중앙데일리

[IN THIS CORNER...]Should TV air time be freed?

The broadcasting hours of television networks are regulated by law; they can be on the air from 6 a.m. to noon and 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. To broadcast outside of the designated times, they need approval from the Korea Broadcasting Commission. Since broadcasters have long been asking for more air time, the restrictions should be loosened. The regulations were introduced in the 1960s, when television broadcasting was in its infancy here. Other media a…

Feb 07,2003
[SCRIVENER]Why silence about the enslaved?

When you live in South Korea, it is easy to believe that the lucky Koreans on this side of the Demilitarized Zone are, with a few notable exceptions, indifferent to the suffering of their brothers and sisters across the border. If this is so, it's not for lack of ability to empathize. For when you scratch the surface of any life here, you find many stories of wracking agony. In my time, I've met people who've survived massacres, who have not s…

Feb 06,2003
[OUTLOOK]Needed: fresh start for dialogue

The recent rumors about the $200 million that flew over the North-South border is bringing down what little is left of President Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy." Just what went wrong with the policy and what lessons are to be learned here? Far from coaxing the North to stop its sullen pouting, the sunshine policy had the effect of driving it further into its shell. President Kim's policy was meant to prevent war but it seems that the South…

Feb 06,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Monarchs and money

In history, a leader's ruling prerogatives are in inverse proportion to the citizens' participation in government. In the 1789 French Revolution, the ruling prerogative was dramatically negated. At the climax of the absolute monarchy, Louis XIV proclaimed "I am the state." The House of Bourbon flourished, reigning from the splendid Versailles Palace, using policies of a wealthy country and a powerful army and overseas colonies. Louis XVI was guil…

Feb 06,2003
[OUTLOOK]Rebellious youth and unification

If the development of a nation could be compared to human growth, South Korea would appear to be going through the peak of its rebellious puberty. Welcome to a "Korea that can say no." The Bush administration has distanced itself from Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine" policy and probably hoped Lee Hoi-chang would be elected. The South Korean public probably detected that thought process. So it would seem natural that some South Koreans would turn t…

Feb 04,2003
[CULTURAL DIMENSIONS]What reasons to change capitals?

Amid the grind of negative news since the beginning of the year, details of plans for moving the administrative capital from Seoul are slowly emerging. The most recent set of rumors has it that an area southwest of Daejeon is the most likely candidate for a new capital city that will eventually hold several hundred thousand people. The debate over the new capital has stirred much controversy, including several heated exchanges in the presidenti…

Feb 04,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Rush to urban madness

Citizens of the Roman Empire in the middle of the first century A.D. were beginning to revel in the Pax Romana, the period of about 200 years that followed the consolidation of the Roman Empire under Augustus, who died in the year 14. The Pax Romana brought about an explosion of construction of cities and an artery of roads that totaled about 85,000 kilometers (52,800 miles) in length and were two meters (2.2 yards) thick, all guarded by strat…

Feb 04,2003
[TODAY]Natural gas as nuclear solution

French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau wrote to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1918 that a drop of oil is "as valuable as a drop of blood." In 1979, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt warned that competition for oil could start a war. President George Bush justified the Gulf War of 1991 by declaring that Saddam Hussein's control over Kuwaiti oil fields would threaten "our economy, our lives and our freedom." Oil was an important cause of th…

Feb 04,2003
[VIEWPOINT]Mr. Roh, broaden your thinking

I was very disappointed after I read that the transition team of President-elect Roh Moo-hyun planned to establish a research and development complex to focus on information technology in the Songdo area of Incheon. It will be a major part of the project to develop Korea into a Northeast Asian economic hub. The team should reexamine that plan. Over the last decade, economists have studied plans to develop Korea into the center of Northeast Asi…

Feb 04,2003
[FOUNTAIN]Of myths and men

"Yong-bi-eo-cheon-ga," or the "King's Flight to Heaven With the Dragons," was the first epic written in the new Korean alphabet, hangeul. A tale of mythologies, miracles and the pride of a royal family, the book was written by scholars who served under King Sejong, who created the Korean alphabet. King Taejo founded the Joseon Dynasty (1392) through a successful coup d'etat in which he had to kill many faithful courtiers of the Goryeo Dynasty and…

Feb 04,2003

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