It is highly significant that the Group of Seven major powers — including the three nuclear powers of the United States, Britain and France — issued a clear message to pursue the eradication of nuclear weapons, doing so from a city flattened by the atomic bomb.The G7 adopted the Hiroshima Declaration on Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at its foreign ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima.“The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced immense devastation and human suffering,” the declaratio

Viewpoints April 14, 2016

Hong Kong is an indisputable part of China, so think the Chinese. A new political party has been launched by young students who orchestrated the 2014 pro-democracy protests against mainland China. The new political party intends to campaign for a fresh referendum that will decide Hong Kong’s future and also its possible independence from the mainland. Hong Kong enjoys many freedoms, civic and political that are unheard of and unimaginable in the mainland. Chinese authorities viewed the earlier s

Viewpoints April 14, 2016

What would you do if you were the richest person in your community and you had issues with your neighbors on property rights?　If you were emotionally stable or did not have a chip on your shoulder, you would reach out to them to come up with a win-win solution to your conflict.　If you were emotionally challenged or harbored feelings of insecurity, you would perform acts that show your superiority or your neighbors’ weakness in relation to your strength. Like a bully, you may even use force or in

Viewpoints April 14, 2016

U.S. President Barack Obama has racked up a series of foreign-policy triumphs over the last 12 months. But one that has gained less attention than others was the passage last December of legislation to reform the International Monetary Fund, after five years of obstruction by the U.S. Congress. As the IMF convenes in Washington, D.C., for its annual spring meetings from April 15-17, we should pause to savor the importance of this achievement. After all, if the United States had let yet another y

Viewpoints April 14, 2016

The Government Public Ethics Committee has launched its probe of senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-jun, who is facing questions over his stock trading gains worth more than 10 billion won ($8.6 million).It is a mercy that the state has not hushed up the allegation involving his possible exploitation of corporate insider information. At the same time, a concern is that the committee has no right to summon key figures of game developer Nexon, whose stocks were traded by the prosecutor.While some figures

Editorial April 12, 2016

Korean businesses are pinning their hopes on reaching some type of agreement at a meeting between the OPEC and non-OPEC members in Doha on April 17. If the oil producers reach a consensus on an output freeze, Korea may be a beneficiary, as the nation is an export powerhouse in petrochemical products.Although an increase in crude prices has many positive effects, some industries will also have to bear a heavier burden in procuring raw materials. This divided sentiment reflects the desperate situa

Editorial April 12, 2016

Ambition is the most consistent, yet variable, component of public life. Lincoln and FDR had it, and that was good. Benedict Arnold and Joseph McCarthy had it, too. And that turned out very bad.Bernie Sanders is not often described as an ambitious man. But you don’t run for mayor of your city without a dash of ego and drive. You don’t leverage that position into a congressional seat without wanting more. And no one ends up a U.S. senator without the gnawing, often insatiable, hunger peculiar to

Viewpoints April 12, 2016

From the rubble of two world wars, European countries came together to launch what would become the world’s largest experiment in unification and cooperative: shared sovereignty. But, despite its impressive achievements over the decades, the European project now risks disintegration.An unresolved financial crisis, a refugee crisis, a deteriorating security environment and a stalled integration process have created throughout Europe a toxic, unstable political environment in which populism and na

Viewpoints April 12, 2016

As Republicans head toward what could be a stalemated convention, they might recall how the party healed itself in 1952 in what was known as the “winter of discontent.” The Republicans drafted a military leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as their presidential candidate.The looming showdown between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is a potential “train wreck,” to quote my colleague Charles Krauthammer. Neither front-runner seems likely to have the 1,237 delegates needed for a first-ballot victory. If e

Viewpoints April 12, 2016

Duane Buck was convicted in 1997 of murdering his ex-girlfriend and a male friend. After a Texas jury determined that he was likely to pose a continuing danger to society, it sentenced him to death. How did the jury conclude that he posed a future threat (a finding that state law requires as a condition for imposing the death penalty)? Simple: Buck is black and, according to a psychologist who testified at the sentencing hearing, race is one of a number of “statistical factors” that can be used

Viewpoints April 11, 2016

In solving mysteries, the detective Sherlock Holmes used to say that “once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”We have been so used through our conventional training to look for keys under the light of the lamp at night that we often forget to look in the shadows.We live in an age when we base all decisions on what statisticians produce as “facts and numbers.” The trouble with statistics is that all measurements are subject to errors and o

Viewpoints April 11, 2016