Most Popular
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Yoon pushes for Xi’s visit to firm up ties with China
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Esports legend Faker seeks to lead Korean surge at Asian Games
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[Hello Hangeul] The making of Korean language textbooks featuring BTS
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Incheon Airport passenger traffic to recover during Chuseok holiday
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Korea’s parental leave benefits lag behind OECD average
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Korea trade volume sees sharp drop among OECD members
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Golden apples: Why fruit prices are national issue in early autumn
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2m Koreans opt out of life-extending treatments
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Chief justice seat at top court left vacant amid Assembly chaos
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BTS' Jungkook to drop new single '3D'
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[Editorial] Roadblocks ahead
The South Korean economy is set to grapple with three volatile conditions -- the so-called “three highs” -- in the coming months: higher interest rates, high energy prices and the higher value of the US dollar against the Korean currency. First and foremost, the US interest rate change is drawing keen attention from Korean policymakers and investors as its impact is potentially critical. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged, but signaled it may opt for on
EditorialSept. 25, 2023
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[Charles J. Murray] What we need to hear about transition to EVs
With the coming of the annual National Electric Drive Week, we are again likely to hear politicians and proponents sing the praises of electric vehicles. EVs, we will be told, are going to change life because they are cleaner, easier to maintain and fun to drive. But here’s what we should also be discussing, although we probably won’t: There’s a giant transition on the horizon. Sixty countries, including the entire European Union, are calling for a complete ban on combustion
ViewpointsSept. 25, 2023
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[Editorial] Kepco’s woes
President Yoon Suk Yeol signed off on the appointments of Kim Dong-cheol as the new CEO of Korea Electric Power Corp., also known as Kepco, and Bang Moon-kyu as trade minister this week, the very two figures in charge of the highly explosive issue of electricity rate hikes. The idea of raising electricity rates is a sensitive topic for the government as many households find the sharp increase in August's electricity bills hard to swallow. This year’s lengthy heat waves forced many hou
EditorialSept. 22, 2023
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[Mihir Sharma] India needs to stop the bleeding from Canada killing
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dramatic statement in parliament that there were “credible allegations” Indian intelligence was behind the murder of a radical Sikh activist in British Columbia came as a shock to many in India for a couple of reasons. For one thing, most of us still believe that we’re the good guys and our government doesn’t do this kind of thing. More importantly, if India actually did conduct an assassination on Western soil -- which its
ViewpointsSept. 21, 2023
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[Editorial] Lee's arrest warrant
The National Assembly is set to vote on a government request for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung to attend a pretrial detention hearing. He has promised many times to give up his privilege as a lawmaker of being able to avoid detention depending on the result of a National Assembly vote and voluntarily attend a detention hearing like ordinary people do if the prosecution sought an arrest warrant for him, but his promises were just empty words. An incumbent National Assembly member can stand tria
EditorialSept. 21, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] Leaving LA, center of Korean diaspora community
Since 1965, when a large number of Koreans began immigrating to the US, Los Angeles has been the undisputed center for the Korean diaspora community in America. Los Angeles means “city of angels” in Spanish and Korean immigrants have often looked to the city as a place of settling down in America. Koreans who went there overcame hardships and ordeals on foreign soil to pursue their dreams, just like pioneers in the Wild West. Given their motivation and drive, it is small wonder that
ViewpointsSept. 20, 2023
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[Ana Palacio] Rule-making in a divided world
If anyone had lingering doubts about the fractured state of global rule-making, they should now be dispelled. The just-concluded G-20 summit in New Delhi attracted as much attention for who was not there -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping -- as for the discussions among those who showed up. But the real takeaway from the summit, as well as the gathering of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) that preceded it, is that global rule-making is
ViewpointsSept. 20, 2023
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[Editorial] A worrisome gap
South Korea’s tax revenue shortfall for 2023 is now estimated to stand at 59.1 trillion won ($44.6 billion), according to newly revised government data, the biggest in years. The Ministry of Finance and Economy announced Monday it has revised down its annual tax revenue projection to 341.4 trillion won, citing sluggish corporate earnings and a protracted slump in the property market. The ministry’s earlier tax revenue outlook for this year was 400.5 trillion won. The new revision ref
