Commentary / World Apr 4, 2013
Getting real on North Korea
The task in addressing North Korea's saber-rattling is made no easier by the world's having to confront an impoverished and effectively defeated country.
Commentary / World Dec 28, 2011
What will become of North Korea?
According to North Korean state television, the heart attack that killed Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17 was "due to severe mental and physical stress from overwork." That report instantly raised a question in my mind: If we accept the regime's diagnosis, why did Kim ...
Commentary / World Jun 1, 2011
Strong trilateral ties in Asia are key to stability
Like many regions of the world, Northeast Asia faces severe political challenges in creating a viable structure of peace. But given China's rising power, such a regional structure is becoming all the more necessary if today's lack of trust is not to devolve into ...
Commentary / World Nov 9, 2010
Seoul's opportunity amid economic change
SEOUL — Hubris usually gives birth to disaster. The root cause of the current global crisis was intellectual hubris in the form of the blind belief that markets would always resolve their own problems and contradictions. Thirty years after the Reagan-Thatcher revolution, the ideological ...
Commentary / World Oct 3, 2010
Grooming a new approach to North Korea
SEOUL — The long-delayed meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party came at a time of severe tension between North Korea and the international community. As widely expected, Kim Jong Il's third son, Kim Jong Un, was appointed to a high position to justify ...
Commentary / World May 19, 2010
North Korea gambles once again
SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's recent visit to China has further complicated South Korea's response to the probable culprit — North Korea — in the sinking of its warship, the Cheonan, on March 26. The debate about how to respond is ...
Commentary / World Oct 6, 2008
After the Dear Leader has passed
SEOUL — Korea is a unique country. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and is now remembered only as history to most people around the world. The Korean Peninsula, however, remains divided along ideological lines, and the two Koreas ...