The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has announced that foreign direct investment pledged to the nation in the first half of the year reached $8 billion, up 12.5 percent on-year and a record high for the January-June period.The ministry played up the data, saying that FDI pledges to Korea increased despite unfavorable factors. Yet the actual amount of FDI that arrived here in the first half was tallied at $4.4 billion, down 9.3 percent from a year ago. This suggests that the sharp increase

A series of insulting remarks made by opposition lawmakers against President Park Geun-hye and her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, has roiled the political climate.Last week, Rep. Hong Ik-pyo of the main opposition Democratic Party dumbfounded many by calling the former president “a baby born to a ghost.” What he meant by the creepy description was that the late president ― and by extension his daughter ― should not have been born. He also lashed out at the junior Park for attempting

From the start, it was a world-class piece of political theater.The recent massive demonstrations involving millions of Egyptians are said to have persuaded the Egyptian military to throw President Mohammed Morsi out of office. Actually, however, military and opposition leaders along with government and business officials appear to have planned all of it in advance.What better evidence could there be than the sudden, overnight resolution of several major problems that infuriated millions of Egyp

WASHINGTON ― One of the worst recurring features of U.S. foreign policy is a process that might bluntly be described as “seduction and abandonment.” Now it’s happening in Syria. The seduction part begins with an overeager rhetorical embrace. Nearly two years ago, on Aug. 18, 2011, President Obama first proclaimed “the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” He didn’t back up his call for regime change with any specific plan, but this hasn’t stopped him from repeating the “Assad must go

STANFORD ― Negotiations have now commenced between the United States and the European Union on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), potentially the largest regional free-trade agreement in history. If successful, it would cover more than 40 percent of global GDP and account for large shares of world trade and foreign direct investment. The U.S. and EU have set an ambitious goal of completing negotiations by the end of 2014. Historically, however, most trade agreements have

Russian President Vladimir Putin is normally trolling the global media at this time of year by posing shirtless and engaging in various camera-friendly summer sports like swimming and fishing. But this summer, he’s being out-trolled and is stuck answering questions about an entitled American twerp living in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.Secret-leaking former NSA contractor Edward Snowden recently attended a press conference inside the airport’s transit zone and indicated that he would seek asylu

NEW YORK ― Putting an end to Egypt’s deepening polarization and rising bloodshed requires one urgent first step: the reinstatement of Mohammed Morsi as Egypt’s duly elected president. His removal by military coup was unjustified. While it is true that millions of demonstrators opposed Morsi’s rule, even massive street protests do not constitute a valid case for a military coup in the name of the “people” when election results repeatedly say otherwise.There is no doubt that Egyptian society is de

Apparently in the belief that policy coordination would be key to her successful governance during the next five years, President Park Geun-hye revived the post of vice prime minister for economic affairs upon her inauguration. She appointed Hyun Oh-seok, a long-term bureaucrat, to the post and had him double as finance minister.But it is not easy to push for policy coordination among government agencies, because a policy initiative tends to produce winners and losers. No agency in their right m

Kim Kyou-hyun, first vice foreign minister, is set to visit Tokyo on Wednesday. He is returning the Seoul visit by his counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, last week.Normally, the exchange of visits by South Korean and Japanese vice foreign ministers would not draw much public attention. But this time it does, because it may turn out to be the first step toward fence-mending.South Korean-Japanese relations have deteriorated since Shinzo Abe, a right-wing historical revisionist, was inaugurated as Japan’s

The news that China’s gross domestic product grew 7.5 percent from April to June ― down from 7.7 percent in the first quarter ― has provoked fewer gasps of horror than one might have expected. Chinese officials have been talking down the importance of the number for days. The mainland economy might ultimately grow 7 percent this year instead of at its usual double-digit rate, they’ve hinted. Nothing to worry about. These officials, from Prime Minister Li Keqiang on down, are speaking to two audi

With elections to the upper house of parliament on July 21, Japanese voters seem ready to hand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe one of the bigger blank checks in memory. No one has forgotten there’s an election. It’s impossible to escape the cacophony of campaign sound trucks, blaring slogans out of tinny loudspeakers. What’s most noticeable, though, is the silence of the citizenry. Try finding the slightest hint that voters are fired up. If recent contests have been notable at all, it’s for setting lo

When in 1992 a California jury acquitted the four officers who beat Rodney King, the result was a race riot of a kind not seen since the late 1960s ― followed by a federal civil-rights prosecution that convicted two of the officers. The acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin hasn’t produced rioting, but it has spawned a growing demand, led by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, for a federal trial to recharge Zimmerman with violating Martin’s civil r

In January 2009 much of the nation watched with a kind of stunned jubilation as the first black president was sworn into office. In the intoxication of that moment, some suggested the U.S. had finally moved beyond the racial quagmire that has defined its history and circumscribed its democracy. In a country where violent disfranchisement was still within living memory, the fact that 69 million voters ― of all racial backgrounds ― voted for a presidential candidate of African descent validated fa

Those who lived in the States during the 1970s probably remember the highly successful American Express card television ad, featuring Academy Award-winner Karl Malden. On the TV screen, Malden would flash American Express travelers’ checks and say the trademark phrase: “Don’t leave home without them.” When the slogan was used to advertise American Express cards later on, it was simply changed to “Don’t leave home without it.” The catchy ad has been parodied a number of times. For example, I reme

The tax authorities are switching to emergency mode as this year’s tax revenue is increasingly likely to miss the target by an unexpectedly large margin.According to data presented by the National Tax Service, tax revenue during the first five months of the year totaled 82.13 trillion won, a shocking fall of as much as 9 trillion won from the same period a year ago.If the trend continues, the shortfall is expected to expand to 10 trillion won by the end of the first half and 20 trillion won by t

The Board of Audit and Inspection has made itself a target of audit and inspection by flip-flopping on the controversial four-rivers restoration project.The state auditor has thus far inspected the signature public works project of former President Lee Myung-bak three times. But each time it offered a different assessment, confusing the public and undermining its own credibility.The board announced the outcome of its first inspection in January 2011, more than two years before Lee’s five-year te

White House officials recently made a low-key announcement that President Obama has authorized the transfer of arms to Syria’s rebels. This 180-degree shift in the administration’s policy, after two years of hand-wringing and diplomatic posturing, was announced by an obscure National Security Council official rather than the president.President Obama has distanced himself from the Syrian crisis for several reasons. The bloodbath in Syria, which has claimed more than 90,000 lives, contradicts his

The governing coalition led by Japan’s pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party is predicted to win a majority in the July 21 Upper House elections. That prospect might alarm the almost half of all Japanese citizens who say they don’t want to restart the 48 nuclear reactors that remain offline for safety checks after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a catastrophic meltdown. Even now, engineers are struggling to contain the radioactive water seeping into the groundwater under the

When Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was asked about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during his confirmation hearings, he replied: “It’s not what we usually think of when we think of a court.” And he was absolutely right.As Roberts noted, most Americans think of a court as open to the public, where “lawyers argue, and it’s subject to the glare of publicity. And the judges explain their decision to the public and they can examine them.” But the federal FISA court ― created by Congre

In 1991, Zell Miller, then governor of Georgia and a Democrat, advised his colleague Bill Clinton of Arkansas that there were two guys he needed to run his likely presidential campaign: James Carville and Paul Begala. “Who are they?” asked Clinton, a man well-versed in Democratic politics. Even though they had had successes, including Miller’s election, Carville and Begala didn’t become a big deal until they ran Harris Wofford’s campaign in a special Pennsylvania senate election in 1991. It was