Reality check on NLL
With less than two months before the Dec. 19 presidential election, the controversy over the Northern Limit Line (NLL) persists as a campaign issue in Korea. This controversy was sparked by an allegation from a member of the ruling Saenuri Party that former president Roh Moo-hyun gave up the South’s claim on the NLL during […]
Gulags in North Korea
What are the experts thinking when they talk in learned tones, replete with facts and stats, about issues and conditions for North-South Korean reunification, the pitfalls and problems, but omit passing mention of one of the most awful obstacles? At a conference this week bearing the portentous title, “Unification and North Korea,” I waited expectantly […]
Football and racism
Football is a harmonious sport. It can potentially transcend the barriers of nationality, race, culture, and religion. But there are physical and psychological altercations that ruin it. And recently, a few disturbances scarred the spirit of the game ― poor sportsmanship, racial insensitivity, and indefensible rudeness. The Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) has constantly […]
What is the context of S. Korea’s Africa policy?
In keeping with its tradition over the last six years, the just-ended Korea Africa Economic Cooperation Forum was yet another opportunity for Seoul to extend a compelling historical narrative that reconciles empathy with brotherhood as the context for establishing an agenda for dialogue with the powerful African delegation that convened here. I can imagine the […]
Benefits of Chaebol-bashing
If there is one thing that Korea’s three presidential candidates can agree on, it’s the need for “economic democratization.” That’s the trendy term for the reform of the country’s family-owned conglomerates, or chaebol. Chaebol-bashing has been around as a popular political issue since at least the early 1990s, but it has gained more traction among […]
The emperor of Japan
The boy who sat one row behind my desk in our elementary school was called Shimizu. He was born on Dec. 23, Showa 8 (1933), the same day the then Crown Prince Akihito, now the emperor, was born. It was his birthday, a cold December morning. The class teacher, dressed in a full black tailcoat, […]
The American/Korean dream
The durable tenant of American mythology is the American dream: lush lawns and well-kept homes, manicured landscaping and gated communities, a crimeless, painless life of upper-middle classdom, of children with good teeth and good schools, husbands (and wives) gainfully employed, and in general, prosperity overflowing with milk and honey. President Reagan referred to it as […]
King or kingmaker?
Tug-of-war has begun over unified candidacy On Monday, 102 celebrities called for the two major opposition presidential nominees to agree on a single candidate. Similar demands will follow until the liberal Moon Jae-in and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo give their consent. From the standpoint of opposition supporters, however, it should not be a matter of whether […]
Overseas voting in doubt
Parties must cooperate to introduce viable system Korean citizens living abroad have been granted the vote in the Dec. 19 presidential election, following their inaugural ballot-casting in the April parliamentary elections. But the effectiveness of the overseas voting system is in doubt, because only a fraction of overseas Koreans are registered to vote in the […]
Time to test Iran
NEW YORK ― Most of the debate about how to address Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear-weapons capacity focuses on two options. The first is to rely on deterrence and live with an Iran that has a small nuclear arsenal or the ability to assemble one with little advance notice. The second is to launch a […]
Media in Tie-up with The AsiaN 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
