Most Popular
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Korean labor force to shrink by 10 million by 2044: report
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Pandemic left Korea more depressed than before: report
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[AtoZ Korean Mind] Does your job define who you are? Should it?
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Allegations surrounding BTS resurface, enraged fans demand apology
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Students with history of violence will be barred from becoming teachers
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Medical feud leaves hospitals in financial crisis
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Samsung mocks Apple over iPhone alarm glitch
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Chip up cycle won’t stay long: SK chief
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'Queen of Tears' riding high on Netflix chart
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Top prosecutor pledges 'speedy, strict' probe into first lady's luxury bag allegations
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[Kim Seong-kon] The crisis of liberal democracy in the era of 3 P's
In 1992, when Francis Fukuyama published his celebrated book “The End of History and the Last Man,” people thought that liberal democracy would be the predominant form of government on Earth after the disappearance of the Soviet Union. Despite Fukuyama’s optimistic prediction, however, ideological evolution did not end even after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, and consequently, liberal democracy is in crisis today. In his article “Populism is a Symp
ViewpointsJune 7, 2023
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[Joseph E. Stiglitz] Western industrial policy and international law
With the enactment last year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the United States fully joined the rest of the world’s advanced economies in combating climate change. The IRA authorizes a major increase in spending to support renewable energy, research and development and other priorities, and if estimates about its effects are anywhere near correct, the impact on the climate will be significant. True, the design of the law is not ideal. Any economist could have drafted a bill that woul
ViewpointsJune 6, 2023
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[Editorial] Trilateral cooperation
South Korea, the United States and Japan are accelerating military cooperation in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada met on Sunday on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top defense meeting, in Singapore, and agreed to activate a missile data sharing mechanism before the end of the year. Presently, South Korea and Japan each share
EditorialJune 6, 2023
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[James Stavridis] How will AI change modern warfare?
Artificial intelligence is, suddenly, everywhere. We are awash in ideas about how we can use AI productively -- from agriculture to climate change to engineering to software construction. And, equally, there are plenty of cautionary notes being struck about using AI to control societies, manipulate economies, defeat commercial opponents, and generally fulfill Arthur C. Clarke’s visions of machines dominating man in "2001: A Space Odyssey." Thus far, however, relatively little has
ViewpointsJune 5, 2023
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[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Europe‘s Climate Quandary
As Europe sets its sights on becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral continent, it must perform a delicate balancing act. Can the European Union transform its economy while enhancing its competitiveness? And can it achieve these goals while maintaining its status as a shaper of global standards and adhering to its principles of fiscal responsibility? The answer to these questions is a resounding no. Trade-offs are unavoidable, and identifying the concessions required to strike the ri
ViewpointsJune 5, 2023
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[Editorial] Election watchdog audit
Public criticism is mounting against the country’s election watchdog mired in nepotism allegations, especially after it refused the state auditor’s inspection, citing a Constitutional practice. The National Election Commission held a commissioners meeting Friday and decided to refuse the proposed audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection. The nine commission members, including its chief Roh Tae-ak, unanimously rejected the audit despite growing calls for a full investigation into th
EditorialJune 5, 2023
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[Robert J. Fouser] Japan remains stuck in 2019
A few weeks ago, I visited Japan for the first time in four years. I expected to find many changes but was surprised to find things almost the same as they were in 2019. Compared to South Korea and the US, where some pandemic era innovations have become the norm, Japan feels the most like 2019. As I traveled, I began to wonder why and came up with several possible answers. Compared to South Korea and the US, Japanese society changes more slowly. Japanese organizations are wary of sudden change a
ViewpointsJune 2, 2023
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[Editorial] Alert confusion
The mobile text alert that Seoul Metropolitan Government sent out to citizens on Wednesday morning when North Korea launched a rocket caused confusion as it was corrected a little later. At around 6:41 am, after the North’s launch, Seoul sent an alert message that read “Alert issued for Seoul at 6:32 am today. Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first.” Seoul citizens' mobile phones blared the alert alarm, but there was no in
EditorialJune 2, 2023
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[Michael O'Donnell] Novels to help remember pandemic
The pandemic is officially over. By federal declaration, the public health emergency expired on May 11. Yet COVID-19′s devastating effects are going nowhere. I recently attended a wedding where only one of the bride’s parents was there to see her take her vows because the coronavirus had claimed the other. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.1 million Americans and nearly 7 million people globally have died as a result of the disease. Nevertheless, three years after the wo
ViewpointsJune 1, 2023
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[Editorial] Telemedicine dispute
