Most Popular
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[Behind the K-pop Scene] 'K-pop is all about money'
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Seoul to mull more Ukraine support based on Pyongyang’s level of involvement: official
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[Oddities] What's in a name? How Koreans faked their way to Kim, Lee and Park
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Seoul unveils plan to move 68km of railways underground
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Russian, N. Korean flags displayed together on Ukraine battlefield
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Kakao’s AI service Kanana aims for ‘next KakaoTalk’
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[ASEAN Plus Korea] 'Restrictive immigration may dampen Southeast Asian interest in Korea'
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[Today’s K-pop] Blackpink’s Jennie, Rose set career-highs
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[Hello India] Hyundai Motor makes landmark stock debut in India
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No. of foreign nationals on old-age pension crosses 10,000
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[Kwang W. Kim] Korea needs a new social contract
In my last essay for The Korea Herald, I introduced the idea of the "Paradox on the Han River." To understand South Korea today, one must squarely face two contradictory realities. One is of incredible success, a rag-to-riches story with global brands, an addictive K-culture and a rising power at the Olympics. Political progress followed this success. Korea is a rare nation in the modern era with a conviction around constitutional democracy. At the same time, Korea’s youth is cha
ViewpointsAug. 15, 2024
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[Editorial] Establish principles
President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday approved the reinstatement of former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo. Yoon's move to reinstate the rights of Kim came as part of his decision to grant special pardons for 1,219 convicts on the occasion of Liberation Day which falls on Aug. 15. Kim’s reinstatement was a contentious issue even before Yoon’s approval. Han Dong-hoon, chair of the ruling People Power Party, opposed Kim’s reinstatement on the grounds that he refuses to adm
EditorialAug. 15, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Korea’s standing at Olympics over 100 years
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris wrapped up a 17-day run with a dazzling closing ceremony on Sunday. Although the South Korean team participated in the event with its smallest number of athletes since 1976, it exceeded expectations by winning 32 medals, including 13 gold medals. In the overall medal standings, South Korea ranked eighth, placing itself among the ranks of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany as one of the top 10 sports powers. It may look natural now to
ViewpointsAug. 14, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] We should think big and global
The way we perceive things is often provincial and parochial rather than global and universal. We assume that people in other countries think the same way as we do. In many cases, however, foreigners think differently due to cultural differences. Therefore, we need to think big and global, while embracing different opinions and perspectives. Our love of ivy and pine trees can be a good example. In Korea, we like ivy because it decorates a building beautifully by crawling all over it and giving i
ViewpointsAug. 14, 2024
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[Kathryn Anne Edwards] America's fertility policy gap is bad economics
Even if you didn’t care about or respect women’s choices when it comes to having children, the “childless cat ladies” comments from Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance are still deeply problematic because they suggest a misunderstanding of a vital policy issue: fertility. To the extent that this deeply personal choice can be aggregated and tracked, it is akin to a performance measure of the economy -- and the data is flashing red. The US fertility rate has been fall
ViewpointsAug. 14, 2024
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[Editorial] Summer surge
The number of positive COVID-19 tests is shooting up in South Korea and elsewhere, a summertime surge that warrants attention from both the health authorities and the public, especially older people and those with chronic diseases. A spike in the number of COVID-19 patients during the summer period seems to be settling as a seasonal trend. Although most confirmed cases tend to be mild compared to those during the early pandemic period, it is still a serious matter for those high-risk groups who
EditorialAug. 14, 2024
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[Grace Kao] What it’s like to ride in a driverless car
Waymo One is the first “autonomous ride-hailing service” available to customers. It advertises itself as offering a safer ride and allowing the autonomy of “people who can’t drive -- whether elderly, blind, or disabled -- to get around and do the things they love.” While many of us are cautiously optimistic and sometimes fearful of technology, in this particular case, I couldn‘t agree more with Google, the parent company of Waymo One. Recently, I visited San F
ViewpointsAug. 13, 2024
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[Editorial] Resume discussions
Ruling and opposition parties are getting closer to resuming discussions of pension reform. Choo Kyung-ho, floor leader of the ruling People Power Party, proposed last week to restart discussing pension reform, which had not materialized in the last term of the National Assembly. His counterpart of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, Park Chan-dae, responded positively, offering to start discussing pension reform quickly so that it could be concluded within the current term of the Ass
EditorialAug. 13, 2024
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[Editorial] NK cyberattacks
South Korea’s cybersecurity and intelligence assets have recently suffered setbacks, raising questions about the country’s security preparedness against North Korea’s intensifying cyberattacks and intelligence operations. The worrisome problem is that South Korean authorities are trying to minimize the scale and depth of the latest security breaches rather than taking steps to fix the apparent loopholes at a time when North Korea is ratcheting up its cyber and surveillance offe
