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The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

2. John Burton

Horrible histories

There are a series of books published in the U.K. called Horrible Histories that detail gruesome events from the past, with such titles as Angry Aztecs and Vicious Vikings, to amuse schoolboys. It's proof of the old adage that tragedy plus time equals comedy.

2014-02-26 17:08

Where Korea is weak

I first came to live in Korea in 1992 and during these past 20 or so years I have watched the country complete its transition from a developing to a developed economy.

2014-02-12 17:01

Korea is beginning to confront an issue that is likely to dominate politics for years to come: a generational battle between young and old in one of the world’s fastest aging societies.

2014-01-29 16:06

Pyongyang gangland

I was recently in Las Vegas, the only major city in the world to have been created by organized crime. There is even a Mob Museum, which chronicles how The Syndicate helped build Sin City. Among its exhibits are graphic photos of the mob hits that were a regular feature of the feuding among the Mafia families.

2014-01-15 17:01

The concert of Asia

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. Historians still argue whether Europe's plunge into war was an accidental outcome or inevitable. But what is indisputable is that the events of August 1914 did mark the sudden collapse of a system that had kept Europe largely peaceful for the previous century.

2013-12-18 16:57

A turning point at KEPCO?

Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) has been facing heavy criticism in the past year. The reputation of the state-owned power utility has been hit by the scandal that erupted a year ago when it was revealed that safety certificates for thousands of components used in its nuclear reactors had been forged.

2013-12-04 16:57

Seoul vs. Singapore

General Motors recently decided to move its international headquarters from Shanghai, where it had been operating for the last nine years. So where to go?

2013-11-20 17:52

Korea's Goldilocks economy

Despite talk of debt problems among mid-sized chaebol and households, Korea is currently enjoying what could be described as a Goldilocks economy: neither too hot that it causes inflation nor too cold that it results in a recession.

2013-11-06 16:52

Another Singapore Sling

By John Burton Several weeks ago, the Singapore Embassy in Seoul wrote a letter to The Korea Times, which was published on Sept. 27, to rebut statements that I had made in an earlier column of Sept. 12 about the status of press freedom in the city-state and the use of libel suits by its leaders to curb criticism by the opposition. I thought the arguments made in the letter were disingenuous and I have decided to reply to the comments. “Burton may have some misconceptions about the application of Singapore’s libel laws. Our principle is that if one makes a personal attac...

2013-10-23 17:13

Singapore Sling

I always thought that a fascinating and enlightening public debate would have been one between Kim Dae-jung, the former Korean president, and Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore, on the merits of democracy in Asia.

2013-10-09 16:50

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