Hillary Clinton’s political advocates -- I prefer “meat puppets” -- are wringing their hands over the Republican vulgarian Donald Trump.They’re upset over the boorish things he says about women, but, even worse, they’re anguishing over the death of American outrage.What bothers them is that anti-Trump outrage isn’t as widespread as the Clinton campaign hoped. And GOP Chairman Reince Priebus triggered them even more by suggesting that Trump’s character issues weren’t all that big a deal.This so e

Viewpoints May 24, 2016

No matter how much some U.S. presidential candidates may deride free trade, it remains the backbone of the American economy. Without it, the country would become significantly poorer and its global influence would diminish significantly. So why has bashing free trade become a key theme in this year’s presidential race?One of the clearest reasons for this is that economic anxiety is widespread in the United States, which is still reeling from the aftereffects of the 2008 financial crisis. Too man

Viewpoints May 24, 2016

All these decades after the Vietnam War, mentions of Hanoi or Saigon summon ghosts. That trauma will never be erased, but slowly, appropriately, it is being eased aside by the realities of a changing world.So it is that President Barack Obama goes to communist Vietnam early this week on a visit that is more about the future than the past. And as much about countering the rise of China as reframing U.S.-Vietnam relations.Obama will visit Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). His trip is t

Viewpoints May 24, 2016

Relations are cooling rapidly between the presidential office and opposition parties following the passage last week of a bill enabling parliamentary committees to open hearings more frequently.The bill allows a committee to hold hearings on any matter under its jurisdiction if a majority of its members agree to do so. Up until now, a committee has only been able to resolve to hold hearings on “important” matters.The revision effectively enables the two opposition parties -- The Minjoo Party of

Editorial May 23, 2016

Jejudo Island is best known as a resort island with many sites of scenic beauty and cultural importance. It attracts more than 10 million tourists from home and abroad every year.Yet the island has another aspect that is less well known to the public. Since the early 1990s, it has hosted many historic summits between Korean presidents and foreign leaders that have contributed to promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.Located at the center of the three key players of the re

Editorial May 23, 2016

BAGHDAD -- Amid hedgerows of computer screens in the joint operations center that runs the war against the Islamic State, Marine Brig. Gen. Bill Mullen explains the complex assault that drove the extremist fighters last week from the strategic town of Rutbah at the western edge of Anbar province. The battle showed how the campaign against the Islamic State, which has had a slow takeoff over the last 18 months, is supposed to work: In early May, a U.S. drone attack on a nearby highway killed Shak

Viewpoints May 23, 2016

If I were still predigital enough to own a paper calendar, I’d circle Wednesday, Nov. 9, on it. Why?　That’s the day after Election Day. The day when all the grown people of America who are losing their minds over politics can finally -- I hope -- begin to regain their sanity.　The general election season has barely begun, but it seems like it’s already been going on for two years. Donald Trump’s relentless bloviating curdles forth on seemingly every news show. Hillary and Bill Clinton’s transgres

Viewpoints May 23, 2016

One country after another is taking action to add pressure on North Korea which is under the toughest-yet international sanctions over its latest nuclear and missile provocations. Last week alone saw new actions taken by the European Union, Russia and Switzerland. They provide a timely boost to the international efforts to punish the rogue state, which -- through its Workers’ Party Congress earlier this month -- demonstrated its defiance against the U.N.-led sanctions.     The latest action came

Editorial May 22, 2016

It is not rare for Korean tycoons -- especially those from family-run chaebol –- to be punished for their wrongdoings, ranging widely from embezzlement, operation of slush funds and tax evasion to bribery, offering illegal political funds and insider trading. Of these, the last one -- illegal stock trading utilizing insider information -- has come to the fore again recently in the wake of two prominent cases, which, once again, showed how greedy and shameless some of the wealthy in this country

Editorial May 22, 2016

At the end of this year, Ban Ki-moon will leave the office of United Nations secretary-general. Since January 2007, he has crossed the globe building support to address the challenges of development, climate change, conflict, and humanitarian crises. Despite early criticisms, he has dutifully fulfilled a role that the Second Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld labeled “the most impossible job on earth”. As a career diplomat and former foreign minister, he has also broadcast to the world South Kor

Viewpoints May 22, 2016

In a hazardous year for political predictions, I’ll offer one confidently: if the Republicans currently freaking out over Donald Trump can redirect that energy toward beating Hillary Clinton, she’s toast.　But that is a giant “if.” Many conservatives need to examine what keeps them mired in their objections to Trump now that the Republican primary race is over.　During that race, it was proper to weigh his pluses and minuses versus the competition. Maybe his inconsistent conservatism made some peo

Viewpoints May 22, 2016

As one father told me the story of his daughter’s radicalization, his every word was heavy with regret. He should have intervened earlier, he said, when he first noticed she was hiding her online conversations from him. When his daughter disappeared, he frantically tried to call her. But it was too late; she’d gone to Syria to join the Islamic State.　Now she is among the 250 individuals who have attempted to or succeeded in traveling to Syria or Iraq to join terrorist organizations such as the I

Viewpoints May 22, 2016