[Robert J. Fouser] Aftermath of the Itaewon disaster

The deadly crowd crush during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon on Oct. 29 shocked the nation to its core. The death toll amounted to at least 156, including 26 foreigners from 14 countries. Hundreds of others were injured and thousands across the nation are dealing with trauma. Nearly all the dead were young people who had gathered in narrow alleys lined with bars and clubs to celebrate Halloween. As the nation mourned, attention turned to questions about how such a deadly crowd crush could h

Nov. 4, 2022

[Kim Myong-sik] Hate campaign deepens in South Korean politics

With deepest grief for the victims of the Saturday night disaster in Itaewon, I just wish for the political peace that followed the tragedy to last longer, although it is feared to be brief. After the right-wing conservatives retook power from the leftists with the thinnest margin ever in the March presidential election, South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties have been engaged in a war of attrition with increasingly virile words of incrimination while the nation faces worsening econom

Nov. 3, 2022

[Kevin McDermott] Authoritarianism looming in US

Authoritarian movements are rising in democracies around the world, in ways not seen since the 1930s. And contrary to the title of a famous dystopian novel from that era, it can happen here. In lots of small ways, it’s already happening. In Missouri, one state official is trying to dictate what library patrons can read, while another is demanding to see journalists’ emails. In Florida, people are being arrested for voting. In red states around the country, legislators energized by th

Nov. 3, 2022

[Doyle McManus] Bipartisanship on Ukraine was nice while it lasted

Over the eight months since Russia invaded Ukraine, public support for US military aid to Kyiv has been remarkably solid and mostly bipartisan. A large majority of Americans (73 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos survey this month) favor continued help for Ukraine, and Congress, with support from both parties, has approved more than $65 billion in aid. But cracks in the consensus have begun to appear, and the divided government that’s likely after the midterm elections will almost surely worsen th

Nov. 2, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] We should respect others’ privacy

The 2022 US midterm elections are just around the corner. The outcome of the election on November 8 is crucial for both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party because it will heavily influence the next presidential election in 2024. Therefore, election campaigns are rampant these days. On their front yard lawn, homeowners set up pickets bearing the names of senators and representatives they support. YouTube subscribers, too, encounter election campaign ads before they can watch the main s

Nov. 2, 2022

[Aziz Durrani] Resetting Southeast Asia's climate agenda

High inflation, rising interest rates, falling currencies and volatile energy prices, together with an economic slowdown and post-pandemic budget woes, may increase pressure on the ASEAN+3 -- the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, together with China, Japan and South Korea -- to scale back efforts to mitigate climate risk. While this policy shift may make fiscal sense, it is a mistake that could have grave repercussions for the region and ultimately lead to slower econom

Nov. 1, 2022

[Jeffrey Frankel] Why do Americans vote for extremists?

American voters seem poised to hand the Republican Party control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well, in November’s midterm elections. The same goes for many state races, where polls show Republicans gaining ground. Such an outcome could have profound consequences for American democracy, especially if it results in even greater degradation of the US electoral system. Given the large number of 2020 election deniers running for offices in 2022 and the enormous

Oct. 31, 2022

[Lynn Schmidt] Putting country before party

What if the way to break through our polarized politics was to reward those willing to cross the partisan divide for the greater good? America is mired in a dysfunctional stew of hyper-partisanship. Too many view members of the opposing political party as enemies and not fellow Americans. Not to mention this environment can make it difficult to govern. A multitude of books have been written about how we ended up this way. Some of those books have even offered suggestions on how we can move bey

Oct. 28, 2022

[Mariana Mazzucato] New missions for Latin America

The war in Ukraine and the global cost-of-living crisis are hitting Latin America and the Caribbean hard. Growth in the region, which rebounded impressively from COVID-19 to reach an average rate of 6.8 percent in 2021, will fall to just 1.8 percent this year, with crippling effects on the most vulnerable people. Compared to 2021, Latin America’s poverty rate will increase by 0.9 percentage points to 33 percent, and extreme poverty will rise by 0.7 percentage points to 14.5 percent in 20

Oct. 27, 2022

[Lee Kyong-hee] Peace in East Asia 113 years ago and now

“On the morning of the 26th, the temperature in Harbin dropped below zero and it snowed lightly. Ahn Jung-geun changed into new clothes and headed to Harbin Station. He took a seat in a tearoom on the second floor of the third-class lounge and ordered tea. Russian military police officers stood guard outside, while foot patrol officers made their rounds with resounding footsteps.” This is Kim Hoon’s description of Ahn arriving at the scene of his self-appointed mission on Oct.

