The Korea Herald

[Lee Jae-min] The tale of two conflicting laws

Apr 15, 2014

With the completion of the domestic proceeding in Moscow to annex the Crimean peninsula after the referendum on March 16, the debates have now moved on to the realm of law. The United States and the EU claim that the annexation is in clear violation of international law. To which Russia counters that the annexation was consummated in compliance with international law and that instead it is Western states that are violating the legal norms. Here are a few details. Washington and Brussels point ou
India’s election won’t be decided on old lines

Apr 15, 2014

Last week, India embarked on what has repeatedly been hailed as the biggest electoral exercise in history. But the bigger grinding noise seemed to come from hundreds of electoral pundits as they cranked up the machinery of received ideas. India’s future, these portentous commentators declared, would be decided by the winner of the three-way clash between Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal. Or the older battle between secularism and Hindu nationalism. Or the one between free-market c
[Kim Seong-kon] Returning from the London Book Fair

Apr 15, 2014

Last week I went to London with some of Korea’s finest writers to participate in the 2014 London Book Fair, to which South Korea had been invited as the Market Focus country. Thanks to the recent popularity of hallyu and advanced Korean technology represented by Samsung, LG and Hyundai, South Korea has become widely and favorably known throughout the world. Accordingly, Korea has been the guest of honor at major international book fairs, including those of Frankfurt in 2005, Beijing in 2012 and
China’s Tibet conundrum: How to conquer a myth

Apr 15, 2014

Beijing has no shortage of issues to confront. There’s the South China Sea, uncontrollable corruption, a slowing economy and factional disputes within the party and military. But Chinese officials also face one of the most difficult challenges in modern statecraft: how to conquer a myth.Despite China’s attempts to dislodge its mythic appeal, Tibet as Shangri-La seems firmly set in the world’s imagination. The once-independent nation, set high on a broad plateau adjacent to the Himalayas, is a wo
Jesus may have had a wife, on paper at least

Apr 15, 2014

Was Jesus married? Trust me when I say I have no dog in the fight. But yesterday, when I read an academic article by a Harvard Divinity School professor arguing for the authentic antiquity of a papyrus fragment that includes the phrase “Jesus said, my wife,” I was filled with awe and wonder. How, exactly, could a respected scholar, Karen King, who holds my university’s oldest endowed professorship, be so confident that the Coptic fragment, first publicized two years ago, is indeed ancient? Almos
[Shashi Tharoor] Gurus and governors in India

Apr 14, 2014

NEW DELHI ― The ongoing general election in India has brought to prominence not only the usual cast of political aspirants, campaign managers, publicists, and vote-brokers, but also an array of astrologers, numerologists, and pandits. Candidates have been flocking to such soothsayers in large numbers, seeking advice on everything from the precise minute to file their nomination forms to the appropriate alignment of the doors of their campaign offices. Indians, after all, manage to live in that r
Teens trade naked selfies for mugshots

Apr 14, 2014

Will teenagers ever learn? You think yours will. Maybe so. But it’s likely that was also the hope of the parents of children who were so shamed by nude photos of themselves that went south ― how else can they go ― that they killed themselves.Sexting hasn’t ended, despite the misery it causes and the hope that easily bored teens will move on to something else. There were two fresh highly public outbreaks this month. The largest spread across six counties in Virginia, where more than 1,000 picture
[Cass R. Sunstein] Why investors make bad choices

Apr 14, 2014

For many years, I have studied human behavior, including the mistakes occasionally made by fallible people, including investors.But a few years ago, I made a really dumb investment decision. In a single day, I hit the trifecta, committing at least three classic behavioral mistakes.The year was 2011. The stock market was recovering well from its terrible collapse during the Great Recession, but over a short period it had a series of stumbles. I got nervous. What if it collapsed again?At the time,
Benefits of inter-Korean logistics cooperation

Apr 14, 2014

The Korean people expected that the Oct. 4 South-North Summit Declaration in 2007 would provide the Korean Peninsula with a blueprint for economic cooperation and act as a catalyst for the reunification of two Koreas.The declaration was largely composed of agreements on logistics cooperation between the South and the North, such as renovating the Gaeseong-Pyongyang highway and Gaeseong-Sinyeoju Railway, opening direct flights between Seoul and Mount Baekdusan, allowing railroad freight transport
The court knows what it is doing, and its effects

Apr 14, 2014

The latest Supreme Court ruling ― defending the rights of billionaires to try to rent, if not buy, the gratitude and votes of unlimited numbers of politicians ― has just provided fresh evidence that helps us finally answer a central question that has divided the experts.It focuses on what the conservative justices are really up to in their activist judicial campaign to remake The Founders’ concept of free speech and democracy in today’s age of television and Internet.Some experts politely conten
China’s aircraft carrier is nothing to fear

Apr 14, 2014

Chinese officials gave U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a tour of an aircraft carrier last week. The Liaoning is their only such vessel ― but not for long. China plans to build three more by 2020 as part of its new “blue-water navy,” a prospect that sounds alarming but isn’t. The cause for concern lies elsewhere.A globe-spanning Chinese navy capable of operating across deep oceans will draw Beijing’s strategic vision away from its own neighborhood, where it’s embroiled in territorial disputes,
[David Ignatius] In China, financial warning signs

Apr 13, 2014

WASHINGTON ― China’s financial markets seem to be signaling trouble, as a government crackdown on corruption and loose credit begins to bite and jittery local investors scramble for safety. China remains an opaque country, and even the most knowledgeable experts say they aren’t sure how to read the tea leaves. But the warning signs are growing that after decades of economic expansion and exploding wealth, China is moving toward the scary side of the perpetual seesaw between greed and fear that d
Cuban Twitter project was a tweet in the dark

Apr 13, 2014

PARIS ― First, Cubans would receive fun little text messages about baseball and music. Then, one day ― bam! ― they would learn via cell phone that they’d been living in a dictatorship for over half a century and would realize that it was time to overthrow the regime.Hopefully American taxpayers like the plot of this far-fetched geopolitical revenge fantasy, because they’ve already paid for it. It’s yet another example of technology encroaching on the valuable space once occupied by gray matter.T
Are safer cars worth the money?

Apr 13, 2014

Can a federal regulation be worthwhile if its monetized costs exceed its monetized benefits?Consider the Department of Transportation’s decision last week to require rear-visibility cameras in essentially all new cars starting in 2018. The regulation will eventually affect millions of Americans, increasing the safety of those behind their cars, particularly children.Sound good? Here’s the problem: The Department of Transportation projects that the new regulation will cost between $546 million an
[Yu Kun-ha] Singapore’s leader: Catch the wind in your sails

Apr 13, 2014

Singapore marks the 50th anniversary of its independence next year. The past five decades have witnessed the small island city-state rise as a thriving global business hub crowded with multinational corporations. When Singapore was separated from Malaysia in 1965, its GDP per capita was $511. The figure surpassed the $50,000 mark in 2012, making Singapore one of the richest countries in the world.Singapore is the envy of developing countries in many ways. Many Korean policymakers also regard it