2012 has been a year full of happiness for the AsiaN thanks to all of your support. I hope the year has been a very fruitful one for all of you too.

2012 has brought many political changes in the world including Asia through important events such as the presidential elections. On December 19, Korea has it elected its first woman president. Her father was the president of Korea from 1963 to 1979. It is a very rare case in history. President-elect Park’s father was criticized as a dictator, but at the same time commended for industrializing Korea, which used to be one of the poorest nations in the world. In 1979, he was assassinated by his close follower.

Korea was then torn between an age of industrialization and democratization. This year’s election was a very close race fought with fierce competition between the main two candidates. Intellectuals and the media say that President-elect Park’s greatest historical duty is to integrate the age of democratization and age of industrialization. She has been given the duty to overcome the world economic crisis, alleviate polarization, improve North and South relations, etc.

Our main story of this week’s newsletter is a column written by Ashraf Dali, Editor-in-chief of the AsiaN’s Arabic version, on having top leaders of North and South Korea, China and Japan come together at the Korean peninsula’s DMZ to discuss peace.

This newsletter marks our last edition of 2012. I would like to thank you for reading our articles even though they may not always be up to par.

As end-of-the-year greetings, I would like to share a card I received from Paul K. Kim, Bishop of Seoul of the Korean Anglican Church and Chief of the National Council.

December 26, 2012

Sincerely
Lee Sang-ki, CEO & Publisher of the AsiaN

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