The Korea Herald

[Editorial] Guard against N. Korea

EditorialAug 11, 2011

The South Korean government is providing protection for Minister of National Defense Kim Kwan-jin on intelligence that North Korean agents are on a mission to assassinate him. When he is on the move, he is escorted by a military police detail dressed in civilian clothes.The assassination plan, if tr
[Park Sang-seek] Is multiculturalism a threat to the nation and the world?

ViewpointsAug 11, 2011

Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik claimed in his online manifesto 2083 that multiculturalism is the core ideology of the left extremists he calls cultural Marxists. According to him, cultural Marxists include orthodox Marxists, suicidal liberals and capitalist globalists. He does not de
[Ron Klain] Obama shows high-stake gambling streak

ViewpointsAug 11, 2011

Among the many misconceptions about Barack Obama is that he is cautious. In fact, it is hard to think of a modern president in recent times who has been more willing to take big risks, not because he is reckless, but because he is willing to suffer potential short-term setbacks to achieve a desired
[Aristides N. Hatzis] Lessons from Greece

ViewpointsAug 11, 2011

For the past 18 months Greece has been the epicenter of the European sovereign debt crisis. Its enormous national debt (127 percent of GDP before the first bailout in May 2010, reaching 160 percent by the end of 2011) and its ever-expanding deficit (14 percent before the austerity measures) were so
[Simon Tilford] Eurobonds: Lifeboat for eurozone

ViewpointsAug 10, 2011

LONDON ― The eurozone’s institutional weaknesses have been laid bare. The attempt to run a common monetary policy without a common treasury has failed. Investors do not know what they are buying when they purchase an Italian bond ― is it backstopped by Germany or not?We now know that the best credit
[Doyle McManus] Job creation is Obama’s biggest challenge

ViewpointsAug 10, 2011

The central question facing Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign is this: Can the president persuade voters to let him keep his job when so many of them have lost theirs?Last week, after another run of bad economic news, the president and his staff tried their best to sound upbeat. In public, the
[Editorial] East Sea campaign

EditorialAug 10, 2011

Korea has lodged a formal protest with the U.S. government for ignoring its request that it use both “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan” in calling the body of water between Korea and Japan. The East Sea is Korea’s preferred name for the maritime area.According to reports, the U.S. government has confirme
[Editorial] Irrational politicians

EditorialAug 10, 2011

To leaders of the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, the twin sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the United States is a fire on the other side of the river. They are watching the flames without bothering to find out what caused it or learn its lessons.The main cau
[Virginia Postrel] Obama glamour can’t fix charisma deficit

ViewpointsAug 10, 2011

One thing is clear in the aftermath of the debt-limit debate: U.S. President Barack Obama has lost his glamour. The alluring icon of hope and change has become just another pol, derided by his supporters as well as his opponents. As one headline succinctly put it: “Obama succumbs to the ways of Wash
[Editorial] Falling bank stocks offer a too-big-to-fail wakeup call

ViewpointsAug 10, 2011

Bank of America and Citigroup stood out for all the wrong reasons in Monday’s market meltdown. Shares of the two banks led the decline amid new doubts about the quality of the assets buried on their balance sheets. Investors now believe that Bank of America’s net worth is only about a third of what
[Brahma Chellaney] Ethnic minority lands emerge as China’s Achilles heel

ViewpointsAug 10, 2011

NEW DELHI ― In the face of spreading civil unrest among China’s Uighur population, the Chinese government’s love-fest with its all-weather ally, Pakistan, may be starting to sour. Indeed, the authorities in China’s Xinjiang province are charging that a prominent Uighur separatist that they captured
[Lee Jae-min] The Arctic Ocean in the heat

ViewpointsAug 9, 2011

Icebergs, cold water and the Arctic Ocean: What else could be a better topic to cool off during the sizzling weather of August? Global warming has brought yet another issue to the table: navigation through the Arctic. As the icebergs melt and frozen swaths give way, new shipping routes emerge throug
[Peter Orszag] Four ways Congress can upgrade credit rating

ViewpointsAug 9, 2011

Now that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the U.S.’s “AAA” credit rating, it is important to respond boldly and, at the same time, lower expectations. The first step is for our political leaders to frankly acknowledge the problems at hand: The U.S. economy will face a hard slog for an extended perio
[Editorial] Tolerance and leniency

EditorialAug 9, 2011

The Republic of Korea proves to have one of the loosest systems regarding military secrets among nations with strong armed forces. Its court also deserves note for its leniency on cases involving leak of military secrets, quite discomforting fact in a country that faces constant threats from a most
[Editorial] Free lunch referendum

EditorialAug 9, 2011

Two weeks are left until the referendum on free school lunch in Seoul. The capital city will now be engulfed in raging campaigns that will force every resident to define their ideological orientation in the heated contest between the left and right.The referendum is a costly affair; citizens feel so