The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Standoff over Nursing Act

A divisive conflict is heating up in the medical sector that could paralyze medical services for the public over the Nursing Act, which was passed Thursday by the opposition-controlled National Assembly. Making matters more complicated is the muddy partisan politics over the controversial bill, with the ruling People Power Party set to ask President Yoon Suk Yeol to veto the bill -- a development that could weaken the president’s political standing from the view of the main opposition Demo

EditorialMay 2, 2023

[J. Bradford DeLong] Neoliberalism’s final stronghold

The past decade has not been kind to neoliberalism. With 40 years of deregulation, financialization, and globalization having failed to deliver prosperity for anyone but the rich, the United States and other Western liberal democracies have seemingly moved on from the neoliberal experiment and re-embraced industrial policy. But the economic paradigm that underpinned Thatcherism, Reaganomics and the Washington Consensus is alive and well in at least one place: the pages of the Economist. A re

ViewpointsMay 1, 2023

[J. Bradford DeLong] Neoliberalism’s final stronghold

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] How the US Fed undermined its own credibility

The aftershocks of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, while seemingly fading, are still reverberating around the world. Although Federal Reserve officials have taken pains to assure the public that the US banking system is sound, it is unclear why anyone should believe them. After all, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the US Congress the same thing just days before SVB’s collapse in March. In the weeks since then, it was reported that the vaunted stress tests established by the 2010 Dodd-Fr

ViewpointsMay 1, 2023

[Joseph E. Stiglitz] How the US Fed undermined its own credibility

[Editorial] Nuclear alliance

President Yoon Suk Yeol returned home Sunday wrapping up a seven-day state visit to the United States. Yoon and US President Joe Biden discussed ways to strengthen extended deterrence and released the Washington Declaration separately from a joint summit statement. The gist of the declaration is the establishment of a new bilateral nuclear consultative group and the regular deployment of US strategic assets in South Korea. The Washington Declaration is significant in that US capabilities to back

EditorialMay 1, 2023

[Christopher Cokinos] Root for SpaceX’s Starship rocket

Elon Musk is the most morally dubious rocket pioneer since Wernher von Braun. And the most successful. With each, we can critique faults and celebrate achievements. Von Braun, who supervised the V-2 weapon program for the Third Reich and once calculated the number of slave laborers needed for more efficient production of the system, went on to supervise America’s Saturn V moon rocket. The latter was laudable. The former probably would have led to Von Braun’s arrest by the Allies had

ViewpointsApril 28, 2023

[Christopher Cokinos] Root for SpaceX’s Starship rocket

[Editorial] Lurking beneath fragile data

South Korea’s economy skirted a recession in the first quarter of this year -- by a narrow margin. Exports weakened, investment slowed and the growth outlook darkened amid the increasing uncertainties of the global economy. The economy expanded a mere 0.3 percent in the January-March period, compared with the previous quarter, according to the data of the Bank of Korea. Given that it had contracted by 0.4 percent on-quarter in the October-December period, the plus figure may offer a hopefu

EditorialApril 28, 2023

[Lee Kyong-hee] Take heed of North Korea’s food insecurity

North Korea is no stranger to chronic food shortages. For the past 17 consecutive years the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has placed the North on its list of countries in need of external assistance. The FAO’s latest quarterly review, “Crop Prospects and Food Situation,” issued last month, says, “A large portion of the population suffers from low levels of food consumption and poor dietary diversity. The food security situation is expected to remain fragile, given

ViewpointsApril 27, 2023

[Lee Kyong-hee] Take heed of North Korea’s food insecurity

[Editorial] Crucial occasion

President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden will release a special statement on strengthened extended deterrence to North Korea’s nuclear threat, South Korea's presidential office and the White House announced Tuesday. It will be the first time for South Korea and the US to release a separate statement on extended deterrence as part of a summit outcome. Documentation on a nuclear umbrella in the form of a statement is an extraordinary measure for an ally. In connection with Yoo

EditorialApril 27, 2023

[Editorial] Tricky support plan

The massive rental fraud case in Incheon has taken a new turn as the government has opposed a proposal calling for direct state intervention, while a special revision bill related to the scam will be put to a vote in the National Assembly this week. At the heart of the dispute is whether the government should extend direct financial support to the victims of home rental scams by offering them security deposits first through taxpayer money and then recoup the deposits later. The proposal was made

EditorialApril 26, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] What to expect from the Korea-US summit meeting

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-US alliance. To commemorate the invaluable friendship of these two countries, US President Joe Biden will host a state visit of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday. As international crises have loomed here and there and disrupted world peace lately, this upcoming summit in Washington is certainly very timely. In the past, when South Korea was underdeveloped and weak, it was almost the sole beneficiary of the Mutual Defense T

