Column - THE AsiaN

Regional role of Korea

Nation should at least be mediator, if not balancer Recently, the United States and China have sometimes competed, and sometimes cooperated with each other on the international stage. In the eyes of most, if not all observers, the G2 nations competed more than they cooperated around the ASEAN Regional Forum…
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Column

Unified system of Romanization

Quietly, ever so quietly, displeasure with the current Romanization system of Korean is seeping into the news. The issue stands with Chinese characters as the most contested Korean-language issue of the last 50 years. It stirs passions and sets groups of language experts against each other. Why is this so,…
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Column

Electoral politics and Korea-Japan relations

Recently, the controversy of the failure in signing an agreement with Japan on sharing intelligence information largely dominated the South Korean political discussion. The whole diplomatic fiasco ended with a sudden calling off by the Blue House an hour before the scheduled signing ceremony. Criticism was raised substantially afterwards among…
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Mickey mouse in Pyongyang

Six months after Kim Jong-un took the helm in North Korea, signs of change have been palpable in the reclusive state. At least the style, if not the content, of rule has changed. Yet nothing was more astonishing, or even weird, than to watch the 20-something leader seemingly embrace the…
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Economic democratization

Bipartisan effort needed for fairer, more vital system As in most elections, “it’s the economy, stupid,” too, in this country’s nascent presidential campaign. What sets Korea’s 2012 polls apart from most others, however, is the direction of the debate: how to change its economy to a more just and fair…
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High Security Prison In Bangladesh To Confine Militants

DHAKA, 14 July– Bangladesh has set up a high security prison near its capital Dhaka where top criminals including the Islamist militants and extremists will be confined. The prison, to be known as ‘Kashimpur High Security Central Jail’ was formally inaugurated by Bangladesh Home Minister Ms Sahara Khatun on Thursday…
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Column

A Distant Neighbor: Russia’s Search to Find Its Place in East Asia

*Author, Tsuneo Akaha is Professor of International Policy Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California. HISTORICALLY, EAST ASIAN countries have tended to see Russia as a “distant neighbor” with a distinct civilization — neither European nor Asian —…
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Defending coup d’état

Does Park still think it revolution to save country? Barely a day after declaring her candidacy for the Dec. 19 presidential elections, Rep. Park Geun-hye caught her critics off guard. And she did so by pre-empting the debate on her weakest point: the dark legacy of her father and mentor,…
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Retooling Assembly

Parties should keep word and innovate politics The National Assembly’s failure to pass an arrest motion for Rep. Chung Doo-un of the ruling Saenuri Party Wednesday is an ominous sign that the 19th parliament will proceed in the direction of disappointing voters, rather than pleasing them. To be sure, the…
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Column

Perils and pitfalls of Mt. Geumgang

MT. KUMKANG, North Korea ― An air of desolation hangs over this fabled resort area four years after a North Korean soldier shot and killed a middle-aged South Korean woman who had made the fatal mistake of wandering outside the tourist route to look at the sunrise over the East…
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