[Lee Kyong-hee] Fake news, false reports, conspiracy theories

Within hours after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3, a rabid right-wing YouTuber contended that 99 Chinese spies were apprehended at an election management facility and transported to a US military base in Okinawa, Japan. Thereafter, social networks were rife with rumors that the Chinese accounted for 30 percent of anti-Yoon protesters demanding his impeachment. Nonsensical online demagoguery? Of course. But to many supporters of the disgraced YouTube-addicted former presid

July 28, 2025

[Gautam Mukunda] Beware, AI is ultimate yes-man

I grew up watching the tennis greats of yesteryear with my dad, but have only returned to the sport recently thanks to another family superfan, my wife. So perhaps it’s understandable that to my adult eyes, it seemed like the current crop of stars, as awe-inspiring as they are, don’t serve quite as hard as Pete Sampras or Goran Ivanisevic. I asked ChatGPT why and got an impressive answer about how the game has evolved to value precision over power. Puzzle solved! There’s just one problem: Today’

July 28, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] Japan lurches right

To date, an election for the House of Councilors, the upper house of the Japanese Diet, would not have been big news, but results from the recent election on July 20 changed that. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Komeito party, lost their majority while recently formed populist far-right parties performed surprisingly well. In particular, the Sanseito party led by right-wing provocateur Sohei Kamiya won 14 seats, pushing up its total in the chamber from one seat

July 25, 2025

[Editorial] Securing a fair deal

As Japan and the United States conclude a high-profile tariff agreement, attention has quickly turned to South Korea. Tokyo’s willingness to open its agricultural market, commit to joint energy projects and pledge a record-breaking $550 billion in US-bound investment has earned it a reduction in reciprocal tariffs from 25 percent to 15 percent — a benchmark now hardening into a minimum standard for Washington’s other major trading partners. South Korea finds itself in a more compressed timeframe

July 25, 2025

[Editorial] Justice prevails

Gender Equality and Family Minister nominee Kang Sun-woo expressed her intent to withdraw from consideration as minister Wednesday. A day earlier, President Lee Jae Myung requested the National Assembly send the confirmation hearing report on Kang Sun-woo to him by Thursday, indicating his willingness to appoint her even if the Assembly failed to adopt the report. Her volutary withdrawal from candidacy means that justice prevailed in the long run. It also lessened President Lee's political burde

July 24, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] As NATO falters, the SCO advances

When the Cold War ended in 1991, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization inevitably faced serious concerns over its continued existence. NATO had been a multilateral alliance ensuring peace and stability against potential invasion by the Soviet-led socialist bloc. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and other socialist forces, the justification for NATO’s existence disappeared. After much deliberation and debate, NATO has sought to redefine its role by emphasizing its function as a supporte

July 24, 2025

[Lee Jae-min] Calm thinking on quiet quitting

Korea still works hard. The country is known for its long working hours. A recent OECD survey in April 2025 puts Korea at No. 5 out of 38 countries surveyed with 1,900 hours per year per person. On top of that, Korea has long championed a strong work ethic with which people are educated and told to "do their best" on the job. The "do-your-best" mentality arguably underpins the economic success story of the resource-scarce country. Korean workplaces are now seeing seismic changes in this "hard wo

July 24, 2025

[Editorial] Reinventing manufacturing

A decade ago, warnings about the erosion of South Korea’s manufacturing competitiveness were met with indifference or denial. Today, they land with the weight of hindsight. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, offered a stark diagnosis last week: Without a wholesale reinvention driven by artificial intelligence, much of the country’s manufacturing base may disappear within 10 years. That prospect is no longer theoretical — it is already taking shape.

July 23, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] South Korea: 'Humpty Dumpty' sitting on a wall

The famous English nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” is about an egg sitting on a wall that falls to the ground and is broken irreparably. There are a variety of Humpty Dumpty animation videos on YouTube for children to watch. The main lyrics go like this: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.” An egg is protected by an eggshell, and yet it is fragile. It is unstable even on a flat surface and th

July 23, 2025

[Editorial] Corporate anxiety

Korean companies are concerned that the Lee Jae Myung administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea are stepping up legislation that could add to their burdens, following the revision of the Commercial Act. The revised Commercial Act proposed by the party passed the National Assembly on July 3. The revision expands the fiduciary duty of corporate board members to serve the interests not only of their companies but of shareholders as well. Business circles worry that the change could ma

July 22, 2025

[Lim Woong] A reform idea for math education

In the age of artificial intelligence, reforming math education in Korea isn’t just a good idea — it’s long overdue. AI runs on mathematics. Not just any math, but the kind that quietly powers how machines “think,” recognize patterns, and make decisions. One of AI’s core ideas is similarity — figuring out how close or far apart things are. To quantify this, early machine learning models leaned on fundamental mathematical concepts: spatial relationships, distances, and proximity. Optimization lie

July 22, 2025

[Yoo Choon-sik] Factories of the future: Lee’s vision beyond AI

South Korea has long prided itself on being one of the few nations capable of fully leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence innovation. This national confidence is rooted in the country’s remarkable transformation from economic crisis to technological leadership ― a journey that began in earnest during the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. That legacy, however, now faces a new test. Recent independent studies have raised alarms that South Korea may be slippin

July 21, 2025

[Editorial] Predictable but not prevented

Once considered rare, catastrophic summer downpours are now a seasonal certainty in South Korea. Over the last week, torrential rain swept through southern regions, submerging roads, toppling infrastructure and claiming at least 14 lives. In Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, alone, six people died and seven were left missing in landslides and flash floods, the government said Sunday. The rain has not yet ceased, and the toll may still rise. Yet this is no longer a one-off disaster. In recent

July 21, 2025

[Editorial] Mixed messages

The notion of a country’s main enemy — or “jujeok” in Korean — is not just symbolic rhetoric. It is the fulcrum around which national defense policy, military readiness and diplomatic posture revolve. Yet the Lee Jae Myung administration’s incoming ministers are offering strikingly divergent views on North Korea’s status. In a region where miscalculation can lead to catastrophe, the lack of clarity is not a luxury South Korea can afford. During confirmation hearings this week, Unification Minist

July 18, 2025

[Lee Byung-jong] Time for Korea’s brain gain

There was a time when South Korean scientists and engineers left their country in droves, seeking better research environments and more rewarding careers abroad —especially in the United States. For decades, this outflow of talent, often referred to as brain drain, was seen as a symptom of Korea’s limited scientific infrastructure and rigid institutional culture. But today, the situation is changing. South Korea has emerged as a serious player in research and development, and its universities an

July 18, 2025