Most Popular
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Lee Jong-sup resigns as envoy to Australia
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Yellow dust engulfs S. Korea, advisory alert issued
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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Kia EV9 wins world car of year
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Korea misses out on global bond index boost
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[Editorial] Lee's 'simple' views
Lee Jae-myung has said and done many shocking things, so nothing is surprising anymore. But the fact that the leader of the main opposition party cares so little about what is happening around the world perturbed many South Koreans this week. During a stump speech in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, on March 22, Lee said the Chinese aren’t buying South Korean products because they don’t like Korea. “Why does (the Yoon Suk Yeol administration) harass China? Just say ‘x
EditorialMarch 29, 2024
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[Editorial] A warning behind rumors
Rumors about “a crisis in April” recently swirled around in the financial and construction sectors last week, floating a possibility that debt problems stemming from project financing could spin out of control and touch off a chain reaction of insolvencies and a credit crunch among home builders and financial firms. The gist of the rumor is that the government would start restructuring the PF-related sector saddled with troubled building projects and the shortage of funds once the Ap
EditorialMarch 28, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] The April 2024 election will decide our future
People say that the future is full of “hopes.” Alexander Pushkin expresses the sentiment well in his celebrated poem, “Should This Life Sometime Deceive You”: “Our heart lives in the future, so/ What if gloom pervades the present?” (Translated by Genia Gurarie). However, foreseeing the ominous dark clouds ahead of us, we can only “hope” to survive the perfect storm awaiting us. For an example of this “perfect storm,” take the recent pre
ViewpointsMarch 27, 2024
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[Jeffrey Frankel] Democrats are better for the US economy
Under President Joe Biden, the US economy has performed much better than virtually anyone predicted. And yet voters seem not to realize it -- an apparent puzzle that has been much discussed lately. In fact, this disconnect between popular perception and economic performance is nothing new. Since World War II, the US economy has consistently done better during Democratic administrations, yet a large share of Americans -- possibly even a majority -- believe that Republicans are better economic ste
ViewpointsMarch 27, 2024
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[Editorial] Populist pledges
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, proposed offering 250,000 won to every South Korean 17 days ahead of the April 10 general election. Blaming the Yoon Suk Yeol administration for an “economic crisis” and high prices, Lee said Sunday the people’s livelihood needed “CPR,” and suggested offering an average of 1 million won per household in cash vouchers that can be used at local businesses, “like the disaster relief during CO
EditorialMarch 27, 2024
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[Editorial] Vetting failures
In legislative elections, voters may expect candidates to have certain qualifications and attributes, such as competence, integrity and commitment to the rule of law. In South Korea, however, it is due time for public expectations about such essential qualifications to be lowered, as some candidates nominated by major parties have problematic backgrounds, including criminal records. The disappointing records were revealed as candidates completed their registrations last week for the April 10 gen
EditorialMarch 26, 2024
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[Anika Collier Navaroli, Ellen K. Pao] Everyone wants to rein in Facebook, TikTok and other social media. This is one obvious solution
Powerful technology has perhaps never presented a bigger set of regulatory challenges for the US government. Before the state primary in January, Democrats in New Hampshire received robocalls playing AI-generated deepfake audio recordings of President Joe Biden encouraging them not to vote. Imagine political deepfakes that, say, incite Americans to violence. This scenario isn’t too hard to conjure given new research from NYU that describes the distribution of false, hateful or violent
ViewpointsMarch 26, 2024
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[Grace Kao] How makgeolli signals virtue in K-dramas
Makgeolli, a milky-colored and lightly carbonated type of Korean rice wine, is a common topic of conversation in our household. Since 2015, my husband, Jeff Rubidge, has been brewing and uploading videos about makgeolli for his YouTube channel. It is a modest drink that only requires three ingredients to brew: rice, nuruk (a Korean fermentation starter) and water. It can be purchased for less than US $2 per bottle in Korea. I have also noticed its role in signaling virtue in K-dramas. Let me exp
ViewpointsMarch 26, 2024
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[Yoo Choon-sik] Won weakness outlasting forecasts
