Forests are increasingly seen as the fundamental answer to resolve the environmental problems the Earth is facing. The 26th United Nations Climate Change conference held in Glasgow, Scotland, last month dealt with forests as a major agenda. As countries around the world scramble to reduce carbon emission to tackle global warming, the Korea Forest Service is playing a leading role in the worldwide efforts to save and develop forests, preparing to host the 15th World Forestry Congress in May nex

After a rare 4.9 magnitude earthquake rattled the southern island of Jeju on Tuesday, social media is abuzz with what some say could have been Mother Nature’s warnings of the incoming quake. Photos of purported “earthquake clouds,” allegedly taken hours and minutes before the quake struck at 5:19 p.m. Tuesday, have gone viral, prompting the weather agency to clarify them as just regular “cirrocumulus” clouds.  “Such clouds are spotted everywhere. There

It’s not easy being female. But it’s often no picnic being male either. The world is changing faster than ever and, with it, so are notions of masculinity. Many men are feeling unmoored, for better or worse. If you happen to be James Bond, you take this flux in stride and effortlessly turn from the Sean Connery version of manhood into the more vulnerable and complex Daniel Craig variety. But how many real-life men have an inner 007 to channel? The reality for many of those who aren

Today, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un marks 10 full years of ruling the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. As his father Kim Jong-il died of heart failure on Dec. 17, 2011, Jong-un, the third son, then 29, immediately took over as chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party, DPRK, so as to not leave a power vacuum. He then added the various titles his father had held one by one: He became the supreme commander of the DPRK Armed Forces at the end of the year, a

지난 주에 이어 우리 일상의 대화를 좀 더 세련되게 만들 수 있는 표현들을 보겠습니다. 저희 책 『나는 더 영어답게 말하고 싶다 일상회화 편 2』에서 뽑은 표현들입니다.   <생각에 관해 말할 때> 1 A I’m sorry. It all happened more than ten years ago, and I don’t remember anything. B Maybe these photos will help to jog your memory. A 죄송해요. 10년도 더 전에 일어난 일이라 아무것도 기억나지 않아요. B 이 사진들이 기억을 되살리는 데 도움이 될 겁니다. SITUATION 기억을 되살린다고 할 때 평범하게 I need to do something to remember it. 영어답게 I need to jog my memory. jog가 조깅한다는 뜻만 지니는 것은 아닙니다. 팔꿈치 등으로 쿡 찌른다는

This year marks another historic milestone in Korea’s diplomacy. In June, President Moon Jae-in was invited to the Group of Seven (G-7) Summit. In July, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reclassified Korea as a developed country, the first time for the UN agency to upgrade its member state’s status since it was founded in 1964. These are testaments that the world not only acknowledges Korea’s success but also expects Korea to play a more proactive role in add

Debates about race have frequently dominated news coverage in (and about) the US, often following acts of racial violence or legal proceedings against their perpetrators. But while Americans’ attention to issues of race continues to ebb and flow with the news, there seems to be little agreement among citizens and policymakers on what, if anything, to do about them. One stark and long-standing racial disparity is visible in the differences in socioeconomic outcomes for Black and white Amer

In 1936, human rights advocates pushed for a boycott of the “Nazi Olympics,” two years after Adolf Hitler seized power and began persecuting Jews. Some critics claimed the move was hypocritical given the ongoing discrimination against Black people in the United States. In the end, however, the games went on, with Black US track star Jesse Owens winning four gold medals. Thus, the 1936 games dealt a blow to Nazi claims of “Aryan” racial supremacy. Fast forward to the upc

In his quest to make his country the undisputed leader of the global economy, China’s President Xi Jinping can learn a lot from his next-door neighbor, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Not about what to do, but about what not to do. Except Xi just doesn’t seem to get it. Putin has been putting on a cram course of a clinic that you would think would be helping his nominally still-communist neighbor figure out how to out-capitalist the capitalists. Someday in the not-far-off

The death of Roh Tae-woo, who was president from 1988 to 1993, in October put a spotlight on his historical achievements. His foreign policies, such as hosting the Seoul Olympics, joining the UN, and promoting the Northern Policy, are seen as major diplomatic moments in modern Korean history. Behind the scenes of it all was the Presidential Secretary Kim Chong-whi. Kim served as the senior presidential secretary for foreign and security affairs in the Blue House at the time and has since ser

The 20th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization on Dec. 11 has once again highlighted long-standing debates about how well China has lived up to its WTO obligations, and whether any deviation from its commitments boosts or slows its economic growth. This discussion affects many countries’ views on whether the current global trading system should be built up or pulled down. Former US President Donald Trump was bent on pulling down the WTO, by rendering inope