Korea Focus

Preparing for Unification Wisely What does the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation need to prepare? The 81-member group, which includes 30 academics and eight cabinet ministers, was launched on July 15 and had its first formal meeting on August 7 with President Park Geun-hye in attendance. The second meeting, a workshop, was held in early September, just before the Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) holiday period, to discuss medium and long-term plans for the committee. It is difficult to judge the committee after only two months, but I can`t help but feel frustrated when I hear about its initial activities.

Beyond a Nasty Brand of Progressivism “They have no interest in transforming society. They are interested only in doing their own work and discovering themselves. They want ‘revelation,’ not ‘revolution.’” This is what Saul Alinsky, an American community... Another Financial Crisis is Coming We have an inborn capacity to forget painful past experiences and become complacent. That is when financial crises creep into an economy. Few developed nations have avoided this process. “This Time Is Different... Launch a Public Forum on Welfare Taxation The Park Geun-hye administration has finally shifted its direction to back tax hikes. It is as if the administration has opened a sluice gate. Of course, it should first put out a fire ― a financial shortage caused by the expansi...

CCTV, Dilemma between Privacy Protection and Public Interest The main principle of protecting customer privacy is keeping personal information confidential. However, this principle is based on information being collected and processed on a one-to-one basis. Thus, it’s hard to apply when th... Analysis of Business Operations at Kaesong Industrial Complex Construction of the Kaesong (Gaeseong as spelled in South Korea) Industrial Complex started in June 2003 and the first stage was completed in October 2007, covering 3.3 square kilometers, or 1 million pyeong, near the North... Class Self-Identity and Life Satisfaction Previous research on factors that affect life satisfaction has largely omitted the relationship between class consciousness and life satisfaction. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2013a, 2013...

China Dream or China Black Hole? It seems there won’t be a second “My Love From the Star.” Online video streaming platforms have played a huge role in the explosive popularity of the hit Korean TV miniseries in China this year. But the drama about an alien fro... Toward Justice in Korean Capitalism Capitalism is nearly the de facto single economic system accepted and sustained in the world. In Korea, modern capitalism turned into pariah capitalism once the economic hegemony was channeled away from the market to the... Ahn Hwi-joon: “Repatriating cultural properties requires wisdom of a hunting lion.” There were many topics I wanted to discuss when I met Professor Ahn Hwi-joon, 74, chairman of the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation. Topping the list was the current controversy surrounding...