[Editorial] Red-hot real estate

Seoul’s property market heats up, raising fears of a debt-fueled bubble At a time when South Korea’s economy faces downside risks on multiple fronts, policymakers are now required to deal with two, interrelated challenges — a spike in property prices in Seoul and the ballooning of household debt. The resurgence of Seoul’s housing market is prompting renewed concerns over financial stability. Since the Seoul Metropolitan Government eased land transaction restrictions in key districts last month,

March 12, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] Where is South Korea headed?

These days, the world is concerned about the dubious future of South Korea. People anxiously look on at the unprecedented sociopolitical upheaval since the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Depending on the decision of the Constitutional Court, Yoon may return to office or fade away. Either way, conflict seems inevitable in Korea because the country is sharply divided by two mutually antagonizing groups that either support or denounce Yoon, or subscribe to the right-wing doctrine or the le

March 12, 2025

[Daniel Moss] Adapt to declining birthrates

After years of grinding lower, a widely watched measure of fertility in a country battling significant demographic headwinds notched a small increase. While welcome, there’s little chance South Korea’s popular narrative of a nation blighted by empty schools and a deserted countryside will be put aside. Smaller families are here to stay. Nobody is popping the champagne. Few experts consider that a trickle of decent numbers represents a change in the long-term trend of slowing population growth. N

March 12, 2025

[Grace Kao] BTS J-Hope’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ an update to ‘Daydream’

J-Hope of BTS released the new single “Sweet Dreams,” featuring Miguel, on Friday. Like an increasing number of K-pop songs, it was released at midnight in the eastern US to match the start of the week for the US Billboard Hot 100 Charts. The song is R&B and pop, with a memorable chorus and hook. It is also a love song. And unlike most of BTS’ discography, the love is directed at one person and not to the BTS fandom Army. However, what was most notable for me were the parallels to his 2018 solo

March 11, 2025

[Lim Woong] From programming to AI agents: The next frontier

Every day, it seems there’s fresh news about artificial intelligence: self-driving cars, cloud-based services, generative AI that can produce art and text, and even robots with synthetic muscles. The pace of change is dizzying, filling us with hope for a better future as well as worries about deepfakes, misinformation and ethical lapses. It can feel like we’re driving on a foggy highway or drifting on a vast, uncharted ocean. In this column, I hope to clear some of that haze by looking at how ou

March 11, 2025

[Elizabeth Shackelford] How to spot autocracy’s rise

Global freedom and democracy have been declining for two decades, reaching historic lows, according to two reports just released from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Freedom House. To those of us who witnessed the end of the Cold War, it’s hard to accept that the trend toward a freer and more democratic world has reversed. But that’s just because we haven’t been looking for the right signs. Autocracy is on the rise, but it’s not happening with tanks in the streets or generals in uniform anno

March 10, 2025

[Lee Kyong-hee] Struggle of the ‘beasts’ far from over

Seeing tens of thousands of demonstrators engulfing the capital’s downtown streets on Saturday, March 1 harkened back to a massive rally on the very same byways exactly 106 years ago. It is extremely disheartening to fathom the difference. On March 1, 1919, our forebears were firmly united in confronting the brutal Japanese gendarmes under the sole objective of regaining independent sovereignty. Their rally in Seoul sparked a nationwide movement that laid the spiritual and legal cornerstone of o

March 10, 2025

[Robert J. Fouser] Where should next president live?

The possibility of an early presidential election in South Korea in May raises the interesting question of where the new president should live. Until President Yoon Suk Yeol, every South Korean president had lived in Cheong Wa Dae, commonly known in English as the Blue House. Located behind the main royal palace Gyeongbokgung, Cheong Wa Dae was long the center of political power in South Korea. After winning the presidency in 2022, Yoon Suk Yeol refused to live in Cheong Wa Dae, arguing that it

March 7, 2025

Gwon Dong-hyun, Kwon Sea-jung trace tales of our oldest, beloved companion

Gwon Dong-hyun principally works with sculpture and Kwon Sea-jung with documentary filmmaking, but since forming a two-person collective in 2020, their modus operandi has been transdisciplinary in terms of thought experiment and production. Their works of art combine video, sculpture and installation, and some are often shown at film festivals. Their aesthetic interests lie in the entanglement of beauty and disfiguration, the transformation of bodies with regards to emotional layers, and histori

March 6, 2025

[Jeffrey Frankel] Trump’s imaginary victories

The torrent of far-out policy moves that Donald Trump has announced during the first month of his second presidency has left pundits struggling to find method to the madness. Some say it is all a negotiating tactic: Trump starts by staking out an extreme position, so that he later has space to exchange “concessions” with the other party without giving up anything valuable. They point to Trump’s 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal,” which encourages readers to “do things that are bold or controversia

March 6, 2025

[Wang Son-taek] Moments that made a diplomatic fiasco

The heated exchange in the White House on Feb. 28 between US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shocked the world. The meeting was supposed to be a routine diplomatic event where national leaders exchanged opinions using calculated expressions and sophisticated language. However, what transpired shattered every fundamental element of diplomatic communication. Given the significance of this failure, a thorough review should be meaningful. W

March 6, 2025

[Robert D. Atkinson] Korea’s digital gamble: Will new tech rules hurt innovation and help China?

South Korea is on the verge of making a costly mistake by copying Europe’s misguided digital competition regulations. The Korean government’s proposed competition rules for major internet platforms misunderstand how digital markets function and would actually hurt Korean consumers’ online experience. Even worse, by unfairly penalizing large American technology companies, these policies risk provoking President Trump, who is already looking for excuses to slap tariffs on adversaries and allies al

March 5, 2025

[Kim Seong-kon] The Heungbu and Nolbu traits in our minds

The story of "Heungbu and Nolbu” is one of Korea's all-time favorite folktales, together with “The Story of Sim Cheong,” “The Story of Chunhyang” and “The Fairy and the Woodcutter.” It is the story of two brothers: Heungbu is a poor, but goodhearted, empathetic little brother and Nolbu is a rich, but coldhearted, avaricious big brother. Their comparison presents us with a good parable for our time. One day, good-natured Heungu takes care of a swallow with a broken leg. The grateful swallow bring

March 5, 2025

[Vitit Muntarbhorn] Protecting children in the age of AI

The age of artificial intelligence is very much here. The term “generative AI” is now commonplace, with the public fascinated that AI can actively produce content such as written and audio creations. In fact, the world is moving toward artificial general intelligence whereby robots will be able to match and even outdo human intelligence. Aptly, its relationship with children invites reflection and precaution. On the one hand, AI can bring great benefits, building on the strengths of existing dig

March 4, 2025

[Grace Kao] Preparing for a zombie attack

I love a good zombie movie or Korean drama series. Let me convince you why you should pay attention the next time you watch one. In the United States in 2011, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an instructional guide for how to prepare for a “zombie apocalypse.” Coincidentally in April 2011, the US Defense Department issued a “secret” document titled CONOP 8888 ― otherwise known as “Counter-Zombie Dominance” ― that provided strategic instructions for how to survive a zombie

March 4, 2025