Most Popular
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Koreans, Americans differ on prestigious jobs: lawmakers vs. firefighters
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Only half of S. Koreans willing to marry: data
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Disgraced ex-minister rises as major threat to ruling party
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Yoon calls for dialogue, trust from medical community
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Summit for Democracy opens in Seoul in mega-election year
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Jungkook of BTS updates life in Army
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Med professors to resign starting March 25
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Dyson founder visits Seoul for global debut of new hair dryer
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Leaders call for action against threats to democracy posed by AI
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Ryu Joon-yeol, Han So-hee confirm dating since early 2024
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[Editorial] Scrapping outdated rules
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration on Monday announced it would push for a set of reform measures designed to lift regulations that hinder people’s livelihoods or cause inconvenience. Among the measures, two plans stand out: scrapping a handset subsidy ban and doing away with big retailers’ mandatory Sunday closures. These regulations have long been criticized for their questionable effects while placing extra burden on the public. Behind the government's attempt to abolish the Mo
EditorialJan. 26, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] The 'local' bookstore boom
For much of January, I had the privilege of being invited to give talks on two books that I wrote in Korean. “Why Do Cities Preserve History” is a new book, while “How to Read Cities” is a revised edition of a 2019 book. As I met readers and signed books, I thought about the meaning of bookstores in South Korea in 2024. Bookstores have a prominent place in the history of South Korea. For decades after the Korean War, bookstores, both new and used, were an important center
ViewpointsJan. 26, 2024
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[Editorial] The handbag quandary
First lady Kim Keon Hee’s alleged acceptance of a designer handbag from a Korean American pastor in September 2022, caught on spy cam, has become something the presidential office must address. The pastor, Choi Jae-young, conspired with a YouTube channel called Voice of Seoul to film his meeting with Kim using a camera on his watch, without informing Kim that she was being filmed. Choi said in a press conference at the National Assembly on Monday that he decided to “collect evidence&
EditorialJan. 25, 2024
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[Michael Bröning] Should Germany’s AfD be banned?
The recent revelation that politicians from Germany’s far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) met with right-wing activists last November to discuss an extremist “re-migration” plot has brought the debate over banning the party to a fever pitch. The clandestine meeting, held at a lakeside hotel near Potsdam, reportedly centered on the possibility of mass deportations of non-ethnic Germans if the far-right were to come to power. Alarmed by this horrifying vision, leaders fro
ViewpointsJan. 25, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Is war coming on the Korean Peninsula?
These days, Seoul is very confused about the possibility of war breaking out. There is a hard, cold warning that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has decided to go to war, and that the Korean Peninsula is seriously in danger. On the other side, there is fierce opposition that the threats from Kim are only psychological warfare. The two voices contain different assumptions and premises, leading to different responses. If the former "war decision" argument is correct, half a million regul
ViewpointsJan. 25, 2024
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[John M. Crisp] Our dangerous failure of imagination
Generally, comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler aren’t particularly persuasive. They often reflect an over-the-top, sky-is-falling semi-hysteria. Trump and Hitler? Let’s not get carried away. On the other hand, do we have something to fear from a too-casual complacency engendered by a failure of imagination? I was thinking about this last week as I read an op-ed entitled “American democratic system will endure,” by Jonathan Turley, a commentator and law prof
ViewpointsJan. 24, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] “The Batman”: from an avenger to a healer
The 2022 American film, “The Batman,” is different from previous versions of the Batman series. Throughout the film, the screen is dark and gloomy, and the story revolves around vengeance. Bruce Wayne, who is the Batman, is preoccupied by a personal vendetta for the murder of his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, by a street mugger when he was a child. That is why he has been fighting crimes in Gotham City as “Batman.” It is only natural that his nickname is “Vengea
ViewpointsJan. 24, 2024
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[Editorial] Workplace safety matters
Concerns are mounting as the two-year grace period for small firms on a workplace safety law is set to expire this week, after major parties failed to agree on granting an additional grace period. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party sought an additional two-year grace period for the enforcement of the Serious Disasters Punishment Act for firms with fewer than 50 employees. The ruling party held a series of negotiations with the main opposition Democratic Party of K
EditorialJan. 24, 2024
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[Editorial] K-drama in reality
President Yoon Suk Yeol threads through the packed indoor venue for a ceremony, shaking hands and greeting participants. One of them, a lawmaker, holds the president’s hand for a few seconds like many Koreans do when greeting each other, and tells him that he must change the way he runs state affairs. The president moves on to others, but Rep. Kang Sung-hee of the minor opposition progressive Jinbo Party keeps repeating something at him, video footage from Thursday shows. Members of the Pr
EditorialJan. 23, 2024
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[Ashoka Mody] The slow death of India’s brief secular democracy
