Most Popular
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[Exclusive] Korean adoptee sisters meet for the first time in 39 years
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Yoon calls for measures to protect Koreans amid escalating Iran-Israel conflicts
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Signs point to N. Korean troops in Russia-Ukraine combat zone
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Rose's 'Apt.' redefines K-pop's global appeal
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Civil servant’s death linked to workplace bullying
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Two years on, thousands mourn Itaewon tragedy, calling for accountability
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[Weekender] Walk around Korea to really get to know the country
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N. Korea slams Seoul-Washington joint air exercise
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[Herald Interview] K-pop’s 'best years are ahead of us': Spotify’s general manager for Asia Pacific
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[Herald Interview] Love for K-drama, food defines 'Secret Ingredient'
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[Shang-Jin Wei] The global dangers of rising US inflation
As US inflation continues to accelerate, with consumer prices increasing 5 percent year on year in May, it is not only the US Federal Reserve that needs to remain vigilant. Policymakers around the world -- and in vulnerable economies in particular -- also should prepare for the possibility that US interest rates will rise faster and sooner than most forecasts currently predict. After all, the Fed has raised its inflation forecasts significantly over the last 12 months. At its mid-June meeting,
July 13, 2021
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[Noah Feldman] Trump’s doomed Twitter lawsuit
Former President Donald Trump’s lawsuits against Twitter, Google and Facebook for kicking him off their platforms are sure losers, legally speaking. The First Amendment protects people against state action, and tech companies aren’t state actors. Yet Trump’s main argument to the contrary -- that congressional Democrats coerced the platforms into cutting him off by threatening to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- deserves close scrutiny. Wittingly or not,
July 13, 2021
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[Nicole Pope, Anya Schiffrin] Media capture under guise of combating COVID
Since the pandemic began 18 months ago, autocratic governments around the world have tightened their grip on the flow of information. These power grabs are all advanced attempts at “media capture,” a term that covers the multiple ways governments, corporations and other powerful entities seek to influence media output to protect vested interests. In much of the world, including in parts of Central Europe and Latin America, media outlets are controlled by government cronies. But a cr
July 12, 2021
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[Djoomart Otorbaev] After Afghanistan falls
On July 2, the US military handed over control of the vast Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government. US troops and their NATO allies are now on track to leave Afghanistan by mid-July, well ahead of US President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11, 2021, withdrawal deadline. According to a new analysis by researchers at Brown University, America’s two-decade war in Afghanistan cost it nearly $2.3 trillion. Now, Afghanistan’s neighbors -- Pakistan, Iran, China, India and Central Asia -- are wo
July 9, 2021
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[Nir Kaissar] A living wage for all is attainable
While the US Congress and White House wrangle over spending on infrastructure and social programs, the most pressing problem for the US remains little acknowledged and unaddressed: Tens of millions of people work full-time and can’t afford food, clothes, housing, health care and a proper education for their children. Their struggle is sowing division, fanning political and social tensions and raising doubts in many Americans’ minds about the merits of capitalism and democracy. It d
July 9, 2021
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[Lee Kyong-hee] Our humble hero on his anniversaries
Back in the 1980s, new sacks of rice occasionally caught my eye when I visited my mother. “Min-gi grew the rice in Gimje,” she explained. A couple of years later, she said Min-gi was farming in Jeongok, inside the civilian control line south of the DMZ, and battling tuberculosis. At the time, retired Army generals ruled the nation with an iron fist, and they forbid news about anyone on their blacklist. My family was able to stay abreast of Kim Min-gi because he was a close friend of
July 8, 2021
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[Meg Griffiths] Tips for return to post-pandemic life
With millions vaccinated, we have begun to imagine what‘s next. For some, the return to work and school will be a relief. For others, it brings a new wave of anxieties. The American Psychological Association reports that half of Americans fear returning to life together, even as they struggle with the mental health impact of isolation. In my role at Essential Partners, I help people live and work better together by building trust and understanding across differences. Recently, friends and
July 8, 2021
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[Kim Seong-kon] Cultural understanding in business and diplomacy
When I was president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, I once held a workshop on cultural differences so my staff could learn and discuss foreign cultures. At that time, I felt it was imperative that my staff was thoroughly informed of cultural differences because of an incident that had embarrassed us. A Korean institution that had donated hundreds of Korean-language textbooks to India discovered that those books were just piled in a warehouse, never having been used. Among th
July 7, 2021
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[Martin Schram] A 2014 memo explains our 2021 news
Summertime, and the livin’ ain’t easy. News screens keep showin’ How people die. We look away, ’cause we know what we’re seein’. Our pain’s not just knowin’ -- It’s knowin’ why. Newsbreak: Our worst nightmares are being splashed across our news screens, one after another. Unfortunately, the tragedies seem way too familiar -- because today’s tragic news reads like pages ripped right out of warning memos in which governmen
July 7, 2021
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[Andrew Sheng] Glocalization should be welcomed rather than feared
