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Kim Ji-soo

Korea Times Editorial Reporter

Kim Ji-soo joined The Korea Times in 2006, and worked on such desks as culture and politics and is currently a member of the Editorial Board. Previous workplaces include The Korea Herald and the Korea JoongAng Daily.

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Opinion

Best/worst day

By William R. JonesRecently, I heard someone say, “It was the best day of my life.” I wondered, what was the worst day of that person's life? Then, I thought, what really was my best and worst day?Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” I suppose that it could be both at the same time for someone somewhere. It reminds me of one of the “laws of physics”: two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. That is a half-truth, over-simplified explanation. Identical bosons, a fifth state of matter can flow or pass through each other. Some will say bosons are not objects; it is about interpretation.Long ago, Isaac Asimov, proposed that one solid object could pass through another solid object without damaging either. Something about the bonds of matter breaking temporarily and then coming back together again. That is hard to imagine as possible.Nevertheless, I have seen twice what you call a “ghost” pass through a solid wall. Whether the “human forms” were solid or not, I don't know. I think that they are made up of a combination of elements

Sep 21, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Opinion

Two months to US election

By Jesse C. NelsonWith under two months remaining before the U.S. presidential election, it's quite interesting to visit YouTube and type three simple words: “black,” “support,” and “Trump.” You'll find video after video of Black Americans speaking in support of the president and against the Democrats. The likes that these videos garner and comments in the comment section are revealing. While certainly not a majority, a sizable percentage of blacks in the U.S. no longer buy the “Trump is a racist” mythology.In an allegedly tight presidential race, this voting bloc, once a given for Democrats, can and will make a difference. What the left media called a lighthearted jest made by Joe Biden back in May, when he said, “if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black,” is no joke to many in the black community. Picking Kamala Harris as his vice-president doesn't remedy what some perceive as Biden's decades in public office representing little more than lip service to the black community, in contrast to concrete actions taken by Trump in only three a

Sep 21, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Editorial

ED Viability of New Deal fund

Gov't needs to lessen its hand in envisioned fundAs part of a plan to finance its New Deal projects, the government unveiled a 20 trillion won ($17 billion) Korean New Deal fund to attract retail investors to massive projects and support investment from the private sector. The government and state institutions will invest 7 trillion won, while the private sector will put up 13 trillion won. The Korean New Deal fund is part of a 190 trillion won plan to draw 100 trillion won from public finance and 70 trillion won from private institutions to finance the country's transformation to a digitized and greener economy.With excess money in the market estimated at around 1,100 trillion won, the fund can serve as a conduit to absorb the liquidity away from the red-hot real estate market. The ambitious plan by President Moon Jae-in evokes reminiscence of the state-controlled funds in previous administrations. There was the Green Growth Fund during the Lee Myung-bak administration and the Unification Fund in the Park Geun-hye government, which largely fizzled out in tandem with those administra

Sep 6, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Today in History

TODAY, AUG. 08, 2020

On this day...1609-Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope1876-Thomas Edison patents mimeograph1919 Treaty of Rawalpindi, British recognize Afghanistan's independence1945-President Harry S. Truman signs UN Charter1945-USSR declares war against Japan in WWII1945-USSR establishes a communist government in North Korea1949-Bhutan, land of the Dragon, became an independent monarchy1953-U.S. and South Korea initial a mutual security pact1955-Geneva conference held to discuss peaceful uses of atomic energy1988-Renovated Central Park Zoo reopens after 4 years1988-Russian troops begin pull out of Afghanistan after 9 year war1989-U.S. space shuttle STS-28 launched1991-Shite Muslims release British hostage John McCarthy

Aug 7, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Editorial

ED Time to share pain

Carry out labor agreement faithfully at workplaces The Economic, Social and Labor Council approved a key labor agreement drawn up by union, business and government representatives. This is the first agreement by the country's three key economic players in 22 years following the 1998 Asian financial crisis.Under the agreement intended to cope with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, employers promised to maintain employment. The unions agreed to cooperate in helping companies cut work hours and conduct temporary business suspensions. The government, meanwhile, offered to map out a universal unemployment insurance plan by year's end. The deal means a lot in that social dialogue is urgent to save the anemic economy and households amid the looming unemployment crisis. In fact, the importance of employment stability cannot be overemphasized. Massive layoffs could cause households to fall into debt, which would in turn put a damper on consumer sentiment, thereby taking a toll on private investment. So efforts to minimize job losses are all the more important at a time when exports are

