The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Disclosing the list of victims

Disputes have intensified over the disclosure of the list of Itaewon tragedy victims, with related media outlets, Catholic priest groups and political parties engaged in politicizing the Oct. 29 crowd crush that killed at least 158. The controversy was sparked when two progressive online media outlets released a list of 155 people who died in the tragedy on their websites Monday. The names of 10 victims were removed after their families sent complaints to the outlets in question. It is deeply re

EditorialNov. 17, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Lessons from watching US midterm elections

In the US midterm elections on Nov. 8, many political commentators and analysts had predicted a “red wave” or even a “red tsunami” that would have resulted in Republicans’ taking control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, no such thing happened. Instead, Republicans unexpectedly underperformed in the midterm. Expectations do not always match reality. What people thought would happen initially is that the Republican Party would win the el

ViewpointsNov. 16, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Lessons from watching US midterm elections

[Reed Brody] More tyrants being brought to justice

Anyone hoping that Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon find himself in the dock of the International Criminal Court should take several long, deep breaths. While Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine has not gone as planned, his grip on power remains unchallenged. And even if the ICC were to indict Putin for war crimes, it has no police force to arrest him. The international community simply lacks such enforcement tools. But Putin’s accomplices may not be as impervious as the

ViewpointsNov. 16, 2022

[Reed Brody] More tyrants being brought to justice

[Editorial] Grant abuse

Government grants towards the recovery of Ansan City from the shock of the Sewol ferry sinking were found to have been abused. According to data submitted Saturday by the city government to Suh Bum-soo, a National Assembly member of the ruling People Power Party, Ansan received 1 billion won ($759,000) to 2 billion won in “Sewol ferry tragedy grants” annually for six years, from 2017 to this year. The grants came from central and local governments under the special act regarding th

EditorialNov. 16, 2022

Bulgarian Embassy holds ‘Hidden Letters’ exhibition on Cyrillic, Korean alphabets

The Bulgarian Embassy and Korea Foundation showcased an exhibition on Bulgarian and Korean alphabets at the Korea Foundation gallery in Seoul on Thursday. The embassy presented the "Hidden Letters" exhibition, centered on the Cyrillic alphabet and Hangeul through a vernissage for diplomats, international organizations, local and central authorities, businesspeople and media personalities. Delivering welcome remarks at the exhibition, Bulgarian Ambassador Petko Draganov highlighted the

Foreign AffairsNov. 15, 2022

Bulgarian Embassy holds ‘Hidden Letters’ exhibition on Cyrillic, Korean alphabets

[Cory Franklin, Robert Weinstein] COVID-19's long-term devastation

Halloween is over; Christmas beckons. “Monster Mash” is out; “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is in. Feel-good movies have replaced seasonal zombie and vampire flicks. In the US, our real-life zombie movie is called COVID-19, and it has caused more than 1 million deaths. Along with that, there have been hundreds of thousands of non-COVID-19 excess deaths, and the number of people with long-term disabilities from COVID-19 may top off at a million or more. But no zombie

ViewpointsNov. 15, 2022

[Cory Franklin, Robert Weinstein] COVID-19's long-term devastation

[Sergei Guriev] Disquiet on Western front

The timely release of a new film version of Erich Maria Remarque’s "All Quiet on the Western Front" offers a reminder of the close parallels between World War I and the current war between autocracies and democracies. The fighting now is in Ukraine, but, as in WWI, the broader war has several fronts: the energy front, the grain front and, less well noticed, the Western front. Across Western capitals, autocrat-backed lobbyists, enablers, fellow-travelers and “understanders&r

ViewpointsNov. 15, 2022

[Sergei Guriev] Disquiet on Western front

[Editorial] Joint efforts to deter NK

It is meaningful that the leaders of South Korea, the US and Japan confirmed they share the same view on North Korea’s continued missile launches that threaten security on the Korean Peninsula and destabilize geopolitics in the East Asian region. President Yoon Suk-yeol, while on his two-nation tour, met with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Phnom Penh on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Cambodia on Sunday and issued a joint statement pledging to step

EditorialNov. 15, 2022

[Editorial] False quotes

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea apologized for distorting a foreign envoy’s remarks. Its chairman Lee Jae-myung and European Union Ambassador to South Korea Maria Castillo Fernandez held a closed-door meeting in his office in the National Assembly on Tuesday. In a back briefing after the meeting, party spokesperson, Kim Eui-kyeom, said Fernandez said that there seems to be a limit to the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's response to North Korea's escalating provocation

EditorialNov. 14, 2022

[Serendipity] Mourning, remembering

The concert hall remained eerily quiet as the conductor took his place at the podium. Then, all at once, the solemn sound of “Nimrod” from Elgar’s “Enigma Variations” filled the air. The evocative melody proved cathartic for the audience that had gathered less than a week after a crowd surge in Itaewon left 157 people dead. I saw people silently sobbing, wiping away tears. When the music ended, a minute of silence was observed in tribute to the victims of the countr

