OPINION: Middle East and US foreign policy

CIA Director William J. Burns and British counterpart MI6 Chief Richard Moore have just met and are launching the latest effort to secure a peace agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, and stop the emerging regional war. This reflects the vital importance of intelligence for Israel as well as the close Anglo-American “Special Relationship,” which began with intelligence agencies in World War I. This unusual approach also reflects the difficulty of dealing with Isr

September 11, 2024

OPINION: Starting with handshake, presidential debate between Harris and Trump then turns fierce, and pointed

SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - As the two presidential candidates entered the debate stage, Kamala Harris strode across it and offered her hand to Donald Trump to shake, setting a confident tone that didn't flag throughout the debate. Trump, appearing to grow angrier through the night, stuck to his well-trodden themes of American decline and reminded viewers that Harris was part of the Biden administration, which he blamed for that decline. Each candidate probably won points wit

September 11, 2024

OPINION: ICC judges to decide on arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has been a prominent figure in the news in recent years. In 2023, he requested – and was granted – a warrant for the arrest of Russia's president, Vladimir Putin. He then dived into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in May 2024, requesting arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas and Israel in response to the ongoing violence in the Middle East. The ICC is expected to mak

September 11, 2024

OPINION: Isn't it time for Christian street protesters to fold up the tent?

SEOUL, Sept. 6 (AJP) - Last weekend, I was driving along Sejong-ro in downtown Seoul and got held up by the Christian protest that dominates the boulevard most Saturdays. I was on my way to meet two friends who had been foreign correspondents here in the 1980s. They were staying at a hotel nearby. The hotels downtown advise guests about protests, so they knew something was going on. Back in their day, a demo meant earnest students hurling broken paving stones and Molotov cockta

September 6, 2024

OPINION: The harsh process of becoming K-pop star is opening to western performers

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (AJP) - "Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience" is a six-part reality show following five British trainees over 100 days as they debut as a Korean-pop (K-pop) idol boy group called Dear Alice. In collaboration with SM Entertainment, a K-pop powerhouse, the show will introduce the behind-the-scenes of making a K-pop idol through an immersive training system. Showing a glimpse of the lives of K-pop trainees, the first episode introduces K-pop as a multi-billion

September 4, 2024

OPINION: Brazil just banned X. Could other countries follow suit?

SEOUL, Sept. 3 (AJP) - Authorities in Brazil, the country with the world's fifth largest number of internet users, have banned the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). The ban came into effect over the weekend. It followed a long-running battle between Elon Musk, the owner of X, and Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes who had previously ordered the social media platform to block far-right users. The ban has outraged Musk. In the wake of it,

September 3, 2024

OPINION: 26 states may soon need to regulate cannabis – here's what they can learn from Colorado and Washington

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (AJP) - The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has made moves to reclassify marijuana, making it a type of legal but regulated medicine, like Tylenol with codeine or some steroids. With the reclassification, 26 states where cannabis is currently illegal will need to decide whether they want to take action to stop the sale of cannabis in their state or figure out how to regulate the newly legal drug. A few states such as North Carolina have laws on the books sayin

September 2, 2024

OPINION: How drone attacks are changing rules and costs of Ukraine war

SEOUL, August 30 (AJP) - Ukraine has unveiled a new long-range weapon, a mix of drone and missile technology that Kyiv believes will significantly boost its ability to combat Russian military attacks. Ukrainian promotional material suggested that the "rocket drone," called Palianytsia, will have a range of 700km, and could bring around 250 Russian military targets within range, opening a new phase of the air war. Ukraine believes this new drone technology is a necessity

August 30, 2024

OPINION: Away from battlefield, diplomatic wrangling hots up with Modi visit to Kyiv

SEOUL, August 29 (AJP) - Ukraine's three-week incursion has been countered recently by an intensifying Russian drone campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure. Russian troops have also made steady gains in the battle for the strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, in the background, the diplomatic wrangling in the more than 30-month-long war has also increased. But there's no sign of a breakthrough or an indication that we migh

August 29, 2024