Jul 29, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Today in History

SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2020

1814 ― Battle of Niagara Falls (Lundy's Lane); Americans defeat British1943 ― Benito Mussolini dismissed as premier of Italy during WWII1946 ― U.S. detonates underwater A-bomb at Bikini Atoll (5th atomic explosion)1947 ― U.S. Department of the Army created1956 ― Jordanians attack U.N. Palestine truce1963 ― U.S., Russia & England sign nuclear test ban treaty1965 ― Folk-rock begins, Dylan uses electric guitar at Newport Folk Festival1966 ― Supremes release "You Can't Hurry Love"1975 ― "A Chorus Line," longest-running Broadway show (6,137), premiers1983 ― First nonhuman primate (baboon) conceived in a lab dish, San Antonio1984 ― Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became 1st woman to walk in space1990 ― U.S Ambassador tells Iraq, US won't take sides in Iraq-Kuwait dispute

Jul 24, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Opinion

'Everyday life quarantine'

By Kim Ji-sooThe health authorities were asking the public to refrain from unnecessary meetings, as small infection clusters have been reported in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area. They were happening in closed spaces such as underground ping pong clubs or offices, among people holding small religious studies groups or meetings. Places with no windows or ventilation were highly prone to these infection clusters.It was however a brilliant Saturday in early June. Deep summer verdant was visible everywhere. So a group of four women defied the authorities’ call, choosing instead to head to the Seongsu area, a hot place among the young and chic. Any stop at restaurants or cafes would be short, possibly just a pick-up of food or drinks.A sense of expectation, curiosity about a new neighborhood, and a human stubbornness to show resistance to the virus prevailed.We didn’t know what to expect in terms of crowd size. Would there be long lines like when Blue Bottle opened its first shop here? No such line was visible. But the neighborhood had a sufficient weekend cro

Jun 10, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
'Everyday life quarantine'
Opinion

Too comfortably numb

By Jason LimIt's pretty obvious that Lee Yong-soo “halmeoni” (grandmother) feels disrespected and disenfranchised from the very movement for which she has long been one of the most active and visible “comfort women” ambassadors. Sure, she didn't say that in so many words. Instead, she mentioned feeling betrayed, used and lied to, her bitterness apparent and aimed mostly at the person of Yoon Mee-hyang, the longtime leader of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Korean Council; formerly known as “Jeongdaehyeop” and Justice for the Comfort Women). Right before she started her term as a first-time national assemblywoman, Yoon responded in a press conference, taking pains to avoid direct confrontation with grandmother Lee but nevertheless forceful in her defense of her leadership of Jeongdaehyeop. Stepping back from the current static, however, it's only fair to examine Yoon's Jeongdaehyeop for what it has done in the last 30 years as the most visible NGO driving the public narrative around the comfort women is

Jun 7, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Too comfortably numb
Opinion

Intellectual devolution

By Adam Borowski Adam BorowskiHumanity, we have a problem. Intellectual devolution threatens our future even more than the coronavirus. An increasing number of people unquestioningly believe that a group of Machiavellian types at the top of the social pyramid will depopulate the world, leaving only a tiny percentage of the population to serve the new masters.While it was easy to ignore such claims in the past, it is no longer possible for governments to dismiss millions of people as tinfoil hat wearers. Conspiracy theorizing has gone mainstream, with YouTube videos blaming the new world order for the coronavirus. The global lockdown only adds fuel to the conspiracy fire. 5G masts were damaged in the UK and the Netherlands. Is banning YouTube videos offering alternative views, or spreading conspiracy nonsense if you prefer, the answer?Banning is only going to make various individuals even more suspicious and paranoid, giving credence to all sorts of outlandish theories and claims. Surely, it would be better to address the problematic issues by presenting scientific data, rather than s

May 6, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Intellectual devolution
Opinion

Change of mainstream

By Kim Ji-sooVoter turnout has generally been high for Korea elections; as I have often said in previous columns, politics is something like a “national sport” in Korea. Even amid the current pandemic. A whopping 66.2 percent of voters showed up to exercise their rights, amid one of the nation's most contagious pandemics on record. Voters were spread across various age groups ― 18 year olds exercised their new right to vote picking National Assembly representative for the first time now with the lowering of the voting age ― which had been expected to show mixed results. The general logic is that a mid-term general election judges the incumbent administration, and therefore gives the opposition a glimmer of hope. But the ruling bloc ― the Democratic Party of Korea and its satellite Civil Together ― won by an outstanding margin, securing 180 elected and non-elected seats. The main opposition United Future Party (UFP) and its satellite Future Korea Party together won 103 seats. The drastic decline of the conservative opposition, which had been the mainstream in Korean politi

Apr 22, 2020By Kim Ji-soo
Change of mainstream
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