To this day, I still vividly remember going to the Hollywood Bowl in the summer in Los Angeles. Since I majored in piano, when I think of summer, the first thing that comes to my mind are the kind of music festivals held in that venue. When I came to the United States for graduate school, I studied piano with deep sincerity. And part of that was going to various music camps and music festivals t...

The 72nd anniversary of the Korean War is just around the corner, meaning that those born in the unforgettable year of 1950 are now 72 years old. It also means that few people in Korea will remember the war that utterly devastated the Korean Peninsula for three years or those who died in wartime. Americans call the Korean War the “forgotten war” because few people seem to remember it. For the Kor...

On June 17, Americans found ourselves at the convergence of two crises of shattering assaults on our democracy. They were crises of crimes and cover-ups, at opposite ends of history’s half-century arc. They were crimes committed by two very different sitting presidents -- Richard Nixon and Donald Trump -- who were determined to win reelection, no matter what. Both times, America’s true patriots ...

“The Miracle on the Han River” has been often used to describe South Korea’s rise and leapfrogging from one of the world’s poorest countries in 1950s to one of the richest today. In a single generation, Korea became a leader in technological innovation with global brands such as Samsung going head-to-head with Apple and other major companies. From “Squid Game” to Blackpink, Korean dramas, movies ...

The United States appears to have entered a new cold war with both China and Russia. And US leaders’ portrayal of the confrontation as one between democracy and authoritarianism fails the smell test, especially at a time when the same leaders are actively courting a systematic human-rights abuser like Saudi Arabia. Such hypocrisy suggests that it is at least partly global hegemony, not values, th...

It has been almost one year since the ugly US departure from Kabul. Yet tens of thousands of Afghans who were promised special immigrant visas (SIVs) -- meant for those who worked for US soldiers and civilians -- remain trapped under terrifying Taliban rule. Even for those eligible for SIVs, it could take years -- if ever -- to be issued one, given the glacial pace of the process. Hunted by name...

Russia’s growing engagement in Africa is gaining attention. The Wagner Group, a shady mercenary organization, is the centerpiece of this activity. Since 2015, it has become an important security player in at least a half-dozen countries across the continent. The Russian government denies any connection, but Wagner is widely believed to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and doing Russia...

After barely winning the presidency in March this year, the People Power Party won a landslide victory over the Democratic Party of Korea in the June 1 local elections. The People Power Party won 12 of the 17 metropolitan mayor and provincial governor seats, including Seoul, which marked a gain of 10 local chief executives. The People Power Party won substantial victories on ballot elections, giv...

In New York City, a woman opens her laptop to a bar graph showing the number of COVID-19 deaths nationwide each month in 2021 and fixes her gaze on April. She tells a researcher, “My mother is one of them.” The graph helps her see that her mother is “part of something bigger happening to the country,” she says. In the nation’s capital, a man kneels on a patch of grass near the Washington Monumen...

Last week, I had a pleasant walk with friends along a short trekking course that opened recently around the former presidential mansion. My smartphone walking counter app tracked about 15,000 paces in the two-hour trip, which included a snack of makgeolli and a sundae on the wooden floor of the Okhojeong pavilion near the eastern end of the route. I have to wait to the end of this month to go ins...

In the broader discussion about Russia’s war on Ukraine, an important but overlooked element is the exodus of Russians from their homeland. Though it is impossible to determine the scale of this phenomenon, we can expect the outflow to continue, especially if the United States pursues a policy to lure highly skilled specialists and sustain a Russian brain drain, as US President Joe Biden has prop...

Multiple opinion leaders have pointed out that hostility was rampant in Korean society during the Moon administration. In order to secure votes and supporters, politicians nurtured hostile feelings toward those who are different from the majority of us, better than we are in some way, or richer than the rest. As a result, hostilities are now endemic in our community, an ordeal with which we have ...

At the gas station near my home in Burbank, California, gas prices last week were an astronomical $6.50 per gallon ($1.72 per liter), much higher than the nationwide average of $4.67, and just above the statewide average of $6.19 per gallon. Filling up the tank can cost a shocking $100. Working families cannot afford this, and it doesn’t have to be this way. The reasons for high gas prices are m...

Americans are being tested right now about the kind of country and world they want to live in. At home -- as children are slaughtered with easily acquired assault weapons -- members of the US Congress must decide whether they prefer the rule of law or the law of the jungle. Abroad, the Biden administration, and the American public, must decide whether the strong US support for Ukraine will be c...

Like many other democracies, Australia has experienced growing political polarization in recent years, particularly during the last nine years of the conservative government, led by the Liberal Party, in coalition with the smaller, rural-based National Party. That is why the result of the federal election in May could hold important lessons for other polarized polities. Consider the outcome in K...