The Korea Times

More coordinated efforts needed to reduce nuclear weapons

It was no surprise that the recent Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) ended in disarray at the United Nations. The 191 states attending this five-yearly review of a 1968 treaty widely considered one of the world’s most important security agreements failed to make any real progress on its "three pillars" of non-proliferation, disarmament and the peaceful use of nuclear material. The treaty is in growing danger of unravelling. The four weeks of meetings in New York failed to reach consensus, and were instead marked by acrimony and a clear divide, with the five nuclear weapon states in the NPT (Russia, Britain, France, China and the U.S.) on one side and the vast majority of members — the non-nuclear weapon states — on the other. The five nuclear weapon states have promised under Article VI of the NPT to move towards the complete elimination of their arsenals. In return for this promise of disarmament, the non-nuclear weapon states have pledged never to develop nuclear weapons. Sharp disagreement between the U.S. and Iran was the main st

9h agoBy Marianne Hanson

More coordinated efforts needed to reduce nuclear weapons

Guest Columns

The pope should have gone further on AI

BOSTON — Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how we communicate, access information, and work, how income and status are distributed, and even how we wage war. Yet the public conversation remains narrowly focused on the competition between AI labs or on abstract debates about the technology’s capabilities. Almost no one is asking what purpose AI ought to serve, or whether our current mindset, institutions, and control mechanisms are capable of steering the technology toward broad-based improvements in human welfare. It was therefore refreshing to see Pope Leo XIV weigh in on the issue with his first encyclical, which describes AI’s current trajectory as a profound threat to human dignity. As an economist who has long argued that technologically driven outcomes are matters of choice, not fate, I welcome his intervention. Leo is ahead of most commentators in pointing out that “technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate, and use it.” And yet, I worry that even he has not gone far enough on the most consequent

11h agoBy Daron Acemoglu

Guest Columns

S. Korea's long, hard road to nuclear propulsion

After months of diplomatic delay — and a week after Seoul released its Basic Plan for the Development of South Korean Nuclear-Propelled Submarines — U.S.-South Korea negotiations dedicated to this issue are quickening. This week, Washington has a serious, whole-of-government delegation in Seoul, led by Allison Hooker, the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. State Department. Her team is tasked with moving forward on South Korea’s ambition to develop indigenously constructed nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). The visit signals that some recent alliance friction — including slow South Korean legislation on a U.S. investment package and lingering Seoul-Washington acrimony concerning e-retailer Coupang — has been dealt with enough to move forward on a sensitive topic. But hard questions about the SSN program have not gotten easier while the politics stalled. Let’s start with the obvious: The current South Korean plan for four 8,000-ton displacement nuclear-powered attack submarines, to be indigenously designed and constructed to use low-enriched uranium in small modular

2d agoBy Mason Richey

S. Korea's long, hard road to nuclear propulsion

Guest Columns

American decline on display

BERLIN — On his recent trip to Beijing, U.S. President Donald Trump, the world’s most powerful person, was accompanied by many of the top names in American business, finance, and technology, all of whom understand the importance of maintaining a working relationship with China. For the rest of the world, this was a positive development, because we should all want the world’s two biggest powers to speak directly to each other. Trump’s Chinese hosts showered him with pomp and circumstance — including flag-waving children — and he repaid the favor by lavishing praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beyond the spectacle, however, the summit’s results were meager. There seems to have been little progress on substantive matters like trade, nor (as far as we know) were there any major new supply contracts for American industry and agriculture or coordinated efforts to resolve major international conflicts such as the wars in Ukraine and the Gulf. But the images from the summit visit spoke for themselves. Trump found himself in the rather unfamiliar role of a supplicant. Everyon

2d agoBy Joschka Fischer

Guest Columns

Let Korean humanitarians answer the call

In the summer of 2014, I received a message from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calling on former fieldworkers to volunteer for the Ebola response in West Africa. The call went out to MSF colleagues around the world — and, like me, many responded. Among them were fieldworkers from MSF Korea. They joined a global effort built on decades of experience responding to Ebola, a disease that repeatedly strikes in low-resource, remote and often conflict-affected settings, hitting hardest those communities with the fewest resources and the least access to health care. MSF never works alone in these crises. It is always part of a broader coalition of actors, drawing on expertise and solidarity from across borders. Korean staff have been part of that effort — respected, capable and committed to saving lives under the most challenging conditions. Today, we are facing another Ebola outbreak with the potential to escalate into a major crisis. But this time, no Korean doctors, nurses, epidemiologists or logisticians will be there. Not because they are unwilling, but because they are unable. A b

2d agoBy Emma Campbell

Let Korean humanitarians answer the call

Guest Columns

How many AI regulators has the pope?

