“Are you on the road or in the ditch?” That’s the question labor reporters used to ask about big contract negotiations back when I covered the United Steelworkers union 40 years ago in Pittsburgh -- and it’s the right one to pose now as US President Trump zigs and zags toward a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Trump and Kim appear to be firmly back on the road to a June 12 meeting in Singapore, after a near-death experience last week. Trump sent his coy breakup letter last Th

Recently, I was invited by the Ohio State University to give a talk. I flew to Columbus, Ohio where I was greeted by a group of eminent professors, including Mark Bender, Naomi Fukumori, Chan Park, Pilho Kim and Danielle Pyun, whose warm hospitality made my sojourn so comfortable. There, I was very much impressed with OSU students who listened to me attentively for an hour and fifteen minutes. Unlike Korean students, no one was texting or updating their Facebook accounts during my talk. They wer

Since about a week ago, a new batch of emails have started to fill my inbox. The senders are various entities -- publishing companies, journals, academic organizations, law firms, and even airlines -- in Europe and in Korea.These emails ask for my consent to store and process my personal information such as contact details, dues payment, membership record, and the like. The senders all refer to the new regulation of the European Union called the General Data Protection Regulation that entered in

From the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, he has said he wants to make trade “fair.” For too long, he argued, American companies and workers suffered as trading partners used tactics that stole jobs, damaged US industry and widened deficits. The implication was that he’d work to strip away the remaining tariffs and other hurdles that tilted the playing field.　Now we’ve seen Trump’s policy in action, it turns out he’s doing the opposite. There’s hypocrisy at the core of his admi

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin assembled the most impressive panel ever seen at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, which he’s used as a showcase for Russia and himself since 2006. He had a nonattendee to thank for the full house, Donald Trump.　Usually, one or two foreign leaders attend the forum to act as foils for Putin, who delivers a keynote address, pitching Russia as an investment destination. This year, however, Putin shared the stage with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Mi