ViewpointsApril 26, 2023

[Kim Seong-kon] What to expect from the Korea-US summit meeting

[Scott Moore, Derek Scissors] China may be just running in place

Something about China encourages grandiose predictions. Just a few years ago, the US Intelligence Community forecast China would emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic economically and politically stronger than the United States. Now a popular view in Washington is that China will soon pass its economic and military peak, and the US will confront a declining power willing to take desperate measures, especially in the event of a confrontation over Taiwan. Beijing’s military exercises following T

ViewpointsApril 26, 2023

[Scott Moore, Derek Scissors] China may be just running in place

[Contribution] From Tesla to Rimac -- a highway to EV mobility

Following its energy transition strategy, the European Union has announced that the production of petrol cars within the EU market will be halted after 2035, as confirmed by the European Parliament last week. Overall adherence to this goal among EU member states has thus far been encouraging. In 2021, 19 percent of all newly registered passenger vehicles in the EU were electric, with more than 1.2 million EV cars sold. In some countries, such as Norway, 75 percent of all newly registered cars we

Foreign AffairsApril 25, 2023

[Contribution] From Tesla to Rimac -- a highway to EV mobility

Ukraine hopes for S. Korean arms in fight against Russia

Ukraine is hoping for South Korea's defense support in its fight against Russia, said the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul on Monday. The comments came after President Yoon Suk Yeol said that South Korea could provide aid beyond humanitarian or financial support if Ukraine comes under large-scale attacks against civilians in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. Korea can support Ukraine by providing state-of-the-art Korean-made defense equipment, said the embassy. "The continuation of tim

Foreign AffairsApril 25, 2023

Ukraine hopes for S. Korean arms in fight against Russia

[Editorial] Tangible results

President Yoon Suk Yeol departed for Washington on Monday for a summit with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Yoon is the second foreign leader to make a state visit to the US under the Biden administration after French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit late last year. The Yoon-Biden summit will be held during a critical time. Military tension has been mounting on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea continues missile provocations. Recently, the North test-fired a new solid-fueled i

EditorialApril 25, 2023

[Stephen L. Carter] The costs of pandering to the crowd

I’m not surprised that Fox News settled the Dominion defamation lawsuit, though like everyone else I’m taken aback by the amount. My suspicion is that the decision to drop the defense stemmed less from a fear of the jury verdict -- which might have been much lower -- than from the reputational toll a trial would have caused. And if there’s a lesson here, it’s not so much about Fox News as such but about the growing costs of pandering to your audience. If you’re r

ViewpointsApril 25, 2023

[Stephen L. Carter] The costs of pandering to the crowd

[Andreas Kluth] How NATO should deter Vladimir Putin's Russia

Come July, NATO allies will gather in Vilnius for their second summit since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his genocidal war of aggression against Ukraine. There’ll be 31 of them this time, after Finland joined the club in direct response to Putin’s bellicosity. What should they decide? One way or another, every discussion will touch on Putin. The neo-Tsarist, imperialist, irredentist and atavistic threat he represents menaces not only non-NATO countries such as Ukraine or

ViewpointsApril 25, 2023

[Andreas Kluth] How NATO should deter Vladimir Putin's Russia

[Editorial] Electricity rate dispute

While the South Korean government remains reluctant to raise electricity rates in the second quarter, the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) announced it would take drastic cost-cutting and self-help measures. “We will prepare and announce additional measures as soon as possible, including measures to slash labor costs, innovate organizations, support the vulnerable groups and improve public convenience,” Kepco CEO Chung Seung-il said in a statement Friday. In the company&r

EditorialApril 24, 2023

[Ana Palacio] Urgent for US to restore its position in Middle East

Perhaps no image better captures the shifting dynamics in the Middle East than that of Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s security council, and Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state, shaking hands in Beijing, with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, smiling between them. The officials were celebrating a China-mediated deal restoring diplomatic ties between the two rivals. In the process, China solidified its reputation as a global powerbroker and under

ViewpointsApril 24, 2023

[Ana Palacio] Urgent for US to restore its position in Middle East

[Editorial] Wasteful trip

Five lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties on the Strategy and Finance Committee set out on a nine-day business travel to Europe on Tuesday. They said they would visit France, Spain and Germany to learn about their fiscal rules. Of course, lawmakers are free to travel abroad for policy research. But at least they should have decency. The ruling and opposition parties wasted two years and six months neglecting the legislation of fiscal rules. Recently they agreed unanimously on a bill

EditorialApril 21, 2023

[Robert J. Fouser] Leaked US documents offer insight

The recent leak of classified US intelligence documents shocked the military and diplomatic establishment in Washington. On April 13, the FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, who leaked the documents in a Discord chat room. Investigations are continuing into how a low-ranking national guardsman had access to the documents and how accessible such information should be moving forward. The leaked documents showed that the US was spying on many co

ViewpointsApril 21, 2023

[Robert J. Fouser] Leaked US documents offer insight