The Korea Herald

[Lee Jae-min] Stay vigilant when exports hit record

Feb 8, 2011

Korea’s annual exports set a new record of $466.4 billion last year and semiconductors did it again. Statistics just released by the Korean Customs Service listed semiconductors as the country’s No. 1 export in 2010 at $51.5 billion. Second and third on the export list were chemical products at $47.5 billion and commercial vessels at $47.1 billion. Automobiles took sixth place with $31.8 billion,
[Chris Monday] The paranoid style of U.S. foreign policy

Feb 8, 2011

Inspired by Tom Paine, Americans have fermented revolution around the globe. From Prague to Tiananmen, expanding the will of the people has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. But this principle is increasingly contradicting key components of America’s international agenda as well as running up against the realities of dampened influence.For example, George W. Bush vigorously backed Ukraine
[Anne Michaud] The world has passed U.S. students by

Feb 8, 2011

In these days of tiger-mother hysteria about raising children with academic backbone, President Barack Obama has weighed in with yet another cause for paranoia. The president dropped India and China into his State of the Union speech, just long enough to say they are educating their children earlier and longer.Generally, school days are longer in Asian countries, and vacation breaks, though more f
[Kim Seong-kon] What to do with bullies around us?

Feb 8, 2011

Koreans are very proud of the recent successful rescue of the sailors of the Samho Jewelry by the UDT (Korea’s equivalent of the U.S. SEAL team). Instead of yielding to the Somali pirates’ demand for ransom, the Korean government decided to take military action this time to rescue the Korean captives, perhaps for the first time in Korea’s history, in international waters. During the operation, the
Fairer economic growth to escape income trap

Feb 7, 2011

With its per capita gross domestic product rising to about 30,000 yuan ($4,500), China is at a critical point if it is to avoid the middle income trap and push living standards closer to those of rich economies. Robust economic growth in 2010 has allowed China much of the wherewithal to underpin an encouraging rise in average income levels. But if the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) is to become a c
Change and continuity in Egypt after Mubarak

Feb 7, 2011

No sooner had President Hosni Mubarak announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election than the protesters who brought him low rejected his gesture. As a result, it’s still unclear whether Mubarak will leave abruptly or after a period of transition; that, ultimately, will be up to the Egyptian people. But either way, the country appears to be on the verge of a post-Mubarak order. It’s not too soon to p
[David Ignatius] Egypt seen through Obama’s lens

Feb 7, 2011

WASHINGTON ― As President Obama watched events unfold this past week in Egypt and the surrounding Arab world, he is said to have reflected on his own boyhood experiences in Indonesia ― when the country was ruled by a corrupt, authoritarian leader who was later toppled by a reform movement. Obama looks at the Egyptian drama through an unusual lens. He has experienced dictatorship first-hand, a worl
[Brian W. Walsh] No tolerance on U.S. school property

Feb 7, 2011

“Zero tolerance” policies continue to result in injustices to our nation’s public school students. In one of the latest examples, a North Carolina school district’s application of zero tolerance may cause 17-year-old senior Ashley Smithwick, described by local media as a standout student-athlete, to miss the rest of her senior year.Far worse, local prosecutors’ apparently wooden enforcement agains
[John R. Bolton] Lebanon, not Egypt, may determine fate of Mideast democracy

Feb 7, 2011

Despite the media’s recent focus on Egypt, events in Lebanon may well tell us more about the troubled prospects for Middle Eastern democracy. The fall of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government, replaced by a Hezbollah-dominated coalition, dramatically imperils Beirut’s democratic Cedar Revolution.Financed and dominated by Iran, terrorist Hezbollah has consistently refused to disarm and b
[Meghan Daum] In praise of snail mail in an era of e-mail

Feb 7, 2011

I’ve always loved mail. By that I mean the mail that arrives in a physical mailbox six days a week, not e-mail. Well, I love that too, but it’s a cheap thrill. My heart belongs to snail mail.This love affair began decades ago, back when the “snail” qualifier wasn’t necessary. As a child, I’d sort through the mail that came every afternoon, seeing in it clues to the inner lives of my parents. Among
[Yuliya Tymoshenko] Ukraine’s desire for democracy and revolution betrayed

Feb 7, 2011

KYIV ― From snowy Kyiv, I have watched the revolutions in Cairo and Tunis with joy and admiration. Egyptians and Tunisians are right to be proud of their desire to peacefully overthrow despotic governments. But, as someone who led a peaceful revolution, I hope that pride is tempered by pragmatism, because a change of regime is only the first step in establishing a democracy backed by the rule of l
Russian government’s enduring terrorism

Feb 6, 2011

A suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport last month has reminded Russians, and the world, of the country’s continuing vulnerability to terrorist attacks. As in the past, the Russian authorities blamed Islamic extremists for the violence and promised retaliation. That reaction is certain to intensify the cycle of violence that has left a bloody trail of victims in its wake. Islamic extremis
[Chen Weihua] A canny way to get things done

Feb 6, 2011

When China first opened up to the outside world 30 years ago, Chinese people applying for jobs at foreign-funded ventures learned that they had a better chance of getting the job by answering questions in the way a U.S. jobseeker would. For example, a Chinese engineer who had operated machine tools for 20 years would previously have modestly said “I know a little bit” when asked how familiar he wa
[J. Bradford DeLong] Intelligent design of the U.S. economy

Feb 6, 2011

BERKELEY ― As Stephen Cohen, with whom I wrote “The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have the Money,” likes to say, economies do not evolve; they are, rather, intelligently designed. He also likes to say that, though there is an intelligence behind their design, this does not mean that the design is in any sense wise.The first claim is, I think, incontrovertible. Since long befo
[Michael Smerconish] Exploring a U.S. stranger’s generosity

Feb 6, 2011

In the height of the Great Depression, Myrna Jury was in economic despair, which explains her reply to the advertisement of a stranger who had run an ad in the Dec. 18, 1933, issue of the Canton (Ohio) Repository. The ad was titled “In Consideration of the White Collar Man!” and offered assistance from an anonymous source to families in need.Jury wrote and reported that her husband had been out of