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The Korea Times

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Columnists

Donald Kirk

Democracy in action, Korea and the Philippines

Comparisons between South Korea and the Philippines can be tempting. I can't help but succumb to the temptation after covering last week's election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos as president of the Philippines and then observing, via the internet, the inauguration in Seoul the next day of Yoon Suk-yeol as president of the Republic of Korea.

2022-05-19 16:25

Waging 'war by proxy'

WASHINGTON - The phrase “war by proxy” is in vogue. It's not a new term, but you see and hear it all the time now. That's what the U.S. and its NATO allies are doing in Ukraine, getting Ukrainian forces to fight the Russians on their behalf.

2022-05-05 16:30

Remembering Asia's bloodiest war

WASHINGTON - The Korean War is less and less “forgotten.” You don't hear people calling it “the Forgotten War” nearly as much as we did years ago. For elevating awareness of the worst calamity ever to befall the Korean Peninsula, we can thank North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, who's done his best to alert the world to the dangers of a second Korean War by staging missile tests and threatening nuclear annihilation.

2022-04-21 16:32

Why missile testing matters

WASHINGTON - North Korea is escalating the rhetoric in the run-up to two dates of huge importance in the confrontation of forces on the Korean Peninsula.

2022-04-07 17:00

Watching in horror as Mariupol falls

Images of the Russian army strangling the cruelly crushed Ukrainian city of Mariupol pull at heartstrings around the world, evoking indignant cries of “stop it” and “do something” to rescue the survivors, drive out the invaders and save what's left of a shattered community of more than 400,000 souls, many now dead or dying.

2022-03-24 16:15

Putin and Kim love their nukes

Nuclear weapons have an irresistible allure. Nations stake their prestige on them. Crowds have cheered at the news of a country's first nuclear test. For a nation to be called a “nuclear power” is evidence it's as strong as any other country, ready to annihilate enemy forces and hostile citizens by the millions.

2022-03-10 16:59

Edging into war

The descent of Eastern Europe into war is like an excruciating movie in which you have to fear the worst.

2022-02-24 16:29

Rising risks of war for Taiwan

We're so obsessed with Russian forces amassed against Ukraine, with terrorism in the Middle East, with North Korea's nukes and missiles, that we risk placing China's threats against Taiwan somewhere down the list of all the crises around the world.

2022-02-10 16:53

Awaiting Washington's new man in Seoul

One odd question hangs over U.S. relations with Korea, both South and North, in this pivotal election year in which South Koreans decide a few weeks from now on their next president. That is, who is directing American policy and how is Washington navigating between conflicting views in the South and rising threats from the North?

2022-01-27 17:01

Talking about talks with North Korea

Survival under the threat of a North Korean missile strike is like living with the danger of COVID. One takes all precautions, but there's no guarantee anything will work.

2022-01-13 17:00

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Top 10 Stories

1	Roland Garros 2023

2	Airlines fiercely compete to acquire additional aircraft

3	More banks offer daily interest payments on deposits

4	Seoul imposes sanctions on North Korean hacking group for role in space launch

5	Hyundai Elevator launches AI, IoT-powered maintenance service

6	POSCO, GM expand joint EV battery materials investment in North America

7	LG Chem joins Korean firms strengthening ties with Japan

8	HMM tasked with preventing sale of Hyundai LNG to foreign firm

9	Korean stocks feared to lose steam on prolonged trade deficit, real estate doldrums

10	KAERI distances itself from Oxford professor's claim on Fukushima water

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