COVID-19 has changed many things in South Korea. One inspiring change involves telemedicine, which has helped doctors treat patients via remote solutions -- a revolutionary adoption of innovative technology for the conservative medical sector thanks to the urgent need for fast and contactless treatment. Telemedicine services were provided to 14.2 million patients over the three-year period from 2020 through April this year in connection with treatment of the novel coronavirus, according to the H
EditorialJune 1, 2023
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[Wang Son-taek] How to respond to the satellite launch of North Korea
The security situation on the Korean Peninsula has fallen into a foggy hole again as North Korea attempted the launch of a military reconnaissance satellite. Though the launch failed, it does not change the assessment that North Korea seriously violated the UN Security Council’s resolutions which ban the North from using ballistic missile technology. As North Korea's satellite launch has consistently deteriorated security anxiety, dragging down the security situation on the Korean Pen
ViewpointsJune 1, 2023
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[Andreas Kluth] Kremlin offers Trump-Putin ticket
The bizarre and unsavory strongman bromance between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump continues. If you’re a Make America Great Again Republican and not having second thoughts by now, something’s wrong with you. The latest head-scratcher and jaw-dropper is a new list of sanctions slapped on American individuals by the Russian president. That’s already weird. Aren’t we in the West the ones imposing sanctions on him for waging a genocidal war of conquest against Ukraine? But
ViewpointsMay 31, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] Koreans’ sense and sensibility of colors
Linguists say that the Korean people have an extraordinarily keen sense of colors. For example, Koreans do not simply say something is red, blue, or yellow, or reddish, bluish or yellowish. In fact, the Korean language has numerous, rich adjectives depicting the subtle nuance of different colors. Among others, "bulgu-jukjuk hada," "pureut-pureut hada" and "nori-kiri hada" come to mind, all of which are hard to translate into English, but delicately describe complex
ViewpointsMay 31, 2023
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[Editorial] A blind spot
Alleged employment favoritism which was recently exposed in the National Election Commission shows that an institution, if left unchecked, is likely to decay. NEC Secretary General Park Chan-jin and his deputy, Song Bong-sup, offered to resign Thursday following allegations of preferential treatment in the hiring of their children by the election watchdog. Their resignations came 14 months after the previous Secretary General Kim Se-hwan resigned amid criticisms for poor management of early voti
EditorialMay 31, 2023
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[Parmy Olson] Don't believe your eyes in AI era
A fake photo of an explosion near the Pentagon went viral across Twitter on Monday, and stocks dipped. The incident confirmed what many have said for months: Misinformation is on course to be supercharged as new AI tools for concocting photos get easier to use. Fixing this problem with technology will be an endless game of whack-a-mole. It’s certainly worth trying to track image provenance, as Adobe is doing with its Content Authenticity Initiative. But as the saying goes, a lie can trav
ViewpointsMay 30, 2023
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[Editorial] Step up airline safety
It is always too late to lament safety problems after a fatal accident has already taken place. In particular, midair accidents stemming from lax safety rules could have devastating results. On Friday, a frightening accident involving a local carrier took place, alarming authorities and shocking the public. A passenger suddenly opened a door of an Asiana Airlines plane right before landing at Daegu International Airport -- when the aircraft was about 213 meters above ground. The plane landed wit
EditorialMay 30, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] Belonging nowhere and everywhere
Recently, I came across an article in Axios with the headline, “Asian Americans least likely to feel they belong in U.S., study finds.” Quoting from a survey jointly conducted by the Asian American Foundation, the article reported, “Only 22% of Asian Americans said they feel they belong and are accepted in the U.S.” CNN, too, recently reported that many second-generation Korean immigrants to the US are moving to South Korea because “they always felt like outcasts, a
ViewpointsMay 26, 2023
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[Editorial] Perils of fake news
Fast-evolving artificial intelligence offers plenty of powerful tools. As with any device and technology, however, AI can be easily abused in a way that often generates unfathomable results. A striking case in point is a fake photo of an explosion near the US Pentagon that went viral on Monday. The concocted image, likely generated by AI, triggered a brief dip in the US stock market, as some media and individual accounts on Twitter picked up the post and shared it with their followers. The messy
EditorialMay 26, 2023
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[Lee Kyong-hee] South Korea deflects on US-China conflict
Henry Kissinger’s warning of a possible US-China military conflict over Taiwan within the next 5 to 10 years is a sobering prediction for the global community, especially South Korea. Due to its geographic and strategic proximity, it could be quickly embroiled in the fighting. There are plenty of reasons to feel anxious, though publicly the situation is only addressed in measured and oblique terms here. “We are in the classic pre-World War I situation,” says Kissinger, “w
ViewpointsMay 25, 2023
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[Editorial] Revive law enforcement
President Yoon Suk Yeol slammed the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions on Tuesday for its overnight street rally last week. Yoon said its actions infringed on people‘s freedoms and disturbed the public order. He said that his government would not neglect or tolerate any form of illegal action. The ruling People Power Party and the government on Wednesday held a meeting on the issue of establishing the public order. They decided to consider banning rallies from midnight to 6 a.m., strengt
EditorialMay 25, 2023