Most Popular
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Hyundai Motor eyes 80,000 jobs, W68tr investment at home by 2026
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Korea enters full election mode
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Seoul bus drivers go on general strike, cause morning rush hour delays
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Immigrant woman stabbed to death by Korean husband
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Official campaigning kicks off for April 10 elections
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Dialogue hopes fade as doctors pick hard-liner as new head
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Coupang pledges W3tr to expand Rocket Delivery nationwide by 2027
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[Election Battlefield] Political novice to face off star politician in ‘swing district’
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Court upholds jail term for man who attempted to murder ex-girlfriend
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S. Korea to boost support for single-parent families
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[Editorial] Uproot subsidy fraud
Subsidy irregularities by some nongovernmental organizations detected through inspection by the government are shocking. The Board of Audit and Inspection said on Tuesday it found that 10 NGOs are suspected of embezzling a total of 1.74 billion won ($1.3 million) from subsidies they received from the government. It also said that it had asked the police to investigate 73 people on charges of embezzlement, fraud and violation of the subsidy law. The board selected NGOs whose accounting was dubiou
EditorialMay 19, 2023
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[Daniel Hogsta] Delivering on nuclear disarmament
From May 19-21, the leaders of the G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) as well as high-level representatives from the European Union will meet in Hiroshima, Japan. Many of these leaders will be visiting the city, one of two where nuclear weapons were used in August 1945, for the first time. And since the nuclear threat is now higher than at any time since the end of the Cold War, they must not use this occasion to pass off the same deca
ViewpointsMay 18, 2023
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[Wang Son-taek] Wolf warriors retreat, worries diminish
Several days ago, there was a significant diplomatic event in Vienna, Austria. Jake Sullivan, the White House's national security adviser, and Wang Yi, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo, held talks there. The talks were reported to last more than eight hours over two days. It shows that in-depth conversations have been exchanged on various topics. Fortunately, the issues include the effective management of bilateral relations so that the US-China strategic competition
ViewpointsMay 18, 2023
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[Editorial] Looming medical crisis
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday rejected the passing of the Nursing Act, marking his second presidential veto that is now feared to intensify divisive conflicts not only in the medical industry, but also in partisan politics. The legislation of the Nursing Act traces back to March 2021, when a group of lawmakers proposed different versions of the bill. Over the past two years -- a period in which medical professionals played a crucial role in fighting COVID-19 -- lawmakers from rival parties
EditorialMay 18, 2023
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[Editorial] Untrustworthy service
Daum, a web portal under Kakao, started showing trending keywords right below the search bar on May 10. Naver is scheduled to launch a similar service in the second half of this year. A few years ago, the portals discontinued their "real-time search trends" services amid controversy that they could be abused by specific groups to manipulate public opinion. They seem to have resurrected the services under new names. The keyword recommendation service arouses concerns that the portals co
EditorialMay 17, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] Only a fool trips on what is behind him’
Suppose there are two types of men: One is a pleasant fellow to be with, and the other is not. One enjoys respect and adoration in the community, while the other does not. Which one would you prefer to be? The first man has a positive attitude. Although he has some sad memories of his past life, he does not harbor any grudges or enmities. He is generous enough to “forgive and forget” because he knows “a happier heart is the key to a happier life,” as Gandhi said. He tries
ViewpointsMay 17, 2023
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[Cory Franklin] High COVID-19 death rate in US
Following his recent retirement, Dr. Anthony Fauci reflected on his government role during the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked about the high per capita COVID-19 death rate in the US, Fauci replied, “Something clearly went wrong. And I don’t know exactly what it was. But the reason we know it went wrong is that we are the richest country in the world, and on a per capita basis we’ve done worse than virtually all other countries. And there’s no reason that a rich country lik
ViewpointsMay 17, 2023
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[Daniel DePetris] US still very much at war on terrorism
At a time when the Biden administration has its hands full trying to reverse Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and manage a US-China relationship stuck in the doldrums, America’s vast, lethal counterterrorism machine continues to be in high gear. The US intelligence community, in close partnership with America’s special operators, are tracking and hunting down terrorists in several countries -- Syria and Somalia, most especially -- with such regularity that it barely makes a dent in
ViewpointsMay 16, 2023
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[Editorial] Snowballing crypto scandal
Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea said Sunday he would “temporarily” leave the party because he “does not want to be a burden to the party and its members at this crucial moment.” Kim’s announcement came nine days after embarrassing revelations that he had been engaged in suspicious cryptocurrency transactions and owned around 800,000 wemix coins valued at 6 billion won ($4.4 million), even though he promoted a frugal image. Suspicion
EditorialMay 16, 2023
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[Lisa Jarvis] Isolation is as harmful as smoking
Your doctor’s orders for staying healthy might include a daily routine of eating your broccoli, going to the gym and getting a good night’s sleep. Now, the US surgeon general would like to add another action item to the list: Reach out to a friend. In a new report, Vivek Murthy says that the US is experiencing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation that can be as harmful to our health as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Murthy also offers practical fixes: public policies and spac
ViewpointsMay 16, 2023
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[Ana Palacio] A BRICS revival?
