Symbolism of Obama Victory So now that Obama has finally won, how will he govern? It depends on which Barack Obama shows up for the presidential inauguration on January 20: Will it be the post-racial, post-partisan candidate that America has seen over the past several months..
Mushrooms of Pyongyang Centuries ago in my undergraduate days, there was a popular T-shirt on my campus that roughly read ``I must be a mushroom, because they keep me in the dark and feed me cow manure.'' The actual expression was more vulgar: We were a potty-mouthed lot..
Bush Bumbles Again After spending nearly 21 years on the U.S. State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, North Korea was removed from the list last week by the Bush administration.
Collusion in Crisis I watched the U.S. vice presidential debate last Friday morning, Korea time, at a local bar that had been rented out for that purpose. (In a nice show of bipartisanship, the event ended up being cosponsored by the local organizations of Republicans..
Human Rights in North Korea While the focus of Pyongyang watchers has largely been on the health of Kim Jong-il and who will succeed him, civic groups in Seoul are marking the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights by declaring September 22-26 Nort..
McCain, Obama and Korea If nothing else, the U.S. presidential election offers a contrast on issues related to Korea, especially on U.S.-Korean trade and how to deal with North Korea.
How Lee Got His Groove Back Lee Myung-bak is not dead yet. In fact, after enduring a spring and early summer of protests and plunging support, his position now looks stronger than it has in months.
Olympic Event: Refugee Wrangling Chinese human rights violations have been major news since Beijing was awarded the right to host the Games in 2001. In fact, the awarding of the 2008 Olympics to China, after it failed to get the right to host the 2000 Games, was at least partially..
NK Deserves Place on Terror List With the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism, it would be useful to review how a state gets off that list.
Stunning Incompetence President Lee Myung-bak has demonstrated less than stellar political skills over the first several months of his administration.
Emotion Often Trumps Logic The recently concluded ``extra negotiations'' (please don't call them renegotiations) on American beef imports to Korea included one of those Mars-Venus moments that my fellow Americans tend to face in our dealings with much of the rest of the plan..
Rumors, Fear and US Beef Fed by a steady diet of Internet rumors and half-truths at best, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to protest, among a myriad of other things, the resumption of American beef imports. At the same time, support for President ..
NK Refugee Trail of Shame As North Korea steps closer to a second great famine and North Koreans continue to endure the depredations of the repressive regime that rules over them, an exodus of refugees slips out of the country. The twin imperatives of food and freedom (much..
Improving on Good Relationship Last month's highly amicable summit between Presidents Lee Myung-bak and George W. Bush has been hailed as a kind of rebirth of the alliance. The Dong-A Ilbo was not alone in its feelings when it said in an April 21st editorial that the summit had ..
One Korean-Americans Quest When voters go to the polls in the East Coast American state of North Carolina later today, the bulk of the public's attention will be on the ongoing struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic Party's presidential nominati..
Minor Parties Find Niches In most presidential systems, the all-or-nothing struggle to capture the executive branch results in the dominance of two relatively moderate parties and the withering away of smaller parties.
Quick Guide to Elections As a service to my fellow expatriates, today's column is a brief guide to the parties competing in tomorrow's National Assembly elections. The past six months have seen a bewildering array of party splits, mergers and defections, so it is hard to k..
