The United States has unveiled a new defense strategy that would slim down its military and rebalance it toward the Asia-Pacific region, away from Europe and the Middle East.Washington officials said the new strategy would have no impact on the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea. They reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula and deter any provocations by North Korea.Yet policymakers in Seoul need to analyze the U.S. policy change carefully as it comes at a time

The prosecution has concluded that the cyber attack on the homepage of the National Election Commission on the day of the Oct. 26 Seoul mayoral by-election was jointly carried out by former aides to National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae and Rep. Choi Ku-sik.According to the prosecution, the National Assembly speaker’s aide, surnamed Kim, and Rep. Choi’s aide, identified only as Gong, plotted the distributed denial-of-service attack and had it executed through Gong’s friend, a computer expert. K

The faulty breast implants made by the French company Poly Implants Protheses, or PIP, have grabbed headlines around the world in recent weeks, and it’s no wonder. The prostheses are more prone to rupture than other models, and they contain an industrial grade of silicone never intended for use in a medical device. The scandal is also global in scope. Sold in 65 countries, the implants were re-branded by a Dutch company registered in Cyprus, offered on credit in Venezuela and smuggled into Boliv

During the last two decades, relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea starkly improved in the economic and cultural dimensions while political cooperation still shows a Cold War scheme. For a real normalization process to start, the two countries should follow the example set by two former foes turned friends: Germany and Poland.Look at the dynamics of bilateral trade and normalization that Tokyo and Seoul seem to have achieved. In 2010 total volume of trade was more than $92 billion ―

As I look over my 2011, I not only appreciate the good experiences of the year, but revisit the difficulties, foremost of which was a cyber crime I suffered while living in Korea. As a foreigner, dealing with law enforcement was more complex, and in my case, as damaging as suffering the cyber attack.Months have passed and time has given me perspective so that I can look at the experience objectively and offer suggestions to help others. As I’d lived in Korea for many years, I had a number of bil

A couple of weeks ago, scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, announced that they’d made “significant progress” in the search for a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson ― the so-called God particle.Two teams of physicists conducting separate analyses of data collected by the Hadron supercollider outside of Geneva, Switzerland, noticed a similar rise in indication of particle decay in approximately the same range ― 125 gigaelectronvolts.I have no idea how much a

President Lee Myung-bak will embark on a three-day visit to China on Monday. His visit, coming several months ahead of the 20th anniversary of Seoul-Beijing diplomatic relations, will surely provide an opportunity for Lee and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, to review past achievements and map out the future course of action.South Korea and China, the only military ally of North Korea, have come a long way since they established diplomatic ties in August 1992. A retired Chinese diplomat, who

When the ruling Grand National Party was holding a national convention to select its leader, rumors that candidates distributed envelopes containing cash invariably made the rounds. None of them had been vetted until recently, and few came out to acknowledge they had been offered cash during the convention.But some of the rumors are most likely to be checked out this time, with one first-term lawmaker having said in public that he received an envelope containing 3 million won from a person close

BUDAPEST ― Today, millions of Europeans are afraid and frustrated as they face unemployment, loss of savings and pensions, radically reduced social benefits, and other economic hardships. Their fears are warranted, because the current financial crisis is undermining the very union that was established to heal Europe’s wounds at the end of World War II. But, in the midst of the general suffering, one group ― the Roma ― has been ignored. Europe’s largest and most disadvantaged ethnic minority, wit

The persistent perception one gets from all the reports about our migrant labor is that we consistently welcome the billions in remittances from their blood, sweat and tears. Yet policies since the 1980s also display a superficial sense of urgency in ensuring the security and welfare of millions of our men and women working far from home, many of them in high-risk situations.The Malaysian news agency Bernama reported recently that Indonesian workers sent home $6.1 billion last year despite unres

Getting post-disaster reconstruction efforts onto a steady track is a great task for Japan this year. We should consider the new year as “the first year of full-scale reconstruction” from the Great East Japan Earthquake.The March 11 quake and tsunami left many people bereft of their loved ones and deprived of their longtime homes, while also severing communities’ life-sustaining ties of mutual support.The number of people who were forced to evacuate, and saw out the old year while living in temp