EditorialAug. 12, 2024
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[Lee Kyong-hee] A Japanese way of facing history
The tumultuous history of the Korean Peninsula can be seen through a myriad of prisms. In some cases that defy conventional wisdom. Well-educated Koreans in the South moved willingly to the communist North before the Korean War and stayed. One exceptional case caught the attention of Ryuta Itagaki, a professor of historical anthropology, and the outcome is an illuminating saga of a prominent linguist. In 2010, Itagaki, then a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, met Kim Hye-young,
ViewpointsAug. 12, 2024
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[Karishma Vaswani] People power has won in Bangladesh, for now
Sheikh Hasina could have left gracefully. Instead, Bangladesh’s prime minister resigned and fled to neighboring India, ending her 15-year-long rule as chaos has engulfed the nation. The army wasted no time stepping in to form an interim government, although what shape that will take is still unclear. The military needs to find a swift path to a peaceful transfer of power. Any delay will risk damaging the country’s reputation with the international financial community even further --
ViewpointsAug. 12, 2024
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[Robert Fouser] Some changes in Korean since the 1980s
Languages change all the time, and Korean is no exception. In the age of social media, words that go viral quickly become mainstream, but other changes happen slowly and are hard to notice. I started learning Korean in 1983, and the 41 years since then have revealed a number of interesting changes. The most obvious change is the decline in the use of Chinese characters. In the early 1980s, Chinese characters were much more common in newspapers, books and street signs. Newspapers used vertical te
ViewpointsAug. 9, 2024
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[Editorial] EV batteries under fire
Electric vehicles have promised a transition to eco-friendly transport in the future. With governments around the world offering tax and policy incentives, the era of EVs seemed to be a sure thing. But carmakers are now either delaying or reconsidering the launch of new EV models, as the pace of sales of fully electric models has slowed and consumers opt for more convenient hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars. For car buyers in South Korea, there is another critical factor to consider: safety. In the
EditorialAug. 9, 2024
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[Editorial] Foreign caregivers
One hundred Filipina child care workers entered the country Tuesday to participate in the pilot foreign caregiver program pushed jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Ministry of Employment and Labor. They are scheduled to provide child care and light household management services for six months from Sept. 3 after receiving four weeks of additional specialized training. They have completed more than 780 hours of vocational training in caregiving in the Philippines, are certified b
EditorialAug. 8, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Humanitarianism will prevail
In August 2024, two fevers rage on the Korean Peninsula. One is the summer heat wave that hits the Peninsula every year. After the rainy season in late July, the heat wave pressures people to refrain from outdoor activities at higher than 35 degrees Celsius. The other is stories about the Olympics being held in Paris, France. Koreans were cold-hearted at the beginning of the Olympics, but the reports of adding gold medals every day standing around sixth place in medal earnings revived their nati
ViewpointsAug. 8, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] Waiting for truly great leaders
The whole world is now watching the political leaders who are dividing the world into “us” and “them”; who pretend that they are saviors who can deliver the people from the miseries inflicted upon them by the privileged or the establishment. Populists in essence, those politicians are posing as messiahs who can bring back the good old days to the disappointed, nostalgic people. Their slogan is invariably a variation of “Make our country glorious again,” whethe
ViewpointsAug. 7, 2024
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[Editorial] Excessive market jitters
Investors in South Korea seem jittery since the stock markets have been on a dizzying roller-coaster ride in recent sessions, triggered by fears that the US economy has been slowing faster than expected. The benchmark Kospi rebounded sharply Tuesday, along with the markets in Japan and Taiwan, allowing investors and financial authorities to heave a sigh of relief. But it is too early to conclude that a phase of steep losses on recession worries is over, especially given the depth of shock that g
EditorialAug. 7, 2024
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[Grace Kao] Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ make memes for democracy
Who doesn’t love a good cat meme? In a 2021 interview with Fox News, US Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance referred to Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” Later he adds, “It's just a basic fact -- you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC -- the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without chil
ViewpointsAug. 6, 2024
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[Marc Champion] Russia’s prisoner trade
Take a good look at the lists of prisoners exchanged between Kremlin and the White House. If, after that, you still find yourself admiring President Vladimir Putin for his strength and despising US alliances for their “weak” liberalism, you need help. Putin went in person to Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport to hug Vadim Krasikov as he stepped off the plane that brought him home. Krasikov is the “patriot” Putin has sought to free ever since the former was convi
ViewpointsAug. 6, 2024
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[Editorial] Absurd articles
A hole in the articles of South Korea's Criminal Act and Military Criminal Act regarding espionage crime came into view after a civilian employee of the Korea Defense Intelligence Command was arrested for leaking classified data on many of its overseas undercover agents. Under Korea's military penal code, both a person who spies for the enemy and a person who aids and abets a spy for the enemy shall be sentenced to death and life imprisonment. The "enemy" here is limited to N
EditorialAug. 6, 2024