The Korea Herald

안녕하세요 Yu Kun-ha 기자입니다.

Articles by Yu Kun-ha

[Nathan Gardel] Media and Arab awakening

ViewpointsSept 20, 2012

LOS ANGELES ― The events of recent days in the Middle East only forewarn of future turmoil as the democratization of the media in the West meets the political awakening in the Arab world.The now-marginalized children of Facebook may have inaugurated the Arab Spring, which unleashed ― some say liberated ― anti-Western voices and actors long crushed by brutal autocrats. But now it is YouTube’s turn to roil the region. A 14-minute preview of a movie called “The Innocence of Muslims” ― posted by a m
Census confirms U.S. middle class in dire trouble

ViewpointsSept 19, 2012

The Census Bureau reported last week that middle-class income is continuing to shrink, top-tier incomes are growing and those at the bottom remained about the same. It wasn’t shocking news, confirming what dozens of independent studies have shown.What does come as a surprise is what politicians regard as middle income.On Friday, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said “middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.”That’s about where President Barack Obama has drawn the line, too. He w
[David Ignatius] Georgia’s viral political battle

ViewpointsSept 19, 2012

WASHINGTON ― The Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili, long a favorite of U.S. conservatives for championing pro-democratic “color revolutions,” is under fire for its own alleged suppression of a domestic opposition movement headed by a billionaire tycoon. Saakashvili was lauded as a reformer after he became president in 2004, following the Rose Revolution, and he has bravely challenged Russian hegemony in the region. But he has also shown a tendency to overreach, as in the impru
U.S. banks ignore Europe’s lesson on greed

ViewpointsSept 19, 2012

Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the near-total paralysis of capitalism’s central nervous system ― the moment fear completely overwhelmed greed on Wall Street ― we are starting to see a few glimmers of hope. The good news: Several big banks have finally started taking steps to reform Wall Street’s out-of-control compensation system, which rewards bankers and traders with big bonuses for taking insane risks with other people’s money. The bad news: These banks are
We want Middle East justice ― but we’re tired of conflict

ViewpointsSept 19, 2012

What do Americans want done with killers in Libya who murdered U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others on Sept. 11, our national day of mourning?We want their heads stuffed into a burlap bag. We want to see that bag tossed into some town square, landing with hollow thunks, the bag opening, its cargo rolling along the ground.That’s revenge talking, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Americans were murdered. While our politicians make speeches about “resolve” and President Barack Obam
[Editorial] Demographic tipping point

EditorialSept 18, 2012

While political parties are engrossed in a debate on economic democratization, Korea has reached a profound demographic tipping point.A recent Bank of Korea report says Korea’s working-age population ― those between 15 and 64 years of age ― will peak in 2016 before starting to decline rapidly for the next half a century. Yet the report draws attention to an important demographic shift that is already taking place: The share of the working-age population in the total population reaches a peak thi
[Editorial] Rot in financial sector

EditorialSept 18, 2012

The Financial Supervisory Service recently said it would consider resuming the practice of disclosing data on corruption in the financial sector, as criminal activity by executives and employees of financial companies shows no signs of abating.Until 2004, the watchdog made public its corruption statistics for each segment of the industry. But it discontinued the practice in the face of opposition from financial companies.Financial firms have since made voluntary efforts to prevent their official
Arnault’s childish decision to pack his bags

ViewpointsSept 18, 2012

It’s a shame that France’s two most powerful people, its president and its richest man, were unable to get beyond populist posturing and recrimination as they battled over taxes this week. They may have missed a golden opportunity to find common ground on restoring growth to their country’s beleaguered economy. The clash erupted after Bernard Arnault, the chief executive officer of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, acknowledged that he has applied for Belgian citizenship. He said this was a “
[Omar Ashour] Libya’s jihadist minority

ViewpointsSept 18, 2012

DOHA ― “They are armed I am not going to fight a losing battle and kill my men over a demolished shrine,” said Fawzi Abd al-’Aali, the former Libyan interior minister, before he “resigned” last August. He was referring to the armed Salafi groups that were accused of destroying Sufi shrines. One of the accused groups was the Ansar al-Shariah Brigade, which was quick to support the demolition, but denied any responsibility for it.Ahmed Jibril, Libya’s deputy ambassador to London, has now accused t
Korea-Japan island dispute: Enough is enough!

ViewpointsSept 18, 2012

Enough is enough! Obviously, the political leadership in Tokyo and Seoul never learned the First Rule of Holes: when you find yourself in one, stop digging. Each side seems to be going out of its way to make a bad situation worse, even while providing private assurances that it won’t let the situation get too far out of hand. In all likelihood it is probably impossible to start making significant repairs until after upcoming elections: December in Korea and who knows (but probably sooner rather
Time to end the habit of Western translation

ViewpointsSept 18, 2012

Sept. 28 marks the 2,563rd anniversary of the birth of Confucius.Few people realize that the Bible discourages people from studying foreign languages. The story of the tower of Babel informs us that there is one humanity (God’s), only that “our languages are confused.” From a European historical perspective, that has always meant that, say, any German philosopher could know exactly what the Chinese people were thinking, only that he couldn’t understand them. So instead of learning the foreign la
Heart attack is no reason to disappear in China

ViewpointsSept 17, 2012

What does it say about China when the man seen as the next president disappears for 13 days and leadership circles pretend nothing is amiss? The answer is that officials in Beijing still cling to their Kremlin-like ways. It is one thing for Ethiopia, with $32 billion of output, to be mired in similar intrigue (Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was confirmed dead last month after weeks of rumors and conspiracy theories). It is quite another when it takes place in a country whose economy might surpass t
[Mehdi Khalaji] Iran’s strategy for U.S. election

ViewpointsSept 17, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have again hit a wall, but the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears unconcerned. Indeed, Khamenei seems convinced that neither the United States nor Israel will attack its nuclear facilities ― at least not before the U.S. presidential election in November. Ironically, while Khamenei is no fan of democracy, he relies on the fact that his principal enemies are bound by democratic constraints. Khamenei controls Iran’s
To be presidential, Romney must first be truthful

ViewpointsSept 17, 2012

Presidential campaigns sometimes turn on big moments that help voters ponder the central question they have about every challenger: What would this person actually be like as president? These aren’t the same as gaffes, which are slips of the tongue that may be politically damaging but say little about the candidates except that they misspoke. I’m talking instead about critical moments of miscalculation ― often made in desperation ― that illuminate important truths about a politician. In 1964, Ba
Castration as a measure against child rape

ViewpointsSept 17, 2012

Imagine a town which has outlawed the most conventional form of criminal punishment, imprisonment. It believes that incarcerating a human being in a jail cell for five, 10 or 20 years is cruel and outdated. Instead, it reintegrates “criminals” back into the community with counseling and encouragement. It has concluded that locking up a human being, whatever his crime, is an infringement of his human right to freedom and liberty. The aforementioned example is a paradisiacal community. When one co