Most Popular
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10-man S. Korea lose to Indonesia to miss out on Paris Olympic football qualification
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Hybe-Ador feud should have limited effect on Hybe's overall performance: analysts
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Second Gimpo civil servant found dead, after apologizing for not finishing work
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DP leader says he will meet Yoon without conditions
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First-ever meeting of president, opposition chief set to finally happen
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NewJeans' singles, Japanese debut to proceed as planned, despite Hybe-Ador feud
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Experts raise concerns about Japan putting pressure on Naver over Line
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Blinken calls on China to press N. Korea to end its 'dangerous' behavior
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Samsung mobile chief, Google device head meet in Seoul
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Ship linked to NK arms shipments to Russia is moored in China: State Dept.
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[Kim Seong-kon] War with fascism, communism, populism
Recently, I came across an intriguing article by a professor of sociology at Yonsei University. In that persuasive essay, the writer claimed that humans fought and won the battle with fascism in the early 20th century and with communism in the late 20th century. According to him, the great war of humanity is now against populism in the 21st century. Indeed, populism is seriously undermining democracy and human civilization these days. The term “populism,” which originally developed i
Feb. 22, 2023
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[Doyle McManus] Biden’s 2024 bid harks back to the past
When the 1996 presidential campaign approached, Bill Clinton faced an uphill struggle to win a second term. His biggest legislative proposal, a sweeping health care bill, had failed. His party had lost the House of Representatives to Republicans led by a fiery conservative, Newt Gingrich. Clinton's poll ratings were sagging. So he tacked toward the center. He battled Gingrich to a standstill over GOP plans to cut spending on Medicare. He championed modest but popular proposals such as the
Feb. 22, 2023
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[Jane Hoffman] Time to pull in reins of Big Tech
Every day, the $6.7 trillion Big Tech industry affects our lives in ways that empower and harm. Despite recent hits in earnings, current layoffs and Google getting slapped with yet another lawsuit from the Justice Department, the tech giants are still all-powerful in our society, economy and daily lives. As long as the digital age keeps pulling more of our lives online, Big Tech companies will grow and dominate. The big five -- Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Apple -- have become so lar
Feb. 21, 2023
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[Ana Palacio] How West can woo Africa back from China, Russia
The United States is finally paying attention to Africa. But recent attempts at engagement -- the US-Africa Leaders Summit in December and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s 10-day tour of the continent last month -- have offered no indication that the US has anything close to a meaningful strategy for engagement with the continent. And the European Union is no better. Renewed Western interest in Africa is long overdue. The continent plays an essential role in world affairs, not least be
Feb. 21, 2023
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[Sławomir Sierakowski] The constitutional chaos in Poland
Next door to Ukraine, where people are being killed every day for wanting to join the European Union, Polish leaders are waging what they have called a war on two fronts -- against both Russia and the EU. As a result of this “war,” the country’s populist government, led by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, has failed to unlock the 160 billion euros ($170 billion) that was allocated to Poland under the EU’s pandemic recovery fund. While the government has negot
Feb. 20, 2023
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[Tobias Bunde, Sophie Eisentraut] Re-envisioning liberal principles
While the world’s powers may not agree on much these days, most recognize that the world is at a critical juncture. US President Joe Biden’s National Security Strategy calls this the “decisive decade” in the contest for the future of the international order. Similarly, Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the world is entering “the most dangerous, unpredictable, and at the same time most important decade since the end of World War II.” For German Cha
Feb. 17, 2023
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ASEAN-Korea Center kicks off annual council meeting
The ASEAN-Korea Center kicked off its annual council meeting in Seoul to review programs hosted in the fiscal year 2022 and discuss the budget for this year. Held after 3 years due to the pandemic, the offline meeting was attended by high level officials from governments, academia and the media of 10 ASEAN member countries. According to the AKC, the annual meeting is significant for ASEAN countries and Korea to bolster international cooperation efforts in the post-COVID era. The center will
Feb. 16, 2023
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ASEAN-Korea Center kicks off annual council meeting
The ASEAN-Korea Center kicked off its annual council meeting in Seoul to review programs hosted in the fiscal year 2022 and discuss the budget for this year. Held after 3 years due to the pandemic, the offline meeting was attended by high level officials from governments, academia and the media of 10 ASEAN member countries. According to the AKC, the annual meeting is significant for ASEAN countries and Korea to bolster international cooperation efforts in the post-COVID era. The center will pl
Feb. 16, 2023
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Waitingi Day celebrations in Korea
The New Zealand Embassy in Seoul commemorated Waitangi Day at the ambassador’s residence in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Tuesday. Waitangi Day is celebrated as New Zealand's national day to commemorate the first signing of New Zealand's founding document, known as the Treaty of Waitangi, signed between the British Crown and about 540 Maori rangatira on Feb. 6, 1840. The commemoration was followed by a reception to bid farewell to friends in Seoul for New Zealand ambassador to Korea Phillip Turner.
