Like the leading character in a long-running television series, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has kicked off the latest crisis on the Korean Peninsula with familiar theatrics. After cutting off all communications with South Korea earlier this month, the Kim regime bombed the building in which it had previously hosted South Korean diplomats. It has redeployed troops into demilitarized border areas and issued renewed threats of violence against the South. The latest displays of bombast follow

The act of wearing a mask in South Korea takes on a deeply social meaning. Masks are supposed to protect both the wearer and others from the dreadful COVID-19. But the emphasis is clearly placed on preventing the wearer from infecting neighbors, colleagues and even strangers. If I happen to forget wearing a mask in public places (including office elevators and public restrooms), I am bound to witness angry expressions deepening on the upper half of the faces of people nearby. I bet the lower h

Russia’s president has not had a good pandemic. But Vladimir Putin is staging a comeback, with a touch of foreign-policy grandstanding, a dash of military theater and a plebiscite on constitutional reforms that could allow him to stay in power until 2036. The vote will confirm changes already approved by parliament in March, and it didn’t have to happen now. Even so, the Kremlin pushed ahead and Putin wants citizens to come out in large numbers to back the measures. With Russia stil

Until recently, it seemed like the contentious debate over lockdowns was over. By the end of May, many states were defying the warnings of public-health experts, reopening restaurants, retail and public spaces. The huge protests against police brutality and racism reinforced the notion that keeping Americans confined to their homes was a lost cause. Now, even San Francisco, one of the first cities to issue a stay-at-home order, is proceeding with a phased reopening of businesses and public space

This year’s gathering of world leaders for the United Nations General Assembly in New York has been called off. The news of the cancellation -- the first in the UN’s 75-year history -- came a week after a planned G-7 meeting at Camp David was scrapped, and a month after the G-20 abandoned plans for a virtual summit. At a time when the global nature of today’s most pressing challenges is more apparent than ever, the instruments of multilateralism are not just underperforming. Th

On June 25, 2020, Korea commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Korea War. It means that the babies who were born in 1950 when the war broke out are now 70 years old. It is sad to think that those who went through the atrocities of the war are now old and fade away, making the Korean War “a forgotten war.” Nevertheless, we should be faithful to the memory of the conflict that devastated the Korean Peninsula for three years. The war destroyed virtually everything in our already des

The European Commission’s plan for a 750 billion-euro ($842 billion) fund to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic is a quantum leap in Europe’s crisis response. Yet, for all the good intentions, political leaders still have to agree on the details of the scheme. The European Council -- a gathering of prime ministers and presidents -- will meet Friday to discuss the plan, although most observers only expect a breakthrough to happen in July. The EU is still wrestling wi

The United States has for decades deployed large numbers of its military forces overseas. Today, some 170,000 troops are stationed in more than 150 countries. But the vast majority of them are based in just three nations: Germany, Japan and South Korea. That is no coincidence. During the last century, the United States fought devastating wars in all three countries, and its continued military presence there has ensured an enduring peace ever since. That peace has been the foundation of prosperi

On Tuesday morning, cars and pedestrians lined up for free COVID-19 tests in south Minneapolis, six blocks from where George Floyd was killed last month. As protests flared after his death, Minnesota’s Department of Health had set up the testing site and encouraged demonstrators to visit in hopes of stemming a potential new outbreak. Long lines at this center and three others in the Twin Cities suggest that, far from being complacent about the risks of taking to the streets in a pandemic,

As long as the pandemic rages, the world’s leaders are understandably preoccupied with the threat of disease. But there are other dangers to humanity that demand attention. One of the most frightening is nuclear war. Unfortunately, the risk of that happening keeps rising. The headline numbers are misleading. Yes, the global stockpile of nuclear warheads decreased slightly last year, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. But that’s on

What’s worse than two populous, nuclear-armed countries killing each other’s soldiers? Two populous, nuclear-armed countries letting their longer-term relationship wither. Fighting along the Chinese-Indian border on the Tibetan plateau hasn’t come out of the blue. Ties, never solid, are increasingly becoming a casualty of the way New Delhi is being drawn into the wider rivalry between Beijing and Washington. If trade and investment suffer as a result, the deteriorating relatio

Under cover of COVID-19 and the US convulsion over racism, the White House is promoting a policy that spells disaster for Israel. Too few are paying attention. As part of President Donald Trump’s “peace plan” for the Palestinians and Israel, the Israeli prime minister is free to annex around 30 percent of the occupied West Bank as of July 1. This is a move that will end any pretense of peace negotiations, endanger Israel’s peace with Jordan and undercut promising advan

As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped New York City in March, articles discussing the future of cities came into vogue. Most articles predicted that the pandemic would change cities “forever” and that large, dense cities like New York would enter a period of protracted decline as people escaped to the suburbs. Pandemic-enforced working from home, it was argued, would free people to live in cheaper places and spare them the grind of a daily commute. In the rush of covering the pandemic,

North Korea’s demolition of the South-North Liaison Office building in the border town of Kaesong this week was outrageous, but it also showed Pyongyang’s limitations in its actions against Seoul in the rising tensions between both nations. The shapely four-story glass structure was built as a symbol of a new era of detente in the inter-Korean relations supposedly starting with the signing of an agreement of peaceful cooperation by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim

On June 8, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research declared that economic activity in the United States had peaked in February 2020, formally marking the start of a recession. But we already knew that we were in a recession that had likely begun around that date. So, why does the NBER’s formal declaration matter? It is no secret that measures of employment fell sharply from February to March. Real (inflation-adjusted) personal consumption expenditu