The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Luring foreign hospitals

Controversy is raging over a regulation promulgated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare last week to allow foreign medical institutions in the nation’s six free economic zones. On the one hand, the regulation is welcomed by those who are keen to unleash the huge growth potential of the domestic health care industry. They see it as a step toward making Korea a health care powerhouse and a regional health care hub.Yet critics denounce the government for paving the way for the emergence of for-pr

Editorial Nov. 5, 2012

It’s time to reset U.S.-China trade relations

Mitt Romney got the crowd’s attention during a recent campaign stop in Defiance, Ohio, when he announced that Chrysler, a major local employer, would move its Jeep auto production to China. Boos rang out.Romney must have figured he’s on to something. He has flooded Ohio with TV and radio spots that say Chrysler and GM, which both received government assistance to survive, are now moving jobs to China. “Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to buil

Viewpoints Nov. 5, 2012

[Robert B. Reich] The biggest issue in U.S. election

As we go into the final days of a dismal presidential campaign where too many issues have been fudged or eluded ― and the media only want to talk about who’s up and who’s down ― the biggest issue on which the candidates have given us the clearest choice is whether the rich should pay more in taxes.President Obama says emphatically yes. He proposes ending the Bush tax cut for people earning more than $250,000 a year, and requiring the rich to pay at least 30 percent of their incomes over $1 milli

Viewpoints Nov. 5, 2012

[Robert B. Reich] The biggest issue in U.S. election

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The world has a stake in outcome of U.S. election

NEW YORK ― Most people around the world will not be able to vote in the United States’s upcoming presidential election, even though they have a great deal at stake in the result. Overwhelmingly, non-U.S. citizens favor Barack Obama’s reelection over a victory for his challenger, Mitt Romney. There are good reasons for this.In terms of the economy, the effects of Romney’s policies in creating a more unequal and divided society would not be directly felt abroad. But, in the past, for better and fo

Viewpoints Nov. 5, 2012

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] The world has a stake in outcome of U.S. election

Greece needs a writedown, not a buyback

The prime minister of Greece took a large political risk Oct. 31 to keep Greece in the euro, just as other euro area leaders appear to be recognizing that the country needs more time and more relief from its debt obligations to survive. That’s progress. Lowered interest rates for Greece and help with a debt buyback are among the ideas under discussion. Any move by Germany to work with Greece is welcome, even if things are only where they should have been two years ago. The coming week’s flurry o

Viewpoints Nov. 4, 2012

[Lee Jae-min] Greater role as UNSC member

Pointed statements were exchanged between Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko and U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes at the first U.N. General Assembly meeting of Jan. 12, 1946. The touchy topic on the agenda was how to select six non-permanent members of the Security Council in compliance with the principle of “equitable geographical distribution” as agreed upon in the San Francisco Conference. New Zealand was particularly vocal, fearing that the region of the South Pacific would not be adequate

Viewpoints Nov. 4, 2012

[Lee Jae-min] Greater role as UNSC member

A vote for a president to lead on climate change

The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast ― in lost lives, lost homes and lost business ― brought the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief. The floods and fires that swept through our city left a path of destruction that will require years of recovery and rebuilding work. And in the short term, our subway system remains partially shut down, and many city residents and businesses still have no power. In just 14 months, two hurri

Viewpoints Nov. 4, 2012

[Naomi Wolf] Kill and let die

NEW YORK ― By a strange but fitting coincidence, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, held their final debate ― which focused on foreign policy ― just as the new James Bond film, Skyfall, had its world premiere in London. Although 007, who turned 50 this year, is a British-born global brand, his influence on the American political psyche ― and that psyche’s influence on Bond ― is obvious.Indeed, the latest production is a British-American partnership, and the v

Viewpoints Nov. 4, 2012

[George Soros] A Europe of solidarity, not only discipline

BERLIN ― Originally, the European Union was what psychologists call a “fantastic object,” a desirable goal that inspires people’s imaginations. I saw it as the embodiment of an open society ― an association of nation-states that gave up part of their sovereignty for the common good and formed a union dominated by no one nation or nationality.The euro crisis, however, has turned the EU into something radically different. Member countries are now divided into two classes ― creditors and debtors ―

Viewpoints Nov. 4, 2012

[George Soros] A Europe of solidarity, not only discipline

[Editorial] Single candidacy

The main opposition Democratic United Party’s presidential hopeful Moon Jae-in and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo have agreed in principle to merge their candidacies. If they have made up their minds to field a unified candidate, they need to enter into negotiations immediately and reach an agreement as early as possible. The two agree that the unified candidate should be chosen by Nov. 24 as candidates are required to register with the National Election Commission on Nov. 25-26. Yet the tw

Editorial Nov. 2, 2012

[Editorial] Debt problem downplayed

Kim Seok-dong, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, has again ruled out the need for the government to take emergency steps or special measures now to deal with the household debt problem. But he might be mistaken.Kim reassuringly said at a recent seminar on household debt that there was no need for the government to intervene to help the so-called “house poor” because their indebtedness did not pose serious risks to the financial system.The top financial regulator’s optimistic view wa

Editorial Nov. 2, 2012

Leaders must work with natural market forces

PARIS ― Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election next week, one thing seems certain: Americans are about to learn the same hard lessons recently visited upon the French and the British. That is, whoever ends up being elected head of any given political system will be required to work within the confines of current global economic forces.Candidates can promise all the economic changes they want within their particular national bubble, but nothing will actually change without the bles

Viewpoints Nov. 2, 2012

[J. Bradford DeLong] The West’s debt to Stalingrad

BERKELEY ― We are not newly created, innocent, rational, and reasonable beings. We are not created fresh in an unmarked Eden under a new sun. We are, instead, the products of hundreds of millions of years of myopic evolution, and thousands of years of unwritten and then recorded history. Our past has built up layer upon layer of instincts, propensities, habits of thought, patterns of interaction, and material resources.On top of this historical foundation, we build our civilization. Were it not

Viewpoints Nov. 2, 2012

[J. Bradford DeLong] The West’s debt to Stalingrad

China’s president-in-waiting is inheriting a mess

Sales of Swiss watches to China have fallen by almost 30 percent in recent months, and jewelry sales are plummeting, too. So there can be little doubt the country is in deep trouble.As the American presidential campaign grinds toward its inglorious end, President Obama and Mitt Romney are both trying to show how tough they will be on China, infuriating Beijing. At the same time, Obama is “pivoting” the military toward Asia, away from the Middle East, obviously worried about China.But when you lo

Viewpoints Nov. 1, 2012

[David Ignatius] Requiem for a ‘gray’ man

WASHINGTON ― Three days before his murder, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan told me in a telephone interview from France that his contacts with the Syrian opposition put him “under a big light for Hezbollah” and made it “complicated for me to move” because he was a potential target. The Lebanese intelligence chief’s comments have the haunting quality of words from the other side of the grave, following his death Oct. 19 in a car-bomb attack in Beirut. He knew he would be in danger back in Lebanon bec

Viewpoints Nov. 1, 2012

[David Ignatius] Requiem for a ‘gray’ man

Articles by Yu Kun-ha