Oct. 27, 2022

[Gearoid Reidy] The West has failed — North Korea is a nuclear state

The world might not want to hear it, but Kim Jong-un might be right. “There will never be such a thing as our abandonment of the nuclear weapons or denuclearization,” Kim declared last month. “The position of our state as a nuclear nation has become irreversible.” Decades of pursuing the “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula has failed. After North Korea last month declared itself a nuclear weapons state, it’s time for the US and its allies to accep

Oct. 26, 2022

[Kim Seong-kon] Good intentions, bad outcomes

Due to cultural differences or a lack of foreign language proficiency, we are prone to misunderstanding others or making mistakes despite our good intentions. Such a tendency may result in awkward situations, and yet we should try to understand each other. Recently, for example, many Koreans were upset about the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which grants benefits to electric cars assembled in the US only. The Korean people thought that it would be unfair to Hyundai Mot

Oct. 26, 2022

[Martin Schram] A little inflation help from the other side

President Joe Biden and his designated message-deliverers just got some crucial, last-minute insights -- from a most unlikely source -- Wednesday night. It made clear how they should be talking about the only issue that almost half of Americans say they really care about in this all-over-the-lot midterm campaign. Yep, we are talking today about the issue you assumed Democratic strategist James Carville made unforgettable with his famous 1992 campaign warning: “It’s the economy, stu

Oct. 25, 2022

[Kim Sang-kyun] Reasons to stay away from illegal drugs

Last July, in the middle of Gangnam, a posh district in Seoul well known for the global hit K-pop song “Gangnam Style,” a man in his 20s, who took methamphetamine at a drinking party, died in a car accident on his way home. Police found 64 grams of methamphetamine in his vehicle. Recently, a smuggler carrying illegal drugs to South Korea in his stomach died after packets of drugs burst inside him. This was the first time a so-called “body-packer” had been found in South

Oct. 25, 2022

[Andreas Kluth] Putin is making nuclear warfare new normal

Put aside, if you can, the growing anxiety about Russian President Vladimir Putin going nuclear in his barbaric war against Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t -- and the risk, though real, remains small -- he’s already brought the whole world closer to atomic disaster occurring at some point. That’s because Putin, with his repeated threats to drop nukes on Ukraine or other European countries, has in effect kicked off a new and global arms race in these diabolical weapons. He has pro

Oct. 24, 2022

[Gi-wook Shin, Seong-hyon Lee] What should the world expect from Xi?

The 104-minute speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping at the country’s 20th party congress reveals a leader who believes he is on a historic mission to save China’s self-described socialism in the 21st century. Xi’s Oct. 16 speech launched the twice-a-decade meeting, where the national Communist Party appoints its leadership and announces China’s policy direction for the coming years. The address reads very much like a sequel to his previous one five years ago. At that

Oct. 24, 2022

[Robert J. Fouser] The new park in Songhyeon-dong

After years of sitting behind a wall, the large empty space in Songhyeon-dong opened to the public on Oct. 7 this year. During the Japanese colonial period, the space was used for housing for employees of the Joseon Shiksan Bank. From liberation in 1945 to 1997, it was a housing compound for US diplomats. After the diplomats moved out, Samsung Life Insurance bought the land and then sold it to Korean Air, who planned to develop it into a luxury hotel. As opposition to those plans grew, the City

Oct. 21, 2022

[Djoomart Otorbaev] Russian elite flood Central Asia

Bishkek’s residents have been confronted with an unusual sight these past few weeks. The streets of Kyrgyzstan’s capital are teeming with tens of thousands of educated men with European features -- Russian citizens fleeing President Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservists to fight his war against Ukraine. The Kyrgyz people and government have welcomed them with open arms. Many other Eurasian cities such as Tbilisi (Georgia), Baku (Azerbaijan),

Oct. 20, 2022