Most Popular
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1 in 3 Koreans live alone, family types becoming diverse
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Korea, Japan finance chiefs vow to tame rampant FX market volatility
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US 'incredibly concerned' about suspected NK-Iran military ties
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K-pop group's manager dismissed for setting up spycam in theater dressing room
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K-pop singer lost consciousness after being hit by foul ball, cancels show
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Korean Muslim YouTuber's plan to build mosque in Incheon goes viral
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[Kim Seong-kon] Democracy and the future of South Korea
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Yoon's office denies considering liberal figures for key posts
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Why is Apple Pay struggling to get purchase in Korea?
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Seoul says Fu Bao loan 'not going to happen'
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[Jieun Kiaer] AI natives: How children should read in our time
The term digital native was coined in 2001 by Marc Prensky. In his article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants," Prensky applied the term to young people who grew up surrounded by computers, mobile phones and other tools of the digital age. The devices and technologies that Prensky was referring to were greatly different to those we use now. We no longer have dial-up internet connections or clunky computers. Our digital experience has undergone dramatic changes. ChatGPT was released t
Jan. 29, 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
Jan. 26, 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 24, 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 22, 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 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
Jan. 17, 2024
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[Claudia Sahm] Don't worry about US debt. Seriously
US federal government debt ended 2023 at a record $34 trillion. The worries are bipartisan, with both Republicans and Democrats hearing about out-of-control borrowing from their constituents. In fact, almost six in 10 Americans say reducing it should be a top priority, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. So, it’s not a surprise that Congress is moving closer to passing a budget for fiscal year 2024 that would cap spending at $1.59 trillion which is a bit less than the $1.7 tr
Jan. 17, 2024
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[Lara Williams] Prod people into acting more greenly
If there’s a month dedicated to self-betterment, it’s dark and dreary January. The gyms are full, the pubs are empty and green juices are flying off the shelves. At least for now. Even with the best of intentions, the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t last very long at all. Many goal-setters give up on their commitments within just three months. We’re now in the second week of January, and some of you may have already slipped up on your promises. There&r
Jan. 16, 2024
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[Dr. Joannes Ekaprasetya Tandjung] Let creativity be core of Indonesia-Korea relations
“If there is one thing that unites us, it is our never-ending creativity. The world salutes the power of individuals to remain creative, to put forward our most thought-provoking ideas and turn those ideas into real events and sellable products,” Gandi Sulistiyanto, Indonesia’s ambassador to South Korea, said at the opening of the Korea-Indonesia Cooperation Forum in Jakarta on Nov. 30 last year. Launched by The Korea Herald CEO Choi Jin-young, the Korea-Indonesia Cooperation F
Jan. 16, 2024
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[Thitinan Pongsudhirak] Myanmar's military junta is losing power
As autocratic leaders gain influence, if not power, in more countries than proponents of democracy care to count, Myanmar is a remarkable exception: its military junta appears untenable. In fact, Myanmar’s people are putting their lives on the line to break the generals’ grip on power and reclaim their future. After nearly a half-century of military dictatorship, starting in 1962, a decade of political liberalization, economic reform and development progress followed, lasting from 20
Jan. 15, 2024
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[Jieun Kiaer] Hangeul should be at the heart of Hallyu
"I want my country to be the most beautiful country in the world. I don't want it to be the richest country. I don't want my country to invade other countries because I've been heartbroken by invasions. I’m satisfied if we have enough wealth to provide for ourselves and enough strength to keep us safe from invasion. Yet one thing that I deeply wish to have is a culture that has lasting legacy and power." ("My Wish" from Kim Ku, 1876-1949) As I start a new
Jan. 15, 2024
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[Media Art Now] TZUSOO engenders new cybernetic imagination
When advanced technologies bring about radical changes in society, there is always a collision of utopian and dystopian views. The heated debate last year over generative AI is one example. If you want to learn how to have your own point of view, why not turn to artists of our time, to their “anthropologically” attentive exploration of the contemporary conditions of the world? A group of young, free-spirited Korean artists stands out in this respect. Born digitally and technologica
Jan. 12, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] A visit to Osaka’s Koreatown
For the first time in years, I spent the holidays in Japan. One of the highlights of my visit was a long afternoon walk through Osaka’s Koreatown. The area has changed dramatically since my first visit in the mid-1990s. As I walked around, I thought about what the many changes mean and about how the area might change in the future. Located near Tsuruhashi Station in south-central Osaka, the Koreatown here had historically been the largest in Japan. An influx of people from South Korea in t
Jan. 12, 2024