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November 22, 2024
 

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John Barry Kotch
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2003
Roh's summit of deferral
SEOUL -- Plying the Aegean like Ulysses of yore in Greek mythology -- full of self-doubt as to what awaited him at the end of his voyage if, in fact, he reached his final destination -- South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun returned from his maiden voyage to the United States on his feet, but just barely....
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2003
France deserves far better than the dock
SEOUL -- For those old enough to remember the climactic U.N. Security Council face-off in 1962, during which the United States confronted the Soviet Union with incontrovertible evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, there's a lesson here. When America's U.N. ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, accused his Soviet...
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2003
U.S. sets the bar high in N. Korea talks
SEOUL -- The United States and North Korea finally have begun talking again. Or have they? Are they talking to each other, at each other or past each other? Although the two sides agreed to keep the diplomatic channels open, it's going to take a lot more meetings to get out of this crisis in one piece....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2003
Options in Korea after Iraq
SEOUL -- The war in Iraq is casting a long shadow over the impending crisis on the Korean Peninsula and, in particular, on North Korea's nuclear ambitions and intentions. Last month in Seoul, antiwar protesters succeeded in delaying a vote in the National Assembly on dispatching 700 noncombat engineers...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2003
Roh Moo Hyun steps forward
SEOUL -- In his inaugural speech to the South Korean people in Seoul last week, President Roh Moo Hyun gave us a window on his world. At the top of his policy agenda is greater independence on the Korean Peninsula and deeper integration in the region. Roh sees the way forward to peace on the peninsula...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2002
S. Korean-U.S. relations at a crossroad
SEOUL -- Riding atop a tsunami wave of popular protest against perceived inequities in the Status of Forces Agreement governing U.S forces in South Korea and a general restiveness over the American military presence, South Korea's president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, promises to bring a new focus to South...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2002
Play inspection card in Iraq, N. Korea
SEOUL -- The double crisis over weapons of mass destruction that now confronts the world in Iraq and North Korea respectively represents a golden opportunity to kill the proverbial "two birds with one stone."
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2002
A six-party process to clear up the Korean air
T he crisis over North Korea's attempted acquisition by stealth of a nuclear capability through enriched uranium processing provides a golden opportunity for institutionalizing a process of concerted multilateral diplomacy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2002
Securing consensus on Iraq
SEOUL -- As the U.N. Security Council debate on Iraq moves forward, precedent is pertinent. For Korea a half-century ago, it took three Security Council resolutions to authorize and organize an armed U.N. response; for Kuwait in 1990, more than a "baker's dozen."
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2002
Strike a balance in the Security Council
SEOUL -- While virtually all countries are agreed on the danger posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's surreptitious efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD), this is not the only -- or even the main danger -- facing the international community over how to respond to Iraq's noncompliance...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 16, 2002
A step forward for Japanese diplomacy
Frustrated with attempts to re-engage with the Bush administration, North Korea has reached out to alternative sources of support, sidestepping the United States for the moment by turning to Tokyo. Like a good boxer who knows how to bob and weave to elude his opponents and then land a telling blow, Pyongyang's...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2002
Uphill battle for regional hub aspirees
SEOUL -- South Korea (where the idea of becoming a regional hub is now all the rage) and Malaysia share the same basic vision for Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, respectively. In addition, the two countries are cosponsoring an initiative to formally coordinate the ASEAN plus three forum. Last month,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2002
Eliminate the major source of inter-Korean naval clashes
SEOUL -- As a result of the latest North-South naval clash on the West Sea, South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" is now in shambles. But it need not have been so. Even before the defense ministers of the two Koreas sat down almost two years ago in Cheju following the 2000 Pyongyang...
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2002
Candidate of Kim's party in tough race
SEOUL -- Roh Moo Hyun, the recently anointed presidential candidate of Kim Dae Jung's Millennium Democratic party, or MDP, for December's elections, has been on a roll this spring. A relative political unknown, he succeeded in toppling his party's front-runner for the nomination, Rhee In Je, while generating...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2002
Another train trip in the cards for Kim?
SEOUL -- In the wake of South Korean presidential envoy Lim Dong Won's recent and apparently successful visit to Pyongyang earlier this month, there is renewed optimism not only over resuming inter-Korean dialogue but also on realizing the promised reciprocal visit of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2002
Davos themes dazzle with Webcasting
SEOUL -- If you missed Davos in New York last month, you have a rain check coming via the miracle of Webcasting. The more important panels will be broadcast at the World Economic Forum's Web site ( www.weforum.org ), starting Monday. Don't pass up this intellectual cyberfest for the netizen!
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2002
Bush fails to show Korean peace map
SEOUL -- The stage was set for a summit showdown when U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Seoul last week, and it did not disappoint. At stake was not only the future of Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" of engagement with North Korea -- which is highly dependent on the resumption of talks between...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2002
North Korea through different prisms
SEOUL -- In his State of the Union address, U.S. President George W. Bush has managed to disappoint South Korea and enrage North Korea at the same time by lumping the latter with the likes of Iraq and Iran. As the president begins a Northeast Asian rain-check sojourn with stops in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2002
Globalization role of APEC's other half
SEOUL -- Earlier this month in Honolulu, parliamentarians from 25 Asia Pacific nations renewed debate over the digital divide at the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, headed by former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2001
Scale of Sept. 11 determines type of trial
SEOUL -- While Afghanistan has historically been referred to as the great game among the Great Powers vying for political supremacy in central Asia, a great debate has emerged in the United States over whether the terrorists responsible for the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon...
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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