[Martin Schram] An offer they feared to refuse

The lines read as if they wouldn’t be spoken until Marlon Brando finished stuffing that cotton in his mouth so he’d sound just right when “The Godfather” cameras rolled. But this time they sounded unmistakably clear. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” a clear-speaking, cotton-free figure said, quite ominously. “Companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” This wasn’t Brando doing his Hollywoo

Sept. 24, 2025

[Noah Feldman] Blaming violence on free speech is a very old trick

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Trump administration is following a very specific, very old script. It argues that political speech causes political violence, and that this speech must therefore be punished. It is imperative that all defenders of free speech — whether on the left, right or in the center — reject this narrative from the outset. For more than a century, the American understanding of free speech has been that political expression may only be punished when it incite

Sept. 23, 2025

[Paola Subacchi] Renminbi debt in dollar world

When governments borrow on international markets, they do so overwhelmingly in US dollars. Roughly two-thirds of international debt issuance is denominated in foreign currencies, of which nearly half is in dollars and about 40 percent is in euros. The rest is spread across other currencies, including the Chinese renminbi. While borrowing in hard currency is especially important for developing countries, many advanced economies also benefit from tapping deeper, more liquid markets and a broader p

Sept. 23, 2025

[Lee Kyong-hee] Trumpian America’s day of disgrace

Sept. 4, 2025, will be remembered as a day of shame in the seven-decade Korea-US alliance. The image of hundreds of Korean workers, handcuffed and shackled as they were herded onto buses in Georgia, stunned the nation. US authorities boasted it was “the largest single-site raid” ever carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. How did it come to this? For an alliance often hailed as one of history’s most successful, why subject the people of a loyal partner to such humiliation? Why tramp

Sept. 22, 2025

[Contribution] Cooperation, not confrontation, vital for East Asia

The 2025 International Forum on Regional Cooperation and Development of China, Japan and South Korea was co-held by Beijing Foreign Studies University and China Daily in Beijing on Sept 19. Below are excerpts from the speeches delivered by five of the experts who participated in the forum. The views expressed here are the writers' own. — Ed. Governance system needs reform By Liu Tiewa The global governance system faces a complex crisis, exacerbated by multiple overlapping pressures including the

Sept. 21, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] Korea-US trade beyond Trump

Relations between South Korea and the US have dipped to their lowest point in years. On Sept. 4, US immigration officials detained about 300 Korean workers, mostly engineers, at a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery factory being built by LG Energy Solution and Hyundai in Georgia. After eight days in detention, all but one of the workers had returned home, but the fallout from the incident continues. As The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial on Sept. 12, “Immigration and Customs

Sept. 19, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Trump can protect the Korea-US alliance

A recent incident in which US authorities arrested and detained about 300 Korean workers using harsh, demeaning procedures left a deep scar on the Korea-US alliance. Koreans, who are acutely sensitive to humiliation, were shocked to watch their only treaty ally treat them like criminals — handcuffed, shackled and herded away. That it happened at a factory in Ellabell, Georgia — widely seen as a symbol of bilateral economic cooperation between the wonderful allies — magnified the embarrassment, d

Sept. 18, 2025

[Lisa Jarvis] This crackdown on drug ads is long overdue

The Trump administration’s crackdown on pharmaceutical ads is a welcome step toward lessening Big Pharma’s influence over conversations between patients and their doctors. Americans are among the few people in the world bombarded with advertisements for medications most of us don’t need — New Zealand is the only other country that allows direct-to-consumer drug advertising. These policies have given pharmaceutical companies significant influence over consumer behavior when it comes to health. Th

Sept. 18, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] Things foreigners should know about Korea

The late eminent literary and cultural critic Lee O-young once told me an intriguing thing about a popular song that enchanted Koreans in the 1970s called “The Man in A Yellow Shirt.” He pointed out that the title of the song should have been “Somehow, I like him” because the whole point of the song centers on the phrase “somehow, I like him,” not on his “yellow shirt.” According to Lee, “somehow, I like him” reflects a uniquely Korean sentiment. The lyrics of “The Man in A Yellow shirt,” sung b

Sept. 17, 2025

[Grace Kao] Sparks profess their love of J-Hope and G-Dragon

Legendary group Sparks (brothers Ronald and Russell Mael, ages 80 and 77, respectively) may be the most important pop music group you’ve never heard of. In a documentary, Taylor Swift producer Jack Antonoff said, “All pop music is rearranged Sparks.” I also recently learned that Russell Mael, lead singer of the group, has professed a love of K-pop, especially J-Hope and G-Dragon. This group of two brothers may be one of the few who have gotten along for more than the 54 years they’ve played toge

Sept. 16, 2025

[Lee Jae-min] Regulations threaten economic security deal

Foreign direct investment requires not just the cross-border transfer of money. It also requires a move of personnel and equipment to manage and supervise the investment. This is particularly the case for "greenfield" investment where a foreign investor builds manufacturing facilities in another country. When there is discord or disconnect between the flow of investment and that of personnel and equipment, investors find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. That’s probably what went through the

Sept. 16, 2025

[Contribution] Why scientific earthquake information matters more than ever

By Lee Mi-seon Administrator of the Korea Meteorological Administration Sparked by a Japanese manga, a rumor predicting a massive earthquake in Japan captured public attention not only in Japan but also in surrounding countries in July. Frequent tremors since June on the Tokara Islands, located south of Kyushu, heightened these concerns. Although the mega earthquake never happened, anxiety remained, leading to reduced inbound flights and a drop in tourists. This vague fear of earthquakes had a t

Sept. 15, 2025

[Yoo Choon-sik] AI fund needs more than hope and hype

The past week may well go down as one of the most consequential moments in South Korea’s artificial intelligence policy landscape since the inauguration of the Lee Jae Myung administration. In rapid succession, the newly reorganized presidential committee on AI held its founding meeting, the government unveiled a plan to expand the National Growth Fund, and President Lee himself hosted a press conference to outline his vision. Yet, despite the flurry of announcements, conventional media outlets

Sept. 15, 2025

[Koichi Hamada] The twilight of Pax Americana

US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs amount to a unilateral, self-destructive and entirely unwarranted challenge to the international order -- one with no economic justification whatsoever. As Willem H. Buiter demonstrated in 1981, the kinds of trade imbalances Trump blindly decries are a useful mechanism for enabling economies with different time preferences to benefit from trade by transferring resources across periods. Trump’s commitment to ignoring economic reality and squeezing

Sept. 15, 2025

[Lee Byung-jong] What happened to the US I knew?

The recent scenes of US government officials rounding up and chaining South Korean workers en masse at Korean factories in Georgia were shocking enough to raise the question: “What happened to the US I knew?” The Land of Opportunity, where generosity and warmth once welcomed foreigners as part of the community, feels like a distant memory. The Land of Dreams, where millions aspired to emigrate and build a better life, is no longer the same. Instead, foreigners — whether workers, students or even

Sept. 12, 2025