The Korea Herald

Time for Ozawa to tell his side of the story

Sept 30, 2011

The guilty ruling handed down to three former aides to Democratic Party of Japan strongman Ichiro Ozawa over political funding irregularities clearly establishes their criminal responsibility by the judiciary. Given this, Ozawa has an extremely heavy responsibility to assume as a politician over the
Transparent gains

Sept 30, 2011

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s first official trip to the United States achieved something more than the obligatory ceremonial visit of a new president to a key ally and a reaffirmation of the historical, geopolitical and economic ties. Although there was no one-on-one meeting between him
[Zhou Hong] World would benefit from a longer-lasting global order

Sept 30, 2011

One of the amazing new phenomena of the rapidly changing past few decades is the change in power configuration of today’s world compared to 20-30 years ago. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only ended the Cold War, but also, or even more significantly, combined the “two world markets” into one.
The storm over disaster aid in the United States

Sept 29, 2011

Some 13 percent of Americans approve of how Congress is doing its job, while 83 percent disapprove. Nearly 22 percent of Americans say the country is on the right track; 72 percent say no, the country is on the wrong track.If you were a member of Congress, these averages of recent survey results fro
[Robert Shiller] Great debt scare in U.S., Europe

Sept 29, 2011

NEW HAVEN ― It might not seem that Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and growing concern about the United States’ debt position should shake basic economic confidence. But it apparently has. And loss of confidence, by discouraging consumption and investment, can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, causing t
[William Pesek] Korea battens down hatches

Sept 29, 2011

The threat of financial contagion isn’t always bad.Take South Korea, which is taking the hint from Europe’s fast-worsening sovereign debt crisis. It’s devising plans to cut its fiscal deficit next year and loudly publicizing the effort ― just in case credit-rating agencies get any ideas about downgr
[Sarah Chayes] Government by crime syndicate in Afghanistan

Sept 29, 2011

The remarkable public confrontation between the Gandhi-like ascetic Anna Hazare and the government of India ― which came to a triumphant end last month with a glass of orange juice and a government promise to create a strong, independent anti-corruption agency ― is the latest manifestation of a worl
Flirting with justice

Sept 29, 2011

After his first argument before Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, one prominent Southern lawyer was certain the Supreme Court would rule in his favor ― because, he said, she was “flirting” with him. The comment speaks volumes about the speaker, but it also says something about the person who weaved her w
[Ban Ki-moon] A global agenda for seven billion

Sept 29, 2011

NEW YORK ― Late next month, a child will be born ― the 7 billionth citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born. We do know that the baby will enter a world of vast and unpredictable change ― environmental, economic, geopolitical, technological and demo
[Susan Crawford] Phone, Web clampdowns in crises intolerable

Sept 28, 2011

Can U.S. citizens count on using the Internet and cell-phone networks to communicate in high-stress situations? The Federal Communications Commission is about to examine that question. Public interest and the law both require that channels stay open. At issue is the termination of cell-phone service
[David Ignatius] Admiral Mullen bids farewell

Sept 28, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Talking to Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his final week in the job, I found myself wondering if we are entering a “post-military” age, when our top officers understand that the biggest problems can’t be solved with military power. Time and again, v
[Robert Reich] Creating jobs by lowering wages

Sept 28, 2011

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney can duke it out over who created the most jobs, but governors have as much influence over job growth in their states as roosters do over sunrises.States don’t have their own monetary policies so they can’t lower interest rates to spur job growth. They can’t spur demand thr
New ways to make money talk in campaign finance disclosure

Sept 28, 2011

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority decision last year in Citizens United, which allowed corporations to contribute unlimited sums toward electioneering, was controversial. But the court’s vision of campaign finance disclosure, which was endorsed by every justice except Clarence Thomas, was not. The
[Meghan Daum] Chick flick television

Sept 28, 2011

Perhaps it’s been brought to your attention that this is a big week for retrograde representations of women on television. Monday last week marked the premiere of NBC’s “The Playboy Club,” a noir-ish look at Hugh Hefner’s flagship Chicago club in 1963, and Sunday saw the launch of ABC’s “Pan Am,” a
[Doyle McManus] The Republican Party’s hard-right tilt

Sept 28, 2011

We’ve now seen three full-dress debates among the Republican politicians who want to be the next president of the United States, and here’s what we’ve learned:They all believe taxes are too high, even though federal taxes are lower as a percentage of the U.S. economy than any time in the last 60 yea