중앙데일리

[VIEWPOINT]New formula for talks can work

The recent Chinese diplomatic initiative to reopen dialogue between the United States and North Korea on the North’s nuclear weapons program seems to be making progress. Dai Bingguo, a Chinese deputy foreign minister, visited Pyeongyang for four days from July 12. In Pyeongyang he held discussions with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. It is believed that Mr. Dai outlined to Mr. Kim a formula for new talks ― a multilateral meeting at which…

July 25,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Governor Conan

At the end of the movie “Terminator II,” a cyborg is throwing itself into a furnace to save a real human. I have always thought that was one of the best scenes in movie history. While the cyborg is melting, it gives a “thumbs up” to a boy as if to promise, “I shall return.” Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played the role, kept his promise. Twelve years later, he returned in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” But he has attracted more attention by…

July 25,2003
[INSIGHT]Legislative immunity should go

The prosecution’s petition for a detention warrant against the Millennium Democratic Party chairman, Chyung Dai-chul, has set me pondering about the legislative immunity of National Assembly members. Under the constitution, because the Assembly is now in the middle of a special session, the prosecution would need the Assembly’s consent to detain Mr. Chyung. That the prosecution will get this consent seem very unlikely; neither the government …

July 23,2003
[FORUM]It begins and ends with jobs

We live in Korea without thinking about illiteracy. Thanks to the enthusiasm for education, Korea’s rate of illiteracy is the lowest in the world, and it has long disappeared from government statistics. But the word “computer blindness,” or people who do not know how to use computers, still irritates quite a few people. According to the Korea National Statistics Office, the number of people who do not use computers was 37 percent of the populati…

July 23,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Picking a new boss

In 1980, Jack Welch, one of the candidates for the chief executive position of General Electric Co. , was worried about his age. Among the three candidates, Mr. Welch was the youngest at the age of 44; his competitors were 50 and 58. Mr. Welch later said he had even thought that he would propose to give up the job of the chief executive after ten years. But he abandoned the proposal on his friends’ advice. It seems that even in the United St…

July 23,2003
[VIEWPOINT]Is Korea’s press too powerful?

The phrase “media power” has now almost become a vernacular term. It emerged during the democracy movement in Korea after 1987, and began to take root naturally in everyday life in the 1990s, when the word “power,” including cultural power and economic power, was popular. But the term “media power” is a very embarrassing expression for the press. Traditionally, the media claimed the role of keeping watch over the tyranny of political power. The …

July 23,2003
[CULTURAL DIMENSIONS]A challenge in central Seoul

The Samil elevated expressway over Cheonggye Creek is the latest case of high-profile creative destruction in Seoul that has accompanied democratization since 1987. In the mid-1990s, the foreigners’ apartments in Namsan and the former Japanese colonial headquarters in Gwanghwamun were torn down. In the late 1990s, the vast concrete plaza in Yeouido was turned into a park. Each of these structures were destroyed because they either scarred …

July 23,2003
[FOUNTAIN]All about nose jobs

The most popular procedure in plastic surgery is a nose job, according to doctors in the field. According to statistics from the United States, 1.4 million nose reshaping procedures were performed in 2001; that was about 16 percent of the total cosmetic procedures that year. People in the entertainment business say that most popular entertainers start with their noses when they start to give themselves a new look. Why do people try to change th…

July 23,2003
[VIEWPOINT]Everyone has Saemangeum stake

The Saemangeum reclamation project, which was started in 1991, is a mammoth effort to reclaim 40,100 ha (100,000 acres) of land. More than 1.5 trillion won ($1.20 billion) has been spent on the project so far and the work on the 33-kilometer (20-mile) sea wall is 90 percent complete. The sluices are all finished. What is the point of contention over this project? Some are purporting that this artificial lake will turn out to be the second Sih…

July 22,2003
[FORUM]Look closely at those crawlers

Some couples part when things are not going well, but more couples just endure and live. I recently read a French novel entitled “I Loved Her,” in which the author wrote, “I felt as if I had just lifted a big stone and had to put it down right away because the things swarming underneath it were too ugly.” In the book, a woman who discovered the infidelity of her husband, Pierre, decided to divorce him and lifted the stone, but could not cast it …

July 22,2003

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