The Korea Herald

[Kim Ji-hyun ] Who’s the peninsula’s real bully?

South Korea is a country with a big headache: North Korea. The North has lately been more intensely provocative. This week, it fired a short-range rocket. Two weeks ago, it was medium-range ballistic missiles. Before that, it was a nuclear test.And now, U.S. President Barack Obama, President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit. While this is a welcome development because it means the world leaders are actu

Viewpoints March 30, 2016

[Kim Ji-hyun ] Who’s the peninsula’s real bully?

[Bryan Dean Wright] We must beware of job-killing robots

A viral video released in February showed Boston Dynamics’ new bipedal robot, Atlas, performing human-like tasks: opening doors, tromping about in the snow, lifting and stacking boxes. Tech geeks cheered and Silicon Valley investors salivated at the potential end to human manual labor.　Shortly thereafter, White House economists released a forecast that calculated more precisely whom Atlas and other forms of automation are going to put out of work. Most occupations that pay less than $20 an hour

Viewpoints March 29, 2016

[Robert J. Fouser] What makes Seoul?

What makes Seoul? Back in town after a 10-month absence, I have been obsessed with the question as I meet old friends and visit places that feel as familiar as the town I was born in. I have toyed with the question before, but the struggle to find an answer seems more intense this time. To answer the question, I have been working on the outlines of a “theory of Seoul” that can explain the past and present while offering a window into the future.I have always thought of Seoul as a jumble. The rap

Viewpoints March 29, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] Contingency plans in an irrational environment

Recently, North Korea threatened the South by carrying out military drills that involved simulated attacks on Seoul using more than 100 pieces of long-range artillery. The North insolently declared it would turn the South Korean capital into “a sea of flames.” Strangely, no one in the South seemed to care or be on alert. Clearly, this situation posed a serious threat to South Korea’s national security, and yet the people in the South seemed completely oblivious. But what if the North were to act

Viewpoints March 29, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] Contingency plans in an irrational environment

Choking on India’s real tobacco problem　

Starting next month, the government of India will require that cigarette packs be largely covered in graphic warning labels. That’s smart; in other countries, such warnings have effectively pushed smokers to quit. The trouble is that cigarettes aren’t India’s biggest tobacco problem.　Most Indians who smoke, smoke a much cheaper, unfiltered product called a bidi: shredded tobacco wrapped in a “tendu,” or ebony, leaf and tied with a string. Popular among the poor -- a pack can cost as little as 10

Viewpoints March 29, 2016

[Michael Smerconish] U.S. embargo froze Cuba, Castros in place 　

I recognized the setting immediately. The high ceilings, giant windows streaming natural light, marble floors, verdant plantings, and decoratively incorporated bedrock. I knew at once it was the Palacio de la Revolucion. And from what I saw of President Obama’s trip on television last week, the home to brothers Fidel and Raul Castro has changed little in the 14 years since I was there as a columnist, as part of a small delegation accompanying Sen. Arlen Specter.　The 2002 trip was a return visit

Viewpoints March 29, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] Dilemma between nationalism, patriotism 　

The relationship between South Korea and North Korea is unique in modern world history. The Korean people are perhaps the only ethnically homogeneous nation in the world living in two separate states in the same territorial sphere. Until the end of the cold war there were two more such peoples -- the Germans and the Vietnamese, but the Vietnamese division was resolved by the joint action of the armed revolt of the South Vietnamese communists and North Vietnam, while the German division was ended

Viewpoints March 28, 2016

[Park Sang-seek] Dilemma between nationalism, patriotism

[Adam Minter] Too friendly to fly?

