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The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

22. John J. Metzler

Paris Olympic countdown raises rights concerns

The one-year countdown for the opening of the Paris Summer Olympics has begun.

2023-08-13 14:06

Russia plays 'hunger games' with global grain supplies

The Russians are acting more and more like the Soviets. Their brutal war in Ukraine underscores the point that Moscow's ambitions are not only military but counter-humanitarian too.

2023-08-03 15:55

US rejoins UNESCO; pay at door

UNESCO has equally designated unique foods as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage; Ukrainian Borsht soup, the delicious French baguette and Korean kimchi. All good.

2023-07-12 16:35

Security Council carousel

In one of the more predictable rites of spring at the United Nations, the General Assembly has elected, or actually selected, five new non-permanent members to serve on the powerful 15-member Security Council.

2023-06-20 16:30

Myanmar military regime backed by Russia, China: UN Report

It's hardly a surprise, but an affirmation of the obvious. Myanmar's military regime is being backed, supported and protected by both Russia and China. What's new is that the specifics of this assistance have come to light in a landmark U.N. report uncovering the extent of arms and munitions transfers to Myanmar, the Southeast Asian state beset by longtime military rule, amid spurts of democratic governance, but overall isolation and indifference.

2023-05-28 16:25

Synergy, strength, dynamism; South Korea-US alliance at 70

Seventy years is a long time, especially for a military alliance between friends. There are few in the world notably including the Atlantic Alliance, forming NATO in 1949. But in the case of East Asia, the strategic and economic links which emerged from the cauldron of the Korean War ending in 1953, created an extraordinary success story recently celebrated by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visit to Washington, D. C.

2023-05-04 16:30

Brazil's Lula throws BRIC at U.S. dollar

The writing was on the wall. But when Brazil's leftwing President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva visited China recently, he flamboyantly underscored economic and security ties between Latin America's largest democracy and the world's largest dictatorship. Significantly he took steps to decouple much of Brazil's vibrant commerce from using the U.S. dollar and shift trade instead to the Chinese currency, the Yuan.

2023-04-23 16:40

Taiwan's 'Democracy Trifecta' angers sullen Beijing

Taiwan's vibrant but threatened democracy had a good week. After months of facing ominous political threats from the Chinese communists, which may eventually culminate in Beijing's invasion of the self-governing island, Taiwan seemed sure-footed diplomatically with a little help from its friends.

2023-04-16 16:47

Foreign policy weathervane now spinning whirligig

As they say, you can't make this up. In the course of just over a week, China and Russia reaffirmed their friendship and military ties, the Iranian regime proxies lashed out with rockets at U.S. forces in neighboring Syria, North Korea shot off a few more missiles, France was rocked by serious rioting, all to the backdrop of what could well be a global banking crisis sending financial shockwaves from Silicon Valley to Switzerland.

2023-03-30 16:58

2 Koreas split on UN move on Ukraine War

A year after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly firmly and sternly rebuked Russia's brutal war against a sovereign country. With a thumping majority of 141 in favor, only 7 against and 32 abstentions, the Assembly again issued a non-binding resolution demanding Russia's military withdrawal from Ukraine and calling for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

2023-03-01 16:50

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