The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Diplomatic sport

Such is the Indian and Pakistani leadership’s obsession with high-profile “event-oriented” diplomacy that they sought to exploit the craze for cricket to revitalize people-to-people contact without taking two realities into consideration. One, that the cricketing calendar was overcrowded, the players so heavily committed, that squeezing in even a short bilateral series was virtually impossible; tw

Viewpoints April 29, 2011

[Editorial] Spectacle to the rescue of old institutions

The coming royal wedding in England and the beatification of Pope John Paul II in Rome will afford the world a chance to see how two ancient institutions ― the monarchy and the papacy ― reinforce their claim to perpetuity and continuing relevance by a show of pomp and pageantry. Supposed to be historical rivals, especially considering their religious wars since the 16th century, these two institut

Viewpoints April 29, 2011

[Yuliya Tymoshenko] Meaning of the Chernobyl meltdown

KIEV ― It began as a grey and muddy spring day, like so many others in my homeland. It ended in dread and mourning.Of course, none of us knew the precise moment when catastrophe struck at Chernobyl 25 years ago. Back then, we lived under a system that denied ordinary people any right whatsoever to know about even essential facts and events. So we were kept in the dark about the radiation leaking f

Viewpoints April 28, 2011

[Yuliya Tymoshenko] Meaning of the Chernobyl meltdown

[Jonathan Weil] Geithner downgrades his credibility to junk

Fox Business reporter Peter Barnes began his televised interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner last week with this question: “Is there a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating? Yes or no?” Geithner’s response: “No risk of that.” “No risk?” Barnes asked. “No risk,” Geithner said. It’s enough to make you wonder: How could Geithner know this to be true? The short answer i

Viewpoints April 25, 2011

Debt at 200% of GDP dares S&P amid succession

So Naoto Kan is a goner. That’s the word in traumatized Tokyo. Japan’s prime minister had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get his mojo back in the five weeks since a record earthquake and tsunami. He failed, and pundits wonder if he will make it to his first anniversary in office in June. Kan would be the fifth to go in five years. Investors harbor a well-honed cynicism about Japanese leaders. They

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

Stop partisan politics and fill federal vacancies

If you wanted to leave your job and your boss asked if you could stick around until your replacement was chosen, how long would you be willing to wait? A week? A month? Well, Daniel Hurley has been waiting two years.That would not be any concern to most of us except that Hurley is a federal judge. And his plight reflects a growing national problem: vacancies on the federal bench at a time when cas

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

Birds gotta fly, flight controllers need to sleep

Napping on the job will be strictly forbidden. Sounds reasonable, but is it?Following the discovery of several air traffic controllers caught sleeping on duty in recent weeks, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood handed down a no-napping edict this past weekend.But can a government edict prevent bone-tired air traffic controllers working the midnight shift, the swing shift or two shifts in a r

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

[David Ignatius] Upping the ante to support Egypt reform

WASHINGTON ― Samuel Johnson famously observed that the prospect of hanging concentrates the mind. The same could be said about America’s current budget crisis: It should force some hard decisions about foreign policy priorities ― so that we spend more to support the democratic revolution in Egypt and less to seek a military solution in Afghanistan. Today, the United States is allocating about $110

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

[David Ignatius] Upping the ante to support Egypt reform

[Dorothy Stuehmke] Should we feed North Korea?

North Korea has recently made a desperate international appeal for food aid. Reports from aid workers and international nongovernmental organizations warn of a major food shortage. As the United States deliberates whether to restart a food aid program in North Korea, it must consider the following questions: Is there a true humanitarian need, can we address the potential risk of food diversion and

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

[Dominique Moisi France turning American world view upside down

PARIS ― From Washington, the enthusiasm of the French for intervention in Libya is seen with a mixture of relief and puzzlement. The Americans do not want the job and are happy that someone else does. Indeed, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s willingness to intervene (alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron) helped close a dangerous gap between the world of “values,” which would call for direct A

Viewpoints April 24, 2011

[Dominique Moisi France turning American world view upside down

[Howard Davies] Bank reform itself needs reform

LONDON ― Over the last three years, oceans of ink (or bytes) have been expended on articulating schemes to solve the conundrum of “too big to fail” banks. Many academics and pundits have castigated regulators and central bankers for their inability to understand the obvious attractions of so-called “narrow banking,” a restoration of Glass-Steagall-era separation of commercial and investment/mercha

Viewpoints April 22, 2011

[Howard Davies] Bank reform itself needs reform

[Yuriko Koike] The sun will rise again for the Japanese

TOKYO ― In Japan, memorial services for the dead are normally held 49 days after their passing. The bereaved mourn throughout this period. The number of victims of the earthquake and tsunami that assaulted the Tohoku region of northeast Japan has now reached around 30,000, if those who are still missing are included. This was the largest natural disaster to strike Japan in its history, and the ent

Viewpoints April 22, 2011

[Yuriko Koike] The sun will rise again for the Japanese

[Editorial] Checks on reactors

Concerns about the safety of the nuclear reactors in Korea are growing as problems arise in succession at the reactors of the Gori nuclear power plant near Busan. The Gori-1 reactor, the oldest in Korea, which started operation in 1978, shut down on April 12 after a fire destroyed one of its circuit breakers. At first, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. said a defective power switch caused the power

Editorial April 21, 2011

[Editorial] Defusing debt bomb

The Korean economy is sitting on a ticking time bomb ― household debt that has topped 800 trillion won. To figure out the risks that this huge debt bomb poses to the national economy, one has only to remember that one percentage point hike in interest rates would increase the interest payment burden on households by 8 trillion won a year. No wonder the Bank of Korea has been hesitant to raise the

Editorial April 21, 2011

Bad immigration laws wilt under own weight

Some political candidates campaigned last fall with a promise to “Take Back Our Country” and urged states to follow Arizona’s lead in enacting state immigration laws that would fill the void left by a neglectful federal government.The fervor grew intense as they whipped up a lather of fear. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer talked about headless bodies being dumped near the border with Mexico (which she lat

Viewpoints April 21, 2011

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