Escalating suspicion
FTC should uncover truth of CD rate scandal Ripples from the suspected certificates of deposit (CD) rate-rigging scandal are spreading. Consumer groups are poised to lodge class-action lawsuits, saying many of the allegations revealed so far are suspicious enough to believe that banks and brokerage houses colluded to fix three-month CD rates. There are also […]
Is Pyongyang changing?
South should help North shift to reform, openness Peeking inside a reclusive, authoritarian state is never easy. If the regime is an Orwellian communist dynasty, the job is harder still. Such is the analysis of what’s going on in Pyongyang now. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took the title of marshal Wednesday, just two days […]
Under ‘guidance’ in N. Korea
PYONGYANG – You don’t come here looking for news about North Korea. On the day after “Respected Leader” (that’s what we’re supposed to call him) Kim Jong-un and his mystery lady attended a show featuring Walt Disney characters on stage, our minders were fonts of ignorance. They professed to know nothing about an event we’d […]
Withdraw renomination
Rights panel head is big disgrace to nation President Lee Myung-bak appears set not to retract his renomination of Hyun Byung-chul, the controversial head of the National Human Rights Commission. Lee’s decision will disappoint most if not all Koreans but astonish few. Had the President any intention to listen to the loud outcry from his […]
Vatican’s conflict with China
Once again, the Roman Catholic Church is in conflict with the Communist Party of China, with the newly ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai having publicly repudiated the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, which was established by the Chinese government to exercise supervision over the nation’s Catholics. Ironically, the consecration of the new bishop, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, […]
Living in weird drinking culture
The average breadwinners in today’s society, mired in their own tasks, may struggle to get through a hectic day. Not to mention the usual burden of working overtime, they cannot overlook the designated meeting to drink with their coworkers. Plus, there is the physical inconvenience of the side-effects of a hangover the next day such […]
Regional role of Korea
Nation should at least be mediator, if not balancer Recently, the United States and China have sometimes competed, and sometimes cooperated with each other on the international stage. In the eyes of most, if not all observers, the G2 nations competed more than they cooperated around the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phnom Penh last week. […]
Unified system of Romanization
Quietly, ever so quietly, displeasure with the current Romanization system of Korean is seeping into the news. The issue stands with Chinese characters as the most contested Korean-language issue of the last 50 years. It stirs passions and sets groups of language experts against each other. Why is this so, and what, if anything, can […]
Electoral politics and Korea-Japan relations
Recently, the controversy of the failure in signing an agreement with Japan on sharing intelligence information largely dominated the South Korean political discussion. The whole diplomatic fiasco ended with a sudden calling off by the Blue House an hour before the scheduled signing ceremony. Criticism was raised substantially afterwards among the general public and President […]
Mickey mouse in Pyongyang
Six months after Kim Jong-un took the helm in North Korea, signs of change have been palpable in the reclusive state. At least the style, if not the content, of rule has changed. Yet nothing was more astonishing, or even weird, than to watch the 20-something leader seemingly embrace the popular culture of the North’s […]
Media in Tie-up with The AsiaN 
Trump, Kim, and the Three P’s of Summit Diplomacy: 
