Most Popular
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Actor Jung Woo-sung admits to being father of model Moon Ga-bi’s child
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Wealthy parents ditch Korean passports to get kids into international school
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Man convicted after binge eating to avoid military service
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First snow to fall in Seoul on Wednesday
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Industry experts predicts tough choices as NewJeans' ultimatum nears
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Final push to forge UN treaty on plastic pollution set to begin in Busan
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Nvidia CEO signals Samsung’s imminent shipment of AI chips
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Opposition chief acquitted of instigating perjury
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Korea to hold own memorial for forced labor victims, boycotting Japan’s
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[Exclusive] Hyundai Mobis eyes closer ties with BYD
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[Mac Margolis] Catastrophe is the new normal for Venezuelans
Making sense of the rolling political and economic disaster in Venezuela isn’t easy. But the bigger mystery may be why the whole country isn’t flooding into the streets to demand the end of the social revolution that’s left one of Latin America’s most resource-rich nations in a shambles.Start with the riddle of why the country with the world’s largest crude oil reserves has suffered constant power outages. (Spoiler: instead of using oil to generate electricity, the government has relied on hydro
May 10, 2016
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[Kim Seong-kon] True meaning of manliness in Korean society
In 1987 American writer Norman Mailer directed a movie titled “Tough Guys Don’t Dance.” Scorned by moviegoers, the movie was soon forgotten. Yet the title amused people. After the movie was released, I was invited to teach at Brigham Young University as a visiting professor. I moved to Provo, Utah, with my daughter Min who was in the sixth grade. One day, her best friend Brittany Walker came over to my apartment to play with Min. At the time, I happened to wear a pink shirt. “Dad, you are in pin
May 10, 2016
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[David Whitley] Prince Harry is hero behind the Invictus Games
It’s hard to say what was the best moment of Sunday night’s Invictus Games opening ceremony, although the sight of August O’Neill dropping from the sky to deliver the flag was certainly up there.His left leg was severely injured during a rescue mission in Afghanistan. After 20 surgeries, it could not be saved. But the Air Force special operator didn’t give up.He trained and fought and got his old job back. Spotlights trained on O’Neill as he rappelled from a helicopter and landed outside Champio
May 10, 2016
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[Robert J. Fouser] Preventing the rise of another Trump
Donald Trump won the Republican primary on May 3 by a large margin, causing his two remaining competitors, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to drop out of the race and assuring him of the nomination at the convention in July. The sudden turn of events threw the Republican Party into greater disarray. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the highest elected Republican, has withheld his support. Former presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, the two most recent Republican preside
May 10, 2016
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[Robert B. Reich] The third way: Share-the-gains capitalism
Marissa Mayer tells us a lot about why Americans are so angry, and why antiestablishment fury has become the biggest single force in American politics today.Mayer is CEO of Yahoo. Yahoo’s stock lost about a third of its value last year, as the company went from making $7.5 billion in 2014 to losing $4.4 billion in 2015. Yet Mayer raked in $36 million in compensation.Even if Yahoo’s board fires her, her contract stipulates she gets $54.9 million in severance. The severance package was disclosed i
May 9, 2016
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[Christopher Balding] Why China is prone to property bubbles
Chinese markets have rarely looked more like Vegas casinos. In recent weeks, investors have driven up trading volumes in China to astronomical levels, betting on everything from rebar to eggs. China traded enough steel in one day last month to build 178,082 Eiffel Towers and enough cotton to make at least one pair of jeans for every person on the planet.These commodity markets aren’t gyrating purely because Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Government policies have made China especially prone to
May 9, 2016
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[Ram Garikipati] Government role in corporate debt restructuring
The hot topic in Korean corporate circles today is undoubtedly the moves by the government and state-run policy banks to bail out the ailing shipbuilding and shipping companies.Given the importance of these sectors in Korea and their prolonged financial distress, it is understandable that the government has pushed the panic button. The process of bailing them out has been set in motion with some sort of consensus reached between the Finance Ministry and Bank of Korea.BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol has cau
May 9, 2016
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[Albert R. Hunt] Get ready for U.S. politics to reach new lows
Americans may need to bring in the kids; the presidential election promises to get ugly, a race to the bottom.Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both arouse strong passions, many of them negative. Both play tough.She is a policy wonk, but Trump has little interest in a wide-ranging debate on issues. In the Republican primaries, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz all tried at times to challenge him on substance; he brushed them aside with pointed personal rejoinders. It worked remarkably well.But a
May 9, 2016
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[Robert Litwak and Robert Daly] How to freeze North Korea’s nukes
Pyongyang’s version of YouTube recently featured a computer-animated clip of a nuclear strike on Washington delivered via a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile. The North, which a decade ago tested its first nuclear weapon, will soon cross another threshold that could make its video propaganda a genuine threat: It will be able to attack the U.S. homeland with nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missiles.North Korea’s potential nuclear breakout is both quantitative and qualitative. Un
