Most Popular
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Who's lying? Hybe vs. Min conflict continues to intensify
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Seoul should engage Kim Jong-un’s elites for change, ex-North Korean diplomat says
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Most teen sex offenders get away with slap on wrist
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Ex-Trump official calls for S. Korea to raise defense spending to 3 or 3.5% of GDP
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Man sentenced to 1 year, 8 months for stealing from elementary school classrooms
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Same-sex couple denied insurance clearance despite landmark ruling
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FM champions multilateralism, stresses S. Korea's vision as 'global pivotal state'
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Panmunjom tours for select Korean nationals may resume in October
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Young Poong says no better offer for Korea Zinc
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Korea's first global webtoon festival lights up Seongsu-dong
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Denmark kids fair comes to Korea
“Denmark Kids Fair” -- a symposium of diverse children’s brands from Denmark – will be held at the Hyundai Department store in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, from May 2 to 8. Organized by the Danish embassy in celebration of Children’s Day on May 5, the event will showcase popular brands, including Flexa and Steens for furniture, Lego and Plus-Plus for toys and Rice for tableware. Participants will have a chance to receive giveaways through social media, alongside lucky draws. There will also be di
Foreign AffairsMay 2, 2016
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Poland’s Lodz woos creative investors
The city of Lodz -- located in the heart of Poland and Europe -- is ideal for the “creative class” of professionals who value high-quality living as much as their high salaries. A former powerhouse for the textile industry since the mid-19th century, the third-largest city in Poland has refurbished itself offering lofty lifestyles and opportunities. Rows of redbrick tenements and factories were revitalized into fashionable spaces of business and living, artistic expression and entrepreneurial ex
Foreign AffairsMay 1, 2016
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U.S. once again forced to turn to Russia for help on Syria
Scrambling to resuscitate a nearly dead truce in Syria, the Obama administration has again been forced to turn to Russia for help, with little hope for the desired U.S. outcome.At stake are thousands of lives and the fate of a feeble peace process essential to the fight against the Islamic State group, and Secretary of State John Kerry has appealed once more to his Russian counterpart for assistance in containing and reducing the violence, particularly around city of Aleppo.Kerry spoke at length
World NewsMay 1, 2016
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Aso says Japan will take action with currency if needed: Nikkei
Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said that one-sided speculative movements in the dollar-yen rate are “extremely concerning,” the Nikkei newspaper reported Sunday.Japan will carefully watch currency markets to ensure speculation doesn’t continue and will take action as may be necessary, Aso told reporters at Haneda Airport late Saturday.The yen surged against the dollar to 106.5 on Friday for an 18-month high after the Bank of Japan didn’t deliver further monetary easing as markets had expecte
World BusinessMay 1, 2016
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Freedom and diversity at JIFF
Among Jeonju International Film Festival’s rich lineup of films this year is a controversial documentary titled “Spy Nation.” The work spotlights a 2013 case in which South Korea’s intelligence agency accused Yu Woo-sung, an ethnic Chinese -- who defected from North Korea and has since become a Seoul Metropolitan Government official -- of spying for the North. In the trial process, it was exposed that the National Intelligence Service had fabricated evidence against Yu in an attempt to charge hi
FilmMay 1, 2016
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‘Access to innovative talent essential for global business’
To leap forward in the global marketplace, firms must attract diverse talents capable of engineering “what’s next” and disrupting “business as usual,” a leading Canadian computer scientist said. “The key to innovation is access to a pool of technical, creative and entrepreneurial talents that allows companies to target the global market from the get-go,” Paul Salvini, chief executive officer of Accelerator Centre, told The Korea Herald last week. “The city of Waterloo, Canada, where I work, has
Foreign AffairsMay 1, 2016
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Korea moves to finance restructuring
Korea is expected to launch a task force comprising officials from finance and regulatory agencies to exchange opinions and discuss ways to increase the capital base of state-run policy banks for massive restructuring of cash-strapped shipping and shipbuilding companies.This comes as the Financial Services Commission, the top financial regulator, unveiled its initial plan to launch creditor-led debt restructuring last week, citing the need to increase capital buffers of the state-owned Korea Dev
May 1, 2016
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U.S. designation not to change Korea’s FX policy
The U.S. inclusion of Korea in the foreign exchange monitor list will not affect Seoul’s monetary policy, Korean economic policymakers said Sunday. “As Korea avoided the currency manipulator designation, there won’t be any significant changes in the forex polices,” Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho was quoted as saying. Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho (Yonhap)“Although Korea is included in the monitoring list, this always happens with the U.S. department. There will be no changes (in the country’s policies)
May 1, 2016
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Park embarks on first state visit to Iran
TEHRAN -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye embarked on the country’s first state visit to Iran on Sunday to tap into the promising market of the Middle East, joined by the largest-ever business delegation.President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)This is the first time that a South Korean president is visiting the country since the two forged diplomatic ties in 1962. The trip comes 107 days after international sanctions were lifted on Iran after a landmark nuclear agreement in January this year. The r
