At the end of April, Seoul’s new mayor Oh Se-hoon announced that remodeling work on Gwanghamun Plaza would continue, but with several modifications. The plaza took its present form in 2009 toward the end of Oh’s first term as mayor. Plans to remodel the plaza again moved forward in the late 2010s under former Mayor Park Won-soon and construction began in the fall of 2020. Oh’s victory in the April 7 by-election raised speculation that he might stop the remodeling, as some cit

Viewpoints May 7, 2021

The by-elections for mayors in Seoul and Busan ended in landslide defeats for President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party. Winning 57.5 percent of the vote, former Mayor Oh Se-hoon returned to City Hall 10 years after resigning over opposition to free school lunches. In Busan, that Democratic Party candidate won only 34.4 percent of the vote, a huge drop from the 55.2 percent it won in June 2018. Two main currents running against the Democratic Party came together to produce the storm. The f

Viewpoints April 23, 2021

As of this writing, polls are open in by-elections for mayor in Seoul and Busan. The election offers a chance to assess public opinion only 13 months before the next presidential election in May 2022. President Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have dropped recently, suggesting that his ruling Democratic Party may face strong headwinds moving toward 2022. Since 1987, presidents in South Korea have been elected for a single five-year term. The term limit came from a desire to check the power

Viewpoints April 9, 2021

On March 18, the US and China met in Anchorage, Alaska, for the first time since Joe Biden took office in January. The two days of talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Communist Party foreign affairs chief Yang Jiechi were contentious, suggesting a long and tense competition between the two nations. Like previous great power competitions, the one between the US and China is about the acquisition and maintenance of power. In the competition, the US plays the role of domi

Viewpoints March 26, 2021

Since the rush to develop began in the 1960s, the South Korean government has paid attention to the fertility rate. In the 1960s and 1970s, the rate was too high, and the government focused its efforts on birth control. The rate fell steadily, dropping below 2.1 children per woman for the first time in 1983. According to the UN Population Division, a total fertility rate (TFR) level of about 2.1 is enough to sustain population levels, excluding immigration and emigration. After holding in a nar

Viewpoints March 12, 2021

In the first month of his presidency, Joe Biden has worked hard to reach out to longtime allies of the US that were slighted during the Trump years. The US counts South Korea and Japan as two of its most trusted allies and has signaled to them that it hopes to work with the two nations to develop a trilateral strategy to deal with North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Biden also hopes for more trilateral cooperation in dealing the with growing power of China on the world stage. For

Viewpoints Feb. 26, 2021

Positive news about vaccines at the end of 2020 raised hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic would soon end in 2021. Less than two months into the new year, those hopes are slipping away. Mutant variants that first appeared in the UK, South Africa and Brazil are even more contagious, and in the case of the South African mutant, vaccines are less effective. This turn of events has caused a new round of lockdowns and border closings as public health experts and vaccine makers race to assess the situati

Viewpoints Feb. 15, 2021

On April 7, 2021, Seoul will hold a special election for mayor. Seoul has been without a mayor since former Mayor Park Won-soon’s shocking suicide in July 2020. The election of a new mayor will stir discussion of how the city should move forward as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. As the leader of the capital city and the overwhelmingly dominant city, the mayor of Seoul is influential. Several mayors have dreamed of becoming president and one, Lee Myung-bak, succeeded in the 2007. The new m

Viewpoints Jan. 29, 2021

Pandemic weary Americans entered 2021 with hope for better times but found those hopes dashed. On Jan. 6, as a mob of insurrectionists, incited by Trump, stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to halt the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes for president and vice president. After a six-hour siege, Congress resumed counting and formally certified Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president in the early morning hours of Jan. 7. The images of the siege shocked the nation and, i

Viewpoints Jan. 15, 2021

The world begins 2021 with hope amid continuing despair. The roll out of vaccines in wealthy countries offers hope that the COVID-19 pandemic will wind down as the year moves along. This hope contrasts with the reality of rising cases that are pushing healthcare systems to their limit. More cases mean more deaths and social dislocation. The light at the end of the tunnel is bright, but distant. Pondering the future offers a brief respite from the disquiet of the pandemic winter. At heart is the

Viewpoints Jan. 1, 2021

The year 2020 has been a very cruel one, as the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe. As of mid-December, 74 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported and 1.65 million people have died from the disease. The disease has affected all countries, though some have been hit harder than others. School closures have affected at least 1 billion children worldwide, and economies have been devastated. After a long decline, poverty in developing countries is increasing again, causing widespread sufferin

Viewpoints Dec. 18, 2020

In his first month as US president-elect, Joe Biden has made steady progress in preparing to take office in January. His first round of high-profile appointments focused on foreign policy and national security. The appointments are respected foreign-policy establishment figures, mostly from the Obama years, who support traditional alliances and US engagement in world affairs. To understand Biden’s interest in foreign policy, we need to go back to Biden‘s high school and college yea

Viewpoints Dec. 4, 2020

The recent US election produced a mixed result. As expected, Joe Biden won the presidency, thus adding Donald Trump’s name to the list of defeated presidents. Down-ballot elections for the Senate, House of Representatives, governors and state houses, however, proved disappointing for Democrats, as Republicans beat expectations at every level. The results show that voters wanted a change at the top, but within the context of centrist moderation. Of all the races in play, the most surprisin

Viewpoints Nov. 20, 2020

More than anything else, the face mask has come to symbolize the COVID-19 pandemic. It stirs strong emotions and deep prejudices. It has been at the center of public health debates and the turbulent US presidential election campaign. Since COVID-19 first began its spread from China, much has been written about differences in face mask use in the “East” and “West.” Examples from the “East” come primarily from South Korea, Japan and China, while the “West

Viewpoints Nov. 6, 2020

With a little more than a week to go in the US presidential election campaign, Joe Biden maintains a steady lead over President Donald Trump. For all the shocks and instability of 2020, Biden’s lead has been remarkably steady. Few races in recent history have been this stable. In late October 2019, the average of polls on the RealClearPolitics site, had Biden at 50 percent and Trump at 43 percent. A year later, the same average had Biden at 51 percent and Trump at 42.5 percent. During tha

Viewpoints Oct. 23, 2020