May 9, 2016
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[Noah Smith] Want economic growth? Empty the suburbs
Here’s a big economic and political thesis: The U.S. has run out of frontiers, both literal and figurative. At first, growth was fueled by expansion into the West, use of natural resources and the build-out of national infrastructure. In the early- and mid-20th century, an unprecedented explosion of new technologies -- electricity, automobiles, airplanes and others -- opened up the suburbs, which acted like a new frontier. More recently, the Internet and globalization, especially China, were fr
May 8, 2016
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[Adam Minter] Why quacks are thriving in China
There are more than 10,000 private hospitals in China, and their numbers -- and revenues -- are growing every year. Yet they’re also among the least trusted institutions in China, widely assumed to be dens of quackery, malpractice and shameless profiteering.So why do patients flock to them? One reason is that China’s top search engine, Baidu, accepts their advertising.That’s how Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old cancer patient, ended up spending more than $30,000 on what was advertised as an experimental
May 8, 2016
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[William J. Burns and Michael Mullen] Why combating corruption matters to everyone
Pope Francis has called corruption “the gangrene of a people.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has labeled it a “radicalizer,” because it “destroys faith in legitimate authority.” And British Prime Minister David Cameron has described it as “one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time.”Corruption, put simply, is the abuse of public office for personal gain. As leaders increasingly recognize, it is a menace to development, human dignity, and global security. At the anticorruption summi
May 8, 2016
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[Jean-Michel Paul] Seoul does stimulus with a twist
For those feeling sympathy for the European Central Bank, which has pretty much been on its own in trying to stimulate demand in the absence of government fiscal policy and investment, a ray of hope has emerged -- in Korea. South Korea is not doing badly, mind you. The country is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of advanced economies, with a per capita gross domestic product similar to that of the European Union average. Last year, it enjoyed grow
May 8, 2016
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[David Ignatius] Clinton’s case to make on engagement
By questioning the fundamentals of America’s global role, Donald Trump has given Hillary Clinton a chance to lift her game -- by explaining why continued international engagement is in America’s interest and the world’s.If Clinton can’t counter Trump’s “America first” rhetoric, and make the case that U.S. leadership is still crucial for our security, she won’t be a strong president. And she won’t have public support for the policies needed to rebuild American credibility.Trump’s critics sometime
May 8, 2016
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[Michael Schuman] Easy money isn‘t the answer for Japan
Strolling through Tokyo on a Sunday afternoon, it is hard to tell Japan’s economy is a mess. Deflation has returned, while growth has not. But Shibuya Crossing remains as packed with diners, bag-toting shoppers and gawking tourists as ever. Nearby, a line of more than 50 people stretches outside a restaurant selling overpriced burgers. Lost decades be damned!Japan had the good fortune to have become wealthy before entering its years of stagnation. Some Japanese are now suffering in an economy th
May 5, 2016
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[Doyle McManus] Never say #NeverTrump
Rarely in modern history has a party appeared as divided over its nominee as Republicans are over Donald Trump. But will his GOP critics really keep their backs turned through November, or will they come around?Some leaders of the conservative movement claim they will never vote for him -- not only think-tank intellectuals, but also members of Congress, such as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Columnist George F. Will, once a backstairs adviser to Ronald Reagan, says good Republicans shouldn’t merely
May 5, 2016
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[David Ignatius] The Middle East needs a new order
This month marks the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement that formed Iraq, Syria and the other fragile nations of the modern Middle East. The past few weeks have provided dramatic new evidence, if more were needed, that the old colonial framework created by Britain and France isn’t working.Iraq and Syria are coming apart: Iraq is effectively divided into three warring regions: a Sunni area ruled by the Islamic State, a Kurdish mini-state that’s nearly autonomous, and a zone from the c
May 4, 2016
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[Choi He-suk] Mosquitoes and their role
Mosquitoes are back. They are quite possibly the worst insects imaginable. The tiny yet ever-so-loud whirring noise their wings make is enough to drive a man insane, and the itch caused by their bite may as well have been cooked up by a medieval torturer. These days their evil schemes are aided by manmade environments. The water tanks and dank corners of older buildings are said to provide indoor habitat, allowing the tiny vampires to return earlier than they would in the wild.In addition to the
May 4, 2016
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More women will make a stronger military
An attempt to undermine the Pentagon’s decision to allow women to serve in combat roles backfired spectacularly last week -- and the U.S. will be safer for it.During a congressional debate on the defense policy bill, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California proposed requiring all 18-year-old women to sign up for the draft, just like their male counterparts. He didn’t actually support the idea -- in fact, he voted against his own amendment -- but said he wanted to start a “discussion” about Defense Secre
May 4, 2016
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[Paula Dwyer] Is basic income the next big thing?
Now and then a worthy economic proposal comes along that seems as politically unattainable as it is sensible. Then, on closer inspection, you see that it’s more than a policy-wonk’s fantasy. And you wonder whether it could actually prevail.This may be happening with the concept of a universal basic income. The notion that government should guarantee every citizen an annual stipend of, say, $10,000 -- no strings attached, no questions asked -- is being studied by politicians, economists and polic
May 4, 2016