opinion_
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Column
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…
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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…
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Column
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…
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Column
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…
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Column
Troubled Waters: Seeking Co-operation Along the Mekong
*Author, Le Dinh Tinh is Deputy Director General of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. The views expressed here are his own. Once at the center of a long-running war, the Mekong River Basin is now far from the world’s headline-grabbing conflict zones. But…
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Column
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…
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Column
Inner voice
“Repent! Repent!” This is the word that I heard coming out from deep within my heart barely two months ago. From then on, it continued to linger for a considerable period of time. Before taking my summer vacation, there was this sincere longing within me, a deep desire to change.…
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Column
Time to adopt strong currency policy
Democratizing the economy is a buzzword among the major presidential candidates. They blindly believe taming chaebol will automatically solve Korea’s economic polarization. Furthermore, although they all advocate reforming the over-reaching conglomerates, they have yet to provide a roadmap to kick-starting the economy, which has been growing below its potential growth…
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Column
North Korea defies reform predictions
Pyongyang once again disappointed those predicting it was about to change its ways. For months, experts and major media organizations have proclaimed imminent economic reform, even declaring that “North Korea has virtually abandoned the planned economy.” An unprecedented second Supreme People’s Assembly this year could only mean codification of free…
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Too frequent shutdowns
Atomic plants’ top priority is safety, not production Officials at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) have been proud of two things: the successful localization of atomic power plants and a very high capacity utilization ratio. Unfortunately, both are causes of concern for the nuclear-wary public. And their worries increasingly…
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