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East Asia
Koreans shouldn’t romanticize ‘Les Miserables’
The movie “Les Miserables,” which was adapted from Victor Hugo’s novel by the same name, has become a hit this year in Korea. The late Hugo might find it puzzling that his fictional work is influencing the Korean society today. About five million Koreans watched the movie. Hugo’s novel, which…
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Oil spill compensation
Moon Seung-il earned his living by running fishing boats for weekend anglers in Taean County along the west coast. On Dec. 7, 2007, a Samsung Heavy Industries barge struck a crude oil tanker passing there, causing the country’s worst oil spill and driving him out of business. Moon filed a…
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East Asia
Japan’s quest for allies
MANILA ― Japan is probing the possibilities of a most improbable alliance in a corner of Southeast Asia that once lay at the heart of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” The term “co-prosperity” was a euphemism for Imperial Japan’s policy of prospering off impoverished people from Burma through the…
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Seoul, Tokyo to discuss sanctions on N. Korea
The top envoys of Korean and Japan were set to meet Thursday to discuss how to handle North Korea’s growing nuclear threat, including possible sanctions to punish the Stalinist state for its missile development. The talks in Seoul between Lim Sung-nam, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs…
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Samsung, LG locked in OLED battle
A legal battle between Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics is getting fiercer. The conflict focuses on the intellectual property of a variety of products and technologies ranging from refrigerators to the futuristic organic light emitting diode (OLED) televisions. Leading the LG charge is Koo Bon-joon, LG Electronics CEO and brother…
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4-river project a failure: audit
An audit of President Lee Myung-bak’s signature four-river project found it was poorly executed and that as a result water quality of the rivers may have been worsened. Unveiling the results of its investigation Thursday, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) voiced concern that the project would require the…
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West Asia
[Novel] The Road to Shamawes ①
*Editor’s note: We start to carry “The road to Shamawes,” a novel written by Egyptian novelist Ashraf Aboul-Yazid, in series. The novel was originally written in Arabic, and translated into Korean and English. The novelist, now working as a journalist in Kuwait, also serves as the editor of the Arabic version of The AsiaN. Shamawes…
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Retooling government
What matters are not organizations but their operations Restructuring the government has become one of the traditional tasks of newly-elected leaders in Korea. Park Geun-hye is no exception. There may be little wrong with the organizational reboot ― why not put new wine into new bottles? ― except Korea is…
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East Asia
Korea’s Japanese problem
Just a few days before Park Geun-hye was elected as the new Korean president, Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory in Japan. That event could have a major impact on Park’s administration over the next five years. The state of Korean-Japanese relations might even overshadow…
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East Asia
KTO gets big deal with Amway China
25,000 Chinese to be on Korean tour next year The state-run Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) said Wednesday that it has succeeded in attracting 25,000 Chinese tourists as part of an Amway China incentive tour. The Chinese corporation of the American direct-sales company has decided to send groups of employees to…
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