[Kim Seong-kon] Living in the animal kingdom

These days, intellectuals lament that humans behave as if they were living in the animal kingdom. It means that we have lost our humanity and act like animals. An animal’s primary concern is to eat and survive. In addition to searching or hunting for food, some animals flock together and others fight for dominance over territorial disputes. Of course, animals also have some admirable traits, such as caring and sharing, but these behaviors tend to be limited to family or individuals within

Oct. 30, 2024

[Grace Kao] Taking gratitude into our own hands

I received a handwritten thank-you card from my childhood friend’s daughter this week. I sent a birthday check a little while ago. I very much appreciated it, and it shows that my friend has taught her daughter well, and that her daughter has good manners. I constantly remind my students to write thank-you notes (even a simple email message). I dare not ask them to handwrite thank-you cards. However, every so often, a handwritten thank-you card will appear. It is an exceedingly rare event.

Oct. 29, 2024

[Yoo Choon-sik] Monetary policy confined by apartment prices

South Korea’s economy posted surprisingly weak growth in the third quarter, as exports declined due to cooling demand from major markets like China, while construction investment plummeted amid a persistent slump in the domestic real estate market, according to official estimates from the central bank. Disappointing growth and slowing inflation typically point to a need for loosening in monetary policy to support the economy. However, most analysts predict the Bank of Korea will not lower

Oct. 28, 2024

[Allison Schrager] Populism bad for economic growth

The degrowth movement, which had a moment a few years ago, is over -- and not a moment too soon. As nations in Europe and North America face mounting debt and aging populations, politicians are again talking about how to increase economic growth. There’s only one problem: No one is advocating policies that will actually work. Doing that would require embracing change, which is the last thing any politician beholden to populism wants to do. The best recent illustration is former President D

Oct. 28, 2024

[Lee Byung-jong] President Park’s legacy

In this season of Nobel Prize awarding, South Koreans were happily surprised twice. The biggest news was of course the winning of the Nobel Prize in literature by the novelist Han Kang. Equally important, but perhaps less noticed news was the fact that the three winners of the Nobel Prize in economics revealed their work was largely inspired by the success of the Korean economy. In studying why some countries succeed economically, while others fail, they used Korea as a prime example of a succ

Oct. 25, 2024

[Jeffrey Frankel] What causes prosperity?

Why have some countries grown rich and others not? The three winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -- Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson -- offer a simple answer: institutions. Countries with “inclusive” institutions -- which underpin an open society, accountable government, economic freedom and the rule of law -- do better than those with “extractive” institutions that reward those in power. The World Bank’s institutional qu

Oct. 24, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Basic guidelines of intelligence agency

Over the past few days, the Korean Peninsula has been exposed to a flood of sensitive security issues. Above all, the news that North Korea was sending 12,000 special forces troops to Russia drew attention not only from South Korea but also from the international community. This explosive story changed the mood of major domestic politics. In particular, the quantity of negative stories about President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife has decreased to a certain extent. There was also an incomprehensibl

Oct. 24, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] Becoming both a progressive and a conservative

If someone says that they are both a progressive and a conservative, or leftwing and rightwing, we may think that they are a sly opportunist, a hopelessly contradictory person, or a case of dissociative identity disorder. Not anymore. Today, a perfectly normal person can become such a broadminded person who can cross the border between the two and embrace them, if they have courage and capacity. Moreover, they are an ideal person we need in order to build a non-polarized, better society. The ren

Oct. 23, 2024

[Neeraj Rajasekar] Wrong conversation about voter fraud

For the past decade, the United States has been mired in a repetitive, pointless conversation about “voter fraud,” helped in no small part by Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine voters’ faith in the electoral process. During the presidential debate with Kamala Harris in early September, Trump insisted that he was the true winner of the 2020 election, and he has repeatedly hinted that he will not accept the election results this November if they are not in his favor. Since

Oct. 23, 2024

[Patrick Bolton, Haizhou Huang] Is China facing a deflationary trap?

