The Korea Herald

[James Stavridis] The worst option on North Korea: Striking first

Think of the North Korean problem as a set of two dangerous streams of activity, moving rapidly toward each other. One is the increasing range of the Kim Jong-un regime’s intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are now verifiably in the 3,000 to 4,000 mile range -- probably far enough to strike the continental US.The other stream consists of the North Koreans’ efforts to produce reliable nuclear weapons small enough to affix to the warheads of those ballistic missiles. Both US intelligence se

July 10, 2017

[James Stavridis] The worst option on North Korea: Striking first

[Mark Buchanan] China’s electric cars are actually pretty dirty

Could China, the world’s largest automobile market, help address the threat of global warming if it went completely electric? The answer isn’t as obvious as it seems.China has been making great strides toward electrification. Electric vehicle sales are booming: consumers bought more than 300,000 last year, and more than 5 million are expected to be on the road by 2020. The government just announced bold plans for a wave of big new battery factories.Encouraging as that may be, though, the move aw

July 10, 2017

[Jon Finer] There is a way forward on North Korea. Is Trump up to It?

Persuading a dangerous country to abandon its ambition for nuclear weapons is akin to a two-horse race. In one lane is the adversary (say, North Korea) galloping ahead as quickly as possible toward ever greater levels of destructive capacity. In the other is the rest of the world (or whatever coalition of responsible nations can be cobbled together), using carrots and sticks to compel the adversary to slow, stop and ultimately reverse its course.The finish line (you could call it a red line) var

July 10, 2017

[Jon Finer] There is a way forward on North Korea. Is Trump up to It?

[The San Diego Union-Tribune] North Korea missile crisis: US can’t go it alone

Barack Obama drew criticism for the perception that while he was president, the United States in some ways abandoned its traditional role of global leadership in favor of an approach that an Obama aide memorably described as “leading from behind.” But even as the US stayed mostly away from the fray as the Syrian civil war turned into a massive humanitarian crisis, America maintained its leading position by pushing for a global response to climate change, supporting longstanding mutual defense pa

July 10, 2017

[Letter to the Editor] Government should not exempt taxes on income earned abroad

In response to KERI’s suggestion that Korea follow Donald Trump’s administration and lower the tax rate on business income held overseas, it is wrong to assume that multinational companies would reinvest in Korea, ordinary citizens are tired of governments favoring big business, and Donald Trump is not someone any reasonable leader should follow.With less than six months in office, Trump is the most volatile and polarizing president in American history, and -- as a president and a human being --

July 10, 2017

[Ahn Byung-il] Progress of Character Education Promotion Act

In July 2015, the Character Education Promotion Act was introduced and enforced for the purpose of educating citizens with a heathy mind.The Character Education Promotion Act was institutionalized as a required curriculum in character education. The purpose of the act is to contribute to the development of our society by educating citizens of sound and upright character. The character education entails cultivating one’s internal self and raising various faculties necessary to cope with others an

July 9, 2017

[Ahn Byung-il] Progress of Character Education Promotion Act

[Other view] N. Korea missile test requires global response

The latest feat of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the launching on Tuesday of what could be an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska, presents the 13th American president in a row the dilemma of what to do about North Korea.None of the various options to be considered to address this problem is attractive. A military attack on North Korea would lead inevitably to catastrophic damage to America’s long-term ally, South Korea, as well as to carnage and disruption

July 9, 2017

[Eli Lake] Negotiations won’t stop North Korea from getting nuke

When North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile this week -- what its boy tyrant called a “gift to the American bastards” -- the response from the Trump administration was fairly conventional.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson correctly called it an escalation. He announced America’s intention to bring the matter before the UN Security Council. And he assured, “We will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea.”If that sounds familiar, it’s because not tolerating a nuclear North Korea

July 9, 2017

[Eli Lake] Negotiations won’t stop North Korea from getting nuke

[Mihir Sharma] India finds reform, not reformers

Checking out of a hotel in the southern Indian state of Kerala this week took so long that I almost missed my flight. It wasn’t the hotel staff’s fault; their work, temporarily, had been doubled. As a polite note in my room reminded me when I checked in, they would have to present two invoices to me when I left -- one for the days prior to July 1, and one for the days after. For at midnight on July 1, India migrated to a new, more comprehensive indirect tax regime, known as the goods and service

July 9, 2017

[Noah Feldman] Here’s why China tolerates a nuclear North Korea

President Donald Trump still seems to think that pressuring China to rein in North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is the best way to push back against the rogue state’s nuclear expansion, most recently in the form of testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach Alaska.This approach hasn’t worked so far and there’s a reason: Chinese President Xi Jinping has no strong reason to object to a North Korean nuclear insurance policy against the threat of being overthrown by the US.China values re

