The Korea Herald

Korea, Japan, China to develop tour routes

CultureMay 29, 2011

Top tourism policymakers of Korea, Japan and China have announced on Sunday that they will jointly develop the 10 best tourism routes by linking travel packages in the region.The plan is part of their long-term strategy called “Tourism Vision 2020” to boost regional tourism and establish a risk management system, especially since natural disasters such as the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan
Former auditor questioned over graft payment

Social affairsMay 29, 2011

Snowballing savings bank allegations now involve politicians, bureaucratsFormer state auditor Eun Jin-soo appeared before the prosecution Sunday to face questioning over his alleged involvement in a snowballing savings bank scandal.Eun, a confidant of President Lee Myung-bak’s, is suspected of taking kickbacks including diamonds in return for lax auditing into the corruption-ridden Busan Mutual Sa
[Editorial] Fourth-year blues?

EditorialMay 29, 2011

Prosecutors are investigating a bribery case involving a top Board of Audit and Inspection official ― a scandal that will have grave political implications. It is regarded as one of the numerous scandals of similar or greater magnitude that will certainly come during the final years of the Lee Myung-bak presidency.The criminal suspect, Eun Jin-su, is the first BAI commissioner to resign on suspici
[Editorial] No judicial reform?

EditorialMay 29, 2011

The proposed judicial reform is in danger of being shipwrecked in the face of opposition from the legal profession. Political activists will do well to join hands in efforts to rescue it.Under pressure from judges, prosecutors and lawyers, the special committee on judicial reform is moving to terminate its operation at the end of June, as scheduled, though it is necessary to extend it because fina
Helping hands to Japanese P.M. Naoto Kan

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

The perseverance that people in northeastern Japan have shown after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated their communities March 11 has impressed many people around the world.In Northeast Asia, anti-Japan feelings in China and South Korea seem to have receded since the catastrophe, thanks to Tohoku people’s dignified behavior.Under these circumstances, Prime Minister Naoto Kan held meetin
Eyes on East Asian future

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo on May 21-22 as scheduled, even though Japan is still recovering from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis, demonstrating the three countries’ consensus on regional responsibility.The leaders agreed to strengthen a future-oriented partnership aimed at constructing a nuclear power safety and disaster prevention system, and developing co
[Robert Reich] The battle for the soul of the GOP

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

Who’s more influential in the Republican Party ― the so-called Tea Party, or Wall Street and big business? The answer will be critical in the weeks ahead as the House decides whether to raise the limit on the nation’s debt.Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner warns that if the limit isn’t increased by Aug. 2, the federal government goes broke. It doesn’t just close down. It stops making lots of payment
College: To be or not to be yourself

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

Jason Lamoreaux will graduate June 14 from Upper Merion High School. Last year at this time, he was navigating the college-application process, which includes the writing of a personal statement and this dilemma: Do I tell them what I think, or what I think they want to hear? Lamoreaux took what some might view as a risk. Instead of addressing world hunger or carbon emissions, he offered an honest
[Kim Barker] Journalism at risk: Arrests have a chilling effect

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

The phone call came in the middle of the night last month, when my brother Todd and I were visiting our father in a suburb of Portland, Ore. Todd’s fiancee, Dorothy Parvaz ― also my good friend and former colleague ― was missing. An editor from Al-Jazeera English, where she works, told Todd that no one had heard from her in 24 hours, not since she left Qatar to report on the violence in Syria.As a
[Joel Brinkley] A tangled knot in Pakistan, Afghanistan

ViewpointsMay 29, 2011

America’s involvement in Pakistan and Afghanistan may be the most complex foreign-policy dilemma the nation has ever faced. And with the death of Osama bin Laden, along with Pakistan’s furious response, the knot is growing ever more tangled.Right now, Afghan officials are reviling their Pakistani counterparts. Pakistan is flirting with China. American officials are threatening to curtail aid to Is
Mubarak fined for communications cut

World NewsMay 29, 2011
Taliban attack NATO, Afghan leaders

World NewsMay 29, 2011

KABUL (AP) ― A Taliban suicide bomber wearing a police uniform blew himself up inside a heavily guarded compound Saturday as top Afghan and international officials left a meeting, killing two senior Afghan police commanders and wounding the German general who commands coalition troops in northern Afghanistan.Two German soldiers and two other Afghans were also killed in the blast, the latest in an
Egypt reopens its border with Gaza

World NewsMay 29, 2011

Travel restrictions eased for 1.5 million residents of the Palestinian territoryRAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) ― Egypt lifted a 4-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, greatly easing travel restrictions on the 1.5 million residents of the Palestinian territory in a move that bolstered the Hamas government while dealing a setback to Israel’s attempts to isolate the militant group.The sense of re
China seals off Inner Mongolia towns amid protest over herder

World NewsMay 29, 2011

BEIJING (AP) ― Police sealed off parts of two county seats in China’s Inner Mongolia for a second day Saturday in what residents described as a kind of martial law after protests triggered by the death of a Mongolian herder run over by a Chinese truck driver.The demonstrations this past week in two counties and a nearby city are rare for Inner Mongolia, unlike China’s other troubled border regions
Writing to put magic in the everyday

BooksMay 29, 2011

On first Asian trip, Michal Ajvaz talks about inspiration, nationalism in artAs with other literary traditions, Czech fiction’s accessibility to Korean readers has long suffered from a lack of translation into Korean. Even with towering literary figures such as Franz Kafka among the country’s authors, it was only this March that the first anthology Czech short stories in Korean translation, “Pragu