result in life or death for anyone.Well, an Italian court decided this week that I was wrong. Six scientists were convicted of manslaughter because their data did not allow them to predict a 6.3-magnitude temblor in the city of L’Aquila in 2009 with enough certainty to issue a safety warning. More th
Oct. 30, 2012
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Next U.S. president will have leverage to push his agenda
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the senator and Harvard University professor, observed that academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. This year, U.S. politics feel that way, too. The issues don’t seem as seminal as those facing the nation during the Cold War or the civil-rights movement; the partisanship is worse. Nonetheless, this presidential election has important policy implications. If either party wins the White House and control of both houses of Congress there
Oct. 30, 2012
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[Kim Seong-kon] The New Left, the New Right and the new mutant
Recently, I have met many Koreans who were very proud of their country’s remarkable economic growth and cultural popularity overseas. In Seoul, a young Korean woman from overseas told me, “I am so impressed by Korea’s astonishing development and tremendous social change. I feel like I’m in a truly advanced country.” In Washington, D.C. a Korean-American told me, “When I went to watch a baseball game the other day, I saw the cheerleaders and the audience dance Psy’s ‘Horse Dance’ together after t
Oct. 30, 2012
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A congress too polarized to protect itself
The U.S. Congress is on an extended election hiatus, yet there has been no noticeable decline in its productivity. As polarization and legislative gridlock have worsened in recent years, the nation’s great legislative body has withered, losing not only popular support but the ability to exercise its constitutional powers. The result has been a troubling expansion of executive and judicial power. An example is President Barack Obama’s decision in June to end the deportation of some illegal immigr
Oct. 29, 2012
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[Hans-Werner Sinn] Europe’s path to disunity
MUNICH ― The motto of the United States of America is: “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one). The European Union’s motto is “In varietate concordia,” which is officially translated as “United in diversity.” It is difficult to express the differences between the U.S. and the European model any more clearly than this. The U.S. is a melting pot, whereas Europe is a mosaic of different peoples and cultures that has developed over the course of its long history.That difference raises the question of w
Oct. 29, 2012
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Korea-EU free trade deal benefits both sides
The free trade agreement between Korea and the EU was signed on Oct. 15, 2009, and came into force on July 1, 2011. Under the FTA, the EU agreed to eliminate or phase out tariffs on 96 percent of goods, and Korea for 99 percent of goods, within three years. Within five years, 98.7 percent of imports would be tariff-free. Beside tariff reduction, the FTA brings reductions in non-tariff barriers to market access, including elimination of quotas, standardization of product specifications, agreement
Oct. 29, 2012
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Experience with Moroccan trainees in Korea
It’s no secret that some Korean public officials have misused overseas training programs, financed with precious taxes, by enjoying them as their freebie tours abroad. Those programs, thanks to such accumulative scandals over time, now tend to be considered a waste of government money. Had it not been for those few who neglected their duties and responsibilities as civil servants, overseas training programs could be welcomed or even encouraged as valuable opportunities to learn exemplary cases f
Oct. 29, 2012
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[Zaki Ladi] Obama’s foreign policy scores
PARIS ― To evaluate an American president’s foreign-policy performance after one term is challenging, given the complex diplomatic and strategic environment and significant domestic constraints that confront every U.S. president. Nevertheless, in advance of November’s presidential election, it is important to distinguish the forces that have shaped Barack Obama’s foreign policy, and to assess his handling of them.Obama kept his promise to withdraw American forces from Iraq during his first term.
Oct. 29, 2012
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How the election could go wrong for Romney
PARIS ― There’s a good chance that American voters will screw up the presidential election.“How could you say such a thing when in a democracy the people are, by definition, correct?” you ask.Because there’s no such thing as collective intelligence, that’s why. Sure, there are individuals within a given society who happen to be informed and intelligent ― but it requires work to overcome the sort of inertia that has so many other people in that society pinned to their recliners watching “Dancing
Oct. 28, 2012
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[Robert B. Reich] Romney’s uncertain economy
We’re closing in on Election Day, but the questions about what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would do if elected are only growing larger. Rarely before in American history has a presidential ticket campaigned on such a blank slate.Yet, paradoxically, not a day goes by that we don’t hear Romney, Ryan or some other exponent of the GOP claim that businesses aren’t creating more jobs because they’re uncertain about the future. And the source of that uncertainty, they say, is President Obama ― especially
Oct. 28, 2012
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The point of principle in American politics
My late father taught me that what defines a principle is the willingness to adhere to it even when that adherence hurts. Maybe that’s why the newfound appreciation of the Electoral College among many of my friends on the left has struck me as a weirdly compelling spectacle. After the 2000 election, when George W. Bush lost the popular vote but (after the Florida debacle) won a majority of Electoral College votes, liberal commentators spent years calling for the direct election of the president.
Oct. 28, 2012
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On immigration, don’t hold economy hostage to politics
The third presidential debate, concerned mainly with foreign policy, was frustrating for many commentators because it gave them little to chew on. What’s to debate when there’s so much agreement ― or the semblance of it, at least? Our frustration is quite the opposite: There is genuine agreement between Democrats and Republicans on some issues and yet that consensus fails to drive action. We see this playing out especially on immigration. The larger immigration picture certainly remains contenti
Oct. 28, 2012