I will never forget the sound of anguish my mother made as we watched the recently released video footage of the American citizen ― my brother, Kenneth Bae ― in a North Korean labor camp. Our family had been devastated by my brother‘s 15-year sentence of hard labor, but nothing could have prepared us for this.My mother drew in a sharp breath and broke into heaving sobs, gasping for breath, at the sight of her son so diminished. We could see the heavy toll his long imprisonment, since November, h

Democrats and Republicans, bracing for a game of chicken over a possible government shutdown and a debt-ceiling default, should rewatch the 1955 movie, “Rebel Without a Cause,” starring the American icon James Dean. A thug challenges Dean’s character to race their stolen cars toward an abyss. The first driver who jumps out of his speeding vehicle is a coward. Dean leaps just as his car is about to go over the cliff; the other guy’s leather jacket gets ensnared in the door handle, and he plunges

On July 15, six workers were killed at the flooded Noryangjin Reservior in Seoul. When the cause of the accident was disclosed, it became clear that the accident was a “man-made disaster.” If even one of the several dozens of people responsible for the construction of the Noryangjin Reservoir had fulfilled their roles properly, the accident could have been avoided; however, it happened as all of them handled it with insensibility and complacency.Three days later, on July 18, five second-year stu

Perhaps the most promising thing that can be said about anticipated Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is that we don’t know much about them. After hosting talks about talks in Washington this week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said formal discussions would begin within two weeks. No terms of reference were announced, so it’s not clear whether the two sides will begin where previous negotiations left off, from scratch or somewhere in between. This is a plus. When commentators, politici

NEW YORK ― Do women suffer from a double standard in the workplace in relation to how they look? Have we gotten past the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) shade of sexism in hiring and promotion ― disproportionately affecting women ― that I identified in 1991 as “the professional beauty quotient”?It is hard to believe that we are still talking about this 20 years later ― but we must. When anti-feminists make the case that there is now a “level playing field” for women, and that any gender gap

For American forces in Afghanistan, this should be the last straw.It started in early July, when President Obama was once again so furious with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that for the first time he began talking about the so-called “Zero Option” ― bringing home the entire American military presence next year.This came after Karzai lambasted the U.S. for trying to arrange peace negotiations with the Taliban. Lost in his latest fit of pique, Karzai summarily terminated the continuing negotiatio

WASHINGTON ― How can Secretary of State John Kerry succeed in the “Mission Impossible” of negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement when he faces the same intractable issues that have derailed so many previous peacemaking efforts? Skepticism about Kerry’s project is nearly universal, and it’s understandable when you look at the graveyard of past negotiations. But there are some interesting dynamics beneath the surface that should make observers cautious about premature burial announceme

Public trust in the nation’s tax office has taken another tumble with the emergence of allegations that a former chief of the National Tax Service took bribes from CJ Group in return for favors during a tax audit years ago.Prosecutors have already arrested Heo Byung-yik, a former deputy commissioner of the NTS, on suspicion that he took bribes from CJ, a food and entertainment conglomerate whose chairman, Lee Jay-hyun, was recently indicted on charges of dodging taxes and misappropriating corpor

The Cabinet has finally approved the so-called “Kim Young-ran Bill” aimed at rooting out corruption in officialdom. It was almost a year after Kim Young-ran, then chairwoman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, first put forward a draft bill. The main cause of the long delay was disagreement between the anti-corruption commission and the Ministry of Justice over some of Kim’s proposals.Kim, who had also served as a Supreme Court justice, wrote the bill to plug the big loopholes in

Iran will inaugurate its seventh president on Aug. 4. Hassan Rouhani assumes power at a time when the Islamic Republic is confronting international isolation and simmering domestic discontent. He has already changed the tone of the regime, promising moderation and a fresh look at Iran’s many quandaries. The temptation to embrace an Iranian politician who speaks the language of pragmatism may prove irresistible. However, as Rouhani settles into office, it is best to hold back and see how much aut

