I should have been excited as I watched a historic event unfold in Singapore. The summit meeting of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un held out hope that the last ugly conflict of the Cold War could be brought to a close, alleviating the threat of nuclear war in Asia and possibly opening up the vicious North Korean dictatorship to the world.For me, the matter is more personal. I lived in South Korea for several years in the 1990s, and I’m forever connected to the peninsula by bonds of family and frien

June 13, 2018

There is no doubt that ensuring that women and girls enjoy the same rights and opportunities as men and boys is the right thing to do from a moral and ethical standpoint. But it also makes economic sense -- $160 trillion worth, to be precise.A new report released by the World Bank Group, with support from the Canadian government, finds that if women had the same lifetime earnings as men, global wealth would increase by $23,620 per person, on average, in the 141 countries studied, for a total of

June 13, 2018

Meeting in Singapore on Tuesday, President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a feel-good document that outlines lofty ambition but no specifics. It could -- emphasis on could -- eventually lead to substantive negotiations. It could -- emphasis on could -- eliminate the threat of nuclear attack against the US by North Korea.Or it could lead to nothing but the next round of trouble.That’s because Kim’s words alone, his signature on a piece of paper, are worth nothing. Just as

June 13, 2018

President Donald Trump could never be accused of underestimating the impact of Chinese economic espionage and technology transfer on the United States. “We’re talking about big damages,” he said when discussing retaliation for intellectual property theft in a January interview. “We’re talking about numbers that you haven’t even thought about.”His tariffs and a recently floated proposal to restrict certain Chinese researchers in the US are calibrated to be equally tough. But will they work?To ans

June 12, 2018

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reportedly once said that he enjoyed trying to change the course of history, even if that meant “throwing rocks into glass houses and listening to the shattering of glass.” So it’s no wonder he thinks that US President Donald Trump would be a great Brexit leader.“Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” Britain’s chief diplomat told a room of 20 Conservative Party guests at a private dinner Wednesday night, in an off-the-record talk leaked to Buzzfeed. “He’d go in bloody h

June 12, 2018

Almost any foreign official, businessman or journalist visiting Beijing has heard the mantra that China can’t be expected to open up its markets or meet more stringent international standards because it’s still a developing economy. Maybe that argument was valid 20 years ago. Now it’s increasingly tenuous. More importantly, it’s damaging to China and the world.Pleading poverty ignores the tremendous economic progress China has made in the last few decades. When China joined the World Trade Organ

June 12, 2018

Sir, the eyes of the world are on you this week.Please be gracious enough to do away with your nuclear weapons and let the world breathe in peace. You have made your point, that even a small country can stand up to the super powers and hold its own. Now, it’s time to bury the hatchets of the past and move to a new future. It is time for you to focus on the welfare of your own citizens. Let them have the best foods, housing, education, music, movies, books and technology. Let them live wonderful

June 12, 2018

Once upon a time, Congress had the lead role in trade policy. Think back to the “tariff of abominations” of the 19th century or Smoot-Hawley of the 20th in your high school history class. So how did the presidency come to take charge of trade to the extent that it’s news when a bipartisan group in the Senate and some House Republicans move to reclaim that power? And why is that objective probably unachievable?　Jennifer Delton, at Made by History, describes how trade-supporting liberals, beginnin

June 11, 2018

On May 31 I published an op-ed together with Bandy X. Lee that ended asking: “Will we not only finally end the Korean War but peacefully reconfigure international relations in the greater Pacific region?” We added (with slight updating): “The current situation in Asia is a major threat to world peace, not just a matter involving the US. Therefore, an expanded summit now needs to be arranged and should include China, South Korea and the United Nations and maybe Japan and Russia as well.”The day a

June 11, 2018

Many conflicts are not based on facts or actual conflicts of interest. Quite a few international disagreements are caused by misperceptions, misunderstandings and errors in thinking. Communication at the very least may help reveal misconceptions, which sometimes leads to reassessments or corrections.The same can be applied to the current round of talks between South and North Korea and the USA. History never repeats itself, though the North-South Korean conflict is part of an ongoing greater Eas

June 11, 2018

In his upcoming summit with Kim, Trump must hold firm and maintain the US military presence in East Asia -- regardless of whether or not denuclearization is achieved.　North Korea’s six decades of hostility toward Seoul, Tokyo and Washington has for the most part been conducted as a non-nuclear power. Yet, notwithstanding its new nuclear weapons program, the Kim regime’s nature and conventional forces alone justify Washington’s military alliances with Seoul and Tokyo.　North Korea’s founder, Kim I

June 10, 2018