The Korea Herald

[Robert J. Fouser] Moon Jae-in’s focus on the big picture

ViewpointsMay 8, 2018

The sight of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un walking across the formal dividing line in Panmunjom to greet President Moon Jae-in amazed the tension-weary South Korean public. After a long day of talk...
[Robert J. Fouser] Managing expectations for the upcoming summits

ViewpointsApr 24, 2018

This Friday President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet for the first time. Expectations are running high that the summit will start a process that leads to peace and eventual...
[Robert J. Fouser] Revisiting multicultural policies

ViewpointsApr 10, 2018

The year 2008 is remembered most around the world for the financial crisis that brought on the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. In South Korea, 2008 is remembered as the first year of recentl...
[Robert J. Fouser] The breakthrough NK summits

ViewpointsMar 13, 2018

The announcement of a summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offers hope for peace on the Korean Peninsula. The summit will follow a meeting in April between Pr...
[Robert J Fouser] The meaning of March 1

ViewpointsFeb 27, 2018

Tomorrow marks the 99th anniversary of the March 1 Movement during the darkest hours of Japanese colonial rule. On the afternoon of that day, 33 leaders of the independence movement gathered in Jongn...
[Robert J. Fouser] Moon Jae-in’s pragmatic approach works

ViewpointsFeb 13, 2018

North Korea stirs complex emotions, as coverage of the Winter Olympic opening ceremony shows. Most of the coverage naturally focused on Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-...
[Robert J. Fouser] The 2030 generation makes itself heard

ViewpointsJan 30, 2018

One of the best things about teaching in a university in Korea was getting to know the students and learning to see the world through their eyes. My first university teaching experience was from 1987...
[Robert J. Fouser] Improving early English education

ViewpointsJan 17, 2018

The Ministry of Education’s recent proposal to ban the teaching of English in kindergartens and nursery schools brought English education back in the news after a long quiet. Bowing to public pressur...
[Robert J. Fouser] Building on Moon Jae-in’s good first year

ViewpointsJan 2, 2018

South Korea did well in 2017. The year began with insecurity over the impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye. Her removal from office in March caused a short, but intense, election campaign that...
[Robert J. Fouser] Toward a united, neutral and democratic Korea

ViewpointsDec 19, 2017

During President Moon Jae-in’s recent visit to China, the Korean media focused intensely on the details of protocol and were quick to suggest that the president had not been accorded sufficient respe...
[Robert J. Fouser] Dealing with failing private universities

ViewpointsDec 5, 2017

The year 2018 will mark the beginning of a new era in higher education in Korea, as the number of high school graduates falls below the number of available spaces in university for the first time in ...
[Robert J. Fouser] IMF crisis 20 years later

ViewpointsNov 21, 2017

Most Koreans over the age of 40 remember November 1997 very well. Concern over rising corporate debt in the summer and over the spreading financial crisis in Southeast Asia caused sharp stock market ...
[Robert J. Fouser] Rebuilding the South Korean-US relations

ViewpointsNov 7, 2017

In November 1983, US President Ronald Reagan visited South Korea amid rising global tension. In September that year, the Soviet Union shot Korean Air Lines’ flight 007 out of the air, killing the 269...
[Robert J. Fouser] The “Candlelight Revolution” One Year Later

ViewpointsOct 24, 2017

The end of October brings the first anniversary of the beginning of the “Candlelight Revolution” that led to the impeachment and removal of former president Park Geun-hye. The anniversary provides an...
[Robert J. Fouser] Thinking about October 1989 in Eastern Germany

ViewpointsOct 14, 2017

Eastern Germany in October is a time to celebrate and remember the 1989 democracy movement that brought an end to the repressive East German regime. Leipzig, where the pro-democracy demonstrations be...