Almost everyone knows CEO pay is out of control. It surged 16 percent at big companies last year, according to the New York Times, and the typical CEO raked in $15.1 million.Meanwhile, the median wage continued to drop, adjusted for inflation.What’s less well-known is that you and I and other taxpayers are subsidizing this sky-high executive compensation. That’s because corporations deduct it from their income taxes, causing the rest of us to pay more in taxes to make up the difference.This tax

What does Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig have in common with Egyptian generalissimo Abdel-fatah al-Sissi? Nothing ― except for the inclination to declare a state of exception and throw the rule book out the window. Reports that Selig might summarily suspend the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez by invoking his “right to take action against a player to preserve the integrity of the game” are important to no one except baseball fans, of course. The general’s decision to oust elected P

Last year a military jury convicted Air Force Lt. Col. James Wilkerson of aggravated sexual assault against a civilian woman who worked at his air base in Aviano, Italy. He was sentenced to spend a year in confinement and be expelled from the military. But then his commander decided to toss out the verdict and keep Wilkerson.The trial was irrelevant. A convicted rapist was back in the good graces of the U.S. Air Force. And the victim? “I was assaulted. I reported it. I endured the public humilia

How about a cheat sheet that you can carry around during the summer cookout season to help you strike up conversations with friends about some topics worth worrying about? While people have been contemplating the possibility of New York City being run by mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, whose underwear seems to be engaged in an ongoing quick-draw contest with his cell phone camera, there are far more formidable threats worth your concern:1) The Taliban is back, baby ― and it’s like they never l

“This is a great time to be a white-collar criminal.”An assistant U.S. attorney I know startled me with this remark in 2002. The bulk of her FBI investigators, she explained, had been pulled off to work on terrorism, which left traditional crime investigations sorely understaffed.Little has changed since then. For more than a decade, the U.S. government has been focused on one type of threat above all others: terrorism. This obsession has not only been used to justify an erosion of Americans’ pr

Americans like to pretend that politics don’t matter and to bemoan the slight differences between our political parties. These are luxuries we can afford as the world’s richest and most stable country. But for much of the world, politics are a matter of life and death. That is particularly evident in South Korea, which over this past weekend celebrated the 60th anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War.It is hard to exaggerate how devastated the Korean peninsula was in 1953; Gen. Do

Auditors seeking to head off a Chinese crash are rushing to scrutinize the debt-swollen books of the country’s local governments. Economists are poring over statistics, bond spreads, electricity gauges and stock valuations. They might all have more luck if they got their noses out of the books and looked up. On July 20, the Broad Group broke ground on Sky City on the outskirts of the south-central city of Changsha. The skyscraper will rise 838 meters (2,749 feet) into the heavens to become the w

I still vividly remember the day I watched the mesmerizing French movie “A Man and a Woman” for the first time as a college student in the mid-1960s. The movie is about a young widow and a widower who fall in love after meeting by chance at their children’s boarding school. But because of the beautiful memories of their deceased spouses, their relationship cannot progress. Anne, a movie scriptwriter, cannot forget her beloved stuntman husband who was accidentally killed on a movie set as she wat

On the face of it, Prince William’s decision to take two weeks of job-protected, paid statutory paternity leave is absurd. The heir to the British throne can live without the approximately $206 a week in taxpayer funds that men in the U.K. are entitled to receive if they take time off to welcome a baby. But as a symbolic gesture, the prince’s choice is, as the Brits would say, brilliant. For in William’s subtle, necessarily apolitical, good-guy way, he has issued the boldest possible statement o

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is pushing for an 8.5 trillion-won project to make urban railway available within 10 minutes of any place in the city. The plan calls for building 10 new subterranean light rail lines in the city’s northeastern, northwestern and southwestern districts, where it takes more than 10 minutes to get to the nearest metro station.City officials say the project is intended to transform Seoul’s mass transit system. Currently, the metro accounts for 36 percent of transit