Rarely do next-door neighbors move as rapidly in opposite political directions as Thailand and Myanmar have in recent years. After more than a half-century of military dictatorship, Myanmar has restored democratic rule, and now has a civilian-led government led by the former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. Thailand, by contrast, has twice reverted from popular rule to military dictatorship in the past decade, owing to coups in 2006 and 2014. What accoun

Viewpoints May 3, 2016

As in any U.S. national election without an incumbent president, this race’s candidates are painting an ugly picture: The country is “going to hell,” bluntly asserts the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.One of his Democratic challengers, Sen. Bernie Sanders, isn‘t much kinder, and even Hillary Clinton is starting to focus more on challenges than successes.To many voters the message is: The economy is terrible, the social fabric is disintegrating and America is losing respect around the worl

Viewpoints May 3, 2016

Korea has avoided being designated as a “currency manipulator” by the United States, but the government needs to be more cautious in undertaking foreign exchange operations, as Washington has put the nation on its “monitoring list” along with China, Japan, Germany and Taiwan.The U.S. Treasury Department designates a country as a manipulator of foreign exchange if it satisfies all of the following three criteria: A trade surplus against the U.S. larger than $20 billion a year; a current account s

Editorial May 2, 2016

A debate is raging over how to recapitalize the two state-run banks that have to lead the government‘s corporate restructuring process.The Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea are in urgent need of capital increases as restructuring of the troubled shipping and shipbuilding industries is gathering pace.The two banks have to play a central role in revamping the key companies of the two industrial sectors, as commercial banks are dragging their feet in providing further suppo

Editorial May 2, 2016

Pity the Bank of Japan. Disappointed by the central bank’s decision at Thursday’s policy meeting to delay further stimulus measures, markets pushed the yen higher, making exports less competitive, and drove share prices lower, which damped animal spirits. This makes the prospects for a recovery of Japanese growth even dimmer.　Yet these reactions are similar to those of a few weeks ago, when the central bank surprised markets with its activism, taking policy rates into nominal negative territory.

Viewpoints May 2, 2016

The diplomats have done their job, concluding the Paris climate agreement in December. And political leaders gathered last week at the United Nations to sign the new accord. But implementation is surely the tough part. Governments need a new approach to an issue that is highly complex, long term, and global in scale.At its core, the climate challenge is an energy challenge. About 80 percent of the world’s primary energy comes from carbon-based sources: coal, oil, and gas. When burned, they emit

Viewpoints May 2, 2016

People tend to fear spiders and snakes more than they do electrical sockets or fireworks, even though the latter present a far greater danger. This might help explain why humans have such a hard time seeing the threat of climate change.　Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior can be understood only by studying our ancient ancestors. Through 99 percent of human history, they lived in small groups of hunter-gatherers, with brains evolved to handle specific tasks, such as recog

Viewpoints May 2, 2016

There are two major points President Park Geun-hye is focusing on in her current historic visit to Iran: economic cooperation and nonproliferation vis-a-vis North Korea. Park, who arrived in Tehran on Sunday as the first South Korean head of state to visit Iran since the two countries formed diplomatic relations in 1962, will have talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday. For Park, the high-level talks in Tehran could not have

Editorial May 1, 2016

Korea’s workforce is so polarized that unionized workers at big conglomerates are often called “labor aristocrats” as they enjoy privileges their counterparts at the bottom of the labor market -- workers at small firms, part-timers or short-term contract workers -- could never dream of. Fat paychecks -- usually much fatter than that of their foreign counterparts -- and solid job security are some of the many benefits unionized workers enjoy. Some unions even have an agreement with management und

Editorial May 1, 2016

The Asia-Pacific region’s successful achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development needs to be driven by broad-based productivity gains and rebalancing of economies toward domestic and regional demand. This is the main message of the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2016, published last week by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Such a strategy will not only underpin the revival of robust and resilient economic growth, but also improve the

Viewpoints May 1, 2016

In the tradition of turning swords into plowshares, it’s an appealing idea: converting the U.S.’ ballistic missiles into rockets for civilian space transport. It’s also a sensible one -- and Congress should change the law to make it happen.For two decades, on national security grounds, Congress has barred the sales of parts of decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles such as the Minuteman III. The collapse of the Soviet Union and ensuing arms treaties resulted in hundreds of ICBMs bein

Viewpoints May 1, 2016

From a sandbagged hilltop outpost here, you can see the front line of the Islamic State group in the muddy brown houses of Al-Nasr, a village on the next ridgeline, about a mile and a half west. The Iraqi army was supposed to have captured this target a month ago. But the offensive was repelled. The battle for Mosul, about 56 kilometers north, must begin with the seizure of such Islamic State group positions along the Tigris River. But the Iraqi army isn’t ready yet to take a small, well-fortifi

Viewpoints May 1, 2016