ViewpointsNov. 13, 2022

[Editorial] Tarnished start

President Yoon Suk-yeol marked his first six months in office Thursday. Unfortunately, the scorecard for his starting period of a five-year term, usually filled with hopes for change and reform, is not so pretty. To be fair, Yoon confronted a host of thorny challenges on many fronts. The continued missile provocations of North Korea, the deepening economic woes including credit crunch and high inflation, and the Itaewon tragedy took place under his stewardship, to name just three negative factor

EditorialNov. 11, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Prayers for 156 innocent souls and Itaewon

When the Sewol ferry sank in April 2014, claiming 304 lives including 250 high school students, it was simply unbelievable that so many precious lives could be lost in coastal waters. The ferry capsized 24 kilometers off the island Jindo on the southwestern coast, but rescue operations were incredulously ineffective. The botched response severely dented public trust in the Park Geun-hye administration and eventually contributed to her impeachment. The Halloween weekend disaster in Itaewon, in wh

ViewpointsNov. 10, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Prayers for 156 innocent souls and Itaewon

[Editorial] Excessive offense

Yang Kyung-sook, a Democratic Party of Korea member of the National Assembly, said during the Assembly's inspection of the presidential secretariat Tuesday that the Yoon Suk-yeol administration cornered many young people into a deadly situation in Itaewon. She likened the Yoon government to those who gripped military power and mobilized troops to massacre civilians in Gwangju in 1980. Yang probably made the remark to rebuke the absurd government response to the Itaewon crowd crush that kill

EditorialNov. 10, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Incidents undermining democracy and peace

Recently, two events in the news shook the world. One was the tragic disaster in Itaewon that took away the lives of 156 people, including 26 foreigners from 14 countries, who died in a crowd crush while celebrating Halloween in Seoul. The other one was the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, husband of the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by a man with a hammer. Pelosi is now recovering from a skull fracture. After the Itaewon tragedy, many people are taking to the streets in anger and grief. A num

ViewpointsNov. 9, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Incidents undermining democracy and peace

[Simon R. Hankinson] Real words convey truth on policy

Fighting for the high ground on contentious political issues inspires a partisan twisting of the English language. Take this Oct. 19 news from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that “officers arrested 175 unlawfully present noncitizens with multiple DUI convictions.” “Unlawfully present noncitizens” is how our Department of Homeland Security describes illegal (a synonym for unlawful) aliens (the legal term for noncitizens). In line with open-borders advocates, DHS now c

ViewpointsNov. 9, 2022

[Simon R. Hankinson] Real words convey truth on policy

[Editorial] Worsening debt crisis

Worries about the negative impact of rising interest rates on the South Korean economy are mounting, with some experts calling for a flexible approach in policy to tackle soaring debts shouldered by the government, companies and households. The predominant monetary policy trend both at home and abroad clearly leans toward raising the rates to keep high inflation under control. Last Wednesday the US Federal Reserve, as widely expected, raised its short-term borrowing rate by 0.75 percentage point

EditorialNov. 9, 2022

[Mariana Mazzucato] States must lead on climate change

In recent weeks, several members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance on Net Zero -- a group of 450 financial institutions -- have quit over concerns about the cost of delivering on their climate commitments. In dropping out, they have given the lie to the notion that private financial institutions can lead the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. What the transition really needs is more ambitious states that will go beyond market-fixing to become market shapers. The market-led approach is roote

ViewpointsNov. 8, 2022

[Mariana Mazzucato] States must lead on climate change

[Andrew Sheng] What can the stronger US dollar tell us?

As the Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points on Wednesday for the fourth time this year, financial markets are beginning to shake. Basically, the interest rate hikes in response to higher inflation is a reversal of nearly two decades of generally declining global interest rates, higher asset bubbles and not surprisingly, anemic growth. The Bank for International Settlements has just issued a paper looking at the policy implications of exchange rate swings. The US dollar index has broadl

ViewpointsNov. 8, 2022

[Andrew Sheng] What can the stronger US dollar tell us?

[Editorial] Miraculous rescue

A day before the national mourning period ended for the 156 people who died in the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon, good news had come from Bongwha, North Gyeongsang Province. Two miners were rescued from a collapsed shaft in a zinc mine in the county of North Gyeongsang Province on Friday night. Their miraculous return brought a message of hope to the nation lost in grief over the Itaewon tragedy. Team leader Park Jeong-ha (62) and an assistant surnamed Park (56), both walked out alive, help

EditorialNov. 8, 2022

[Editorial] Deepening doubts

As a special investigation unit unearths details about what happened on Oct. 29 when a tragic crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district killed at least 156 people, deeply disappointing facts have emerged about the police response, especially regarding high-ranking officials and a dysfunctional chain of command. The investigation into what went wrong in responding to the Halloween crowd surge is ongoing, but the details that have been revealed so far are outrageous enough to question whether

EditorialNov. 7, 2022