North Korea’s third nuclear test on Feb. 12 underscores the fact that little has changed surrounding one of Asia’s most worrisome flashpoints. For the past 20 years, North Korea has conducted a string of missile and nuclear tests. Each time, the tests have been roundly condemned by members of the global community, but apart from two agreements (in 1994 and 2007) to halt Pyongyang’s advance towards a nuclear-tipped missile, the country continues its long march to deploying such a weapon. Put diff

Viewpoints Feb. 26, 2013

One issue that promises to come to the fore during the parliamentary hearings of ministerial nominees that start on Wednesday is “jeon-gwan-ye-u,” a time-old practice in the legal community whereby retired judges and public prosecutors who start a legal practice receive special treatment from their incumbent former colleagues.In recent years, the unwholesome practice has spread to officialdom. These days, retired high-ranking government officials expect and receive preferential treatment from th

Editorial Feb. 25, 2013

Five years ago, President Lee Myung-bak unveiled his “747 plan,” declaring that he would achieve 7 percent annual economic growth during his term to boost the nation’s per capita GDP to $40,000 and make Korea the world’s seventh largest economy.What Lee has actually achieved over the past five years falls far short of these goals. The economy has grown a mere 2.9 percent on average; the nation’s per capita GDP barely reached $22,700 in 2012; and Korea’s economy was the world’s 15th largest last

Editorial Feb. 25, 2013

“Cheat, cheat, never beat.” Remember that catchy, foreboding maxim drilled into us as kids?It’s comforting to believe cheaters never win and winners never cheat. Unfortunately, there’s ample evidence that cheating is rampant in almost every sphere of American life. And for every reported story of cheaters getting busted ― be they professional athletes who use banned substances or those who illegally manipulate markets for profit ― you can bet there’s at least one case of somebody who escaped det

Viewpoints Feb. 25, 2013

Quiz question: Of the last seven U.S. presidents, which one issued, by a large margin, the most executive orders per year? Answer: Jimmy Carter. Gerald Ford is second, Ronald Reagan is third, Bill Clinton is fourth, and George H.W. Bush is fifth. George W. Bush and Barack Obama bring up the rear and are essentially tied. The numbers are revealing, because executive orders are the most formal steps that presidents can take to make policy on their own, and yet no one would rank Carter as the most

Viewpoints Feb. 25, 2013

President Obama devoted only one sentence to U.S. nuclear weapons in his recent State of the Union speech, which was filled with a long list of proposals for his second term. While he has a lot on his plate for the next four years, the time has come for a major overhaul of U.S. nuclear weapons policy.The Cold War ended more than 20 years ago, but the United States still maintains some 5,000 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, with roughly 2,000 of these deployed on missiles or bombers. These weapons

Viewpoints Feb. 25, 2013

If I had to choose a single word to describe the dominant attitude in Russian society, it would be “mistrust.” The meteor, or possibly small asteroid, that exploded over the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15 illustrated this as few other events could. The world saw the meteor thanks to the dashboard cameras that are so common in Russian cars. U.S. publications from the New Yorker to Wired delighted in writing about the dash cam phenomenon, unheard of in the U.S. or Europe. Russians u

Viewpoints Feb. 24, 2013

Americans are on familiar terms with the sex scandal. Liaisons in business and politics are regularly reported in sordid detail, and typically explained as the boneheaded decisions of smart and successful men under the influence of power and libido. In the 1950s, such scandals briefly provided an opportunity for a larger national conversation, one that questioned the ethics of corporate America’s focus on the bottom line and generated the first systematic advice regarding how to keep sex from hu

Viewpoints Feb. 24, 2013

The recent case involving an American couple from Illinois and a Korean baby highlights the importance of words, especially in a legal context. The Duquets and mainstream media outlets have referred to the case as an adoption. The question, however, is whether this case primarily concerns adoption, legal or illegal.The United Nations says, “Adoption is the legal and voluntary taking and treating of the child of other parents as one’s own in so far as provided by the laws of the country.” It adds

Viewpoints Feb. 24, 2013

It is a universal human rights principle that all people are subject to the same laws of justice, as Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.”This principle is enshrined in the Korean Constitution as well. Article 11 reads in part: “All citizens are equal before the law, and there may be no discrimination in political, economic, social, or cultural life on account of sex

Editorial Feb. 22, 2013