Foreign AffairsMay 1, 2016
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[Graphic News] New duty-free shops to create jobs and investments
The Korea Customs Service expects that new duty-free businesses in Seoul and elsewhere will create 5,000 new jobs and 1 trillion won in investments.The KCS announced last Friday that it would issue four additional licenses to operate duty-free shops in Seoul in a bid to meet rising demand from Chinese tourists for non-taxable goods.Duty-free stores, mostly run by retail giants such as Lotte Group, posted a combined 9.2 trillion won ($8 billion) in sales last year, with an average growth of 15.1
IndustryMay 1, 2016
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[Photo News] Asiana safety control tower
The safety and security chiefs of Asiana Airlines and its affiliates Air Busan and Air Seoul signed an agreement last Friday to establish an overarching airline safety control body. From left, Air Seoul’s Lee Han-yong, Asiana Airlines’ Akiyoshi Yamamura and Air Busan’s Chung Chang-jae. (Asiana Airlines)
IndustryMay 1, 2016
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[Editorial] Park in Iran
There are two major points President Park Geun-hye is focusing on in her current historic visit to Iran: economic cooperation and nonproliferation vis-a-vis North Korea. Park, who arrived in Tehran on Sunday as the first South Korean head of state to visit Iran since the two countries formed diplomatic relations in 1962, will have talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday. For Park, the high-level talks in Tehran could not have
EditorialMay 1, 2016
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[Editorial] Self-ruining greed
Korea’s workforce is so polarized that unionized workers at big conglomerates are often called “labor aristocrats” as they enjoy privileges their counterparts at the bottom of the labor market -- workers at small firms, part-timers or short-term contract workers -- could never dream of. Fat paychecks -- usually much fatter than that of their foreign counterparts -- and solid job security are some of the many benefits unionized workers enjoy. Some unions even have an agreement with management und
EditorialMay 1, 2016
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Park’s visit to Iran signals leap in bilateral ties
President Park Geun-hye’s historic visit to Iran is expected to significantly improve the diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between the two countries, according to Cheong Wa Dae.The four-day trip from Sunday to Wednesday is part of the South Korean government’s endeavor to seize business opportunities in the Iranian market, following the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year.“Iran was once a place where our workers sweated under scorching heat to build the economic found
PoliticsMay 1, 2016
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Hyundai’s upturn at 2016 WRC raises expectations for ‘N’ brand
Not many people are aware of the progress Hyundai Motor has made in motor sports in recent years. This is part of the reason why the car-loving community here was surprised to hear that a car racing team run by Germany-based Hyundai Motorsport topped the fourth round of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship in Argentina last month. The WRC, which began in 1973, is a world-famous motor sports series like Formula One. One big difference being that vehicles in the competition are mass-produced cars
MobilityMay 1, 2016
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[Shamshad Akhtar] Increasing Productivity Key to Asia and the Pacific
The Asia-Pacific region’s successful achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development needs to be driven by broad-based productivity gains and rebalancing of economies toward domestic and regional demand. This is the main message of the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2016, published last week by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Such a strategy will not only underpin the revival of robust and resilient economic growth, but also improve the
ViewpointsMay 1, 2016
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[Howard Davies] Why are central banks on trial again?
Central banks have been on a roller-coaster ride in the last decade, from heroes to zeroes and back again. Is another downswing in their fortunes and reputations now starting?In 2006, when Alan Greenspan retired after his 18-year reign as Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, his reputation could hardly have been higher. He had steered the U.S. economy through the dot-com boom and bust, had carefully navigated the potential threat to growth from the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and presi
ViewpointsMay 1, 2016
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A second life in space for Cold War nukes
In the tradition of turning swords into plowshares, it’s an appealing idea: converting the U.S.’ ballistic missiles into rockets for civilian space transport. It’s also a sensible one -- and Congress should change the law to make it happen.For two decades, on national security grounds, Congress has barred the sales of parts of decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles such as the Minuteman III. The collapse of the Soviet Union and ensuing arms treaties resulted in hundreds of ICBMs bein
ViewpointsMay 1, 2016
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[David Ignatius] Slow and shaky takeoff for Mosul offensive
From a sandbagged hilltop outpost here, you can see the front line of the Islamic State group in the muddy brown houses of Al-Nasr, a village on the next ridgeline, about a mile and a half west. The Iraqi army was supposed to have captured this target a month ago. But the offensive was repelled. The battle for Mosul, about 56 kilometers north, must begin with the seizure of such Islamic State group positions along the Tigris River. But the Iraqi army isn’t ready yet to take a small, well-fortifi
ViewpointsMay 1, 2016
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[J. Bradford DeLong] Rescue for stranded economies
For countries where nominal interest rates are at or near zero, fiscal stimulus should be a no-brainer. As long as the interest rate at which a government borrows is less than the sum of inflation, labor-force growth, and labor-productivity growth, the amortization cost of extra liabilities will be negative. Meanwhile, the upside of extra spending could be significant. The Keynesian fiscal multiplier for large industrial economies or for coordinated expansions is believed to be roughly two -- me
ViewpointsMay 1, 2016