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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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Column
[Indonesia Report] Blackberry Messenger service disrupted third time this year
Research In Motion (RIM), Blackberry smart phone producer and Blackberry Messenger provider apologized to its Indonesian costumers for the service disruption on Thursday (Oct. 4). The disruption on the Blackberry Messenger occurred on Wednesday (Oct 3) from noon to around 5 p.m. “We apologized to our costumers for the inconvenience,”…
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Column
[Indonesia Report] Indonesia to import three submarines from South Korea
On Tuesday, October 2, Indonesian House of Representatives ratified Bill of Defense Industry to be a lawful regulation. According to Vivanews’, Indonesian Mass Media, reported that The House of Representatives believe that Indonesia does not need to import the main tools of weapon system anymore if Indonesian domestic industry can…
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NK media normally say nothing about economic reforms soon to be implemented
The biggest news from North Korea on 25th September was the lack of any important news. When few weeks ago the North Korean government suddenly announced another session of the Supreme People’s Assembly would be convening on that day, North Korean watchers were expecting something significant to take place. Indeed,…
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