The Korea Herald

[Adam Minter] China gives batteries a second life

China is hoping to become the Detroit of the battery-powered electric vehicle industry. Sales of electric vehicles are expected to reach 1 million this year alone, and the government has big plans for expansion. But this welcome trend comes with a perplexing side effect: China is now using up more lithium-ion batteries than anywhere else in the world. What to do with them?Throwing those batteries away could be environmentally hazardous. Recycling them, meanwhile, turns out not to be very profita

Viewpoints March 14, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russian women deserve better #MeToo moment

The #MeToo movement has finally reached Russia. Unfortunately, it‘s sad and astonishing for the women involved and for anyone who supports them. Russia’s current atmosphere is conducive to all sorts of power abuses, and the scandal in its parliament proves that nothing‘s about to change.　On Feb. 22, the anti-Kremlin TVRain channel reported that Leonid Slutsky, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Russian parliament’s lower house, was being accused of making crude passes at female journal

Viewpoints March 12, 2018

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russian women deserve better #MeToo moment

[Albert R. Hunt] Godspeed, Trump and Kim. What’s the backup plan?

The rapid about-face in relations between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, from one marked by insults and invective to the verge of what is billed as an historic face-to-face meeting, is welcome (assuming it actually happens).Success would be in the whole world’s interest. Trump always wants a win. Kim wants punishing economic sanctions lifted and guarantees of long-term survival. South Korea wants to avoid a cataclysmic conflict on the Korean Peninsula. So do Chi

Viewpoints March 12, 2018

[Albert R. Hunt] Godspeed, Trump and Kim. What’s the backup plan?

[Eli Lake] What Trump can learn from Madeleine Albright about North Korea talks

The next few episodes of the Donald Trump show should be riveting. Last week, the South Korean national security adviser announced North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un invited Trump to meet to negotiate his nuclear weapons. The “dotard” may face off against “little rocket man” face-to-face. Stay tuned.　If indeed the unprecedented meeting comes to pass, it will be historic. That does not mean though that it will be wise. And unless Trump comes to these talks to negotiate the terms of Kim Jong-un’s

Viewpoints March 11, 2018

[Eli Lake] What Trump can learn from Madeleine Albright about North Korea talks

[Leonid Bershidsky] The US milks Europe, not the other way around

US President Donald Trump’s plans for a trade war aren’t ostensibly focused on Europe, but Trump himself appears to think they are. He said on Tuesday that “the European Union has been particularly tough on the United States,” making it “almost impossible for us to do business with them.” Fact-checking Trump on this is pointless, but it’s worth pointing out that the US is on the verge of poisoning its favorite well for no obvious reason.　There is talk that Canada and Mexico could be excluded fro

Viewpoints March 11, 2018

[James Gibney] A summit failure would hurt Trump more than Kim

President Donald Trump has upended expectations and interrupted the drumbeat toward war on the Korean Peninsula with his agreement to meet Kim Jong-un at “a time and place to be determined.” But what happens if talks with “Little Rocket Man” blow up on the launching pad?　The odds are high. Few analysts expect Kim to give up North Korea’s nuclear deterrent, which he sees as vital to his regime’s survival. (See: Moammar Gadhafi, 1942-2011.) Kim’s existential stakes and Trump’s mercurial brinkmansh

Viewpoints March 11, 2018

[Bloomberg] To deal with Kim, Trump must be less like Trump

Donald Trump’s decision to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in character. The US president loves outlandish plot twists that confound critics and supporters alike.Agreeing to this meeting was questionable. It’s something previous presidents have refused to do, and with reason: It’s a concession that demanded something valuable from the other side. Trump has not secured that, and he appears to have acted impulsively. This isn’t encouraging -- but the decision has been made and wha

Viewpoints March 11, 2018

[Eli Lake] It‘s Too Soon to Take North Korea’s Offer Seriously

It‘s tempting to interpret the news from Pyongyang on Tuesday with relief and hope. Last November, North Korea’s tyrant Kim Jong-un was testing missiles that could reach the continental United States. President Donald Trump was promising “fire and fury.” And the world looked on in terror.Now envoys for South Korean President Moon Jae-in report that the Kim regime is willing to negotiate away its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees. Eagles fly with doves. Peace demands it be given

