The Korea Herald

Leggo my ‘Argo’: Iran’s unhealthy fixation on Affleck

PARIS ― When Ben Affleck’s “Argo” ― a film based on the true-life, CIA-assisted Canadian operation to rescue American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 ― won the Oscar for Best Picture, all I could think about was how badly Iran blew a prime opportunity to keep quiet for once.Iranian Culture Minister Mohammad Hosseini is so incensed with the portrayal of his country in “Argo” that the government is financing a film in response. Look, Canadians took issue with some “Argo” distor

Viewpoints March 3, 2013

[Dominique Moisi] The cacophony of the world

PARIS ― In his masterpiece “Diplomacy,” Henry Kissinger describes, probably too idyllically, the international balance-of-power system that, following the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815, produced what came to be called the “Concert of Europe.” As Kissinger describes it, after the Napoleonic Wars, “There was not only a physical equilibrium, but a moral one. Power and justice were in substantial harmony.” Of course, the concert ended in cacophony with the outbreak of World War I in the summer of

Viewpoints March 3, 2013

[Dominique Moisi] The cacophony of the world

Pistorius and South Africa’s culture of fear

As details continue to emerge about the killing of Reeva Steenkamp by the Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius, one fact appears to be certain: The man known as the “Blade Runner” did fire four bullets through a bathroom door in his South African home, killing his girlfriend. Thus, it might appear that this will be an open-and-shut case when Pistorius goes before a judge in a trial that will inevitably become a media spectacle in South Africa and beyond on the scale of the O.J. Simpson trial. But as m

Viewpoints Feb. 28, 2013

[Robert Reich] Are the U.S. boomers doomed?

I was born in 1946, just when the boomer wave began. Bill Clinton was born that year, too. So was George W. Bush, as was Laura Bush. And then the next year, Hillary Rodham. And soon Newt Gingrich (known as “Newty” as a boy). And, also in 1946, Cher. (Every time I begin feeling old, I remind myself she’s slightly older.)Why did so many of us begin coming into the world in 1946? Demographers have given this a great deal of attention, but it’s not that complicated.My father, for example, was in Wor

Viewpoints Feb. 28, 2013

[Robert Reich] Are the U.S. boomers doomed?

[John Lee] China’s conception of renewal

SYDNEY ― In a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 22, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe informed the audience of officials, experts, and journalists that Japan is “back” and will not stand down in its ongoing sovereignty dispute with China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. With Chinese provocations on the rise, U.S. President Barack Obama, Abe’s host, appealed for calm and restraint on both sides.Japan is likely to accede ― grudgingly ― to Am

Viewpoints Feb. 28, 2013

[John Lee] China’s conception of renewal

Berlusconi’s surge shows need for deeper union

The return of Silvio Berlusconi to the Italian political stage sends an unmistakable message to Europe’s leaders: They will have to be a lot more ambitious if they want to hold their currency union together. In parliamentary elections this week, Italian voters handed Berlusconi just enough power to make forming a stable government extremely difficult. In doing so, voters soundly rejected the technocratic policies of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose efforts to raise taxes, cut pensions

Viewpoints Feb. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Follow the law

The government and the left-leaning Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union are on a collision course over the union’s charter that accepts dismissed teachers as members. The Ministry of Employment and Labor recently told the union that it would be outlawed unless it amended the charter, which runs afoul of labor law.The Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act states that an organization will not be regarded as a trade union if it allows those who are not workers to join it.The tea

Editorial Feb. 27, 2013

[Editorial] Cultural renaissance

One keyword in President Park Geun-hye’s inaugural address on Monday was “cultural renaissance.” She presented “a flourishing culture” as one of the three goals she would pursue during her five-year term. The other two were economic rejuvenation and increasing people’s happiness.Park devoted a considerable part of her speech to culture, a topic that her predecessors had almost ignored in their inaugural addresses. Together with “economy” and “happiness,” “culture” was one of the most frequently

Editorial Feb. 27, 2013

[David Ignatius] Time to stop a political DUI

WASHINGTON ― Some of us can recall the helpless feeling of being in a vehicle driven by someone who is intoxicated. If you’re like me, you don’t want to cause a scene unless the driving is really erratic. But there comes a moment when you need to say: Stop the car. You’re going to hurt someone. Hand over the keys. We have a political system that is the equivalent of a drunk driver. The primary culprits are the House Republicans. They are so intoxicated with their own ideology that they are ready

Viewpoints Feb. 27, 2013

[David Ignatius] Time to stop a political DUI

Italy votes for chaos and the euro crisis is back

Italy’s parliamentary election could not have gone worse for the country or the euro area. It is now possible that in the coming months the currency zone’s third-largest economy will need a bailout from international creditors, at a time when Italy will have no government in place to ask for, or negotiate, a rescue. In case you had any doubts, the euro-area crisis is back. As has so often been the case in Italy, the political gridlock has come in the Senate. Neither Pier Luigi Bersani’s center-l

Viewpoints Feb. 27, 2013

[Lee Jong-soo] Ways to resolve the North Korean conundrum

North Korea’s third nuclear test and its threats to conduct more tests this year have ratcheted up tensions in Northeast Asia, with global repercussions. As Pyongyang seems to be inching closer to possessing the ability to deliver nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles, a brewing crisis for the global efforts against WMD proliferation and nuclear terrorism threatens regional and global balance of power. A time of crisis such as this calls for prudent and skillful crisis management. The leaders

Viewpoints Feb. 27, 2013

[Lee Jong-soo] Ways to resolve the North Korean conundrum

Western intervention in Syria is long overdue

Syria is fast becoming the new Somalia ― a nation whose central government wields little control over the bulk of the country while feuding sects and gangs fight each other as well as the thoroughly discredited president, Bashar al-Assad.Meanwhile, just as in Somalia, vast numbers of Syrians are suffering and dying.The United Nations says more than 70,000 Syrians have been killed since the conflict began almost two years ago. At least 2 million people are now homeless, in many cases because thei

Viewpoints Feb. 27, 2013

Higher U.S. minimum wage is imperfect idea

U.S. President Barack Obama is seeking to resurrect an idea that he set aside during his first term: Raise the minimum wage to help lift working families out of poverty. The proposal, which would take the minimum to $9 an hour from the current $7.25, is far from ideal. Still, it’s the right thing to do. A better way to keep people working and out of poverty would be to expand the earned income tax credit, a program that makes direct payments to low-wage workers through the income-tax system. The

Viewpoints Feb. 26, 2013

[Daniel Fiedler] Waiting for food outside Costco

When standing outside a Costco, a Homeplus or a Lotte department store on a Sunday afternoon in South Korea, one can watch car after car pass by with a bevy of bemused drivers looking askance at the closed doors. There is always the same look of wonder on their faces that in South Korea, which is ostensibly a capitalist nation, the government interferes so directly in the ordinary workings of business. You would think South Koreans would be used to it by now; after all, the government has been i

Viewpoints Feb. 26, 2013

[Daniel Fiedler] Waiting for food outside Costco

Korea’s new president can’t be daddy’s girl

The life of Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s just-inaugurated first female president, has so far been bookended by two larger-than-life men of debatable success. The first is her father, Park Chung-hee, the dictator who ruled the nation for 18 years until his assassination in 1979. The second is Lee Myung-bak, her predecessor who spent the last five years in the Blue House, Korea’s presidential residence, and a fellow member of her New Frontier Party. Park must deal with their shortcomings in revers

Viewpoints Feb. 26, 2013

Articles by Yu Kun-ha