The Korea Herald > Opinion > Voice
-
From the right vantage point, it might be tempting to imagine there is a national love affair with the bicycle. Lycra-clad cyclists descend on the Hangang River in droves on any given weekend, while m...
Updated : 2013.05.20 21:00
-
Sixty years since it was enacted, the country’s law banning adultery is facing yet another constitutional challenge. For the sixth time since 1990, the Constitutional Court will next month begin deli...
Updated : 2013.05.13 20:57
-
Korea’s education system, ranked second in the world in some assessments, has been feted far and wide. But its impressive ranking internationally obscures a less glorious reality at the country’s ce...
Updated : 2013.05.06 20:01
-
Liberty and equality are two of the values most paid lip service to by governments worldwide. But as self-evidently right as these principles may seem, they also exist in tension: Greater freedom allo...
Updated : 2013.04.29 20:12
-
“North Korea’s war plan”; “Warning to South Korea: You’ll get 45 seconds’ notice of artillery strike”; “Pondering unthinkable: Korean war.” These were just some of the headlines foreign media...
Updated : 2013.04.22 20:05
-
The authority of the state emanates from the people ― so proclaims the Korean Constitution. A corollary, then, is that citizens have the right to know what their government does on their behalf. But ...
Updated : 2013.04.15 20:16
-
“Economic democratization” has summed up the political zeitgeist like no other single phrase. President Park Geun-hye latched on to the concept not long into her presidential campaign and subsequent...
Updated : 2013.04.08 20:11
-
Some 343 trillion won ($307 billion) of taxpayers’ money has been allocated for the government to spend this year. Reflecting President Park Geun-hye’s vision of an expanded welfare state, the figur...
Updated : 2013.04.01 19:57
-
Immigration implies change. The question for policymakers and citizens alike is what and how fast this change should be. The arrival of immigrants in large numbers to Korea since the 1990s has brought...
Updated : 2013.03.25 19:45
-
Crimes by U.S. soldiers stationed here have long been a sore spot in U.S.-Korea relations. The question of who maintains criminal jurisdiction over personnel accused of crimes in particular has often ...
Updated : 2013.03.18 20:03
-
Where does one person’s right to free expression interfere with another’s right to their good name? In any legal system, defamation law has to answer this question. Korea attempts to reconcile these...
Updated : 2013.03.11 20:11
-
Korea’s experience of religious belief is as varied as it is long. Shamanism, with a history of some 5,000 years, is the belief system with the longest presence on the peninsula. Buddhism, introduced...
Updated : 2013.03.04 20:00
-
It is a common, recurring complaint within Korea’s middle class: The cost of the most essential goods, especially food, is too high. Fresh produce, particularly fruit, can be remarkably expensive, le...
Updated : 2013.02.18 20:05
-
Before her election and since, President-elect Park Geun-hye has pledged to make child care a priority of her government. On the campaign trail last summer, Park lamented that women, whom she called t...
Updated : 2013.02.11 20:36
-
In the eyes of many Koreans, the nation’s lawmakers are overpaid and offered too many privileges at the public’s expense. Not only that, some would say, but they are just too great in number. Once a...
Updated : 2013.02.04 19:13