July 9, 2017

[Noah Feldman] Here’s why China tolerates a nuclear North Korea

[Carl P. Leubsdorf] Trump is giving political inexperience a bad name

One of Barack Obama’s principal arguments in seeking the presidency was that his stance as an outsider uninvolved in past Washington battles would enable him to break through the capital’s pervasive partisanship.But the neophyte president actually achieved his principal legislative success by hiring experienced Washington operatives who joined with veteran congressional Democrats in passing legislation designed to produce the party’s long-sought goal of health care coverage for all Americans.Aft

July 9, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Trump, China, videos and North Korea

President Donald Trump said back in January it would never happen, but it did. North Korea successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, meaning it could maybe someday hit the West Coast with a nuclear weapon. Here is a major concern demanding answers, and here is one thing that will not work.That would be for Trump to send North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a video in which the president grabs him, throws him to the ground and starts punching him in the face.Trump’s juvenile foray a

July 7, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Trump, China, videos and North Korea

[Leonid Bershidsky] Tesla is starting to face serious competition

Volvo’s announcement that it intends to starts phasing out purely gasoline- and diesel-powered cars starting in 2019 in favor of electrified models appears strategically timed to coincide with the start of production of Tesla’s Model 3, which should be hitting the streets by the end of this month. It’s scary news for Tesla: The market for electric cars is largely government-driven, and Chinese-owned Volvo is taking advantage of especially generous government support.Volvo’s model cycle is about

July 7, 2017

[Other view] Turn to cyber options against North Korea

North Korea’s protracted policy of nuclear belligerence toward the United States has reached a long-feared tipping point. Despite a diligent campaign of sabotage and defensive saber-rattling by the Obama and now Trump administrations, Pyongyang has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, raising the specter of another launch, this time armed with a nuclear warhead.Even if the cities of America’s Pacific coast are somehow kept safe from obliteration, a nuclear North is intolera

July 7, 2017

[Desk Column] Our cheerful first lady Jung-sook

Less than two months in her position as the first lady, Kim Jung-sook is on second visit abroad.Accompanying President Moon Jae-in to the annual G-20 summit in Germany, Kim has her own itinerary as well, the first stop being a visit to Korean-born composer Isang Yun’s grave in Berlin. It was a bold move, given the controversy surrounding the composer who had ties with North Korea. He was abducted from Germany by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1967 and sentenced to life in prison on sp

July 6, 2017

[Desk Column] Our cheerful first lady Jung-sook

[Zaki Laidi] Macron Doctrine? Not yet, but his goals coming into focus

French President Emmanuel Macron invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Paris as his first foreign guest, while US President Donald Trump will attend this year’s Bastille Day celebrations. By reaching out to two world leaders who made no secret of their hope that he would never make it to the Elysee Palace, Macron has set the stage for a new and ambitious French foreign policy.The message Macron is sending is that he will remain open to new opportunities for compromise -- talking to anyone

July 6, 2017

[Zaki Laidi] Macron Doctrine? Not yet, but his goals coming into focus

[Noah Feldman] New travel ban rules distort family dynamics

President Donald Trump’s administration has issued guidelines through the State Department for who will be exempt from the travel ban from six majority Muslim countries, which the US Supreme Court allowed Monday to partly go into effect. The guidelines are highly arbitrary in defining what counts as a family relationship that merits exemption. For example, your mother-in-law is close enough to come into the US, but not your grandmother, a blood relative without whom you wouldn’t exist.That’s bec

July 6, 2017

[Trudy Rubin] Trump must join fight against disinformation

President Donald Trump’s twitter tirade against MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski last week revealed more than his continued willingness to demean his office — and women.He lambasted Brzezinski, co-host of Morning Joe, as “low I.Q., Crazy Mika” claiming she’d been “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she briefly attended a social gathering at Mar-a-Lago on New Year’s Eve. On the surface, this was one more meltdown by a thin-skinned president who can’t stand criticism from mainstream journalists — which

July 6, 2017

[Letter to the Editor] Lessons for America from Korea: Mass protest works

When I moved to South Korea in 2015, I was impressed the country had a female president. In 2016, I thought the US would follow suit. Unfortunately, the unthinkable happened: Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. Before Trump was elected (he lost the popular vote by more than 3 million by the way), Korea had its own political crisis with Park scandal. And yet, the Korean people moved swiftly and in unison with a single goal in mind: Impeach President Park. Public protests

July 6, 2017

[Adam Minter] Used goods new big thing in Asia

On the second floor of a 2,230-square-meter, used-goods superstore in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur, Koji Onazawa pauses beside some old Japanese surfboards. He’s spent nearly two decades at Bookoff Corp. -- a corporate legend in Japan that’s barely known outside it, with 832 secondhand shops across the country. Now he’s running Jalan Jalan Japan, the company’s first true foray into selling more than just used books abroad. “We’re not a representative of Bookoff here,” he says. “We’re a representa

July 5, 2017

[Adam Minter] Used goods new big thing in Asia