Viewpoints March 8, 2018

[Eli Lake] It‘s Too Soon to Take North Korea’s Offer Seriously

[Stephen Mihm] How the US squandered its steel superiority

Donald Trump wants to help the steel industry in the US, and he’s announced plans for protective tariffs. By way of explanation, Trump claims that the steel industry has been “decimated by decades of unfair trade and bad policy.”　He’s correct about one thing: This has been a problem many decades in the making. But it’s a problem rooted in disastrous decisions made by the steel companies themselves when Trump was still in elementary school.　At the end of World War II, American steel had no real c

Viewpoints March 8, 2018

[Michael Schuman] Can autocrats outdo democrats?

Even since China’s Communist Party revealed that it would scrap term limits on the presidency -- meaning the post’s current occupant, Xi Jinping, can now serve for life -- there has been much hand-wringing over what one-man rule could mean for the Chinese economy. Autocracies, we’re told, never end well, leaving economists and the business community concerned that the reforms the economy requires to return to solid footing, already slow in coming, may never be implemented.　There’s cause for worr

Viewpoints March 8, 2018

[Faye Flam] Trump’s understanding of war is outdated

Of all Trump’s departures from tradition, none holds such potentially grave consequences as his decision to build up US nuclear weapons. After a decadeslong trend toward disarmament, Trump’s estimated $1.2 trillion upgrade would not only make current nuclear bombs more lethal but would add new long-range missiles to the US arsenal.　　The rules of the game of war changed in the mid-20th century, when the US and the USSR both acquired the ability to instantly destroy the world hundreds of times ove

Viewpoints March 8, 2018

[Faye Flam] Trump’s understanding of war is outdated

[Pankaj Mishra] There’s nothing shocking about Xi’s rise

In a season of political shocks, President Xi Jinping’s assumption of supreme power has still managed to startle many longstanding observers of China. The Economist magazine dramatically declared, “The West’s 25-year bet on China has failed.” Instead of moving towards democracy, these voices suggest, China is sliding further into authoritarianism.　It’s worth asking, if for no reason than to avoid more such shocks in the near future, why the “West” placed this bet on China at all.The expectation

Viewpoints March 7, 2018

[Pankaj Mishra] There’s nothing shocking about Xi’s rise

[Noah Feldman] James Madison would like a few words on trade wars

President Donald Trump says trade wars are easy to win, but that hasn’t always been true in US history. To the contrary, for the first 40 years of the republic, the founders struggled desperately to establish international trade agreements that Americans would find acceptable. The need for trade leverage was the first factor motivating James Madison to call for a new Constitution. And trade wars had a way of turning into shooting wars. The War of 1812, the first declared war in US history, was t

Viewpoints March 7, 2018

[Noah Feldman] James Madison would like a few words on trade wars

[Ferdinando Giugliano] Italy takes a step back from Europe

There are two ways to look at Sunday’s Italian general election results. 　One is simply to focus on the arithmetic. From that perspective, the outcome is really not that different from what was expected. There was no outright winner: Neither the center-right coalition, nor the center-left nor the anti-establishment Five Star Movement managed to win a majority of seats. The vote produced a hung parliament, which will make it very hard to form a government. That means a period of instability lies

Viewpoints March 7, 2018

[Hal Brands] Xi may scare Asia back Into Washington’s orbit

One thing seems certain about Xi Jinping’s move to establish himself as China’s dictator for life: The bolder and more openly assertive foreign policy he has pursued since taking power five years ago is here to stay. The conventional wisdom is that the US, its Asian allies, and the broader international order are therefore in for a rough stretch, as China demands its place in the sun. 　What’s indisputable is that Xi’s approach to foreign affairs marks the culmination of a break with Deng Xiaopin

Viewpoints March 6, 2018

Articles by Bloomberg