The Korea Herald

[Mai Yamani] Saudi’s old regime grows older

LONDON ― The contrast between the deaths, within two days of each other, of Libya’s Col. Moammar al-Gadhafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation for the Libyans and stagnation for the Saudis.But the death of Sultan, at 86, marks the beginning of a critical period of domestic and foreign uncertainty for the Kingdom. After all, Sultan’s half-brother, King Ab

Viewpoints Oct. 30, 2011

[Mai Yamani] Saudi’s old regime grows older

Tunisia vote raises hopes for Arab women

As Tunisians await final results in their national election, the first in a country remade by the Arab Spring, it’s worth paying particular attention to the outcome for women there. One hopes it leads reformers in other Arab states to understand that it will be impossible to advance their societies if half of the population is held back. Tunisia’s caretaker government crafted an innovative system to ensure that women were represented in the new constituent assembly. Candidates for 217 seats divi

Viewpoints Oct. 28, 2011

[Hans-Werner Sinn] Italy’s capital flight and austerity

MUNICH ― In August, the European balance-of-payments crisis moved beyond the eurozone’s periphery and began buffeting Italy. Interest spreads for Italian government bonds began to rise, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s administration was alarmed enough to implement an austerity program, and the European Central Bank helped with extra liquidity.The ECB directed the central banks of all eurozone members to buy huge quantities of Italian government bonds during the crisis. While the national cent

Viewpoints Oct. 28, 2011

[Hans-Werner Sinn] Italy’s capital flight and austerity

Japan, France need nuclear safety cooperation

To make nuclear power generation as safe as it can possibly be, it is important to examine ways to enhance the development of nuclear engineers and establish a system to promptly respond to nuclear accidents.Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon issued a joint statement on nuclear and energy policies following their meeting Sunday.The focal point of the joint statement is a set of specific principles aimed at bolstering nuclear power safety through coop

Viewpoints Oct. 28, 2011

Comments add to tensions

Judging from the remarks made by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in his ongoing Asia tour, it is crystal clear that Washington is involving itself deeper in the affairs in the Asia-Pacific region. Worse, it is not difficult to conclude that Washington, even though it is outside the region, is openly assuming the task of raising the temperature over the South China Sea issue; an issue that should only involve China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In a meetin

Viewpoints Oct. 28, 2011

[Iwan J. Azis] Better get used to high food prices

Catastrophic flooding and crop losses in Thailand, the world’s leading rice exporter, are raising concerns that another food crisis may be in the offing. Further disquieting is the possibility that the world may have already entered a new era where persistently high food prices are the “New Normal.”At a time when policymakers are grappling with a host of thorny economic issues, the possibility may be unwelcome, but must not be ignored.Although volatility in commodity markets is nothing new, ther

Viewpoints Oct. 28, 2011

[Iwan J. Azis] Better get used to high food prices

[Editorial] Parties in disarray

For too long, Korea’s political parties have failed to meet the people’s needs, engaging in endless conflict with each other and within themselves and neglecting their legislative missions. In elections, voters resignedly swung from one party to another, but in the latest Seoul mayoral by-election, they had an alternative; a “people’s candidate” emerged and the frustrated electorate chose him. The victory of lawyer-activist Park Won-soon meant the defeat of the two major parties to people power

Editorial Oct. 27, 2011

[Editorial] Korea-U.S. defense talks

The chief defense officials of Korea and the United States hold their annual security talks in Seoul today with Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta at the head of each side. Ministers and top generals of the two allies have got together each year without interruption for over four decades to review the security situation on and around the Korean Peninsula and discuss efforts to meet common challenges. The Korea-U.S. Security Consultative Meeting not only sign

Editorial Oct. 27, 2011

Obama risks losing oil opportunity in Libya

Because it’s the U.S. Army’s Energy Awareness Month, it may be a good time to remind President Obama of oil’s importance to economic security, and the role that wartime leadership and image play in getting your hands on it post-victory. He can’t just quietly outsource and downplay war because it’s icky, then call dibs on victory, as he has just done with Libya. Something has to give.When Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi was killed in the fog of war last week, Obama was quick to praise the “strength of Am

Viewpoints Oct. 27, 2011

[Shlomo Avineri] Ambivalence in Turkey’s diplomacy

JERUSALEM ― The recent surge in Turkey’s military actions against the Kurds in northern Iraq is an indication that, somewhat surprisingly ― but not entirely unpredictably ― Turkish foreign policy has undergone a 180-degree turn in less than two years. The Turkish offensive is also an indication that these changes go beyond the current tensions between Turkey and Israel, which are just one facet of much deeper trends.Just a couple of years ago, after the European Union slammed the door in Turkey’

Viewpoints Oct. 27, 2011

[Shlomo Avineri] Ambivalence in Turkey’s diplomacy

[Dominique Moisi] The logic of repenting for past wrongdoing

PARIS ― National repentance is in the news again, as it has been with remarkable frequency in recent years. In 2008, Australia’s then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to his country’s Aborigines, while Queen Elizabeth II offered a moving gesture of contrition in Ireland a few months ago. And now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on a recent visit to the Caucasus, reiterated his advice to the Turks to “repent” for the massacres of Armenians committed by the decaying Ottoman regime in 1915.Of

Viewpoints Oct. 27, 2011

[Dominique Moisi] The logic of repenting for past wrongdoing

Women of the Arab Spring: Their issues are everyone’s issues

BOSTON ― The capture and killing of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, on-going demonstrations for an end to the oppressive reigns of Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh and Syria’s Bashar Assad, and new elections in Tunisia show that one thing has not changed in the Arab Spring ― change itself. Even in Saudi Arabia, where requests for reform have not called for regime change, change is proving inevitable with the death of Crown Prince Sultan and questions about what direction the soon-to-be-named new crown prince

Viewpoints Oct. 27, 2011

[Yang Sung-chul] Steve Jobs and the demise of two cowardly dictators

Col. Moammar Gadhafi is dead at age 69. His demise has ended 42 years of brutal and erratic dictatorship in Libya. He and his cronies have left the country in ruins after eight months of civil strife. It may take years, if not decades, to launch a viable functioning democratic government, let alone to reconstruct and rehabilitate the nation.In December 2003, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (1939-2006) was captured by U.S. forces in a dirt hole at a farmhouse near his hometown, Tikrit, as a fugitiv

Viewpoints Oct. 27, 2011

[Yang Sung-chul] Steve Jobs and the demise of two cowardly dictators

[Editorial] Time to act on U.S. FTA

With the important Seoul mayoral by-election over, rival parties are now required to tackle a still more important issue without further delay ― the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. To thrash out the differences among the parties, the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee organized four rounds of intensive debate from Oct. 20-24. Lawmakers and experts from the government and academia discussed the merits and demerits of the trade deal for more t

Editorial Oct. 26, 2011

[Editorial] War against gangsters

Cho Hyun-oh, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, has declared war on organized crime. The police chief told a press conference on Tuesday that he has launched a sweeping crackdown on the 220 gangs that operate in the nation. The members of these factions are estimated at some 5,500.Cho said he has ordered police officers to use all devices and equipment available, including firearms, to round up these gangsters.The war against organized gangsters was prompted by the failure of po

Editorial Oct. 26, 2011

Articles by Yu Kun-ha