About two years ago, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy hit a roadblock. As all sectors underwent deleveraging, economic growth slowed, household savings rates increased and businesses scaled back their investments and accumulated savings. Many now wonder whether consumers and companies are stuck in a self-reinforcing cycle of declining spending and falling prices, which would have the pernicious effect of increasing the real value of debt. For a long time, the gove

Oct. 22, 2024

[Contribution] Korean police seek paradigm shift in policing

By Choe Ju-weon Director general of Korean National Police Agency Future Policing Policy Bureau Visitors to South Korea are often astonished by how safe the country feels -- whether walking around at any time of the day or leaving a phone or wallet unattended in a cafe. Korea ranks well on numerous recent global safety rankings for personal security, and many cite the country’s stable public safety as a reason for living here. This sense of security stems from the high, law-abiding spirit

Oct. 21, 2024

[Lee Kyong-hee] Readying young defectors for unification

Yeomyung School is where young North Korean refugees are wrapped in hope. Yeomyung means “the light of dawn.” It embodies hope for the dawning of unification. Perhaps its students will end up being the vanguards of unification as cross-border guides. But nowadays, accusations and provocations are eroding hopes. Of course, the Korean Peninsula is no stranger to bombast and hyperbole. For the authorities on both sides, verbal exchanges have been not much more than brinkmanship to gain

Oct. 21, 2024

[Martin Schram] Ike, Reagan and Goldwater help bid your hand

After years of being a proud conservative Republican, you really weren’t happy when you realized some time ago that your patriotic party had somehow morphed into a hero-worshiping cult. But “Make America Great Again” at least made it sound like it was still your kind of place. So you stayed. Even though the mean-spirited, name-calling, threats and lies of Trump Republicans wasn’t really your thing. But in the last couple of weeks the Great News Funnel has been pouring all

Oct. 21, 2024

[Robert Fouser] Random thoughts on Han Kang’s Nobel Prize

On October 10, the day after Hangeul Day, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Han Kang. The press stated that the award was given “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.” As word of the award spread, South Koreans jumped for joy and having won a second Nobel Prize. Fans of Han Kang around the world were thrilled at her receiving the most prestigious literary award in the world. The announcement dominated the n

Oct. 18, 2024

Guatemala had early role in disseminating Korean literature in Latin America

By Sara A. Solis-Castaneda Ambassador of Guatemala to Korea On the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of diplomatic relations between Guatemala and the Republic of Korea (1962-2024), it is essential to highlight a lesser-known aspect: Guatemala's early contribution to the dissemination of Korean literature in Latin America, even before the establishment of the Republic of Korea. This endeavor was spearheaded by the Guatemalan writer and diplomat Enrique Gomez Carrillo, who, in 1906, transla

Oct. 17, 2024

[Wang Son-taek] Is the risk of another Korean War higher than ever?

The possibility of a war on the Korean Peninsula is once again in the spotlight. Robert Manning, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, recently argued that the risk of conflict is the highest it has been since the 1950-53 Korean War. While the timeliness of this assessment is understandable, it is necessary to approach such claims with caution. The argument that the risk of war has escalated sharply is accurate in some respects and exaggerated in others. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula

Oct. 17, 2024

[Mariana Chilton] The destructive legacy of mass starvation

In the year since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, Israeli forces have killed an estimated 41,200 Palestinians, including 16,700 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. But a recent letter in The Lancet puts the true death toll in Gaza much higher, at more than 186,000, when counting those killed as an indirect result of the conflict. Severe food shortages are certainly a contributing factor. Israel’s blockade and devastating bombing campaign have prevented the entry

Oct. 17, 2024

[Jon D. Michaels, David L. Noll] Vigilante democracy raging in US

The insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was aimed at preventing the peaceful transfer of power after Donald Trump lost the US presidential election. This was clearly illegal, and the Justice Department has prosecuted hundreds for their crimes that day. Had they been successful, the plan for Jan. 7 and beyond was to legalize such attacks on democracy. While many Americans were shocked and chastened by the riot, one faction was energized by the events, which they saw as the first fruits

Oct. 16, 2024

[Kim Seong-kon] The Nobel Prize in Literature and the task of translation

The news that novelist Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature came as a wonderful surprise to the Korean people. We feel it's been a long time coming: Whereas Japan already has three Nobel laureates in literature and China has two, Korea had none until last week. At last, Korea has become a country with a Nobel Prize winner in literature. These days, Korea is well known to the world, thanks to the immense popularity of Hallyu. In a sign of this recognition, McDonald's sold

Oct. 16, 2024

[Grace Kao] Buddhism, Poet Seo Jeong-ju and BTS

What do poet Seo Jeong-Ju and Buddhism have to do with Hallyu and BTS? A lot, according to a lecture by the President of Dongguk University, Yun Jae-woong. His lecture this month at Yale University was titled “Love and Comfort in Korean Cultural Content: The Poetry of Seo Jeong-ju and the Music of BTS.” Professor Yun argues that Hallyu has roots in the earliest ideas from Korea and Buddhism. Notably, the poems are about the attentiveness to small things in life that offer comfort thr

Oct. 15, 2024