Travelers love Virgin America, the hip, mood-lit airline backed by Richard Branson. And why not? The self-described “low-fare, upscale” carrier promises passengers that they don‘’ need to accept the dismal nickel-and-dime, fee-for-everything flying experience offered by the competition. Instead, fly Virgin and you can have it all -- legroom and the cheap ticket.　Unfortunately, telling customers they can have it all rarely ends well. And Wednesday’s news that Virgin America is seeking buyers sugg

Viewpoints March 28, 2016

[Trudy Rubin] Uprooting IS’s territorial power is more crucial than ever

After Brussels, President Obama’s strategy of gradually degrading the Islamic State group looks terribly risky. And much too slow.　Yes, IS has lost around 40 percent of the territory it seized in Syria and Iraq, much of it retaken by Kurdish forces with U.S. air support. But it still holds the cities at its heart: Raqqa in eastern Syria and the major urban area of Mosul in northern Iraq. Right now, it appears unlikely that either will be liberated in the near term.　That cross-border territorial

Viewpoints March 28, 2016

[Trudy Rubin] Uprooting IS’s territorial power is more crucial than ever

Drop complacency in fight against terrorism

Thailand must not lower its guard against extremism in any form. 　Malaysian authorities have foiled a plot by the Islamic State group to carry out multiple terrorist attacks in the country, as well as an attempt to kidnap Prime Minister Najib Razak and two other high-ranking officials.　The plan was uncovered in January last year. Thirteen terrorists with ties to IS were involved, the parliament was informed last week by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who was also one of the targets.　“

Viewpoints March 28, 2016

[Faye Flam] Scientists can keep life simple

Astronomer Fred Hoyle famously quipped in 1982 that the odds of a simple living thing assembling itself from inanimate chemicals were as slim as the chance that a tornado passing through a junkyard would leave in its wake a Boeing 747.The statement reflects the 20th-century understanding that even pond scum was composed of cells of mind-boggling complexity. Today biologists believe that modern cells evolved from much simpler ancestors -- organisms that no longer exist.Now scientists have used ge

Viewpoints March 28, 2016

[Faye Flam] Scientists can keep life simple

[Adam Minter] Is China exporting environmental problems?

One of the best pieces of news in years is that China is finally getting serious about cleaning up its environment. Its renewable energy use is growing rapidly while its coal use is declining. Air pollution targets are being tightened. Contaminated farmland is finally getting high-level attention. Yet all that good could be undermined if China simply exports its environmental problems elsewhere.A case in point is China’s campaign to protect its forests. For years, logging ran rampant as the coun

Viewpoints March 24, 2016

[William Doyle] Why Finland has the best schools

The Harvard education professor Howard Gardner once advised Americans, “Learn from Finland, which has the most effective schools and which does just about the opposite of what we are doing in the United States.”Following his recommendation, I enrolled my 7-year-old son in a primary school in Joensuu. Finland, which is about as far east as you can go in the European Union before you hit the guard towers of the Russian border.OK, I wasn‘t just blindly following Gardner -- I had a position as a lec

Viewpoints March 24, 2016

[William Doyle] Why Finland has the best schools

[Ristian Atriandi Supriyanto] Settling a score with China

Alarmist is when you overestimate a strategic risk. Conversely, underestimating that risk is naive. A sound strategic analysis always falls between these two extremes. It’s about maintaining a delicate balance between appreciating and courting danger.　The latest incident between China and Indonesia near the Natuna Islands incurs the risk of underestimating Indonesia’s strategic impotence against Beijing’s growing maritime assertiveness. 　When China published its “nine-dash,” or U-shaped line, ma

Viewpoints March 24, 2016

[Ristian Atriandi Supriyanto] Settling a score with China

Brussels violence unabated, yet nothing gained

The world has once again been shaken by another deadly terrorist attack on innocent people. This time the target was Brussels, where at least 31 people were killed and 230 others injured Tuesday.　 The suspected suicide bombers struck the Belgian capital’s Zaventem airport as well as a metro station about 200 meters from European Commission headquarters. The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility. 　It is widely seen as “an attack on all of Europe,” since Brussels is home to key institut

Viewpoints March 24, 2016

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