The Korea Herald

안녕하세요 Yu Kun-ha 기자입니다.

Articles by Yu Kun-ha

[Joel Brinkley] Worldwide water shortages

ViewpointsNov 22, 2013

Get ready for the water wars.Most of the world’s population takes water for granted, just like air ― two life-sustaining substances. After all, the human body is nearly two-thirds water.But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in so many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a “precious commodity” that it’s dragging the world into “water wars to follow the ones for the control of fuel oil.”Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhe
Democrats should end quest for Kennedy’s camelot

ViewpointsNov 22, 2013

When she was 22, the future Jacqueline Kennedy won a Vogue contest with an essay in which she dreamed of being “a sort of Overall Art Director of the Twentieth Century.” As first lady, she proved herself a genius at visual persuasion. She crafted her own image, refined her husband’s, re-created the White House’s, and even shaped America’s abroad.Her most evocative and enduring image-making came when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, 50 years ago this week. She art-directed the funeral’s pageantr
[Robert B. Reich] Henry Ford’s lesson for Walmart

ViewpointsNov 21, 2013

Walmart just reported shrinking sales for a third straight quarter. What’s going on? Explained William S. Simon, the CEO of Walmart, referring to the company’s customers, “Their income is going down while food costs are not. Gas and energy prices, while they’re abating, I think they’re still eating up a big piece of the customer’s budget.”Walmart’s CEO gets it. Most of Walmart’s customers are still in the Great Recession, grappling with stagnant or declining pay. So, naturally, the company’s sal
U.S. plan for Libyan military training is a mistake

ViewpointsNov 21, 2013

PARIS ― The U.S. has accepted a proposal by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan to train as many as 7,000 conventional Libyan soldiers plus counterterrorist forces. What an exceedingly bad idea. This could put the Obama administration’s Hope-and-Change bus on the road to a potential new fiasco in Libya. Think Benghazi ― except everywhere.Speaking at the Reagan Presidential Library in California last week, the man who led the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, Admiral William McRaven of the U.S. Speci
[Editorial] Is this time different?

EditorialNov 20, 2013

The government is rolling up its sleeves to reform state-run corporations as their lax management despite excessive indebtedness is causing public anger. In her budget speech at the National Assembly on Monday, President Park Geun-hye pledged to reform the public sector. Referring to the glaring instances of managerial laxity at public agencies exposed during the parliamentary audit period, Park said the government would ensure that such practices are not repeated.She also said the government wo
[Editorial] Compensation disclosure

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

The revised law on executive compensation disclosure is taking effect Nov. 29 to improve corporate transparency and protect shareholders’ rights. But questions are being raised about its effectiveness as it has loopholes. The current compensation disclosure rule is too lax. Under it, a listed company is only obligated to disclose two things ― the total and average amount of compensation it pays to its “registered” directors. A registered director is an inside director who is also a board member.
[David Ignatius] Egypt looks for a way back

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

CAIRO ― Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s popular television comedian, expresses the irreverent confidence this country will need to regain stability. On air, he mocks the autocratic tendencies of both the Muslim Brotherhood leaders and the army generals who toppled them from power. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his adoring supporters unfortunately seem to have lost the celebrated Egyptian sense of humor. Youssef presented a hilarious episode on Oct. 25 that showed footage of Sissi admonishing the nation
China’s bold reform plans don’t mean much yet

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

The world appeared to change on Nov. 15, the day bold and epochal reforms were unveiled that promised to overhaul one of the world’s biggest economies. Analysts, investors and historians alike rejoiced at the audacity of the plan.That was Japan. On Nov. 15, 2012, Shinzo Abe, then one month away from becoming prime minister, pledged “unlimited” stimulus and the kind of supply-side policies for which investors had long been clamoring. A year later, the buzz is gone, and not a single structural ref
New book suggests we owe the Beatles to luck

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

Are some people destined for success, or is the whole idea of destiny a myth, a comforting tale that we tell ourselves? When artists or political leaders become household names, are they just lucky?You might think that the Beatles, probably the most successful popular musicians in the last 50 years, were bound to succeed. But an astonishing new book, “Tune In,” by Mark Lewisohn, suggests otherwise. Without explicitly saying so, Lewisohn’s narrative raises the possibility that without breaks, coi
Kennedy’s legacy endures re-evaluations

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

As historians and journalists downgrade the legacy of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his death this week, ordinary citizens around the globe will remember a cherished figure.More than all but the greatest U.S. presidents ― George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt ― Kennedy is an icon of American political culture. Yet, as New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson observed recently, there has never been a major historical work on the Kennedy presidenc
[Park Sang-seek] In search of solutions to the Asian Paradox

ViewpointsNov 20, 2013

President Park Geun-hye once again returned to her main foreign policy doctrine, the Northeast Asian Peace and Cooperation Initiative, and urged the leaders of the four powers and North Korea in Northeast Asia to join her initiative in her speech at the ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy on Nov. 14. Few would dispute her characterization of the nature of the security environment in Northeast Asia: political and security relations and economic relations do
[Editorial] Breaking impasse

EditorialNov 19, 2013

Twelve days are left until the National Assembly is constitutionally obligated to approve the 2014 budget bill. There are many other bills that the administration would like the legislature to pass before it closes its current 100-day regular session on Dec. 10, as scheduled.This is not to say the regular session cannot be extended. On the contrary, it will probably need an extension, with little progress being made in the budgetary process. Barring a sudden breakthrough in the impasse, the best
[Editorial] Ill-advised CEO change

EditorialNov 19, 2013

Chung Joon-yang, chairman and chief executive officer of POSCO, offered to resign last Friday. He did so well ahead of the expiry of his term in office, which had been set for February 2015.But the news did not come as a surprise. Nor would anyone have believed him when he said he was under “no outside pressure” when he decided to step down when the next shareholders’ meeting was held next March.The days of his stay in office were numbered when Park Geun-hye was elected president in December. Ch
[Naomi Wolf] J.F. Kennedy’s women problem

ViewpointsNov 19, 2013

NEW YORK ― The 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy provides an opportunity to consider the shifts in consciousness in the United States that have occurred in the half-century since his death. In particular, though Kennedy has entered the pantheon of American heroes, recent data show that women, especially, have been losing admiration for him as a leader. Why?In some ways, Kennedy’s legacy for women was as progressive as his legacy on race and poverty. One genuinely visionary
Will an asteroid destroy you before you finish this?

ViewpointsNov 19, 2013

On Feb. 15, a 13,000-ton rock plunged through the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia. It shone 30 times brighter than the sun, and hurtled at 68,000 kilometers per hour toward a city of more than a million people.As the rock broke apart during its fiery descent, it dispersed energy equivalent to 500 kilotons of TNT, shattering thousands of windows. Some 1,500 people were injured, and shock waves caused a ribbon of damage extending 88 kilometers on either side of the meteor’s path. Witnesses thought