On Jan. 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Executive power will symbolically fuse with the Hindu religion -- harking back to myths of Indian rulers as incarnations of Supreme Lord Vishnu -- at the former site of the Babri Mosque, demolished by self-styled “angry Hindus” in 1992. Indian children will celebrate the mythological Lord Ram. State-owned railways have promised to transport more than a thous
ViewpointsJan. 23, 2024
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[Antoinette Burton] The AI irony around Claudine Gay
When the history of Claudine Gay’s six-month tenure as Harvard’s president is written, there will be a lot of copy devoted to the short time between her appearance before Congress and her resignation from the highest office at one of the most prestigious and powerful institutions of higher education. Two narratives will likely dominate. One will be the highly orchestrated campaign -- outlined in clinical, triumphant detail by conservative activist Chris Rufo -- by the right to mobili
ViewpointsJan. 23, 2024
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[Ashwini Deshpande] Main cause of low female employment
In China, the painful custom of binding young girls’ feet to alter their shape began in the 10th century and continued for a millennium, until it was outlawed in 1911. Although the practice did not truly end until the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, by 1990 China’s female labor-force participation rate had climbed to 73 percent – well above the OECD average. In fifteenth-century Europe, women started wearing corsets, often reinforced with wood, bone or eve
ViewpointsJan. 22, 2024
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[Editorial] More signs of risks
Last week, South Korea’s policymakers noted their alarm at the risks of military clashes in the Middle East that spin out of control, dragging more nations in the region into complex conflicts and hurting weakened supply chains further. On Tuesday night, Iran carried out a missile and drone attack on what it called “terrorist” targets in Pakistan. In response, Pakistan struck militant targets inside Iran on Thursday. The tit-for-tat attacks, the biggest cross-border intrusions
EditorialJan. 22, 2024
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[Editorial] Upgrade intelligence capabilities
South Korea, the US and Japan staged their largest-ever joint naval exercise in international waters south of Jeju Island for three days through Wednesday, following North Korea’s launch of a hypersonic missile. Nine warships including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson with F-35C stealth fighters and F-18 Super Hornets on board, South Korean Aegis combat system-equipped destroyers and Japanese Kongo-class destroyers took part in the drill. The maritime exercise began a d
EditorialJan. 19, 2024
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[Patricia Lopez] Time to scrap the Iowa caucuses
The Iowa caucus has become an outdated relic. Like eight-track cassettes and checkbooks, it served a valuable purpose at one time, but no longer. Donald Trump, as he has with so many things, reset the rules of the political game here, essentially turning the state into a backdrop for his brand of theatrics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, played by the old rules. He dutifully visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties, poured money into building the ground game that everyone said w
ViewpointsJan. 19, 2024
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[Daniel DePetris] Strikes on Houthis yet another example of Congress sidelined
President Joe Biden’s decision on Thursday to order a wave of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen was inevitable the moment the Yemeni militia disregarded Washington’s warnings a week earlier and sent a swarm of 18 drones and three anti-ship ballistic missiles in the direction of US warships. Last week’s strikes, which took place with the cooperation of the United Kingdom and were aimed at 60 locations, were designed to degrade the Houthis’ capabilities and hopefully
ViewpointsJan. 18, 2024
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[Editorial] Chip cluster plan
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday announced a plan to form a massive semiconductor chip cluster in southern Gyeonggi Province, which is projected to draw combined investments of 622 trillion won ($471.4 billion) for facilities and provide 3 million jobs over the next 20 years. The plan, unveiled at Yoon’s public debate event, aims to double the number of chip-producing plants in the region to 37, consolidating them into a vast chip cluster covering cities like Hwaseong, Giheung, Pyeongtaek
EditorialJan. 18, 2024
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[Andreas Kluth] World is feeling angst of liminality
The crisis of 2024 “consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” Symptoms such as extreme polarization, democratic corrosion and neo-fascism in the US and elsewhere, in turn boding conflict, serfdom and war. Oh, wait. That line above was meant to describe the year 1930. That’s when it appeared in prison notebook number 3, written by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist philosopher in Beni
ViewpointsJan. 18, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] If America chooses to 'leave the world behind'
Currently, the United States of America is experiencing a plethora of domestic and overseas crises. Internally, there is unprecedented political bipolarity, severe inflation and the surge of a COVID-19 variant called JN 1 that have caused widespread deaths. Externally, the Ukraine war, the South China Sea dispute and North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launches threatening mainland America come to mind. Under the circumstances, many Americans no longer want their country to in
ViewpointsJan. 17, 2024
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[Editorial] Prosecutors' election rush
The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office requested the Justice Ministry last week to penalize two incumbent prosecutors over their inappropriate behavior related to the April 10 general election. Under the Public Official Election Act, state public officials who wish to stand for election are required to resign 90 days before the vote. A prosecutors’ code of ethics stipulates that a prosecutor shall not be involved in political campaigns, and remain politically neutral in performing his or he
EditorialJan. 17, 2024