author

 
 

Meta

Ju-min Park
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Sep 23, 2018
Japanese and other Asian firms shifting production from China as U.S. tariffs take toll
As the U.S. imposes tariffs on Chinese imports, a growing number of Asian manufacturers producing items there are moving to shift production from China to other factories in the region.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Jun 22, 2018
Peace doesn't pay: How foreign companies have lost a fortune in North Korea
Months before the first summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Inc. invested $730,000 in Pyongyang's top computer lab. North Korean programmers there would develop online chess games and food recipes for Samsung to sell outside the North.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Jun 21, 2018
Crisis-plagued private Pyongyang university seeks revival after Trump-Kim summit
When the only private university in North Korea held a commencement in March, the school's American president wasn't there, blocked by Washington's ban on travel to the country.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Feb 23, 2018
Distrust of unions and GM hangs over South Korean efforts to stem job losses
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is in a bind.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
Oct 15, 2017
North Korea's Kim works to turn missile-testing outpost into tourism cash cow
In the seaside city of Wonsan, North Korean families cook up barbecues on the beach, go fishing, and eat royal jelly flavored ice cream in the summer breeze. For their leader Kim Jong Un, the resort is a summer retreat, a future temple to tourism, and a good place to test missiles.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 15, 2017
North's unhappy mix of tourists and military
The Wonsan resort is not North Korea's first attempt to mix the military and tourism.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
May 26, 2017
Kim's rocket stars: the trio behind North Korea's missile program
After successful missile launches, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un often exchanges smiles and hugs with the same three men and shares a celebratory smoke with them.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / FOCUS
May 21, 2017
North Korea's Unit 180, the cyberwarfare cell that worries the West
North Korea's main spy agency has a special cell called Unit 180 that is likely to have launched some of its most daring and successful cyberattacks, according to defectors, officials and internet security experts.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
May 4, 2017
In the South, voters seeking 'Korea first' leader may head to polls in near-record numbers
Jason Lim, a 36-year-old South Korean engineer living in Washington, thinks it is important to maintain a solid alliance with the United States — but not at any cost.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 13, 2017
'Boy-band governor' surges in S. Korean presidential poll as Ban Ki-moon drops out of race
A provincial governor nicknamed after a leading boy-band is surging in South Korean presidential polls following former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon's announcement that he would not run in an election that could come within months.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 3, 2017
How ties to an 'equestrian princess' landed Samsung at the center of the Park scandal in South Korea
Samsung Electronics' sponsorship of the equestrian daughter of a longtime friend of President Park Geun-hye has helped to land South Korea's top company in the center of the country's influence-peddling scandal.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 6, 2016
U.N. chief Ban may be unwitting loser in South Korean presidential scandal
Besides South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the biggest casualty of the country's mushrooming political corruption scandal may be the presidential aspirations of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 4, 2016
Embattled South Korean president turns to her 'Bulletproof Vest'
When South Korean President Park Geun-hye turned to a lawyer known as her "Bulletproof Vest" to defend her in a corruption case that could lead to impeachment and criminal prosecution, she may have had little choice.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 1, 2016
The fall of Choi Soon-sil: from South Korean presidential confidante to incarceration
When the lawyer representing the woman at the center of a scandal engulfing South Korean President Park Geun-hye met his client upon her arrival in the country from Germany on Sunday morning, he was blunt.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 4, 2016
South Korea's graft-busters snooping on lavish weddings and funerals
A pair of aspiring paparazzi staked out two weddings in Seoul's high-end Gangnam district recently, but they weren't looking for celebrities. Their target: officials receiving gifts that might violate South Korea's tough new anti-corruption law.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 29, 2016
The underground pipeline shaping North Korea's new capitalists
As the United States and other nations grasp for new ways to sanction Pyongyang in response to its latest nuclear test, some North Korean defectors see investment in its rudimentary market economy as a way to foment gradual change from within.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Aug 31, 2016
North Korea makes progress on missiles, but no evidence of nuclear warhead yet
North Korea has made considerable progress this year on weapons technology, including testing a submarine-launched missile for the first time, but it is still not clear if the isolated nation has developed a nuclear warhead.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / ANALYSIS
Aug 8, 2016
Despite sanctions, North Korean prices hold steady as Kim leaves markets alone
Food and fuel prices in North Korea have remained largely stable under leader Kim Jong Un, despite tightening international sanctions to punish the North for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, rare data from inside the isolated country shows.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
May 1, 2016
Ahead of rare North Korea Congress, money trumps party for most
Kim Dan-bi's brother is the model of the establishment North Korean: an army veteran and member of the ruling Workers' Party, he is now a manager at a state enterprise.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 19, 2016
Nuclear test seen as move to boost Kim's legitimacy as Pyongyang readies for rare party congress
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent nuclear weapon test was designed to boost his domestic legitimacy ahead of a rare ruling party conference in May that could formalize market-based economic experiments in the isolated country, analysts say.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan