The political earthquake now shaking the pillars of the Republican Party throws into stark relief what is unique about campaign 2016 — that the fault line is not the typical polar clash of left vs. right, but a far more fundamental up-down cleavage between rank-and-file Americans and the power elite.In both major parties, the primary campaign has unearthed a mass mutiny against the powers that be, reflecting a profound rift in American society with ramifications far beyond this year’s election.F

Viewpoints May 17, 2016

A few years ago Afghanistan became the longest war in United States history. This month, President Barack Obama passed all other presidents for being at war longer than any other.That sad date was May 6. Obama still has eight months left before he finishes his second term.Obama had pledged to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when he was elected in 2008 as the first African-American president in U.S. history. He has been able to accomp

Viewpoints May 17, 2016

A recent environmental survey released by Yale University and Columbia University shocked us by showing that Korea is one of the most polluted countries in the world.The 2016 Environmental Performance Index places Korea near the bottom of the world in terms of air quality -- 173rd out of the 180 countries surveyed. Korea scored 45.51 out of 100.The index evaluates how countries of the world protect ecosystems and human health from environmental harm based on 20 indicators, including air quality,

Editorial May 17, 2016

This week is a make-or-break time for Hyundai Merchant Marine, Korea’s second-largest shipper. To stay afloat, the troubled company has to successfully complete its negotiations with foreign ship owners on cutting charter fees.　Last month, creditors agreed to restructure HMM’s debt on condition that the struggling shipper persuaded its ship owners to reduce charter fees by up to 30 percent. The deadline for the negotiations is Friday.  HMM operates a total of 116 vessels, of which 83 have been l

Editorial May 17, 2016

Everyone won’t agree on this, by any means, but I’m glad that President Barack Obama will be making a stop at Hiroshima during his imminent trip to Japan.I’m less concerned about whether such a visit would look like an apology to Japan than I am about our willingness to use the brutal deaths of many thousands of people as part of an argument, 71 years later, about who was right and who was wrong.That fact is, the mass destruction of a large civilian population, such as the one that occurred at H

Viewpoints May 17, 2016

The Blue House appointments President Park Geun-hye made Sunday are more evidence that she will not be swayed by the ruling party’s defeat in the April 16 parliamentary election. Park had already expressed her reluctance to admit her wrongdoing -- that she and her associates interfered with the candidate nominations for the election -- and take due steps, such as a sizable shakeup of the Cabinet and the Blue House. Accordingly, the appointment of Lee Won-jong, chief of the Presidential Commissio

Editorial May 16, 2016

The ruling Saenuri Party plans to hold a national committee Tuesday to launch two panels that will lead reform efforts in the party that have been necessitated by the devastating defeat in the April 16 parliamentary election. The national committee is expected to endorse the launch of an “emergency” leadership body to be headed by floor leader Chung Jin-suk and a reform committee to be headed by Kim Yong-tae, a three-term lawmakers from western Seoul. Party officials say the caretaker leadership

Editorial May 16, 2016

It has been a triumph of democracy in the Philippines, more specifically the victory of the Aquino legacy that was bequeathed to the country exactly 30 years ago (February 1986). Yet in the moment of almost euphoric celebrations, there is a whiff of cynicism across the nation not least because of the President-designate, Rodrigo Duterte’s reckless bombast and direly controversial utterances on emotive, even personal, matters, most particularly his remarks on sex and expressed pledges to kill cri

Viewpoints May 16, 2016

ATLANTA -- Conventional wisdom lays much of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump on angry American voters, who have allowed him to break every rule in the political playbook without paying a price. But more responsibility arguably lies with the American broadcast journalists who amplified his schoolyard name-calling and bizarre policy views.All along Trump’s march to becoming the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, partisan commentators spun and re-spun his countless outrageous statements

Viewpoints May 16, 2016

Mexicans have silently begun a campaign to debunk presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s bigotry, xenophobia and economic isolationism in an area where he is most vulnerable: the realm of accurate facts and figures.To confront Trump’s daily Mexico-bashing, the Mexican government will launch a U.S. public-relations campaign in early June. Meantime, a group of Mexican-American businesspeople is launching a lobbying group named American Mexico Public Affairs Committee, modeled a

Viewpoints May 16, 2016

The Friday meeting between President Park Geun-hye and the new floor leaders and chief policymakers of the three major political parties was a welcome first step toward collaboration in dealing with state affairs.　At the meeting, Park offered to meet with heads of the three parties every quarter, an overture that showed her attitude toward the opposition camp has changed following the ruling Saenuri Party’s humiliating defeat in the April 13 general election.　The president also demonstrated her

Editorial May 15, 2016