There was a time when everyone was talking about a group of fast-growing emerging economies with huge potential. But the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- struggled to transform themselves from a promising asset class into a unified group of real-world diplomatic and financial players. Is this finally changing? The story of the BRICS begins with a November 2001 paper by Jim O’Neill, then the head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, called
ViewpointsMay 15, 2023
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[Editorial] No quick fix
Korea Electric Power Corp. recorded an operating loss of 6.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion) in the first quarter of this year. Its quarterly sales increased 31 percent year-on-year thanks to four rate hikes last year, and its operating loss decreased 20 percent. And yet the amount of the loss remains gigantic. Kepco remains in the red since it turned into a deficit in the second quarter of 2021. It posted operating losses of 5.8 trillion won and 32.6 trillion won in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The
EditorialMay 15, 2023
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[Mark Z. Barabak] Will Trump pay a political price?
There is a long list of descriptors used to identify Donald Trump: real estate magnate, reality TV star, former president, insurrectionist, criminally indicted payer of hush money. As of Tuesday, a new particularly incriminating label can be added: sexual assailant. Even so, the determination of a civil jury -- that Trump physically brutalized writer E. Jean Carroll -- seems unlikely to make much difference to his unshakable political base or, for now, change the fundamental dynamics of the 202
ViewpointsMay 12, 2023
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[Editorial] Med school obsession
The overwhelming and almost obsessive popularity of medical schools among elite Korean students has been a concern among education policymakers over its side effects, such as a growing number of repeat test takers. Another troubling sign is emerging: 1 in 5 applicants who made it to much-coveted medical schools hailed from wealthy districts in southern Seoul -- and their share is steadily on the rise. Among those who were admitted to medical schools, 20.8 percent of applicants came from the thre
EditorialMay 12, 2023
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[Lee Kyong-hee] History matters in Korea-US-Japan relations
On the cusp of World War II, Syngman Rhee warned Americans about Imperial Japan’s expansionist ambitions. “To review the past is to preview the future,” wrote the future president of Korea in his 1941 book, “Japan Inside out: The Challenge of Today.” Months after the book’s release, Japanese planes bombed US naval ships at Pearl Harbor. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Korea-US alliance and mutual defense treaty, hailed as a historic success. Yet, t
ViewpointsMay 11, 2023
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[Doyle McManus] Concerns grow about US debt ceiling
It's time to start worrying about the debt ceiling. The US federal government is careening toward its borrowing credit limit, beyond which the Treasury won't be able to pay all its bills. The consequences could be truly catastrophic -- a global financial crash -- or merely damaging: a jump in interest rates, a plummeting stock market and a more likely recession. Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said the "X Date," the day the money runs out, could arrive as soon a
ViewpointsMay 11, 2023
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[Editorial] Step up reforms
The accomplishments of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in its first year are far from small. His presidency marked the first anniversary on Wednesday. It set some state affairs that had caused problems right. The Yoon administration scrapped the nuclear phase-out policy that damaged Korea’s advanced nuclear industry. It eased anti-market real estate regulations that caused property prices to skyrocket. Its attempt to redress the high-handedness of large labor unions is something the previ
EditorialMay 11, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] From Hallyu fans to Korean studies specialists
The other day, I passed by a Books-A-Million store near my house in rural New England. Otherwise known as “BAM!,” this big store is a typical pop culture emporium that sells books, DVDs, movies and toys. Normally I would walk by without a second thought, but I saw something that intrigued me, a big poster hanging on the front window that said, “K-Pop Available Here.” The poster got me so curious that I decided to drop in to see what they had. Inside, I found another large
ViewpointsMay 10, 2023
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[Editorial] Shift in COVID-19 policy
The World Health Organization announced Friday that COVID-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, a landmark declaration that calls for a change in policy and strategy to handle the coronavirus. The WHO said in a statement that deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 are declining, while the levels of immunity to the coronavirus is going up as a result of vaccination or prior infection. The global health agency suggests it is time to shift to more long-term prevention and contr
EditorialMay 10, 2023
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[Antara Haldar] The price of sweatshop development
It has been ten years since an eight-story commercial building housing several textile factories on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, collapsed on April 24, 2013. The collapse of Rana Plaza claimed the lives of 1,134 people and severely injured 2,000 more, most of them women. It was the deadliest industrial disaster since the 1984 gas leak that killed more than 3,000 people in Bhopal, India, and the worst accident in the modern history of the textile industry. Thousands of workers were trapped
ViewpointsMay 10, 2023