This year marks the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and China. On Friday, the two countries’ foreign ministers met in Seoul and agreed to celebrate the anniversary by holding a total of 45 events under the catchword of “good comradeship, happy partnership.”Yet the slogan sounds empty in light of the lack of cooperation between the two neighbors in handling issues involving North Korea. The latest case in point concerns North Korean defectors in C

The prosecution has reportedly suspended its investigation into allegations of illegal foreign currency remittance involving the daughter of President Roh Moo-hyun. The prosecution’s decision was prompted by a strong protest from the main opposition Democratic United Party. Defining the investigation as politically motivated, the party asserted that it was intended to reopen a bribery case that led to the Roh’s tragic suicide in May 2009.Prosecutors denied any intention of reopening the bribery

As promised in December, WikiLeaks has begun to release a stash of documents related to the modus operandi of the “private intelligence” sector, using Texas-based Stratfor as a case study. Claiming to have hacked Stratfor’s system to obtain millions of private emails, WikiLeaks has just released the first batch ― and what it suggests about the American intelligence community makes me feel as secure as day-old pizza in a frat house.The CIA has long used private intelligence firms for “black ops,”

Among the thousands of interviews I’ve conducted as a human rights investigator over the last 24 years, one of the most difficult was in 1996, outside a refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border. I was no stranger to suffering in my country. I had fled from Burma (also known as Myanmar) just a few years before, escaping the brutal military regime after being arrested and tortured.I had gone to the camp to investigate reports that villages were being uprooted and brutalized to make way for a natur

Greek opinion is divided over the government’s plan to offer the Parthenon and other heritage sites as film and photo backdrops to raise revenue during its current economic crisis. “This is sacrilege!” one Greek tour guide protested. But others thought that, humbling though the measure might be, it was at least better than begging for foreign bailouts.For some Greeks, the debate may have evoked a sense of deja vu. Pericles, the great Athenian statesman, also proposed raiding the Parthenon to mee

The Indonesian government’s plan to buy 100 used Leopard tanks has sparked debate within the House of Representatives, but apparently the show must go on as part of the country’s long overdue modernization of defense equipment. Deputy Minister of Defense Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin provided the Jakarta Post’s Novan Iman Santosa, Dwi Atmanta and Imanuddin Razak with a broader picture of the issues of primary weaponry system modernisation.Question: What is the latest update on negotiations to purchase sec

Ideas would be much more important for China than money, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping told Robert McNamara, the then president of the World Bank, in 1980. The World Bank report, “China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society,” which was released on Monday, bears full testimony to Deng’s prescience. More than three decades of remarkable growth have transformed China, from a largely insignificant player in the global market, into the world’s second largest econ

Further efforts by Europe are indispensable if it is to contain its debt crisis. Japan, the United States and emerging economies took this stern position vis-a-vis Europe during the latest meeting of the Group of 20 economic powers.The G20 meeting, which ended Sunday in Mexico after adopting a joint statement, was participated in by finance ministers and central bank governors of the 20 major economies, including Japan, the United States and the European Union plus China and Brazil.The focal poi

A rare example of bipartisanship in U.S.DAVID IGNATIUS WASHINGTON -- The House intelligence committee used to be one of the meanest snake pits in Congress, a place where members were so busy sniping at each other they failed to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community. It was a model of what was wrong with Washington. Amazingly enough, the committee has found its way out of the wilderness under a new chairman and ranking member, Reps. Mike Rogers and C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger

Earlier in the week, Pyongyang agreed with Washington to halt nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile test launches. The communist state also promised to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor a moratorium on uranium enrichment for the potential manufacture of nuclear weapons.Some analysts welcomed the accord as a major breakthrough in negotiations between the United States and North Korea. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade appeared somewhat