Sovereignty in missiles
Accord should be start of self-reliant defense To have an independent national defense capability has long been a cherished ambition of all governments here. There can be little doubt that the Korea-U.S. agreement Sunday to more than double the range of the nation’s ballistic missiles marked an important step toward that goal. It was also […]
‘I’m Korean,’ says Japanese in China
“Could you fly over here and help me?” a Japanese friend who runs a sushi restaurant in Beijing cried out over the phone. “Anti-Japanese demonstrators are throwing stones at my restaurant and the Beijing police are ignoring the violent actions against Japanese enterprises in the city!” “How can I help you?” I responded. “I want […]
Mitt Romney pulls October surprise
WASHINGTON ― Isn’t politics fun! We’ve been expecting an October surprise, and we got one! The Mitt Romney who demolished President Barack Obama in their first debate of the general-election season wasn’t the same candidate at all who has been campaigning for president for the last six years. Romney was no longer the man whose […]
Why US is heading for ‘emotional isolationism’
LOS ANGELES ― Foreign policy has suddenly surfaced, like a leviathan sea monster, crawling onto the beach of the U.S. presidential campaign. If I were an incumbent American president seeking re-election, I might be worried. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire, American foreign policy has lacked the […]
Europe’s trial by crisis
BERLIN ― Some 2,500 years ago, the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus concluded that war is the father of all things. He might have added that crisis is their mother. Fortunately, war between world powers is no longer a realistic option, owing to the threat of mutual nuclear destruction. But major international crises, such as the […]
Korea can host global golf match
I spent considerable time over the last three nights staying up till dawn to watch the Ryder Cup. I never left home but the jet lag is huge. The golf competition took place in Chicago time this year. Thus, in Seoul, it began when we normally fall asleep. The Ryder Cup has been going on […]
Cafe Hayek — a website that educates
Traditional news media are in decline, the Internet is on the rise, and wandering in the blog fog means going down wrong paths and falling over cliffs, right? Not entirely. There’s hope, no small sign of which is “Cafe Hayek,” an economics-oriented, libertarian website that shines bright, clarifying light on key issues. That’s thanks partly […]
Yet another Gangnam Style headline
“Asians are more than a maf***ing comic relief you punk a** white boy,” “F*** all the white people to F*** CNN to F*** Hollywood!” Not our words, obviously, but those of the delightfully charming Korean rapper Tiger JK, embarking on a bit of public racism after losing composure at a performance for the “Creators’ Project” […]
Korean American or American Korean?
Above is the title of a lecture that I have to give to a group of University of Maryland students this Friday for a College Leadership Academy session sponsored by the D.C. chapter of the Peace Foundation. And I am stumped. I can’t believe that I ever agreed to speak on this topic since I […]
A boxer’s ‘forgotten war’
You know how little the Korean War weighs on the consciousness of American readers when you see a documentary and read an entire book about a famous American boxer and his epic battle with his Korean challenger and find virtually no mention of the “forgotten war.” That omission in “The Good Son,” the title of […]
Media in Tie-up with The AsiaN 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
