The administration is holding a series of meetings on soaring prices ― ministerial-level policy coordination on Wednesday, policy consultations with the ruling party on Thursday and price checking by vice ministers on Friday. The administration has good reason to hurriedly summon senior economic policymakers to the three consecutive days of talks: It is losing the war it launched to contain intens

In Korea, the Cabinet has recently approved a free trade agreement with the United States ― a formality undertaken before the bilateral pact is sent to the National Assembly for ratification. On the other side of the globe, the European Parliament has been taking final steps to approve a similar accord with Korea.The Korean legislature will soon have to act on the two free trade agreements. But th

The term “summit talks” has made a comeback in Korean politics. It refers to a meeting between the president and the head of the main opposition party aiming to settle pending political issues in one stroke. Yet, the ongoing maneuvers involving the two major parties and the Blue House in arranging a meeting between President Lee Myung-bak and Democratic Party Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu are only making

The situation in Egypt remains hazy after two weeks of protests while a caretaker vice president is announcing a series of concessions on behalf of President Hosni Mubarak. The cabinet was replaced, the top leaders of the ruling party were purged and many promises were made to guarantee freedom of the press and other civil liberties. Most importantly, Vice President Omar Suleiman is meeting repres

The government and the ruling coalition parties on Saturday launched a new panel of experts chaired by Prime Minister Naoto Kan to discuss social security reform.We will wait and see how detailed a picture the panel can paint of the future of the nation’s social security system.The de facto leader of the panel is the assistant to the chairman, Kaoru Yosano, state minister in charge of economic and

From a humble beginning as a joint military exercise between Thailand and the U.S. involving selective personnel of the Marine Corps in 1982, the Cobra Gold has become the world’s largest operation of its kind.Nearly two dozen countries are taking part as well as observing the annual war games. Malaysia is the latest to join, sending 13 troops for training this year ― beginning this week at the he

Korea’s annual exports set a new record of $466.4 billion last year and semiconductors did it again. Statistics just released by the Korean Customs Service listed semiconductors as the country’s No. 1 export in 2010 at $51.5 billion. Second and third on the export list were chemical products at $47.5 billion and commercial vessels at $47.1 billion. Automobiles took sixth place with $31.8 billion,

Koreans are very proud of the recent successful rescue of the sailors of the Samho Jewelry by the UDT (Korea’s equivalent of the U.S. SEAL team). Instead of yielding to the Somali pirates’ demand for ransom, the Korean government decided to take military action this time to rescue the Korean captives, perhaps for the first time in Korea’s history, in international waters. During the operation, the

Changing the republic’s Constitution needs a national consensus. As we perceive it, what stands in the way to constitutional amendment now is national indifference. In his televised roundtable a week ago, President Lee Myung-bak revealed his wishes to have the basic law revised during his tenure, but his political desire is not shared by a significant number of lawmakers even in his own party.Peop

It is regrettable that President Lee Myung-bak’s remarks on the “science-business belt” plan in his New Year roundtable brewed strong protests from the Chungcheong-Daejeon region. The live-televised “free discussion” session on Feb. 1 designed to improve the president’s communication with the people only caused deep disappointment to those who had believed their province would host the 3.5 trillio

With its per capita gross domestic product rising to about 30,000 yuan ($4,500), China is at a critical point if it is to avoid the middle income trap and push living standards closer to those of rich economies. Robust economic growth in 2010 has allowed China much of the wherewithal to underpin an encouraging rise in average income levels. But if the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) is to become a c

WASHINGTON ― As President Obama watched events unfold this past week in Egypt and the surrounding Arab world, he is said to have reflected on his own boyhood experiences in Indonesia ― when the country was ruled by a corrupt, authoritarian leader who was later toppled by a reform movement. Obama looks at the Egyptian drama through an unusual lens. He has experienced dictatorship first-hand, a worl

“Zero tolerance” policies continue to result in injustices to our nation’s public school students. In one of the latest examples, a North Carolina school district’s application of zero tolerance may cause 17-year-old senior Ashley Smithwick, described by local media as a standout student-athlete, to miss the rest of her senior year.Far worse, local prosecutors’ apparently wooden enforcement agains

Despite the media’s recent focus on Egypt, events in Lebanon may well tell us more about the troubled prospects for Middle Eastern democracy. The fall of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s government, replaced by a Hezbollah-dominated coalition, dramatically imperils Beirut’s democratic Cedar Revolution.Financed and dominated by Iran, terrorist Hezbollah has consistently refused to disarm and b

I’ve always loved mail. By that I mean the mail that arrives in a physical mailbox six days a week, not e-mail. Well, I love that too, but it’s a cheap thrill. My heart belongs to snail mail.This love affair began decades ago, back when the “snail” qualifier wasn’t necessary. As a child, I’d sort through the mail that came every afternoon, seeing in it clues to the inner lives of my parents. Among

KYIV ― From snowy Kyiv, I have watched the revolutions in Cairo and Tunis with joy and admiration. Egyptians and Tunisians are right to be proud of their desire to peacefully overthrow despotic governments. But, as someone who led a peaceful revolution, I hope that pride is tempered by pragmatism, because a change of regime is only the first step in establishing a democracy backed by the rule of l

After a long lunar New Year holiday, ranging from five days to nine days, corporate enterprises are returning to business as usual. But some of them may have to brace for disruptions on their work sites, because the days of industrial peace may be numbered for them.The reason is that the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, a hitherto nonviolent labor umbrella group, has started to flex its muscles

When China first opened up to the outside world 30 years ago, Chinese people applying for jobs at foreign-funded ventures learned that they had a better chance of getting the job by answering questions in the way a U.S. jobseeker would. For example, a Chinese engineer who had operated machine tools for 20 years would previously have modestly said “I know a little bit” when asked how familiar he wa

BERKELEY ― As Stephen Cohen, with whom I wrote “The End of Influence: What Happens When Other Countries Have the Money,” likes to say, economies do not evolve; they are, rather, intelligently designed. He also likes to say that, though there is an intelligence behind their design, this does not mean that the design is in any sense wise.The first claim is, I think, incontrovertible. Since long befo

In the height of the Great Depression, Myrna Jury was in economic despair, which explains her reply to the advertisement of a stranger who had run an ad in the Dec. 18, 1933, issue of the Canton (Ohio) Repository. The ad was titled “In Consideration of the White Collar Man!” and offered assistance from an anonymous source to families in need.Jury wrote and reported that her husband had been out of