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East Asia
Introduction: Summitry in Asia
2018 in Asia could well be called The Year of the Summit, with the most dramatic centered on the Korean Peninsula: Kim Jong Un’s meetings with Xi Jinping, Moon Jae-in and Donald Trump. Casting our gaze more broadly, of course, we find that both bilateral and multilateral summitry is by…
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East Asia
[Seoul] Euljiro’s last stand: Redevelopment rips through historic manufacturing hub
60-year-old Euljiro industrial district being torn down to make way for high-rise apartments For seven weeks, Lee Bae-woong, 75, and his son have been trying to salvage what they could from their 38-year-old hardware store in Euljiro, downtown Seoul. With excavators due in a week, they were running out of…
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East Asia
Seoul to build K-pop arena by 2024
A K-pop performance hall will be built in northern Seoul by 2024 to attract more foreign tourists, the city government said Wednesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Government unveiled its plan to establish a cultural complex near Changdong Station on subway Line No. 1 in Dobong-gu, the 18,400-seat Seoul Arena as its…
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East Asia
Xi Jinping’s Subtle Summitry on the Korean Peninsula
As a pragmatist, Chinese President Xi Jinping patiently and methodically chooses the means and procedures to achieve his “China Dream,” waiting until China is ready and able to revise the global strategic, economic and diplomatic order led by the United States. His efforts to balance revisionist goals and pragmatic means…
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East Asia
Can Abe Get Japan Back on the Korea Bus?
At the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2017, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outlined his hardline approach to North Korea in no uncertain terms. “Again and again, attempts to resolve issues through dialogue have all come to naught. In what hope of success are we now repeating the…
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East Asia
South Korea: refusing checkup is discrimination against HIV carrier
It is discrimination against HIV carriers for a healthcare center to refuse them a medical checkup, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) said. The rights watchdog advised the institution to educate its staff of human rights. According to the commission, Monday, an HIV positive patients made a temporary…
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East Asia
Forecasting Korea’s future
The French have two expressions that capture the essence of Kim Jong-un’s New Year address. First, there’s “deja vu” ― or maybe “deja vu all over again,” as the American baseball player Yogi Berra famously put it. And then there’s “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” ― “the…
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East Asia
Moon expands communication with chaebol
Approval ratings of President Moon Jae-in remained relatively high in the first week of this year on the back of public approval for his signature “engagement-focused” North Korea policy. But his lackluster and not-that-impressive domestic policy, particularly the apparent failure of its economic policies after its decision to hike the…
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East Asia
South Korea soon to take back trash from Philippines
South Korea will soon take back thousands of tons of trash that were illegally exported to the Philippines, the environment ministry here said Friday. “We’re now consulting with the Philippine government on schedules to bring back 6,300 tons of plastic garbage illegally shipped to the country,” Lee Byung-wha, a senior…
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East Asia
“Young, old generations do not understand each other”
Complaints and conflicts are piling up between the young and old as Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society, which leaves the young working class with a heavier economic burden to take care of elderly citizens. “The rapidly ageing population and low birthrate have put our society at risk, inevitably…
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