The Korea Herald

[Robert J. Fouser] Why Koreans wear face masks

Nov 6, 2020

More than anything else, the face mask has come to symbolize the COVID-19 pandemic. It stirs strong emotions and deep prejudices. It has been at the center of public health debates and the turbulent ...
[Cass R. Sunstein] Don’t invoke Bush versus Gore

Nov 5, 2020

It’s Election Day, and there are already lawsuits challenging votes and voting procedures. Some of them are invoking the Supreme Court’s 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore, which effectively handed that y...
[Kim Myong-sik] Legal justice in doubt on ex-president’s prison term

Nov 5, 2020

Former president Lee Myung-bak was back in the Dongbu Prison on the eastern outskirts of Seoul last Monday with the Supreme Court’s final sentence of 17 years. He was ordered to pay 18.78 billion won...
[Shin Yeol-woo] Korea’s fire service has no nationality and border

Nov 5, 2020

Defining the modern society as a risk society, risk management scholars insist one of the visible characteristics of the risk society is unidentified risk factors increasing while borders between cou...
[Kim Seong-kon] Domestic ghosts vs. foreign evils

Nov 4, 2020

“Munyeodo,” which can be translated as “Portrait of a Shaman” or “The Shaman Painting,” is a short story by Kim Tong-ni that depicts the clash between traditional Korean shamanism and Western Christi...
[Noah Feldman] Last check on presidential power

Nov 4, 2020

After four years of President Donald Trump’s assault on the US constitution, it comes down to this. The courts have done what they could to limit the damage; the House of Representatives impeached hi...
[Jean Pisani-Ferry] Globalization needs rebuilding, not just repair

Nov 3, 2020

A second term for US President Donald Trump would complete the demolition of the post-war international economic system. Trump’s aggressive unilateralism, chaotic trade initiatives, loathing of multi...
[Stephen L. Carter] The odds of a disputed election

Nov 3, 2020

As Election Day nears, the possibility of a disputed presidential election is worrying a lot of people. You’ve heard the scenarios: An embittered Donald Trump loses but refuses to leave the Oval Offi...
[Noah Smith] Japan needs political will to meet its carbon pledge

Nov 2, 2020

Japan’s bold pledge to cut net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 is very doable, but will require a degree of political will and coordinated, farsighted policymaking that the nation hasn’t enjoyed for...
[Lionel Laurent] Good news on COVID-19 from Asia

Nov 2, 2020

It’s easy to feel that there’s no light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Europe’s intensive care wards are filling up again, pushing France and Germany into a fresh round of stay-at-home restrictio...
[Digital Simplicity] Changing technology for handling personal database

Oct 31, 2020

Embattled Evernote cripples free plan as concept of data synchronization gets outdated
[Lee Kyong-hee] Overlooked front-line heroes amid the pandemic

Oct 29, 2020

Deaths of overworked delivery service workers -- 13 this year alone -- have exposed the reality of South Korea’s gig economy in this Year of the Pandemic. The delivery services that we enjoy, whethe...
[Jon Healey] No, Mr. President, China is still not paying tariffs

Oct 29, 2020

President Donald Trump seems perpetually confused about who pays the tariffs of 10 percent to 25 percent that he’s imposed on imported goods. Either that, or he just won’t admit the truth: Trump’s ta...
[David Fickling] Zero hour is coming for emissions, believe it

Oct 28, 2020

It’s only natural to be skeptical when a political leader stands up and makes a promise about a target that’s far off, hard to achieve, and lacks a clear pathway. So one reaction to a report that Ja...
[Kim Seong-kon] Hurting people over political ideologies

Oct 28, 2020

So many of us these days cling to a particular political ideology to which we religiously subscribe. Then, almost as a matter of course, we build a faction of like-minded people and flock together, w...