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  OPINION: South Korea's 2026 structural reforms must shift how wealth is built The mission for next year is structural reform. If 2025 was the year to set the direction and strategy for change, the coming year must be about execution. Structural reform is often misunderstood as synonymous with layoffs or austerity, recalling the trauma of the Asian financial crisis. But its true meaning is different. At its core, structural reform concerns how an economy creates wealth — its mechanism of accumulation. For decades, South Korea’s accumulation m December 26, 2025
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  OPINION: Iteca Exhibitions marks 30 years of Uzbekistan's exhibition industry development SEOUL, December 23 (AJP) - The achievements of the anniversary season set an ambitious benchmark for the years ahead. In 2026, the calendar of exhibitions will expand to 22 exhibitions and 5 conferences, alongside new initiatives designed to support the domestic manufacturers, promote investment and further strengthen the key sectors of the national economy Since its establishment in December 23, 2025
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  OPINION: Are museum admission fees worth it? SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) - Debate is intensifying over whether the National Museum of Korea should start charging admission fees. Proponents of free entry argue that public museums exist to serve everyone, while opponents point to chronic budget shortfalls that leave few viable alternatives. But this debate often fixates on price, overlooking a more fundamental issue: what, exactly, would visitors be paying for, and is the experience worth charging for? That question becomes clearer December 22, 2025
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  OPINION: A decade that changed US-China economic power SEOUL, December 22 (AJP) - The year 2025 is likely to stand as a watershed in U.S.-China relations. After nearly a decade of confrontation, the Trump administration has effectively acknowledged the limits of its strategy to contain China — a campaign pursued in earnest since 2017. The contrast between two tariff battles tells the story. In the trade war launched in 2018, President Donald Trump pressured President Xi Jinping and extracted a Phase One trade deal in early 2020. December 22, 2025
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  OPINION: When all that glitters mixes with FX markets For decades, gold sat politely outside the foreign-exchange conversation. It was a hedge against inflation, a shelter in crises, an asset of last resort—but rarely a variable that moved currencies themselves. Exchange rates were explained in the familiar grammar of trade balances, interest-rate differentials and capital flows. Gold belonged to another chapter. That separation is beginning to fray in Asia. The first clear signal has come from Thailand. In recent month December 20, 2025
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  OPINION: Why Korea Zinc's US smelter deal makes strategic sense SEOUL, December 19 (AJP) - Korea Zinc recently signed a strategic partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Commerce, agreeing to pursue a joint investment to build a large, integrated smelter in Tennessee. The U.S. administration has increasingly treated critical minerals as strategic assets essential to national defense and economic security, elevating supply self-reliance and trusted supply chains to top policy priorities. Against that back December 19, 2025
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  OPINION: A Periodic Table war at play The world is already in a war — just not the kind most people picture. There are no gunshots, troop movements or televised front lines. Yet its outcome will shape industrial competitiveness and long-term national resilience. The battlefield is the periodic table. This “periodic table war” is the intensifying global competition for the elements that underpin modern industry and technology: copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite, rare earths, ga December 19, 2025
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  OPINION: Oscar Night in 2030 - except that it won't end in one night On a spring evening in 2030, few people will reach for a television remote. They will tap the YouTube icon on the living-room screen instead. The Oscars will not appear on a numbered channel, but at the top of an algorithmic feed, marked simply: "Live now". The ceremony will begin—and almost immediately, it will splinter. Acceptance speeches will circulate as concise summaries. The red carpet will resurface as tagged video clips. Jokes will dissolve into meme December 18, 2025
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  OPINION: Cooperation between Türkiye and Republic of Korea in building fair international order SEOUL, December 18 (AJP) - At a time when power balances are being reshaped, the conventional international order is entering a phase of disintegration, and normative values are being eroded, the global system has been drawn into a multi-layered environment of uncertainty. In this age of uncertainty, multidimensional issues, such as intensifyin December 18, 2025
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  OPINION: The costs of 'cartel eradication' politics and martial law A year has passed since the declaration and swift lifting of martial law on Dec. 3, and eight months since former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office by the Constitutional Court’s impeachment ruling on April 4. Yet the political reckoning is far from complete. That unresolved mood was reflected in a Gallup Korea survey released on Nov. 28 assessing the achievements and failures of 11 former presidents. Yoon recorded the highest negative ratings and the lowes December 18, 2025