While the six-party denuclearization talks have been in recess for two years now with no sign that North Korea will return to the negotiating table anytime soon, calls for South Korea to set up its own nuclear armament are rising, mostly from conservatives. The proponents, including politicians and media commentators, argue that the South’s nuclear development will be the best means of pressure no

Editorial Feb. 21, 2011

After the ouster of autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, pro-democracy uprisings are rapidly spreading in North Africa and the Middle East, with bloodshed reported in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria and Djibouti. The world community is now directing attention to countries in other continents under dictatorships, with many hoping to see similar popular protests will bring changes to the fates of

Editorial Feb. 21, 2011

House Republicans are using a bill to fund the government through Sept. 30 as a vehicle to roll back spending on many programs favored by Democrats. But it’s easy for lawmakers to cut spending on someone else’s priorities. The real test of fiscal discipline is the scrutiny they give their own.For Republicans, that means the Defense Department ― by far the largest federal program funded through ann

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2011

The Chinese audience will soon bid farewell to radio and TV broadcasts of the BBC and Voice of America in the Chinese language. VOA is the second mainstream Western media to announce plans to end its radio broadcasts in Chinese. Earlier, the BBC World Service decided to cancel a number of foreign-language services, including Chinese. The cut in the major Western media organizations’ Chinese langua

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2011

CAIRO ― The air of hopefulness is so palpable in Egypt’s capital city ― as people try to digest what happened to them during their revolution ― that it’s easy to become a dreamer.This is Egypt’s interregnum of hope, a period that comes just after “people power” ousted a dictator, but before the meaning of the revolution has become truly clear. At this point, it’s still possible to imagine that Egy

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2011

Surveying the GOP’s latest efforts to restrict abortion, I was recalled to a bit of personal history, which I try to not to think about.As with a lot of couples, the notice that me and my spouse would have a child was greeted with great joy. But about six months in, she started picking up weight at a rate that flummoxed and alarmed her doctors. Her body swelled like a water balloon, a description

Viewpoints Feb. 21, 2011

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has been fighting an uphill battle against the city council’s decision in favor of free lunches for all schoolchildren. The mayor, affiliated with the ruling Grand National Party, believes that it is a populist policy to provide lunch free of charge at primary schools regardless of the parents’ income levels. He demands free lunch be limited to those whose parents cannot aff

Editorial Feb. 20, 2011

On Thursday, the European Parliament approved a free trade agreement with Korea. Now the Korean legislature is urged to speed up the process of ratifying the deal, which EU Ambassador to Korea Tomasz Kozlowski says will “more than double EU-Korea trade in the next 20 years as compared with a scenario without the FTA.”The FTA is a win-win deal to both sides, not a zero-sum game. As such, there is n

Editorial Feb. 20, 2011

Last fall, President Obama offered a sweet deal to one of the most reviled regimes on Earth: If the government of Sudan would allow a referendum on secession by the southern half of the country and abide by the election results, the United States would take steps to remove the country from the State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors. The election went off, the south voted overwhelmingly to s

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2011

The results of the Nagoya mayoral and Aichi gubernatorial elections Feb. 6 were miserable for the Democratic Party of Japan, highlighting the DPJ leadership’s inability to think strategically to win elections. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada should figure out why, starting with its defeat in the Upper House election in July, that the DPJ has suffered a series of el

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2011

Multiculturalism breeds terrorism. That’s what British Prime Minister David Cameron said Feb. 5 in a high-profile speech in Germany, thereby opening up an absurd new chapter in the never-ending debate over how much to embrace, exalt and protect cultural differences in Britain and beyond.Now I’m no fan of multiculturalism, which is essentially the belief that ethnic minorities should be encouraged

Viewpoints Feb. 20, 2011