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East Asia
When Dreams Come True: Reflections on ‘Social Economy’ in Korea
*Author, Won-soon Park is a prominent civil rights lawyer, civic activist and social innovator. He became Mayor of Seoul in October 2011. First there was triumph of market economies after the fall of the Soviet Union. Then came successive global financial crises that debunked that triumphalism. Now, a new concept…
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East Asia
Japanese Court Guard Ship Uses Water Cannon To Prevent A Taiwanese Fishing Boat From Approaching A Disputed Island
In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard 11th Regional Headquarters, a Japan Coast Guard patrol boat uses water cannon to warn a Taiwan’s leisure boat, left, and Taiwan Coast Guard boat off Uotsuri in Japanese and Diaoyu Dao in Chinese, the biggest island in the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu…
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East Asia
Kim Yong-joon, Former Constitutional Court Chief, Meets The Press Upon Being Nominated As PM Of Incoming Gov.t
Kim Yong-joon, a former Constitutional Court chief, speaks during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. Kim Thursday was nominated by President-elect Park Geun-hye as the first prime minister of her incoming government. <AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon> South Korea’s President-elect Park Geun-hye (Front) arrives at the transition…
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East Asia
U.S. Envoy On NK Affairs Speaks To Reporters After Meeting With His South Korean Counterpart In Seoul
U.S. envoy to North Korea Glyn Davies, right, speaks after meeting with South Korea’s nuclear envoy Lim Sung-nam at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013. The North Korean military commission led by leader Kim Jong Un warned Thursday that the regime is poised to conduct…
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East Asia
Small firms need to overcome Peter Pan Syndrome
Small Korean firms are trapped in what resembles the Peter Pan Syndrome or Dwarf Syndrome, where adults do not want or feel unprepared to grow up. In the Korean economy, this tendency can be seen among small- and medium-sized firms that fear to become large companies. Since the 1980s, the…
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The new old year
NEW YORK ― Any look back at 2012 would necessarily focus on three parts of the world: the eurozone, with its seemingly endless financial uncertainties; the Middle East, with its many upheavals, including, but hardly limited to, the Muslim Brotherhood’s accession to power in Egypt and Syria’s savage civil war,…
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East Asia
Park bets on safe PM choice
Transition team chairman Kim Yong-jun nominated President-elect Park Geun-hye trumped all guesses Thursday and named her transition team Chairman Kim Yong-jun as her nominee for the first prime minister of her inaugural Cabinet. Kim, 75, headed the Constitutional Court and is respected for overcoming a physical handicap. But the beauty…
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East Asia
President’s brother gets two years
Rep. Chung jailed in court for aiding in illegal campaign fundraising The Seoul Central District Court sentenced President Lee Myung-bak’s elder brother-cum-political mentor Lee Sang-deuk to two years in prison Thursday on charges of taking illegal political funds from businesses during the 2007 presidential race. The court also ordered him…
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East Asia
Korean ‘Paul Potts’ will go to college next month
Korea’s Paul Potts, Choi Sung-bong, will enter college next month. Choi was the runner-up in Korea’s Got Talent in 2011, a local version of the audition program Britain’s Got Talent. He will enter as a freshman at the Department of Culture and Arts Management at Kyung Hee Cyber University. The…
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East Asia
Do names influence our destiny?
“Do I have to change my name?” This is one of the questions I am asked most frequently when a saju reading foretells misfortune. Many people tell me that they have already changed their name upon advice from other fortune tellers. Some of them say they benefit from the new…
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