Within a few days, US President Joseph Biden is coming to Seoul to have a bilateral meeting with South Korea’s new leader, President Yoon Suk-yeol. It will be a great opportunity for the two presidents to strengthen the ties between the two countries. Indeed, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki announced, “This trip will advance the Biden-Harris administration’s rock-solid commitment to a free and...

George Orwell’s prophecy was right, after all. In his 1949 dystopian novel “1984,” Orwell envisioned a world divided into three totalitarian super-states: Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Oceania included the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Eurasia referred to continental Europe annexed to the Soviet Union. Eastasia indicated China, South Asian countries and the Japanese islands. ...

The inauguration slogan of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is “Back to the Republic of Korea.” It resonates with the Biden administration’s slogan, “America is back.” Indeed, both slogans suggest, “Back to normal” or “Back to those good old days.” Many people in Korea thought that something was not quite right for the past five years. Among other things, our political leaders seemed to be indi...

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is known as a political novice. Indeed, Yoon was elected president without any prior political career. Although he was prosecutor general, Yoon was not a professional politician, but a public prosecutor under the supervision of the minister of justice. However, such a background can be an advantage for him. Unlike professional politicians who have to consider many f...

People say, “Things change.” However, “Some things never change,” as the maxim says. It is especially true in Korea. For example, as the Yoon administration is about to launch, people begin talking about the urgency of “normalizing the abnormal” that the previous Moon administration has created for the past five years. They argue that Korea’s diplomacy with China and North Korea or with Japan an...

Now that the Korean people have chosen their new leader, who will steer the country for the next five years. Many Koreans are full of hope and expectation about the upcoming new era in South Korea. While congratulating the winner, I have 10 propositions for a brighter future for South Korea, which President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol might want to consider. First, our political leaders should be mindfu...

The fateful day of deciding Korea’s future has arrived at last. Today, the Korean people will choose their destiny by electing their new political leader. If we vote for the wrong person, our future will be grim and bleak. If we choose the right person, we might avoid the calamity of utter collapse, if not have the luxury of a bright future. In that sense, the 2022 presidential election will be o...

When professor Lee O-young sadly passed away last week, Korea lost its precious Polaris, the North Star that has guided her people in the darkest hours of the night. When he was with us, we were already praising him as a legendary person so rarely and extraordinarily gifted that someone like him could appear only once in a century. Now leaving this world after 89 years, he has become a legend aga...

I recently came across Oh Yoon-hee’s intriguing novel, “The Eerie Story Club at Samgae Tavern & Inn.” The novel is set in the 18th century in the Joseon Kingdom, at a tavern & inn in Samgae Ferry -- modern day Mapo -- where all sorts of vendors come and go with lurid and strange stories to tell. Part One unfolds with various bizarre stories that the protagonist, Seonnomi overheard from vendors w...

In the early 1980s when I began teaching at Seoul National University, I had my students watch George Romero’s legendary film, “Night of the Living Dead” in one of my graduate classes. At that time, very few Koreans even knew what a zombie was. Accordingly, my students at SNU were shocked and appalled at the bone-chilling horror of the first modern zombie film released in 1968. After we watched ...

Lately, the foreign press has featured some intriguing articles on South Korea’s “Generation MZ,” a term that encompasses millennials and Generation Z, or roughly those born from the 1980s into the 2010s. For example, Bloomberg reported on young people in Korea in their 20s and 30s standing in a long line at 5 a.m. to buy famous brands at a department store. The New York Times, too, in an article...

Back when I lived in the US pursuing an advanced degree in the 1970s, Americans frequently exchanged a salutary “Hi!” or “Hello!” when they passed by on the street, even if they were total strangers. Even today, when a baby wakes up in the morning, American parents teach the baby how to greet, by saying “Hi!” with a bright smile. Surely, such warm and friendly greetings, among other things, made ...

Recently, the American satirical film, “Don’t Look Up,” has been attracting widespread attention. It is a small wonder why. The film features a stellar cast: Meryl Streep is president of the US, and Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio play two astronomers from Michigan State University, who have found a comet big enough to destroy humanity on a direct course to earth. The two astronomers, Kat...

Dear Presidential Candidates of South Korea, We hope you realize that 2022 is a crucial and pivotal year for your country for many reasons. As you know, South Korea is now facing unprecedented crises both internally and externally. Whoever is elected as the next president will therefore face the challenging task of skillfully navigating the “S.S. Republic of Korea” in a stormy sea, sailing the n...

According to the Chinese zodiac, the year 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. Although the younger generation in Korea is perhaps no longer interested in the zodiac, it still counts for the older generation. The zodiac says that those who are born in the Year of the Tiger are bold, courageous, and confident. At the same time, however, they tend to be impetuous, overindulgent, and unpredictable. The s...