EditorialSept. 20, 2023
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[Trudy Rubin] GOP revives lies about Biden and Ukraine corruption
Ronald Reagan famously used the phrase, “There you go again,” to imply that his Democratic opponents were full of bull and hyperbole. I can't think of a more appropriate response to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to pursue an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, in a desperate attempt to throw MAGA House members a bone so they won't try to shut down government funding in September . Without a shred of credible evidence, the GOP will be fishing f
ViewpointsSept. 19, 2023
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[Robin Abcarian] A fast-fashion dilemma
I realized I had a problem with internet shopping the day my 13-year-old niece looked at the packing slip in a box that had just arrived and yelled, "What -- $200 for a pair of jeans?!" I can explain. I have never spent $200 on a pair of jeans in my life. Kirkland, after all, is my couturier. But an ad for "Jetset Flare" jeans kept popping up on my Instagram feed. And my Facebook feed. I knew nothing about the brand, Frame. But I loved the way the jeans looked on the incredib
ViewpointsSept. 19, 2023
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[Editorial] Deceit of the nation
The manipulation of economic statistics by the Moon Jae-in administration, disclosed by the Board of Audit and Inspection last week after a six-month probe, is astonishing. The audit agency found that the Moon administration had persistently and widely manipulated government statistics on real estate prices, national income and employment to hide its policy failures. The board asked the prosecution to investigate 22 former Moon government officials on suspicion of leading the statistics manipula
EditorialSept. 19, 2023
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[Eric Posner] Problems with disqualifying Trump in 2024
A new legal effort to prevent Donald Trump from retaking the presidency next year is afoot. Its backers rely on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which bars from office anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion … or given aid or comfort to the enemies” of the United States. Numerous lawsuits have been filed arguing that Trump’s participation in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021 -- either by itself or as part of a larger effort to
ViewpointsSept. 18, 2023
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[Editorial] Dangerous deal
Military cooperation between North Korea and Russia is looming large. The recent summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is a sight showing that vague concern becomes real risk. It was a closed-door meeting and no press conference was held. Nothing is known about what they actually discussed, except for their open mention of cooperation in the field of satellites. Putin said Friday that Russia would not breach any agreements concerning the Korean Penin
EditorialSept. 18, 2023
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[Robert Fouser] What is Seoul, in 2023?
Reading articles about cities around the world almost always invites comparisons with Seoul because it’s the city I know best. I lived in Seoul for 12 years at different times starting in the mid-1980s and ending in the mid-2010s. In the years I didn’t live in Seoul, I visited the city at least once a year, except for the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 40 years that Seoul has been in my life, I’ve seen the city change and grow as South Korea has transformed it
ViewpointsSept. 15, 2023
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[Editorial] In need of quality jobs
As far as headline numbers are concerned, South Korea’s job figures for August are not so bad. In fact, the number of employed people went up last month from a year earlier. But beneath the upbeat data lies a problematic trend that continues to keep policymakers on edge. According to data released by Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the country added 268,000 new jobs in August, increasing the total of employed people to 28.67 million. The new job additions mark a much welcome rebound. In Jul
EditorialSept. 15, 2023
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[Todd G. Buchholz] The Golda who mattered
A movie starring Helen Mirren as Golda Meir has just opened, 50 years after the war that ended the Israeli prime minister’s career. More snore than sleeper hit, “Golda” captures its subject’s Chesterfield chain-smoking while brushing past a timely lesson about diplomacy: to be effective, leaders need to know each other’s personalities as well as each other’s national interests. America, for its part, has blundered when presidents have confused the two. Preside
ViewpointsSept. 14, 2023
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[Lee Kyong-hee] Yoon’s misinformed Red Scare politics
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15 set himself apart from his predecessors. He did not mention Japan’s brutal 35-year colonial rule, from which the nation was freed on the day 78 years ago. Instead, Yoon bore hatred toward his perceived enemies at home, calling them “anti-state forces.” “The forces of communist totalitarianism have always disguised themselves as democracy activists, human rights advocates or progressive activists while engagi
ViewpointsSept. 14, 2023