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Fri, June 23, 2017 | 15:51

Opinion > Columnists > John Burton >

Solution to youth unemployment

The Moon Jae-in administration last week signaled the importance it places on job creation by proposing a $10 billion supplementary budget aimed at improving work prospects and fighting record youth unemployment. Korea finds itself in the enviable position of having the financial clout to address the problem. Its government debt is among the lowest for OECD economies and its 2017 fiscal deficit is expected to amount to only 1.7 percent of gross domestic product.

John Burton | 2017-06-14 17:45

University graduates face fierce competition to become janitors

Dear President Moon: Your upcoming trip to Washington in late June to meet U.S. President Donald Trump will probably be your single most important event to date in your young administration. The visit could determine the future of U.S.-ROK security alliance over the next several years at a time of peril on the Korean peninsula. The U.S. media has been playing up the possibility of a volatile clash between you and Trump because of your more conciliatory approach toward North Korea compared to the Trump administration’s preference for tougher sanctions.

John Burton | 2017-05-31 17:35

Green growth revival

While a lot of international attention has been paid to President Moon Jae-in’s policies on North Korea, his domestic agenda has been largely ignored by outside observers.

John Burton | 2017-05-17 16:26

Pulling Abe on Trump

President Moon Jae-in has already gone some way to reduce distrust in the U.S. about his policies, particularly his conciliatory approach toward North Korea, by announcing in his inauguration speech that he is willing to go to Washington soon to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. The first meeting between Moon and Trump will be a critical event in terms of establishing a personal chemistry between the two leaders. Trump trusts those with whom he has some type of personal bond. One way to win Trump’s heart is by playing golf as shown by his rapid friendship with Japanese Prime Minister Sh...

John Burton | 2017-05-15 17:23

US views Moon with concern

Are relations between Washington and Seoul heading for a train wreck when they should be cooperating more closely than ever in dealing with the threat of the North Korean nuclear and missile program?

John Burton | 2017-05-03 16:29

Korea's gilded age

In 1873, Mark Twain, the famous American writer, coined the term the“Gilded Age” to describe the rise of big business in late 19th century United States. The phrase suggested that rapid economic growth was masking serious social problems under a thin gold gilding of prosperity. It was an era of empire builders, robber barons and great tycoons who brought both power and wealth to the U.S., but also created the conditions for increasingly inequality that led to protests and violent strikes. Fearing a social revolution, Theodore Roosevelt sought to curb the power of big business after he became...

John Burton | 2017-04-05 17:15

Day of reckoning

Analysts are debating the meaning of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s remarks on North Korea during his trip to Northeast Asia last week. Were his comments that the “policy of strategic patience has ended” and that the U.S. was “exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures” just a blunter restatement of the Obama policy or did it signaled a new hardline approach? The fact that Tillerson’s statements are provoking such contrasting reactions indicates that reading the Trump administration’sintentions may prove to be as difficult to determine asthose of Pyongyang. ...

John Burton | 2017-03-22 16:54

When North Korea launched its new solid-fuel medium-range missile on Feb. 12, the U.S. cable news networks immediately gave the event full-blown coverage. They portrayed the launch as the first serious foreign policy test for the new Trump administration, highlighting the fact that the president was entertaining at that very moment Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the southern White House in Florida. Speculation was rampant whether the unconventional and mercurial Trump would take some type of dramatic action in response to what seemed to be a clear provocation by Pyongyang. Instead, Tr...

John Burton | 2017-03-08 17:20

Missile Mystery

North Korea’s launch of the Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile is another example of the steady advancement that Pyongyang has made in developing its nuclear and missile arsenal. But it also raises the question of how Pyongyang has been able to master such technology. Pyongyang’s propaganda proclaimed the test of the intermediate range missile as an example of “a new strategic weapon of our own style,” implying that North Korean technicians had developed the missile from scratch. But most analysts believe that North Korea has always received help from other countries in developing its nuclear an...

John Burton | 2017-02-22 17:55

Samsung's testing times

It is somewhat ironic that Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of the Samsung group, has borne the brunt of populist public anger against the family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, unleashed by Choigate and its exposure of alleged corrupt ties between business and government. Since taking over leadership of the group after his father’s heart attack in 2014, Lee has done more than any other chaebol boss in restructuring holdings to the benefit of shareholders. This has primarily consisted of selling off some struggling businesses while forging entry into new sectors, such as automotive electronics...

John Burton | 2017-01-25 15:36

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Park's impeachment