Regarding the Nov. 12 editorial “Dying alone,” it seems that the elderly desperately cope with scant resources to finance their later life. As highlighted in the article, by the time they are ready for retirement, the elderly have already spent sizable finances on their children’s upbringing ― that is, with little doubt, education and marriage. Although their children may luckily finance the traditionally high-cost Korean marriage once they establish a career, education is another pain. In Korea

On the list of U.S. military priorities, Africa has always ranked right smack at the bottom. Now that appears to be changing. As Eric Schmitt recently reported in the New York Times, “thousands of soldiers once bound for Iraq or Afghanistan are now gearing up for missions in Africa.” Before the gearing up proceeds much further, Americans might want to ask a few questions. Chief among them are these: Why the sudden shift in priorities? What’s the aim? Who stands to benefit? What risks does the mi

The main opposition Democratic Party has packed up its tent in front of Seoul City Hall. The party set up the tent more than 100 days ago as a symbol of its street protests against the National Intelligence Service’s alleged meddling in the December presidential election. The party folded up the tent not because it has ended its campaign to bring the truth to light. Quite the opposite. As its “tent protest” has failed to drum up much support from the public, the party is now seeking to escalate

On the morning of Oct. 11, I woke up at 4 a.m. in Potonggang Hotel in Pyongyang, excited and nervous. I found myself repeating, “My son is here. I am going to see him today.” I could not believe I was there to visit my son, Kenneth Bae, who has been held prisoner in North Korea.Sunday, Nov. 3, was the anniversary of the day my son, a tour operator, was detained. He has now been in a North Korean prison for more than a year. He is the longest detained American prisoner in North Korea in recent hi

The reports coming out of the Philippines are all too familiar. Shattered villages, corpses strewn across battered beaches, dazed survivors picking through the wreckage of their former lives. As I write, Typhoon Haiyan (described in some news reports as a “supertyphoon”) appears to be the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history, and one of the worst ever in Asia ― a region that has known no shortage of calamities.Many of the survivors are talking about a “wall of water” ― most of the dama

Shinzo Abe faces plenty of roadblocks in his quest to revive Japan’s sluggish economy. His mentor wasn’t supposed to be one of them.Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is easily the most popular Japanese politician of the last 20 years. Not since Yasuhiro Nakasone in the mid-1980s had a Japanese leader made such a splash domestically and globally. Not coincidentally, both were keen reformers ― as Abe, too, claims to be.After he left office in 2006, the now-71-year-old Koizumi seemed happy to

Are jellyfish massing against humankind? Not really; it just seems that way. They may be sending us a message, though.Enormous aggregations of the diaphanous sea creatures have been wreaking havoc from shore to shore ― clogging water intake valves on seaside power plants, destroying fish farms, crowding fishing nets and, yes, stinging people (sometimes fatally). It’s nothing personal. Jellyfish, lacking brains, do not wish us harm. They’re merely going about their lives as they have for more tha

Do you say a little prayer (for the markets, maybe) before you get down to work?Since 1999, the wonderfully named town of Greece, New York, has been doing that. At town council meetings, a volunteer chaplain ― generally but not invariably Christian ― prays before the opening of business. The U.S. Supreme Court now must decide whether these prayers, which frequently invoke Jesus Christ by name, violate the constitutional ban against establishing religion.Begin with the easy part: The Founders wou

It has been more than five years since the Korean courts adopted a working prototype of the American style jury trial system. During the period, there have been a series of legislative efforts to develop a sustainable system in Korea. Recently, there were a couple of non-guilty verdict cases which caused a media frenzy on the particulars of the current legal framework. Both were mainly related to defamation under the Election Law: one for spreading groundless rumors against then-candidate Park G

“Welcome to the Republic of Thaksin.” You won’t see these words displayed in the customs hall when arriving in Thailand, but the Land of Smiles has indeed morphed into the land of Thaksin Shinawatra. That should be giving Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy plenty to frown about. Seven years after the former prime minister was ousted in a coup, Thaksin’s long shadow continues to dominate Thai politics. Since then, the country has seen six prime ministers, the most recent one being Thaksin’s