The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Park’s pet ministry

As the National Assembly is to pass the government reorganization bill today, President Park Geun-hye will be able to launch her pet ministry as planned. But it is questionable whether the new ministry, dubbed the Ministry of Future Creation and Science, will be able to play its expected role.That is because the ministry will not be created in the form envisioned by the president. Its scope of business and power have been curtailed in the process of negotiations between the ruling Saenuri Party

Editorial March 19, 2013

[Editorial] New trade policy

Recent months have seen the world’s major countries making fresh moves to reshape the global trade landscape. As these developments pose serious challenges to Korea, the new Seoul government needs to assess their implications carefully and draw up countermeasures. Among the latest developments, the most notable one may be Japan’s decision to participate in Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his bold decision on March 15. The TPP is a comprehens

Editorial March 19, 2013

[Lee Jae-min] Why do we keep losing this game?

In Seoul, a somber reflection on the past 20 years imbues the minds of the people. To many here, the third nuclear test by North Korea on Feb. 12 was an official proclamation that the strategies of Washington and Seoul for the past two decades to deter the Pyongyang regime from acquiring nuclear weapons capabilities had failed. Unlike the previous two nuclear tests by the North in 2006 and 2009, in which the effectiveness and appropriateness of the two competing sets of policies (i.e., a big sti

Viewpoints March 19, 2013

[Lee Jae-min] Why do we keep losing this game?

[Kim Seong-kon] All diplomats should be cultural ambassadors

Unlike ordinary ambassadors who are primarily concerned with international politics, we are lucky to have many European ambassadors who are deeply interested in cultural exchanges. These ambassadors run excellent cultural centers at their embassies, allowing the Korean people to gain a deeper understanding of their home countries, while also enthusiastically learning about our country’s culture and society.Ambassador Jaroslav Olsa of the Czech Republic is one such outstanding example of a true c

Viewpoints March 19, 2013

[Kim Seong-kon] All diplomats should be cultural ambassadors

Venezuela’s new political boss takes over

There’s a new political boss in Venezuela. So far, he’s acting just like the old boss.Hugo Chavez was purportedly still in his death throes last week when his designated political heir, eager to snatch the reins of power before anyone could stop him, signaled that he was just as capable of playing the anti-American card as the dying president by summarily expelling two U.S. military attaches from the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.The stated reason ― that they were conspiring against the Venezuelan gov

Viewpoints March 18, 2013

[Simon Johnson] Latest phony fiscal crisis in U.S.

In most countries that experience a fiscal crisis, there is no ambiguity about the situation. The government is unable to sell debt at a reasonable interest rate. This probably coincides with a broader shift out of domestic assets, as smart investors read the writing on the wall or in the newspapers. The currency collapses and, often, inflation accelerates. The government is forced to slash spending and, cap in hand, asks for help from the world’s least popular ambulance service: the Internation

Viewpoints March 18, 2013

[Simon Johnson] Latest phony fiscal crisis in U.S.

China: Challenges for the new leadership

With the confirmation of Xi Jinping as China’s new president this month at the National People’s Congress, the political transition from the outgoing leader, Hu Jintao, is complete. Indeed, the transition effectively took place last November when the Communist Party of China chose Xi as its general secretary, because all political power in China flows from the party. With the formal NPC confirmation of Xi as the country’s new president, he will become China’s most powerful leader by combining th

Viewpoints March 18, 2013

Four scenarios of what lies ahead for Apple

Since it made a top last September, Apple’s share price has crashed more than 40 percent. The chart shows the company’s stock is now in bear territory, with prices having broken a four-year trendline in December 2012. The powerful wave that started in early 2009 at $100 and carried Apple’s share to $700 has expired. Now, what lies ahead for the former Wall Street darling?Keeping the stock price as a reference, picture four scenarios and evaluate each likelihood. In the first, we imagine Apple’s

Viewpoints March 18, 2013

[Park Sang-seek] Inter-Korean relations: What is to be done?

After North Korea’s third nuclear test, the tensions between South and North Korea have intensified so much that it raises the question of whether the countries have reached the point of no return. It is time for us to review what has gone wrong.Historically, South Korea has become more conciliatory toward North Korea, but North Korea has responded sometimes cooperatively and at other times provocatively with a varied degree of intensity. The Syngman Rhee government and the first half of the Par

Viewpoints March 18, 2013

[Park Sang-seek] Inter-Korean relations: What is to be done?

[Jeffrey Frankel] Search for economist’s stone

CAMBRIDGE ― This year marks the 100th anniversaries of two distinct institutional innovations in American economic policy: the introduction of the federal income tax and the establishment of the Federal Reserve. They are worth commemorating, if only because we are at risk of forgetting what we have learned since then.Initially, neither the income tax nor the Fed was associated with the explicit concepts of fiscal and monetary policy. Indeed, it wasn’t until after the experience of the 1930s that

Viewpoints March 15, 2013

[Jeffrey Frankel] Search for economist’s stone

U.S.-Russian deal following Chavez’s death

PARIS ― A chess piece has fallen in Latin America. The road to prosperity and peace for the citizens of many countries ― probably even yours ― runs through the recent death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a counterintuitive deal between two nations.Depending on whom you speak to, Chavez was either a jerk or a hero whose face should be immortalized as a two-tone T-shirt decal. What cannot be denied is that Transparency International rates Venezuela the most corrupt country in South Americ

Viewpoints March 14, 2013

[Robert Reich] A bearish market for workers

Last Friday, the Labor Department reported that 236,000 new jobs were created in February. That’s good news ― but not nearly good enough. Even if this rate were to continue, which seems unlikely, the United States wouldn’t be back to pre-recession levels of unemployment for another four years.American workers remain in a bear market. More than 12 million Americans are still without work. Another 8 million are working part time but would rather be working full time. Many have given up looking. Th

Viewpoints March 14, 2013

[Robert Reich] A bearish market for workers

Tokyo must lead efforts to speed up reconstruction

March 11 marks the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that killed 15,881 people and left 2,668 others missing.No fewer than 315,000 people have been forced to live as evacuees, and about 160,000 of them are from Fukushima Prefecture, where the nuclear crisis broke out at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.Let us together pray anew for the repose of the victims’ souls. Reconstruction from the disaster has been delayed, and the government

Viewpoints March 14, 2013

The prodigal son

Justin Lin is a celebrity in China. He is a member of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which met last week to formalize the election of Communist Party General-Secretary Xi Jinping as president of the People’s Republic of China.Lin used to be a senior vice president of the World Bank. He is also honorary director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University. In Taiwan, where he was born in 1952, however, he is a military

Viewpoints March 14, 2013

[M.D. Nalapat] Western models can not be imposed as panacea

Each human being is different from any other, having a mix of strengths and weaknesses that are unique. In the same way, societies differ from each other, having evolved out of different historical circumstances. For example, in the 19th century, the British Empire was a source of pride in the United Kingdom, being a small island that took control of more than half the planet and converted its resources to its advantage. India’s view on the same empire is different, for it saw its share in the g

Viewpoints March 14, 2013

[M.D. Nalapat] Western models can not be imposed as panacea

Articles by Yu Kun-ha