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East Asia
Koreans well educated but underperforming
Rigid labor, education hinder human development South Korea has been locked in an “education paradox” with the country spending huge amounts on educating and training young people only to see their global competitiveness getting left behind year after year. Simply put, they are highly-educated but ill-equipped to bring value to the…
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East Asia
Seoul-Tokyo radar row risks derailing military cooperation
An ongoing military spat between Seoul and Tokyo is casting a shadow on bilateral exchanges. According to Japanese media reports, Tokyo is likely cancel the planned dispatch of a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer to Busan for a joint maritime exercise in April. Japan planned to deploy the MSDFS Izumo to take…
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East Asia
Why foreigners buying Korean stocks in 2019
Foreign investors have been rushing to buy Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and other stocks since the beginning of the year as global funds shift to emerging markets on the easing of U.S.-China trade tensions and other favorable conditions. Stock prices have yet to rise above certain levels predicted by brokerages…
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East Asia
South Korea: Shareholder activism unnerves chaebol
KCGI seeks to force Cho out of Hanjin management Shareholder activism has emerged as the centerpiece of the nation’s capital market. A growing number of shareholders at large Korean companies or chaebol are trying to have a bigger say in their management and to influence the owner families’ behavior by exercising…
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Culture
‘Tea is essential part of Buddhist culture’
Venerable Jiheo speaks of life with tea Venerable Jiheo, 77, who has devoted his life to growing green tea plants since he became a monk at the age of 15, says the essence of Buddhist culture lies in tea. “A famous ancient book praising green tea says if one drinks seven…
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Culture
Goryeo: The Glory of Korea
From December 4, 2018, to March 3, 2019, the National Museum of Art present “Goryeo: The Glory of Korea”, a comprehensive overview of art in the Goryeo Dynasty. The special exhibition brings together 450 artworks, including works on loan from 45 institutions, 11 of them in the United States, United…
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South Asia
Indian Political Situation
As India gears up for its General Elections between April and May this year, the largest democracy is looking at politics from an unexpected and fresh perspective. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is no longer the larger than life face of a hopeful India because of failing to deliver on most…
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East Asia
South Korea: cellphone exports fall to 16-year low
Korea’s exports of mobile phones hit a 16-year low in 2018 after falling 23.2 percent year-on-year amid mounting competition from Chinese phone makers, data showed Sunday. Cellphones have been a major export item along with semiconductors. But the business has suffered a continued decline because of the slow global smartphone…
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East Asia
China’s Political Economy Under the Microscope
The “red swan” that gives this book its title refers to China’s Communist Party-state policy-making process, and is a play on the “black swan” of the induction fallacy, popularized by the former Wall Street trader and finance professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Sebastian Heilmann’s policy-centric work is a blend of…
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East Asia
North Korea slams UN rapporteur over human rights comment
North Korea’s party organ Rodong Sinmun on Monday criticized the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur of human rights Tomas Ojea Quintana’s recent visit to South Korea, saying it triggered unnecessary conflict between the two Koreas. “The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of…
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