[Serendipity] An ode to office

There was a spring in my step as I walked up the stairs to the office after the longest stretch away since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hollering “Best health for the new year!” to security personnel at the entrance lobby nearly two weeks into the year felt great. Since late December, most of the staff members of The Korea Herald have been working from home. On Wednesday, I was back at the office for a meeting. The sight of piles of old newspapers and unopened envelopes st

Jan. 15, 2021

[Robert J. Fouser] Trump’s self-coup fails

Pandemic weary Americans entered 2021 with hope for better times but found those hopes dashed. On Jan. 6, as a mob of insurrectionists, incited by Trump, stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to halt the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes for president and vice president. After a six-hour siege, Congress resumed counting and formally certified Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president in the early morning hours of Jan. 7. The images of the siege shocked the nation and, i

Jan. 15, 2021

[Ana Palacio] The city on a hill besieged

In 1940, with Europe gripped by a war from which the United States remained aloof, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the country needed to be “the great arsenal of democracy.” He meant it literally: He was appealing to Americans to “put every ounce of effort” into producing arms for European democracies, especially the United Kingdom, in their fight against fascism. But his words also carried powerful symbolic significance, positioning the US as the wor

Jan. 14, 2021

[Kim Myong-sik] Who would like a weaker prosecution, stronger police?

While all people had their souls tied with the daily outbreaks of COVID-19, a major reform in the law enforcement system was stealthily carried out in South Korea. Ordinary people are not well informed of how the changes will affect their lives while they are a matter of much concern for those who play with political power. The primary theme is “prosecution reform,” designed to reduce the powers of prosecutors to mere writers of indictment from what was described as the almighty th

Jan. 14, 2021

Science has delivered, will WTO deliver?

A proposal by India, South Africa and eight other countries calls on the World Trade Organization to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents and other intellectual property rights under the organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPS, for a limited period.  It is to ensure that intellectual property rights do not restrict the rapid scaling up of manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. While a few members ha

Jan. 13, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] What will we reap ‘Five Years Later’?

The city government of Seoul has recently come under fire for its “guidelines” for pregnant women who are preparing to give birth. The guidelines say that before going to the hospital, a pregnant woman should be sure to organize the refrigerator by taking out old food and filling it in with several new side dishes, such as instant curry, black bean sauce noodles and soups, for the sake of her husband, who is assumed to be uncomfortable with cooking. The preposterous tips continue

Jan. 13, 2021

[Mohamed A. El-Erian] Treasury yields flash a warning sign

US government bond yields have registered some notable moves in the first few days of 2021. Should they continue on their current pace, they risk causing headaches for both policymakers and stock investors because of their underlying drivers. In less than two weeks, the Treasury yield curve has experienced a significant increase in yields in longer-dated bonds, or what is known in financial markets as a “bear steepening.” The yields on 10- and 30-year bonds have risen 20 basis point

Jan. 13, 2021

[Leonid Bershidsky] The US Capitol riot wasn’t a gift to Putin

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Wednesday’s rioting at the Capitol “the biggest gift to Putin” from President Donald Trump. Glee from pro-Putin commentators in Moscow would seem to bear out that opinion, echoed by many US Democrats. But what exactly has Putin been gifted? Certainly not a political advantage. With Trump, considered a Putin admirer by the Democrats, about to vacate the White House, the Russian ruler has every reason to expect a compensatory show of strength

Jan. 12, 2021

[Kent Harrington] The return of US intelligence

Tradition has it that when less-than-beloved CIA station chiefs are transferred from their posts abroad, their long-suffering staff celebrate with a wheels-up party. If tradition still holds, champagne corks were popping at CIA headquarters when Donald Trump lost his presidential re-election bid to Joe Biden. It is no secret that America’s intelligence services have been in the crosshairs of one of the most ignorant, paranoid, and antagonistic presidents ever to have held the office. Trump

Jan. 12, 2021

[Gang Eun Ho] Future of SK’s defense industry and challenges of KF-X

South Korea has established itself as the world’s 11th-largest exporter in the field of defense, with its exponential development centered on firepower, aviation, maneuvers, and shipbuilding. Its global competitiveness has reached 85 to 89 percent of those of the advanced countries, allowing Korea’s defense industry to steadily raise its stature worldwide. Despite such achievements, the defense industry has seen a fall in sales recently, and to fan the flames, COVID-19 is aggravati

Jan. 12, 2021

[Angela Zhang] In China, behave or face a campaign

With the debacle of Ant Group’s initial public offering, we’ve witnessed a flurry of legislative and enforcement activities aimed at tightening antitrust regulation within the Chinese tech sector. This massive campaign, however, is hardly a new phenomenon in Chinese law. The roots of campaign-style law enforcement can be traced back to the revolutionary period of the Chinese Communist Party, which often needed to rely on mass movements in the absence of state institutions. Contempor

Jan. 11, 2021

[J. Bradford DeLong] What next for the MAGA insurrection?

