• East Asia

    [Asia Round-up] Samuragochi’s shameful deception

    Editor’s note: Followings are summaries of editorials from major Asian media on current issues. Samuragochi’s shameful deception The deception by the supposedly deaf composer Mamoru Samuragochi is twofold. Takashi Niigaki, a lecturer at Toho Gakuen School of Music, disclosed he had ghostwritten 20 music scores credited to Samuragochi for the…

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  • East Asia

    Confederation or instant unification

    Over the last few months we have seen a number of signals which indicate that Marshall Kim Jong Un, the young North Korean dictator, is really serious about changing his country. Most likely, he wants to turn his country into a mini-China, where cutthroat capitalism will be practiced under the…

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  • East Asia

    [Photo Break] Learn from enemies!

    Learn from enemies! In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher. – The Dalai Lama

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  • East Asia

    China’s conditions to accept a ‘unified Korea’

    Recent months have seen an unusual amount of noise and a sense of crisis in Northeast Asia, a region in which nationalist passions have not run this high for decades. Sino-Japanese relations have hit a nadir, while US commitments to Japan have been strongly confirmed. While South Korea’s President Park…

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  • East Asia

    Iranian President Rouhani urges closer economic ties with South Korea

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for closer economic ties with South Korea here on Monday, semi-official Fars news agency reported. “The South Korean private sector and companies should come closer to Iran’s private sector and expand the scope of their cooperation,” Rouhani said in a meeting with the visiting South…

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  • What N. Korea’s peace proposal means

    A train runs on the rail track, which the two Koreas hope to reconnect as part of an agreement reached in 2000, in the fog at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom, which has separated the two Koreas since the Korean War, in Paju, South Korea, Saturday,…

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  • East Asia

    De-nuclearization way to prosperity

    Among other negative effects, World War II left the problem of a divided Korea. Despite the fact that it was completely divided into the North and South several years after the end of World War II, the current state of their relations are still a consequence. The situation on the…

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  • East Asia

    China’s economy grows 7.7 percent in 2013, the same rate as 2012

    China’s economic growth decelerated in the final quarter of 2013 and appears set to slow further, adding to pressure on its leaders to shore up an expansion as they try to implement sweeping reforms. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from previous quarter’s…

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  • East Asia

    [Books] Israel, living on the edge

      [BOOKS] My Promised Land The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel By Ari Shavit | Spiegel & Grau | 2013 Winner of the Natan Book Award, My Promised Land, by esteemed Israeli journalist Ari Shavit presents an honest, balanced and comprehensive view of Israel. Shavit uses the past to shed…

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  • East Asia

    N. Korea tries to project unity on anniversary of Kim Jong Il’s death

    North Korea vowed to unite behind leader Kim Jong Un during carefully staged events Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of his father’s death, in an attempt to show it has returned to business as usual after the purge and execution of his once-powerful uncle last week. Kim sat silently…

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