Most Popular
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[AtoZ into Korean mind] Humor in Korea: Navigating the line between what's funny and not
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Yoon seeks rebound, taps 5-term lawmaker as chief of staff
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Medical standoff deepens as doctors reject new med school plan, talks
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[Herald Interview] Why Toss invited hackers to penetrate its system
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[Graphic News] 77% of young Koreans still financially dependent
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S. Korean envoys convene to navigate strategy amid Middle East tensions
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North Korea fires several short-range ballistic missiles into sea: JCS
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Samsung, SK hynix investors dump shares on Nvidia crash
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Suspect in murder of girlfriend's mugshot, name made public
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S. Korea, US to initiate early defense cost-sharing talks this week
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[Editorial] Beyond the first meeting
Expectations are mounting for the first-ever official face-to-face meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and the Democratic Party of Korea's leader Lee Jae-myung, which could take place as early as this week. The meeting would be a crucial political event that could shed light on how the country’s key agenda items will be prioritized after the April 10 general election. On Friday, Yoon proposed the meeting in a call to Lee. Since then, the two sides have been coordinating the detail
EditorialApril 23, 2024
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[Editorial] Be a doctor, or not
The government said Friday it will let universities decide on the number of medical school freshmen they want to admit next year within a certain range, in an apparent compromise in its standoff with doctors. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that universities will be allowed to increase the places between 50 percent and 100 percent of the previously allocated increment. For instance, Gyeongsang National University’s medical college, which was set to admit a total of 200 freshmen next year
EditorialApril 22, 2024
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[Robert J. Fouser] After the National Assembly election
By any measure, the results of the April 10 National Assembly elections were a disaster for President Yoon Suk Yeol and his People Power Party. No incumbent president since democratization in 1987 has suffered a more resounding rebuke. The question now is what it means for the future of South Korean politics and, more broadly, the country itself. After the votes were counted, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea and affiliate party Democratic United ended up with 175 seats, up 19 from
ViewpointsApril 19, 2024
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[Editorial] Korean won worries
The South Korean currency’s sharp drop Tuesday triggered a flurry of warnings and statements from financial authorities, which helped stabilized the won to some extent in the following two sessions. But vigilant monitoring is in order as volatility may not fade out soon. It was a resounding red flag that the Korean won weakened to hit the psychologically important 1,400 won per dollar during an intraday trading Tuesday, affected by the sales of more assets by foreign investors here, the es
EditorialApril 19, 2024
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[Editorial] Act like a union
The trainee doctors who walked off the job two months ago in protest of the government’s plan to increase medical school enrollment are now demanding shorter mandatory military service among other things. Ryu Ok Hada, a resident who tendered his resignation on Feb. 16, said Tuesday he interviewed 150 interns and residents, and they said they would return to work if they are guaranteed the right to organize unions and to strike. “It appears that about half of the trainee doctors are w
EditorialApril 18, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] Democracy and the future of South Korea
There are a number of popular misconceptions about the meaning of democracy in Korea. Sometimes, we misunderstand democracy as merely “rule by the majority.” However, true democracy should also respect the opinions of the minority. Other times, we mistake democracy for the maxim that “we can do whatever we want to do.” In a democratic system, people authorize their elected representatives to work on their behalf. Thus, we should not expect these representatives to ask for
ViewpointsApril 17, 2024
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[Dennis Ross] Israel must end the Gaza War
The Iranian-Israeli war has now emerged from the shadows with the barrage of over 300 drones, rockets, and cruise missiles Iran launched at Israel. Along with the US military and other partners, the Israel Defense Forces were able to intercept 99 percent of them. Once again, the Israeli military demonstrated its superb capabilities, but US support was essential. Although Israel takes pride in being able to defend itself, circumstances have changed. When facing threats on seven fronts, as the
ViewpointsApril 17, 2024
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[Editorial] No more one-way street
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday said he would work to improve his communication with the people and try to accept the public sentiment, making his first public comments after the crushing defeat of his conservative ruling party in the April 10 elections. “All of us have to accept the public sentiment revealed in the general elections in a humble manner,” Yoon said in a televised speech during a Cabinet meeting. “I will communicate more in a humbler and more flexible attitude
EditorialApril 17, 2024
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[Sławomir Sierakowski] Beating back populists at the grassroots
Although local elections often don’t make international news headlines or involve widely recognizable household names, anyone who cares about the state of liberal democracy would do well to pay attention to them. In Turkey, for example, recent elections not only revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, they also offered broader lessons for long-struggling opposition parties about how to select effective candidates and run effe
ViewpointsApril 16, 2024
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[Editorial] Flashpoint in Middle East
Iran launched a massive missile and drone strike against Israel early Sunday in retaliation against Israeli airstrikes on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria, early this month that killed two Iranian generals. It was Iran’s first direct attack on Israeli territory after decades of a shadow war. Israel said its defense systems had successfully intercepted the attacks, resulting in minimal damage within its borders. The US and other members of the UN Security Council urged restra
EditorialApril 16, 2024
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[Peter Singer] Will Cambridge support free speech?