When people stormed the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789, their purpose was to free inmates whom they saw as political prisoners of the monarchy. And when Frenchwomen marched from Paris to Versailles that October, their goal was to force the king to return with them and live among the people. What goal did Donald Trump’s supporters have in mind when they stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6? To understand why they were there in the first place, we need to roll back the tape. Just before t

Jan. 11, 2021

[Digital Simplicity] A turning point for news media in Korea

In recent years, newspapers in South Korea have struggled to stay relevant for mainstream readers, many of whom consume news on major portals instead of media websites. The dominance of portals in the news market, mostly led by two heavyweights Naver and Kakao, is unlikely to change in 2021. Rather, they are very likely to strengthen their influence further, an outlook that poses more questions for the embattled print newspaper companies. In an ideal situation, an individual newspaper runs it

Jan. 9, 2021

[Shuli Ren] Why China Is sentencing a tycoon to death

The bigamy conviction got a lot of the attention but Lai Xiaomin received a death sentence on Tuesday over a much more serious issue troubling China. Lai oversaw China Huarong Asset Management from 2012 until he ran into trouble in 2018. He was found guilty of receiving 1.79 billion yuan ($277.3 million) in bribes, with bigamy thrown in for good measure. Still, capital punishment for this kind of white-collar crime is unusual, legal experts say. Wu Xiaohui, former chairman of Anbang Insurance G

Jan. 8, 2021

[Daniel Moss] South Korea needs more babies and immigrants

South Korea greeted the new year by recording its first annual population decline. Unfortunately, the go-to solutions are meeting some practical challenges in the COVID-19 era. Headcount dwindled slightly to 51.8 million last year, the Ministry of Interior and Safety said Sunday. The retreat was the product of a 10.6 percent slide in births, coupled with a 3.1 percent increase in deaths. South Korea now joins neighboring Japan in suffering an actual fall in population, as opposed to the diminis

Jan. 7, 2021

[Lee Kyong-hee] ’Winter Scene’ sparked cultural exchanges

During the subdued Christmas and New Year holiday period, a very special painting commanded a gallery of the National Museum of Korea shrouded in darkness. The museum made commendable efforts to arrange a rare, enticing exhibition, hoping that it could give hearts and minds a respite from the COVID-19 pandemic. But a resurgence of infections heightened precautions against public gatherings and the exhibit closed after just two weeks. Its fate is unclear. The exhibition celebrates magnanimous do

Jan. 7, 2021

[Clara Ferreira Marques] Ant, Yukos and warning to rebel tycoons

In the thick of it, back in Moscow in 2003, it never seemed possible that the onslaught would go as far as it did. In the end, it took only months for Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to find his empire under siege, and not much longer for the edifice to crumble. The parallel between the Yukos Oil debacle almost two decades ago and the crackdown on Alibaba Group Holding and affiliate Ant Group over the past weeks will seem at best inexact. And, to be clear, it is. Jack Ma didn’t be

Jan. 6, 2021

[Kim Seong-kon] Greeting 2021, the Year of the Ox

The year 2021 is the Year of the Ox. According to the Chinese horoscope, people born in the Year of the Ox have a strong sense of duty and responsibility. It states: “People born in the Ox year are reliable and trustworthy. They put their entire heart into everything they do. They feel great responsibility toward their family as well.” They are also strenuous, conscientious workers whom you can trust fully. In 2021, South Korea should prove that she is as dependable and trustworth

Jan. 6, 2021

[Martin Schram] Which is Wannabe Working Class Party?

As America prepares to inaugurate Scranton Joe Biden as our 46th president, we interrupt Washington’s backslapping Democratic elites to inject a dose of realpolitik into a party that still calls itself the real champions of America’s working class. While Biden indeed deserves great credit for having defeated his incumbent Republican presidential opponent, it is also true that Biden had a unique ally who greatly aided his effort: President Donald Trump. Trump was the most blatantly

Jan. 5, 2021

[Sam Fazeli] How to stay ahead of a mutating coronavirus

Count 2020 as a lucky year. This may sound odd given that the world grappled with a pandemic that has killed close to 1.8 million people and crippled many countries’ economies. The “luck” relates to the more than 90 percent efficacy of the two vaccines -- Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot and Moderna’s candidate. Enormous leaps in science and technology helped make this happen and could well speed the end of the pandemic. And more vaccines are on the way. Unfortunately, there

Jan. 5, 2021