Feb. 16, 2023
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[Lee Kyong-hee] Dokdo still unresolved as urgency mounts
Amid challenges to democracy around the world and military escalation in Asia, the United States, South Korea and Japan are discussing how to strengthen security cooperation. But Koreans have ample reason to feel uneasy. Will they be asked to ignore a territorial infringement that began 118 years ago? On Feb. 22, 1905, Japan arbitrarily “incorporated” Dokdo, a group of rocky islets known as Takeshima in Japan. The annexation supposedly was to ensure the safety of Japanese fishermen.
Feb. 16, 2023
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[Nicholas Goldberg] What Oscars tell us about the world
Just what do the Academy Awards tell us about the world we live in? I began thinking about this after I was contacted by Carl Plantinga, a research fellow and professor of film and media studies at Calvin University in Michigan. Plantinga was pushing a theory that, for better or worse, Oscars for best picture tend to honor films with simple, straightforward, morally clear messages and are less likely to go to morally complex or ambiguous films. His argument -- laid out as the Academy of Motion P
Feb. 16, 2023
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[Kim Seong-kon] 'Where to?' Which path should we take?
When you take a taxi, the driver will ask, “Where to?” Upon knowing your destination, he will try to figure out the fastest way to reach it, avoiding traffic congestion and wrong turns, so you can arrive safely without any problems. Likewise, your political leaders should know your desired destination and choose the best way to reach it. If they happen to choose the wrong path or become blocked by traffic, if they have made a wrong turn at the intersection or have taken you to the wr
Feb. 15, 2023
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[Doyle McManus] Spy balloon deflates US-China detente
The Chinese balloon that floated across the United States this month, apparently on a mission to collect intelligence, began its journey as a curiosity. Then it became a political metaphor: a symbol of US weakness to Republicans, a sign of President Joe Biden’s prudence to Democrats. Now, more than a week after the US Air Force shot it down, the errant balloon is gone, but its impact is still reverberating. The incident, and the larger Chinese program it revealed, is a serious obstacle to
Feb. 15, 2023
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[Editorial] Unconvincing rulings
Two rulings last week are stirring up controversy over their unconvincing decisions. The court on Wednesday acquitted former People Power Party lawmaker Kwak Sang-do of bribery in connection with 5 billion won ($4 million) in severance pay his son received from Hwacheon Daeyu. The asset management firm reaped an astronomical profit by joining in a now scandal-hit Seongnam City project to build apartment complexes in Daejang-dong. Its largest shareholder, Kim Man-bae, stands trial in connection w
Feb. 14, 2023
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[Martin Schram] Massaging the anti-Biden message
Here at the intersection of the news media, policy and politics, the unsubtle destabilizing -- and sometimes deliberate sabotaging -- of our democracy is proceeding on pace. America’s please-lie-to-me voters, who prefer to get their news and their political promises from folks who know how to make them feel good, knew where they could turn on State of the Union night. And all of us who want to understand how our political games are really being played these days need to take the time to wa
Feb. 14, 2023
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[Kent Harrington] House Republicans’ absurdities will hurt democracy
Voltaire famously warned that anyone who can make people believe absurdities can make them commit atrocities. Two and a half centuries later, an insurrection at the US Capitol by those who believed Donald Trump’s lies confirmed Voltaire’s point. And now, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives is doing everything it can to “flood the zone” with even more absurdities. Exhibit A is the new House “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Fede
Feb. 14, 2023
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[Elizabeth Shackelford] Is China really scarier than Zuckerberg?
A colleague recently sent me a TikTok she thought I’d find interesting. I clicked the link but immediately regretted it. I quickly cleared my browser history but felt it was too late and that the Chinese government was probably in my phone for good now. As a former US diplomat, I might be unusually sensitive to that possibility, having served in places where we took for granted that foreign state actors were listening in. But the combination of geopolitical rivalry, China’s surveilla
Feb. 13, 2023
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[Trudy Rubin] Three leaders partly to blame for earthquake deaths
There are moments, during horrific natural disasters such as the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, when you can witness the best that mankind is capable of -- the noble behavior that often emerges during a crisis. A Greek search and rescue team and Turkish special operations police -- whose members might have been fighting each other in wartime -- worked side by side to rescue a small girl through a narrow gap in a pile of concrete that once was an apartment building near Antakya, Turkey. A group
Feb. 13, 2023
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[Robert J. Fouser] Learning from the history of IT in Korea
On my visit to Korea last fall, I was lucky to have enough time for many long walks in Korean cities. On a walk through central Seoul, I passed by Sewoon Arcade, the famous commercial-residential complex across from Jongmyo. In the 2010s, the city of Seoul pushed plans to preserve the complex, but redevelopment of surrounding areas is going forward. Since it was built in 1966, the complex dwarfed its neighbors, but the tall buildings going up nearby make it look strangely small now. As I looked
Feb. 10, 2023
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Finnish minister visits Seoul to discuss technology cooperation with S. Korea
The Finnish minister of transport and communication visited Seoul to expand technological exchanges with South Korea in the fields of 6G, quantum computing and space, the Finnish Embassy in Seoul said Tuesday. Minister Timo Harakka, addressing the previous cooperation between the two countries on 5G network development at a roundtable held under the theme of "Building Digital Capability," said Finland has already taken steps toward 6G. The minister joined discussions with representativ
Feb. 9, 2023