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Opinion

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Fashion police, take a hike

According to recent reports, a brouhaha is brewing over whether the nation’s ajumma (matrons) and ajosshi (married blokes) should tour European capitals sporting the garish Alpine gear that is de rigeur for this demographic. Indignant netizens apparently believe such fashion sense is laughable, inappropriate and downright disrespectful in Europe's sophisticated streets and plazas.

2016-04-25 16:36

Cross-cultural catastrophes

U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien recently visited Korea, and the comedic sketches he made here are now circulating on social media. Despite his impressive pedigree as an entertainer, I found his efforts pedestrian, his comedy puerile.

2016-04-11 16:25

Heroes and 'Hell Joseon'

A despised political class. Corrupt, unaccountable big business. Savage competition, killer stress. A deepening wealth divide, an unfair society. Falling youth opportunities, rising youth suicide rates…it's a dark picture. Not for nothing do many young Koreans call their nation “Hell Joseon.”

2016-03-28 16:42

90% of young Koreans sympathize with 'Hell Joseon'

Willy Brandt and Shinzo Abe

It was perhaps the most dramatic gesture of apology ever made by any nation's leader. On 7 December, 1970, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt dropped to his knees in front of a monument in Warsaw. Unplanned and unscripted, it was a powerful moment. Today, Brandt's “kneefall” is seen as a global benchmark for national contrition.

2016-03-14 16:52

Free speech: use it or lose it

Last year, I was approached, as a Korea-based foreign reporter, to write/present two documentaries for KBS, to be filmed along the North Korea-China border. My views and those of the filmmakers coincided. The projects went ahead.

2016-02-29 17:02

Bigger sticks demand bigger carrots

It’s different this time. Having covered North Korea’s nuclear detonations and missile tests for a decade, I anticipated the usual scenario. The script is exasperatingly predictable. Pyongyang goes bang. Seoul, Tokyo and Washington go haywire. They convene the UN Security Council and demand further sanctions. Beijing appeals for “calm”… and that’s it. Things blow over. Pyongyang boffins and Pyongyangologists have new data to ponder; otherwise, nothing changes. And the cycle repeats itself.

2016-02-15 17:00

Why China won't push NK

Here we go again: Another “North Korean nuclear crisis” (snore). Having been reporting these since the first Nork nuke test in 2006, a drearily predictable pattern soon becomes apparent. First, Pyongyang makes a big bang. Then, the pattern rolls into action. Global news headlines blare about “rising tensions.” The “international community” feverishly consults, wags its finger and storms into the U.N. Security Council in a huff. Tables are thumped. More “targeted sanctions” are announced.

2016-01-18 17:02

Comfort women, uncomfortable issues

So, Shinzo Abe has finally done it. To most of Korea, the Japanese prime minister - considered an ultra-nationalistic historical revisionist here - is more despised than Kim Jong-un. But, in the dying days of 2015, Abe did exactly what Koreans have long demanded: He apologized and offered governmental compensation to the Korean ex-comfort women.

2016-01-04 17:06

World's window on Korea

In November, a local teacher, Lee Eung-tae, took exception to my column “School of Stupidity” and penned a critical response, “Too biased opinion.” In his riposte, he barely took aim at the central issue I had addressed, choosing instead to fire a broader barrage at educational change.

2015-12-21 17:07

Is Korea violent?

Is Korea a violent nation? That was certainly this country's reputation for many years. Previously unknown by many people around the world, Korea first exploded onto global maps in 1950 by dint of a bloody and particularly savage war. TV screens flickered with images of coup d'etats, and throughout the 1980s, massive and (apparently) violent protests.

2015-11-23 17:13

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