The foreign exchange rate is an important price variable not just in the sense that it influences a wide range of economic activities such as exports and imports, but because it is often taken as reflecting the comparative strength of a country’s economic fundamentals against others. It also influences and is influenced by the country’s macroeconomic policies. South Korea is paying especially close attention to the exchange rate movement because it is a very open economy, relying hea
ViewpointsMarch 25, 2024
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[Editorial] Game of chicken
Trainee doctors who walked out over a month ago, and refused to comply with the government’s order to return to work face three-month license suspensions starting this week. Professors at 19 medical schools said they would begin tendering their resignations from Monday unless the government takes proactive steps for dialogue. Once their medical licenses are suspended, the interns and residents will not be allowed to do even volunteer work as doctors inside or outside of South Korea. They c
EditorialMarch 25, 2024
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[Media Art Now] Lee Eun-hee renders palpable the mechanics of stress
That digital is immaterial is simply a delusion, but this idea is not easy to dispel. We hold a screen, whether it be a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop, but looking at only the images on it, we are not really conscious of the physical machines. We tend to forget about them or take them for granted. However, the digital world we live in today is reliant on mechanical infrastructure and on natural resources, perhaps more critically so than ever. Think about the digital blackout caused by physical
ViewpointsMarch 24, 2024
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[Editorial] Perils of hasty policy shift
In recent years, many Korean homeowners have come under overwhelming pressure over soaring property taxes, due partly to the previous Moon Jae-in administration’s controversial real estate policy to increase the state-led declared prices of properties to 90 percent of market value by 2035. President Yoon Suk Yeol announced in a town hall meeting on Tuesday that the government will abolish the “reckless” declared real estate price policy, openly criticizing Moon’s policy t
EditorialMarch 22, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] Seoul as a multilingual city
When people think of multilingual cities, big names like New York and London immediately come to mind. Other important global hubs, such as Brussels, Dubai, Singapore, and Toronto are known for their linguistic diversity. But what about Seoul? With 95 percent of its residents being native speakers of Korean who were born in South Korea, Seoul does not give the impression of being a multilingual or multicultural city. At 5 percent, the percentage of residents born abroad is high by historical sta
ViewpointsMarch 22, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Democracy summit and dispute over autocratization
The third Summit for Democracy was held in Seoul for three days from March 18. The event was significant because foreign ministers of major countries gathered to discuss Democracy for future generations and the sensitive problems from cutting-edge technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. In particular, Korea, one of the poorest countries and one of the military dictatorships 50 years ago, is proud to have become a prosperous country and hold a democracy summit. However, according to the
ViewpointsMarch 21, 2024
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[Editorial] Talks must begin
The government’s plan to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 from next year became more specific on Wednesday as it announced that 1,639, or 82 percent, of the additional places will go to colleges outside the greater Seoul area. Of the 40 medical colleges in South Korea, 13 are in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province. They account for 1,035 places, or 33.8 percent, of the nation’s current total of 3,058. In case of the so-called “mini” medical colleges that admit
EditorialMarch 21, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] Competition begins from birth in Korea
Few Koreans would deny that South Korea is a highly competitive society. People say that the competition is so stiff that your child should begin preparing for it as soon as he or she turns three years old. Indeed, parents send their three-year-olds to preschool and private academies for piano, violin or art lessons after school. Then, a little later, English-speaking kindergarten awaits your child. When your child enters elementary school, the competition for college entrance has already begun.
ViewpointsMarch 20, 2024
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[Editorial] Korea’s slow pace in chip race
The news reports last week that Samsung Electronics would likely receive over $6 billion in subsidies from the US government for expanded investments present mixed implications for both the South Korean government and the chipmaker. It is certainly a positive development for Samsung to receive the largest amount of subsidies as a non-American company. Given that the subsidies would amount to a range between $2 billion and $3 billion, the scale of US support tops expectations by a wide margin. Th
EditorialMarch 20, 2024