The fate of Asiana Airlines, soon to be sold off by the Kumho Asiana Group, offers both lessons and challenges for Korea Inc. -- as well as for the nation’s second-largest flag carrier and other affiliates in the group, which focuses on transportation and logistics. Most of all, the case should awaken the nation’s conglomerates, especially the family-controlled chaebol, to the risks of pursuing business expansion in the “octopus style” for which they have become notorious -- that is, indiscrimin

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s statements in recent days, replete with frustration and scolding of Washington’s negotiating posture, indicate that President Donald Trump thus far has struck the right balance. In his April 11 speech to his rubber-stamp legislature, the Supreme People’s Assembly, Kim said that he is only interested in meeting Trump for a third summit if Washington approaches talks with the “right attitude,” adding that he would wait until the end of 2019 for Washington to be mo

New foreign direct investment pledged to South Korea recorded a sharp on-year drop in the first quarter of this year. The country received FDI commitments worth $3.17 billion during the January-March period, down 35.7 percent from a year earlier, according to data released last week by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.Actual investments made by foreign companies over the same period decreased 15.9 percent on-year to $2.62 billion.As officials at the ministry note, there is a list of re

President Moon Jae-in has bet again on mediating another inter-Korean summit to revive stalled nuclear negotiations between the US and North Korea.　“Now is the time to prepare in earnest and push for another summit between South and North Korea,” Moon said at a meeting with senior secretaries Monday.　Nothing would be more desirable than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un accepting Moon’s offer and holding his third summit with US President Donald Trump to take sincere steps to denuclearize in retur

After reading the article “Racism still haunts club scene” in the April 10 edition of The Korea Herald, I felt the need to voice my opinion. To any progressive open-minded person, racism in whatever form is unacceptable. One difference here in South Korea is that many people are not open-minded and the country is less progressive than most foreigners would like it to be. This isn’t meant to be a slight, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful -- it’s just reality. In Western nations, the fight agai

Japan’s response to the World Trade Organization’s ruling endorsing a South Korean ban on Japanese fishery products raises questions about its sensibility as a responsible member of the international community.Most of all, Tokyo’s challenge to the ruling, which is final, goes against the norm that both the winner and loser in a bilateral dispute should respect and comply with the judgement of the authoritative international arbitration or settlement body. International rules and standards are wh