PRINCETON — Pope Leo XIV has now weighed in on the most pressing issue of our time: the advent of artificial intelligence and the recognition that humanity’s technological capability is advancing faster than the institutions designed to govern it. In his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, Leo warns that AI without guardrails risks subjugating humankind; with safety measures, it can ensure that humanity thrives. But as morally powerful as Leo’s words are, it seems doubtful that the Catholic Church will set the global technology agenda. The lever of government looks unpromising as well. AI is the embodiment of a transnational issue that demands a multilateral governance framework. But this is unlikely at a time when the United States is abandoning global leadership, the US and China are competing to dominate frontier technologies, India is pursuing strategic autonomy, and most of the developing world is focused on growth, not constraint. The political conditions for an “AI Bretton Woods” simply do not exist. There is, however, one powerful lever left to pull, and it does no

Jun 1, 2026By Alex Friedman

Guest Columns

Starbucks furor revives an illiberal habit

Korea’s latest Starbucks controversy is not only about a badly judged marketing campaign. It is about a recurring political habit: When public outrage gathers force, powerful actors treat collective denunciation as a substitute for due process and proportionate judgment. The result is a modern form of “meongseokmari”-style justice. Meongseokmari literally means “rolling someone in a straw mat.” Historically, it referred to rough private punishment after an informal public trial by village or interest-group leaders. In modern Korea, the image captures how quickly moral accusation can become collective punishment. Starbucks Korea’s “Tank Day” promotion was part of a sequence of tumbler promotions: “Dante Day,” “Tank Day” and “Nasu Day.” Promotional images included phrases such as “Perfect for One Hand!,” “Tak on the table!” and “Fits Right in Your Bag!” Activists declared the May 18 “Tank Day” event insensitive because May 18 is the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. They associated “5/18,” “Tank Day” and the phrase “Tak on the

Jun 1, 2026By Joseph Yi and Lee Won-dong

Starbucks furor revives an illiberal habit

Guest Columns

Can the climate crisis unite Europe?

LONDON — Europe today faces an increasingly hostile geopolitical landscape, yet the European Union is struggling to unite its member states around a shared political project. Security, competitiveness, migration, and democratic values have all been invoked as grounds for deeper integration. None has proved sufficient. Meanwhile, the environment — once at the heart of Europe’s political project — has fallen by the wayside, a casualty of the rupture between the certainties of the past and an increasingly uncertain future. But dismissing environmental priorities like climate action as outdated misunderstands both the crisis they represent and their significance for Europe’s political union. Consider the historical roots of European unification. Speaking at the Peace Congress of 1849, Victor Hugo gave voice to the aspirations of generations of European intellectuals who envisioned a federal republic that would bring peace and stability to the continent. “A day will come,” he declared, “when we shall see those two immense groups, the United States of America and the United S

May 31, 2026By Giulio Boccaletti

Guest Columns

A new chapter of holistic care in Taiwan

As the world confronts the challenges of population aging and health care workforce shortages, digital transformation in health care is no longer optional but essential. Taiwan has introduced the “Healthy Taiwan” vision, placing “driving digital health care” at its core. By integrating big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies, the system aims to improve health care quality and efficiency while moving toward a new health care model focused on holistic, person-centered care. Taiwan benefits from both a robust ICT industry and the foundation of its National Health Insurance system, which has accumulated high-quality health care data over time and laid a critical foundation for smart health care development. Building on this, we have introduced a national digital health platform known as the “3-3-3 Framework,” integrating three major health spaces, three key health data standards and three National AI governance centers to establish a comprehensive digital health infrastructure. Under this framework, we are promoting the integration of electronic medical r

May 31, 2026By Chung-Liang Shih

A new chapter of holistic care in Taiwan

Guest Columns

Nation of 50 million kings, queens

In a general sense, it would not be entirely misrepresentative to point out that in the vast majority of households in Korea, if you are born a son, the sincere hope and “shoot for the stars” objective of your parents would be for you to become the next president or, secondarily, end up in the vicinity, with expectations gradually and more pragmatically turning to more realistic ambitions of you becoming a doctor, lawyer or the like. And so begins a lifelong journey of hypercompetition, where, truly, the only people that want you to do better than them are, indeed, your parents. Perhaps the environment has been fostered from our history of challenges and division, or has resulted from associated growth pains due to our nation's unprecedented and exponential development within a relatively brief period, or more so from a heavily concentrated economy, resulting in a near zero-sum ecosystem for the segments of the market remaining open and available. On a positive note, this resulted in Korea boasting one of the most educated and professionally apt populations in the world, with approx

May 26, 2026By Sung Lee

Guest Columns

More coordinated efforts needed to reduce nuclear weapons

The pope should have gone further on AI

S. Korea's long, hard road to nuclear propulsion

American decline on display

Let Korean humanitarians answer the call

How many AI regulators has the pope?

Starbucks furor revives an illiberal habit

Can the climate crisis unite Europe?

A new chapter of holistic care in Taiwan

Nation of 50 million kings, queens

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