[Song Mi-ryung] Future of rural areas starts with place-making

Since Jan. 24, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has put in place a system of a “temporary lodging facility for farming-based rural sojourn” to respond to the population decline in South Korea's rural areas. The facilities are temporary lodging facilities with a gross floor area of 33 square meters or less — not including ancillary facilities such as parking spaces and septic tanks, etc. — built on rural farmland for city dwellers to spend time at for weekend farming or farming

April 23, 2025

[Mark Z. Barabak] Odd alliances in Trump lawfare

Lawfare makes for strange bedfellows. As part of his tightening grip on power, and his assault on 200-plus years of checks and balances, President Donald Trump has bludgeoned some of the nation's leading law firms into shameful submission, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars worth of free legal work for his pet causes. More significantly, the vengeful felon-in-chief has sent a clear-cut message: Oppose his heedless, plainly unconstitutional actions in court — one of the only avenues left

April 23, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] Out of the 'Badlands' and into a 'Dreamland'

These days, we are witnessing some extraordinary global crises: territorial disputes, trade wars and ideological clashes. Many of us are worried about severe inflation and the sharp increase in prices. Others are concerned about the worldwide decline of democracy and the prospect of Orwellian societies looming everywhere. Suffice to say, many of us feel that our future has become nebulous and grim. Recently, I watched a television drama that mirrors our present and foretells our possible future.

April 23, 2025

[Grace Kao] Americans consider leaving the US

About a month ago, I learned that three colleagues were leaving Yale for the University of Toronto. Philosophy professor Jason Stanley, history professors Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore are not only senior scholars at Yale, all three study fascism. Stanley appeared in many media outlets — The Guardian, PBS, The Atlantic, etc. — explicitly noting that America’s slide into authoritarianism and fascism is a major impetus for his departure. Are their departures a sign of an impending mass exodus of

April 22, 2025

[Lee Kyong-hee] Next president and seat of power

The most important elements in real estate are said to be location, location and location. Where someone works and lives projects status. Moreover, the presidential mansion stands for the head of state’s power and authority as well as the country’s history and tradition. By June 4, a day after the early presidential election, we should know who will replace ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol. The election will turn the page on a sordid tenure. The early favorites of the snap election already are pos

April 21, 2025

[Patricia Lopez] Trump open to deporting US citizens

The White House made it clear during a visit from Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, that it plans to let Kilmar Abrego Garcia rot in the brutal prison to which — as the administration has admitted in court — he was deported by mistake. The spectacle in the Oval Office on Monday was chilling. President Donald Trump warmly greeted Bukele and called him a “great friend.” Bukele, who brands himself as the “coolest dictator” in the world, won smiles from Trump as the two men agreed that the

April 21, 2025

Sleepless in April

For a week every April, like clockwork, my sleeping habits are thrown into complete disarray. It’s not jet lag, a deadline or a marathon drama binge. No, it’s the Masters golf tournament. Each year, I find myself staying up into the early hours, eyes glued to the television, watching the iconic fairways of Augusta National unfold in cinematic glory. While the days are a blur of yawns and caffeine, as soon as the nighttime broadcast kicks in, something clicks. Suddenly, I’m wide awake, fully aler

April 18, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] Lee Jae-myung in the lead

After a long wait, the South Korean Constitutional Court removed Yoon Suk Yeol from the presidency in a unanimous decision on April 4. The decision triggered a snap election set for June 3. In the two weeks since, potential candidates have made their intentions clear, and the outlines of the race have formed. As things stand now, Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is expected to receive the party’s nomination. After Yoon’s removal, the conservative People Pow

April 18, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] What to learn from 'Escape From Saigon, 1975'

Recently, I read an important book titled “Escape From Saigon, 1975.” It's a memoir written by retired Korean Navy commander Lee Moon-hak and Chung Ho-young, a former journalist at Kookbang Ilbo, or Defense Daily. Reading this mesmerizing book was like watching a riveting war movie about an adventurous military rescue operation. “Escape From Saigon, 1975” is about the Korean Navy’s evacuation of Korean civilians residing in Vietnam just before Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. In the missi

April 17, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Making America graceless again

I like America. I received my master’s degree in the US and worked three years as a Washington correspondent for YTN, a cable TV news channel in Korea. During that time, I can say that I saw the country up close — its people, institutions and ideas. But more than just familiarity, I was impressed by what America stood for: liberal democracy, diversity, freedom and economic opportunity. For decades, the United States was not just a superpower but a world leader. Its soft power was rooted in princ

April 17, 2025

[Lee Jae-min] Age of homo digitalis

After class, I often fear my profession will go extinct sometime soon. If the best lectures and the most succinct summaries are just a few clicks away from students, who would listen to what I say? As a matter of fact, in my field alone I can find in seconds a string of video clips online, issue by issue and topic by topic, where world-renowned experts from well-known institutions articulate key points in all guises in just 20 minutes. I simply marvel at the content and efficiency. The same is t

April 17, 2025

[Jan-Werner Mueller] No prioritizing politics over the law

Late last month, a French court barred Marine Le Pen from standing for political office for five years, on the grounds that her party, the far-right National Rally (RN), systematically embezzled more than 4 million euros ($4.5 million) in public funds. Resources earmarked for staff of members of the European Parliament in Brussels were instead used to cover RN’s expenses back in France. Le Pen is appealing the verdict, and her supporters are not the only ones finding fault with it. Impeccably li

April 16, 2025

[Lim Woong] When AI swipes Ghibli’s wand

OpenAI’s latest image-generation tool has gone viral, thanks to a fun feature: users can upload a photo and request a version in Studio Ghibli’s magical style. In seconds, selfies, vacation snapshots, or family portraits are transformed as if they’ve come from a Ghibli film. Overnight, social media flooded with charming Ghibli-style images. Many of my graduate students and colleagues at Yonsei changed their KakaoTalk profile pictures to their artificial intelligence-generated portraits. I even t

April 15, 2025

[Lisa Jarvis] RFK Jr.’s measles message

With the death of a second child from measles and cases in the US surging past 600, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, finally stated the obvious: Vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. It’s a message that should have come sooner from the country’s top public health official. Kennedy’s response is both too late and too confusing to effectively contain the outbreak. He doesn’t seem to take seriously the real risk of the US l

April 15, 2025

[Andreas Kluth] US national security ‘Loomered’

It can always get worse. There’s no reason to think that US President Donald Trump will stop at causing chaos in world trade and stock markets, the American executive branch, the legal profession and public health. He’s also well on the way to making America less safe under the most immediate definition: by undermining his own national-security staff, and thereby endangering the nation’s security. In recent days, the White House has been orchestrating what you might call a Week of the Long Knive

April 14, 2025