The Korea Herald

Thailand revisiting Myanmar’s dark age

Feb 6, 2014

The sounds of furious renovation work are emerging from our neighbour Myanmar. I have had my ear to the wall for the past year.Companies from around the world are jumping on the bandwagon, looking for business opportunities in a country dubbed the globe’s final frontier. At big Yangon supermarkets, it’s now easy to find Coca-Cola, Heineken and snacks from Thailand.Freed from tight censorship, journalists are starting to ask tough questions of authorities. One concerns the government’s contracts
[Danny Leipziger] South Korea’s Japanese mirror

Feb 5, 2014

Given the daunting challenges facing Japan, one can only admire Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s determination to end the country’s two-decade-long period of economic stagnation. His strategy ― the “three arrows” of massive monetary expansion, increased government spending, and structural reform ― is theoretically sound. But only one and a half arrows have been launched so far.The stimulus package is being offset by consumption-tax hikes aimed at reducing Japan’s massive debt burden ― a process that
Palestinian leader’s good idea for Israel

Feb 5, 2014

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is on to something smart. His proposal that U.S.-led NATO troops patrol a future Palestinian state would resolve one of the toughest disputes standing in the way of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The impasse centers on Israel’s concern about invasion ― a justifiable worry given the nearly catastrophic coordinated attacks by neighboring countries in 1973. By occupying the West Bank, Israel can man early warning systems that look east into the Jordan V
[Kim Myong-sik] ‘Unification bonanza’ is misleading slogan

Feb 5, 2014

The primary question about Korean reunification is how we achieve it. Discussing what we can get from it at this juncture is like putting the cart before the horse. It will depend entirely on how the two Koreas become one. Last month in Davos, Switzerland, President Park Geun-hye said that reunification of the Korean Peninsula would bring “daebak” not only to Korea but to the surrounding region. Her interpreter translated the word as “breakthrough” but it did not correctly convey the meaning of
An inconvenient truth on the kitchen table

Feb 5, 2014

[Letter to the editor] This is Patrick’s diet: A glass of soy milk for breakfast, Chinese food and coffee for lunch, chicken and coke for dinner, and beer and French fries as a late night snack. Patrick’s diet looks fairly “normal” to most people. But, unbeknownst to him, the food he eats is almost completely made up of genetically modified food. Genetically modified organisms are animals, plants or other organisms whose genetic structures have been altered or created with the use of genetic eng
Dangerous strongman nostalgia in Asia

Feb 5, 2014

Indonesia is growing at 6 percent, has rejoined the ranks of investment-grade nations, and after decades under the corrupt and repressive Suharto, has reaffirmed its place as the world’s third-largest democracy. Yet somehow enough Indonesians remember the Suharto years fondly that his Golkar Party has hopes of regaining power in upcoming elections. Golkar isn’t alone in trying to exploit nostalgia for past strongmen (and ―women). India’s Congress Party is trying to squeeze any remaining good fee
[Lee Jae-min] Tapping the old heritage

Feb 4, 2014

When first introduced in Joseon late in the 16th century, tobacco immediately became popular on the peninsula. The widespread consumption even led to a government-imposed ban on the product at one point (from 1692-1717) because of fire risks. In the early years of tobacco consumption, Lee Ik (1681-1763), a well-known scholar of the “realist” school of Confucianism, praised it as a cure-all medicine. The revered King Jeongjo (1752-1800), also known as a heavy smoker, noted in his book “Hongjaejeo
There’s still hope for Obama’s change

Feb 4, 2014

Perhaps, in about a week, House Speaker John Boehner, majority leader Eric Cantor, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, Representative Paul Ryan and a handful of other top Republicans will gather at Tortilla Coast in Washington’s Logan Circle and decide on a new political strategy. It’s possible they’ll look at the country’s demographics and decide that they need to get immigration reform done ― and fast ― if they’re going to win the White House in 2016. Perhaps they’ll realize it would be be
How Kerry put Netanyahu in a bind

Feb 4, 2014

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is obviously getting somewhere in his attempt to achieve a framework agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, because all the right people ― the far-right people ― are going a little nuts.At a security conference this week in Israel, Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Jewish Home party ― reacting to an earlier suggestion made by the leader of his governing coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that Jewish settlers could conceivably find t
Assured mutual dependence on resources

Feb 4, 2014

LONDON ― During the Cold War, the certainty of “mutually assured destruction” steered the nuclear arms race away from catastrophe: a would-be attacker would face immediate retaliation, inevitably ending in both sides’ annihilation. Today, a very different race is taking place ― a race for the earth’s vital resources, and it threatens to undermine stability in key regions of the world. The growing dependence of countries on one another’s food, water, and energy requires that the global response t
[Kim Seong-kon] Is Korea a strange, enigmatic country?

Feb 4, 2014

Few civilized countries would call themselves “a mysterious country.” Yet South Korea can surely be called a mysterious, inscrutable country for many reasons. For example, South Korea has miraculously achieved both splendid economic success and solid democratization in just 60 years. Indeed, foreigners often wonder how a once hopelessly poverty-stricken country like Korea could become such an affluent nation today with stellar achievements: It is the 12th largest economy in terms of output; eigh
[Bulent Aras] Iranian president’s lost chance

Feb 3, 2014

ISTANBUL ― Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s charm offensive has stalled. It worked well in the United Nations General Assembly last September, when he had something solid to offer ― a deal on his country’s nuclear program ― raising hopes that Iran’s hardline foreign-policy stance would finally soften. But U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s withdrawal of Iran’s invitation to the Geneva II conference on Syria suggests that Rouhani will need more than charm ― or even a visit by Turkish Prime Mi
Emerging markets’ victimhood narrative

Feb 3, 2014

From Istanbul to Brasilia to Mumbai comes a crescendo of complaints about dollar imperialism. Heads of state and central bank governors allege that the policies of central banks in industrial countries, especially the U.S. Federal Reserve, pursued in self-interest, are wreaking havoc in emerging-market economies. This allegation is mostly unfair. Emerging markets aren’t hapless and undeserved victims; for the most part they are simply reaping what they sowed.Start first with the strange symmetry
[J. Bradford DeLong] Is American economy turning Japanese?

Feb 3, 2014

BERKELEY, California ― Back in the late 1980s, Japan seemingly could do no wrong in economists’ eyes. They saw a clear edge in Japan’s competitiveness relative to the North Atlantic across a broad range of high-tech precision and mass-production industries manufacturing tradable goods. They also saw an economy that, since reconstruction began after World War II, had significantly outperformed the expected growth of European economies. And they saw an economy growing considerably faster than Nort
No alternative to deep decarbonization

Feb 3, 2014

NEW YORK ― Have a look at what happened around the world this past month. Australia’s heat wave filled headlines when temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius disrupted the Australian Open tennis tournament. California’s extreme drought forced the governor to declare a state of emergency. Major floods in Indonesia killed dozens and displaced tens of thousands. Beijing’s coal-induced smog forced people to stay in their homes, closed highways, and diverted flights. Such events are daily warnings t