opinion
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The Choi Soon-sil Gate: The Saddest Political Drama Ever Told
I am quite fond of South Korean costume dramas, though my friends are skeptical of the genre’s value. Plotting royals and devious courtiers aren’t their thing, and they are even less enamored with the endless power struggles over who gets to be master of the realm. “But it’
Can South Korea Survive Without Samsung Electronics?
On October 11, Samsung Electronics announced that it was halting its production of Galaxy Note 7. The Note 7 had seemed like a jackpot for the company. After its very first launch on August 2 in New York City, the smartphone had been lauded for its technological advancements. But a
Tanks of Destruction: Private Think Tanks Are Ruining Policy-Making in South Korea
Yesterday was the opening of the Maekyung Media Group’s World Knowledge Forum (WKF) at the luxurious Shilla Hotel. This event is intended to raise South Korea’s profile in the world of policy and economics. Three of the featured speakers are none other than David Rubenstein (co-founder of one
In Defense of Feminism
A voice actress puts on a T-shirt that reads “Girls do not need a prince” and tweets the photo. That seemingly innocuous phrase prompts widespread accusations that she is a man-hater. Angry men bombards Nexon, a game company for which she did work, with complaints. The company terminates
Children of Misfortune: Child Abuse in South Korea
Over dinner one evening, a South Korean journalist friend posed what seemed like a riddle: “Let’s say there is a high school reunion. One classmate is a Samsung executive with a high-school graduate for a son. Another is a security guard whose son attends Seoul National University. Who do
South Korea's History Textbook Whitewash
Half my life was spent outside South Korea, but I still cannot forget certain history lessons from childhood in Seoul. Dokdo, rocky islets claimed by both South Korea and Japan, is an inalienable Korean territory. Hangul, the writing system credited to a 15th-century king and used by the two Koreas,
Korea, Thy Name is Hell Joseon
One of the biggest scandals of 2010 involved Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, whose own daughter was found to have mysteriously qualified for a plum job inside the ministry, presumably with the father’s backing. This itself would not have been ordinarily such big news in South Korea, but the timing
The quieter side of the MERS outbreak
Streets around a hagwon district in Jukcheon, Gyeonggi Province, are all but deserted as MERS forces schools and even private classes to go on a temporary hiatus. (Anna Park for Korea Exposé) It has been over two weeks since MERS landed in South Korea, and an unusual quiet has descended
The Failure of Women Cross DMZ
30 women from 15 countries crossed the DMZ dividing the two Koreas on 24 May 2015, under the banner of Women Cross DMZ. For months leading up to the crossing, I was excited by the promise of something grand. However, like many others, I was disappointed by the tepid conclusion.
Marching for Inter-Korean Peace: Why Women Cross DMZ
http://gty.im/182520278 May 24, 2015 is International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament. On this day, Korean women will walk for peace across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the 4 km wide buffer that divides North and South Korea. They will be joined by international peace
Inside One of South Korea's So-Called Global Firms
From Wikipedia I have been the sole foreign employee at a vaunted South Korean technology firm for about 15 months. Given my company’s fame, people often want to know what that’s like and at times the simplest answer I can give them is this: It’s been as
Park Geun-hye's Presidency Is Adrift
The Korean version of this essay can be found here. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'By5htD2XTEVQ74947taqxg',sig:'B6i1ljR8hTbDQ62tiEYzabkgfCQbMzPsiDyxHZVCaHg=',w:'594px',h:'388px',items:'450148594',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Park Geun-Hye has