[Chon Shi-yong] Mayor Park preparing for flight

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is a strong potential presidential candidate for the liberal camp, but he has neither confirmed nor denied his presidential ambitions. The mayor maintained this position during a meeting with senior journalists Thursday. He skillfully dodged questions about when he would throw his hat into the ring and whether he will serve out his term that is set to last more than two more years. At one point, he quipped that he had been the mayor of Seoul for nearly five years and th

July 28, 2016

[David Ignatius] Can a rebuked China manage anger?　

China suffered a significant setback this month in its bid for dominance in the South China Sea, and its leaders are following a familiar script after such reversals: They’re making angry statements but taking little action while they assess the situation. The U.S. is playing a characteristic role in such a flare-up, too. Rather than crowing about victory, it’s trying to talk the Chinese leadership off the ledge before it does something rash. The chief hand-holder in this case has been national

July 27, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] What if humans were perceived as a virus?

It is so hot and humid these days that the weather forecast says, “Earth is like a furnace.” In fact, Earth seems to be gradually turning into an inhabitable place.While watching a Hollywood movie on TV recently, I heard a persuasive, even enlightening, line of dialogue. A character in the movie humorously quipped, “When a virus enters our body, our body temperature goes up in order to eliminate the harmful foreign entity. Likewise, global warming occurs in order to eradicate human species that

July 26, 2016

[Lee Jae-min] Time to take hands off the wheel?　

Self-driving cars are destined to be the first seismic change for automobiles since Ford introduced affordable cars in 1908. Granted, automation is already part of driving. Think about all the cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, collision warning and the like. But what companies are attempting to put on the market in the near future are driverless vehicles, with Volvo estimating that the first fully self-driving cars will be on the road by 2020.Good for us, basically. Computer-driven or robot

July 26, 2016

[Robert J. Shiller] Global economy’s hesitation blues

Economic slowdowns can often be characterized as periods of hesitation. Consumers hesitate to buy a new house or car, thinking that the old house or car will do just fine for a while longer. Managers hesitate to expand their workforces, buy a new office building, or build a new factory, waiting for news that will make them stop worrying about committing to new ideas. Viewed from this perspective, how worried should we be about the effects of hesitation today?Hesitation is often like procrastinat

July 25, 2016

[Chung Kwan-joo] King Sejong Institutes: Reaching Out to the World

Earlier this month, the eigth Korean Educators Conference was held at the National Museum of Korea. It brought together instructors teaching Korean at King Sejong Institutes around the world. One of them was Linda Stockelova, who teaches at the King Sejong Institute in Prague, the Czech Republic. As a teenager, she loved watching Korean movies, which led her to major in Korean studies. She said she was proud that some of her students were admitted this year into the department of Korean studies

July 24, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] Brexit’s implications for the world order

Brexit has alarmed practically the whole world, and world political leaders, pundits, columnists and mass media have expressed their views on its impact on the future of the U.K., the EU and the world. In my view, the root causes of Brexit and its implications for the future international political order are a more important question to explore.At present the main actors in international relations are nation-states. A nation is a primary group consisting of a people sharing a common history, cul

July 24, 2016

[John Nery] After #Chexit: Do nothing?

This is the third in a new series of columns on global affairs which will be written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. --Ed. The Philippine Left has a gift for mischievous phrase making, and last week’s coinage was both obvious and effective. #Chexit, with the now-obligatory hashtag, quickly made the rounds. Inspired by the tumultuous campaign to consider Britain’s exit from the European Union, the new catch phrase was code for th

July 21, 2016

[Robert Cheek] Drone racing, an endless sky of opportunities

Once the domain of the world’s militaries, a new breed of drones have taken flight and are being raced in competitions around the world such as Korea’s GiGA Drone Race in Seoul last year, the World Drone Prix 2016 in Dubai and upcoming Drone Worlds world championship races in Hawaii this October. These high-performance racing drones are being created by the next wave of drone developers and are pushing the thresholds of robotics, aeronautical engineering, machine vision, battery technology, and

July 21, 2016

[Kim Tae-woo] Neighbors’ THAAD opposition 　

On July 8, The South Korean Defense Ministry agreed to deploy the controversial Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system on the Korean Peninsula. China’s response was strong and immediate. It protested the move publicly, and also lodged formal complaints with the ambassadors of South Korea and the U.S. North Korea was also furious, saying that the deployment is “tantamount to a proclamation of war and a major act of crime that could never be forgiven.” Russia took that opportunity to side with

July 21, 2016

[Sean Randolph] Why Silicon Valley matters to Korea

Every day a parade of presidents, cabinet ministers, government officials, academics, journalists and countless business leaders passes through the San Francisco Bay Area. They come from every corner of the world, but particularly from Europe and China, looking to understand how innovation happens in the region, and why so many world-leading technology companies come from there. Essentially they’re looking for the future, believing that much of the world’s economy will be shaped by what’s happen

July 20, 2016

[Kim Myong-sik] Internal division, poor diplomacy only causes damage 　

The hours-long detention of Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn by thousands of angry residents of Seongju, North Gyeongsang Province, last week was a serious incident. The unruly crowd temporarily incapacitated the prime minister while he was heading the government on behalf of President Park Geun-hye who was then attending the Asia-Europe Meeting in Ulan Bator. Surrounded by the unruly, violent crowd who were throwing eggs, water bottles and other objects in the county office compound, the prime mini

July 20, 2016