The Korea Herald

[Lee Jae-min] Knowledge sharing program

Jun 25, 2013

It is remarkable to see the “Knowledge Sharing Program” grow and expand. This ODA program, jointly administered by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Korea Development Institute, has suddenly become popular among developing countries, and requests to participate are piling up. This is a program in which Korea “shares” its experience of economic development with developing countries: What is provided here is Korea’s own experience since the 1960s instead of products or grants. The progr
The political demise of Hezbollah’s leader

Jun 25, 2013

The rebel forces in Syria have reported that in the recent bitter fighting in the strategic town of Qusair, they saw very few Syrian army troops, and that they were beaten back mainly by Hezbollah militiamen. But these victories ― important as they may be in themselves ― won’t save the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and no less significantly, they will have a largely detrimental effect on the future of Hezbollah and its leader. One can imagine that Assad’s rule might end quickly, perhaps with a burs
Libor unplugged

Jun 25, 2013

LONDON ― Last year’s Libor scandal was a shock to the body politic in London. Despite all that had gone before, the public and their representatives were stunned to learn that bankers had systematically undermined the foundations of a global market benchmark ― one with London in its name to boot ― for personal gain. Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, felt compelled to launch a parliamentary inquiry. On June 19, after a year’s work, the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Stand
[Kim Seong-kon] The gulf between K-pop and Korean literature

Jun 25, 2013

Due to the recent popularity of Korean pop culture overseas, some Koreans naively think that the whole world is crazy about anything Korean, including Korean literature. It is undeniable that these days foreigners are increasingly interested in Korean pop culture such as Korean soap operas, movies and pop songs. Unfortunately, however, few foreigners are interested in Korean literature, because literature, in general, is sought by a smaller number of people worldwide. In the past, when books wer
NSA whistle-blower finds no friend in Putin

Jun 24, 2013

The suspense did not last long: Soon after his flight from Hong Kong landed in Moscow, we were told that National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden had applied for political asylum in Ecuador. It was in Hong Kong that Snowden publicly disclosed the existence of Prism, a top-secret U.S. National Security Agency program providing the NSA with access to the servers of top Internet companies like Miscrosoft, Apple, Google and Yahoo! Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the U.S., wher
[Marcel Fratzscher] Germany takes on the euro

Jun 24, 2013

BERLIN ― Usually, people or institutions are taken to court when things go wrong and a fight ensues about who is liable for the damage. So the German Constitutional Court’s hearing on June 11-12 to consider the legality of the European Central Bank’s so-called outright monetary transactions (OMT) program was peculiar. Here is a fight over the single most successful monetary-policy measure of recent decades ― not just in Europe, but anywhere.The announcement of the OMT scheme in July 2012 reduced
‘Soft’ partition may be best for Afghanistan

Jun 24, 2013

NEW DELHI ― The United States, still mired in a protracted war in Afghanistan that has exacted a staggering cost in blood and treasure, will formally open peace talks with the Taliban, its main battlefield opponent, in the coming days (apparently despite last-minute opposition from Afghan President Hamid Karzai). With the U.S. determined to withdraw its forces after more than a decade of fighting, the talks in Doha, Qatar, are largely intended to allow it to do so “honorably.”How the end of U.S.
Obama’s legacy may hinge on this summer’s achievements

Jun 24, 2013

There are two widely discussed scenarios that could unfold in Washington this summer. The first, embraced by the White House and some Democrats, is upbeat: The immigration bill passes the Senate with a big margin, making it almost impossible for House Republicans to resist; more people start signing up for President Barack Obama’s health-care law, and even though no fiscal grand bargain is in the offing, an improving economy gives the president a stronger hand in dealing with Republicans on exte
[Pankaj Mishra] Turks are fighting over the future, not religion

Jun 24, 2013

The protests in Turkey, which now involve an extraordinarily diverse group of people, illuminate an altered political landscape. Yet much coverage of the demonstrations betrays an intellectual lag ― worse than the one that plagued many journalists and pundits when anti-Mubarak protesters filled Tahrir Square in 2011. Hasty proclamations of a “Turkish Spring” have given way to sophisticated-sounding but shallow dualisms, which seem to come straight from Flaubert’s “Dictionary of Received Ideas.”
How many are needed to put the screws in Kim?

Jun 23, 2013

As U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, he’s facing an unlikely spoiler: Japan. Traditionally, China has played this irksome role. The six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear program ― suspended since 2009 ― never got anywhere largely because China refused to put the screws on its ally. No matter how many missiles the Kim Dynasty fired off, how many nuclear tests it conducted, or how many North Koreans starved or ended up in prison camps, Chin
[David Ignatius] The sequester’s harsh bite

Jun 23, 2013

WASHINGTON ― For people (like me) who worry that the U.S. government is becoming dysfunctional, it’s worth studying the subtle and largely hidden effects of sequestration on the U.S. military and other agencies. What’s happening is the slow-motion decay of programs and readiness, which should scare the heck out of most citizens. Sequestration, you will remember, was the meat-ax approach to budget cutting whose consequences were thought to be so capricious and damaging that Congress would have to
How to best manage $406b of Korean Pension Fund

Jun 23, 2013

Fifty million Koreans will count on the Korean National Pension Plan in their retirement years. Clearly, managing the $406 billion national pension fund in the best manner possible is one of the most critical missions of the national government, right next to national defense and economic growth. Is the Korean national pension fund being managed well? Let’s consider the quality of the national pension fund by three criteria: safety of the assets, rate of return on the portfolio, and steadiness o
Tied in knots over interfaith weddings

Jun 23, 2013

Wedding season is officially upon us, and one needn’t be marrying a “Bridezilla” star to find the planning comes with some stress. Interfaith couples seem to have more than most as they try to satisfy not only each other but two extended families and two religious communities.I interviewed dozens of interfaith couples from across the country for a book on interfaith marriage. One husband and wife I met had planned to get married in a Catholic church to accommodate the bride’s family. Which was a
[Simon Chesterman] U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Inc.

Jun 23, 2013

SINGAPORE ― Among the stories and rumors prompted by Edward J. Snowden’s leaking of classified material ― whistleblowing or treason, depending on where you stand ― the revelations that may actually lead to a policy change concern the extent to which private companies now carry out intelligence gathering and analysis in the United States.Around a third of the 1.4 million people with “top secret” U.S. security clearances are contractors, according to the Office of the U.S. Director of National Int
Edward Snowden and the dangers of amateurism

Jun 21, 2013

PARIS ― Anyone who knows anything about the real world of intelligence and espionage knows that James Bond is a joke who wouldn’t survive his first day on the job (and not just because he’d fall asleep during static surveillance). But just try explaining to people that Agent 007 bears absolutely no resemblance to the reality of espionage profession. So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that intelligence-leaking NSA contractor Edward Snowden ― with his lack of understanding of the intelligence ap