WASHINGTON ― Gen. Salim Idriss, the commander of rebel forces in Syria, complained late Tuesday that President Obama’s desire “to wait and wait for more evidence” that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons is encouraging their continued use ― and that these attacks will only stop if the U.S. and its allies impose a no-fly zone. Idriss, who heads the moderate wing of the Free Syrian Army, has emerged as the key U.S. ally in the Syrian conflict. While he appreciates the recent increase in U.

Since the advent of the Park administration, “changjo gyeongje,” officially translated “creative economy,” has been the loftiest catchphrase applied to government programs, with all conceptual complexity and ambiguity. The simplest explanation from its author, President Park Geun-hye, is that it embraces all kinds of creative endeavors, industrial and academic, to prepare for the nation’s and mankind’s future. So we have the Ministry of Science, Information and Communications Technology and Futu

Those outside Korea just wonder. As North Korea re-defines the meaning of brinkmanship each day by increasing its military threat against the South, what grabs the attention of the foreign media is the seemingly unusual calmness of the people in Seoul. In fact, no disruption or change to the pattern of life for Seoulites has been observed in the face of the harshest verbal threats that a country could imagine. Just visit the banks of the Hangang River in any given evening. You can see many peopl

Before jumping into a hasty conclusion, we need to perceive things from different angles and perspectives. For example, even cute animals like rabbits and deer may evoke varied reactions from different people. One would think most people would find it very romantic and peaceful to watch rabbits or deer roam in one’s backyard. To many Koreans, such a scene may evoke the atmosphere of paradise indeed. When I expressed my desire to live in such a romantic environment, my American friend immediately

TEL AVIV ― It’s a measure of the relatively quiet time for Israel these days that the sharpest argument at a big national security conference here was between an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who wanted “autonomy” for his fellow believers and secular Israelis in the audience who shouted out denunciations of what one called his “apartheid” plan. To be sure, the Iranian threat looms on the horizon. And Amos Yadlin, a retired major general who heads the Institute for National Security Studies, warns of an a