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[London Olympics] ② The world revives London’s architecture
*Editor’s note: This is the second of six-part stories on the London Olympics That’s how Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, wished the new tower to be a success as he unveiled it in the Olympic Village garden. Zaha’s icon and this tower have something in common: The engineer who built…
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A (Multi) Polar Bear? Russia’s Bid for Influence in Asia
*Author, Stephen Blank is a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. The views expressed here are his own. Russia’s call for a multipolar world, where power doesn’t reside with a single hegemon such as the US, is a veiled bid to exert Russian influence in Asia…
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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…
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Column
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…
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[London Olympics] ① Revival of art
*Editor’s note: This is the first of six-part stories on the London Olympics Sport lovers probably expect me to tell them about the records that will be broken during the Olympic month in the British capital that starts on Friday (July 27), predicting, e.g., the winning of Ethiopian runner Kenenisa…
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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…
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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…
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Culture
Yet Another Homicide of Migrant Bride by Husband: Who is to Blame?
*This is the letter of Woman Migrants Humanrights Center in Korea. Two immigrant women in Korea were ruthlessly killed – one right after the other – by their own husbands. Yungbun Kim (Age 31, Cheolwon, Gangwon-do) was an ethnic Korean woman from China who, due to her husband’s assault, faced…
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Many changes loom in NK under new leadership
After a few months of comparative calm, things have finally begun to move in North Korea. The recent dismissal of Vice Marshall Ri Yong Ho, the de facto supreme commander of the North Korean military, can be seen as the first significant purge of the Kim Jong Un era. This…
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Column
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…
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