Nathan Cofnas is a research fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His research is supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust. He is also a college research associate at Emmanuel College. Working at the intersection of science and philosophy, he has published several papers in leading peer-reviewed journals. He also writes popular articles and posts on Substack. In January, Cofnas published a post called “Why We Need to Talk about the Right’s Stupidit
ViewpointsApril 16, 2024
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[Room Tone] 'Words into an AI prompt, does not a film make'
Text-to-video entry: “Please generate a high-octane, action film with the following storyline: "A father receives a phone call from an unknown number informing him that his estranged daughter has been kidnapped. If the father wishes to see his daughter alive, he must break into the safety deposit box of the five-star Seoul hotel where he works as a midnight janitor. He has two hours to get the contents of the security box to the designated drop point. In addition to the ticking cl
ViewpointsApril 15, 2024
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[Yoo Choon-sik] Korea’s growing trade surplus with US
The crushing defeat of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s party in last week’s nationwide parliamentary election casts a dark cloud over the fate of his administration’s various reform plans as well as its ability to manage national affairs efficiently. His administration will face difficulty implementing many of its announced policies and creating new ones. It is the first time under the current Constitution that a sitting president’s party has failed to win the majority in parli
ViewpointsApril 15, 2024
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[Eric Posner] The future of work in the AI era
Recent discussions about the implications of artificial intelligence for employment have veered between the poles of apocalypse and utopia. Under the apocalyptic scenario, AI will displace a large share of all jobs, vastly exacerbating inequality as a small capital-owning class acquires productive surpluses previously shared with human laborers. The utopian scenario, curiously, is the same, except that the very rich will be forced to share their winnings with everyone else through a universal ba
ViewpointsApril 15, 2024
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[Editorial] Post-election challenges
The April 10 general elections delivered a crushing defeat to the ruling People Power Party, which took home just 108 seats in the 300-member National Assembly in South Korea. The result signals that President Yoon Suk Yeol will be under strong pressure to seek cooperation with the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea to push ahead with his key policy initiatives and grapple with the growing uncertainties on the economic front. Unfortunately, Yoon is unlikely to ditch his notoriously unilat
EditorialApril 15, 2024
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[Editorial] Time for cooperation
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea will be controlling a majority of the legislature for another four years, as it won 175 seats including proportional representation seats of its satellite party in the 300-member National Assembly. Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk‘s Rebuilding Korea Party, the Democratic Party’s closest friend, won 12 seats, raising the number of the two friendly forces to 187. The ruling People Power Party and its satellite party managed to secure just ov
EditorialApril 12, 2024
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[Antoinette Burton] The surge in seminar learning spaces
The academic seminar is busy reinventing itself in 21st century style. A space of learning that the humanities have relied on for centuries, it’s more powerful than ever. The seminars getting the high-profile attention are the ones that push the boundaries when it comes to “academic” subject matter. Taylor Swift is the celebrity seminar topic of the moment. But seminars for credit on everything from the music of The Beatles to hip-hop studies are the new normal in higher educat
ViewpointsApril 12, 2024