Why is Marxism thriving in China and not in Marx’s place of birth? Why is Buddhism more practiced in East Asia than in India? Why has Islam more followers outside Saudi Arabia? Ideas and religion spread through globalization, but it was really their localization that created more believers and followers. What succeeded was not globalization, but glocalization, the internalization of universal ideas and beliefs by the many, and not just the few. Few Westerners see the irony of a suppose
July 6, 2021
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[Bobby Ghosh] Macron, Erdogan suddenly playing nice
While US President Joe Biden took the center stage at his first NATO summit last month and German Chancellor Angela Merkel got some of the limelight for her last such appearance, a little-noticed piece of theater was playing out in the wings: The alliance‘s most antagonistic members were making nice. Meeting in Brussels, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Turkey‘s Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to a “verbal ceasefire” during what French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian de
July 5, 2021
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[J. Bradford DeLong] Trumpism's analogy to Maoism
How does former US President Donald Trump still command the Republican Party’s complete allegiance? Everyone knows he has terrible judgment and a vindictive, petty personality. Even Trump’s own daughter and son-in-law are reportedly distancing themselves from him. And yet, whatever Trump says is still gospel for the overwhelming majority of Republican officeholders and commentators. For recognizing the legitimacy of President Joe Biden’s election, Representative Liz Cheney of
July 5, 2021
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[Chung Mong-joon] Remembering former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
When I heard the news that the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld passed away, I remembered meeting him in Washington 10 years ago. In October 2011, I visited the former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld‘s office in Washington, DC to discuss various issues, including ROK-US relations. The conversation was later written in my book titled “Communications with Leaders of the World” published at the end of that year. I had met Secretary Rumsfeld several times before, but it was
July 4, 2021
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[Digital Simplicity] Don’t return the new iPad yet before reconsidering its core functions
Eleven years ago, I was awestruck when I watched the then Apple CEO Steve Jobs presenting the iPad. Since there were some leaks about Apple’s new tablet computer, I was somewhat prepared to witness a new device. What surprised me the most was that Jobs sat down in a classic Le Corbusier LC-3 chair and rested the iPad against a crossed leg before browsing the internet and demonstrating apps with his fingers. It was an intricately orchestrated body posture, but I couldn’t resist the
July 3, 2021
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[Robert J. Fouser] An early look at 2022 election
July marks the beginning of the second half of the year. In the first half, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news in South Korea as it has elsewhere. As vaccine rollout continues around the world, with predictable difficulties, hope for an end to the pandemic is tempered by fears of new variants. After a slow start, the pace of vaccination in South Korea has picked up, raising hopes for the second half of the year. Aside from the pandemic, the big story in the second half of the year wi
July 2, 2021
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[Jeffrey Frankel] America’s false imbalance syndrome
One obstacle to productive public debate in the United States is the media’s tendency to engage in “false imbalance” when reporting on economic policies. No, I don’t mean “false balance.” False imbalance refers instead to the temptation to disparage policies that are in fact reasonable attempts to balance competing objectives. We have recently seen examples of this in US health care reform, as well as fiscal and monetary policy. The problem of false balance i
July 1, 2021
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[Kim Myong-sik] Opposition confidence grows in race to power
With eight months to go until the next presidential election, South Korean voters are beginning to guess what kind of administration will replace the one that has put their country into an unprecedented level of political and social conflicts. Will it be as vindictive in treating the past ruling elite and as ideologically obsessed in pursuing socio-economic goals as was those now in power? Parties have drawn up charters and platforms in accordance with political ideals they chose, oftentimes h
July 1, 2021
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[Andreas Kluth] Individualism makes us altruistic
Individualism is good, collectivism is bad. That’s what I first concluded as a teenager after reading Friedrich Hayek’s seminal treatise, “The Road to Serfdom.” Every life experience since then has confirmed my hunch. That makes it all the more irritating when opponents of individualism, out of ignorance or bad faith, keep distorting what it is. A particularly misleading charge is that individualism should somehow be tantamount to selfishness and egoism. Individualists t
June 30, 2021
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[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Angry Young Men’ in 2021 Korea
The Angry Young Men were a group of young writers from the UK who were disillusioned with the conservatism of their society in the 1950s. Inspired by John Osborne’s monumental 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” and Leslie Paul’s 1951 autobiography “Angry Young Man,” this group of young writers powerfully indicted the empty promises of postwar British society and its obsession with tradition through their literary works. The leading figures in the movement included
June 30, 2021
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[Trudy Rubin] Lessons from shutdown of HK’s pro-democracy daily
As Senate Republicans were blocking a bill to expand voting rights for Americans, the Chinese government was destroying Apple Daily, the pro-democracy tabloid that campaigned for greater voting rights in Hong Kong. The comparison is worth making, because of the way China has systematically shredded Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms over the past year. Under cover of a new national security law, and COVID-19, Beijing has diminished voting rights, while arresting pro-democracy activists and m
June 29, 2021