Most Popular
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BTS, NewJeans fandoms clash over Hybe-Min Hee-jin conflict
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N. Korea launches missiles in latest show of military, nuclear strength
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High temperatures may worsen mental health conditions: study
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Samsung chief travels to France to encourage young talents
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Korean battery makers zero in on global commercial EV market
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Yoon leaves for Prague to cement nuclear energy push
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N. Korea fires multiple short-range ballistic missiles: JCS
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[Off the Pages] German bestseller gets new twist in ‘Snow White Must Die -- Black Out’
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4th case of lumpy skin disease confirmed in S. Korea
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Main opposition to railroad multiple contentious bills after Chuseok
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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
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[Career compass] 'You can only succeed by making others successful'
Readers have requested interviews with successful individuals about their career journeys. For this column, I had the pleasure of interviewing Park Hee-je, managing director of Kohler Novita Korea, a leading global bathroom products company. Park began his career in marketing at P&G Korea, later moving on to eBay and Philips. His professional journey has taken him to Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, gaining valuable experience in each location. I have immense respect for Park's leadership,
ViewpointsAug. 5, 2024
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[Sheldon H. Jacobson] Who will pay for Crowdstrike outage?
Crowdstrike did not have a good day on July 19. During a routine software update, the file that the cybersecurity firm issued triggered a logic error that prohibited Windows machines from rebooting. Microsoft estimates that around 8.5 million computers may have been affected by the event. This created a tsunami of downstream consequences, as computers that supported numerous industry operations were unable to coordinate and process data. For air travel, the net effect was the cancellation of mor
ViewpointsAug. 5, 2024
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[Editorial] Malfunctioning parliament
In South Korea, public expectations for lawmakers have long been at a rock-bottom level for their problematic actions. Unfortunately, it seems that people have to lower their expectations even further. There are three controversial issues that mostly have to do with the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea: a slew of impeachments, a universal cash payment bill and the pro-labor "yellow envelope" bill. Of course, the ruling People Power Party is also responsible for the unseemly le
EditorialAug. 5, 2024
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[Yoo Choon-sik] Central bank independence and government policy
In countries like South Korea that adopt the presidential system of government, the president can wield much stronger power than the prime minister under the parliamentary system because the president usually rules for a fixed period. Accordingly, comments by the president or presidential officials on specific issues can carry a much stronger and wider impact on people’s lives as well as financial markets. At the same time, their comments sometimes have a different type and magnitude of im
ViewpointsAug. 5, 2024
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[Lee Byung-jong] Espionage or public diplomacy?
The recent indictment by the US government of former CIA analyst Sue Mi Terry on espionage charges smacks of a thrilling Hollywood spy movie. As an expert on Korean affairs, she allegedly received luxury handbags and expensive meals from the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency. In return, she arranged meetings between officials of Seoul and Washington and provided sensitive US government information to the agency in a bid to influence US policies on the Korean Peni
ViewpointsAug. 2, 2024
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[Editorial] Oversight on e-commerce
The liquidity crisis that has slammed embattled e-commerce platforms Tmon and WeMakePrice, affiliated with Singapore-based Qoo10 Group, has taken a distressing turn that raises questions about the failed oversight of authorities and the lack of proper regulations over irresponsible online trade. The major e-commerce debacle in South Korea, which hit both vendors and customers, is now snowballing in scale and depth over how the two e-commerce players have failed to pay vendors and used up custome
EditorialAug. 2, 2024
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[Wang Son-taek] Obscured truth in the Sado mine complex
The Sado mine complex on Sado Island in Niigata prefecture of Japan has suddenly become world-famous. On Saturday, the 46th UNESCO World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, India decided to list the complex as a World Heritage site. Japan had sought to register it since December 2021 but had not succeeded, mainly due to strong opposition from South Korea. But recently there has been a big change in Korea’s position and Japan succeeded. In Japan, national leaders, including Prime Minister Fumi
ViewpointsAug. 1, 2024
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[Eric Posner] Prosecutions, politics don't mix
As America’s attention turns to November’s presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the prosecutions of the former president have been all but forgotten. But Democrats hope that Harris’s previous role as a district attorney may help jog memories and persuade some crucial swing voters to ditch the felon for the prosecutor. Will it work? Or has the failed assassination attempt against Trump retroactively mythologized the sputtering prosecutions as Stations of
ViewpointsAug. 1, 2024
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[Editorial] Speed up construction
The government on Tuesday announced 14 candidate sites for dams to be built or redeveloped. Four are in the Han River area, six in the Nakdong River area, one in the Geum River area, and three in the Yeongsan and Seomjin Rivers area. The decision has overturned the declaration by the Moon Jae-in administration six years ago that it would no longer build government-initiated large dams. Three of the 14 envisioned dams are multipurpose dams, seven are for flood control and four are for water suppl
EditorialAug. 1, 2024
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[Kim Seong-kon] Cultural differences make our eyes open
Despite many striking similarities, there are a myriad of cultural differences between the East and the West. Living in Korea and the US, I can attest to the plethora of such differences. Those differences reflect how Koreans and Americans perceive things differently. The way of disciplining a child is a good example. For instance, American parents usually “ground” a badly behaving boy by confining him in his room, probably with no TV or computer. On the other hand, Korean parents pu
ViewpointsJuly 31, 2024
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[Editorial] Aging population
South Korea’s total population bounced back in 2023 after falling for two years in a row, but a closer look at the details in the latest data reveals that the government faces deepening demographic challenges on multiple fronts, especially the rapidly aging population. The country’s total population -- which compiles data on childbirth, death and cross-border movements -- reached 51.77 million as of Nov. 1 last year, up 0.2 percent, or 82,000, from a year earlier, the 2023 census by
EditorialJuly 31, 2024