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Thu, June 21, 2018 | 20:59

Opinion > Columnists > John Burton >

Trump's North Korean test

North Korea represents a Rorschach test for President-elect Donald Trump on how he will conduct his foreign policy.

John Burton | 2016-11-16 16:26

Why Samsung should worry

If I was at Samsung Electronics, I would be worrying about how the issue of exploding batteries with the Galaxy Note 7 has become comic fodder for late night TV shows in the U.S. “There was a terrible terrorist attack last weekend in New York, New Jersey. No one died, that’s the good news. And, boy, were we lucky because the bomb was made from acid, ball bearings and electronic igniters. It was either that or a sackful of Samsung phones,” Bill Maher joked on his HBO show, Real Time.

John Burton | 2016-10-05 16:58

Where are Seoul-Beijing ties heading?

The recent explosion of North Korea's fifth and biggest nuclear bomb raises a key question of the whether the test will bring South Korea and China closer together or further apart. The test has hardened President Park Geun-hye’s determination to deploy the U.S. advanced missile defense system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), with a majority of Koreans supporting the decision. Park recently said the deployment was an “inevitable defensive measure,” adding there would be no need for THAAD if Pyongyang abandoned its nuclear weapons program.

John Burton | 2016-09-21 16:50

Challenging the chaebol

One of the main themes in postwar Korea has been the debate over the chaebol as a source of both economic progress and social inequality because of their business dominance. They have also become the cause of national embarrassment because of financial scandals that often led to top executives or members of the family owners being convicted of crimes or sent to jail.

John Burton | 2016-09-07 15:34

Keep calm and carry on

Will Korea be the next Asian country after Japan to embark on an unconventional monetary policy to boost the economy? Some are predicting that the Bank of Korea could cut its base rate from the current 1.25% to 0.75% by the first quarter of next year.

John Burton | 2016-08-24 17:08

Lessons of Euromissile crisis

In the early 1980s, Western Europe was engulfed in a political crisis over the U.S. deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles to counter a move by the Soviet Union to base SS-20 theater ballistic missiles in Eastern Europe. I'm reminded of the lessons that event, known as the Euromissile crisis, holds as South Korea confronts China's opposition over the planned deployment of the THAAD anti-missile system to counter North Korea’s nuclear program.

John Burton | 2016-08-10 16:56

North Korea is often described as being unpredictable, but much the same can be said about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump when he is talking about North Korea.

John Burton | 2016-07-27 16:50

Oops...I did it again

The sudden announcement that Korea has a new national slogan - Creative Korea - shows once again the pitfalls of leaving international branding decisions to a bunch of insular bureaucrats. For a country that now proclaims it is “creative,” the process reinforces the perception that Korea lacks creativity when it comes to branding itself. We have been down this road many times before with embarrassing results. “I.Seoul.U,” anyone?

John Burton | 2016-07-13 16:19

Korea in an uncertain world

“Stop the World - I Want to Get Off” was the name of a 1960s Broadway musical. It also sums my feelings in this year of Trump and Brexit. What the world - at least the developed part of it - is witnessing is a populist backlash against three global trends that have accelerated since the early 1980s.

John Burton | 2016-06-29 16:45

Clinton and North Korea

Korea watchers in Washington DC are debating what policy Hillary Clinton will adopt toward North Korea if she is elected the next president of the United States as I found out during a recent visit to the nation's capital. Her stance is being closely watched since North Korea is likely to receive a higher priority in her administration than it did under President Barack Obama, who pursued what has been called a position of “strategic patience” by largely ignoring the North Korean issue for eight years as he focused on dealing with the growing power and possible nuclear breakout of Iran in th...

John Burton | 2016-06-15 16:27

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