Big shopping complex finds itself in the heart of the race for next S Korean president

One phenomenon South Korea has seen in the recent years is a slow but evident dissolution of the traditional political regionalism—not because governments’ decades-long effort finally worked but the provincial economies are breaking apart: the traditional model of the provincial politics is no longer working. My latest for Al Jazeera English: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/8/as-south-korea-votes-shopping-mall-bid-spotlights-regional-split Provincial politics has……

Samsung heir’s apology could be the first step of his get-out-of-jail-free card

One thing that Jay Y. Lee is better at doing than his father Lee Kun-hee is to apologize in public. The May 6th apology was the second time he appeared in front of cameras for the sake of apology only since the 2015 MERS outbreak. While the media was highlighting his promise not to hand……

The spy chief who shot the President: two films on the assassination of Park Chung-hee

The assassination of Park Chung-hee is arguably the most spectacular non-event in modern Korean history. Spectacular as the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth President of the Republic of Korea, who has been ruling the country for about two decades, was shot dead by his right-hand man, the head of the notorious intelligence agency whose……

Samsung Rising

삼성과 북한에는 우리가 흔히 언급하는 것 외에도 닮은 점이 하나 더 있다. 한국 사회에서 둘이 갖는 무게감이 워낙 크다 보니까 그 안에서는 객관적인 시각을 갖기가 무척 어렵다는 사실이다. 제프리 케인의 <삼성 라이징Samsung Rising>을 읽으면서 문득 한국에서 나온 삼성 관련 책들이 무엇이 있나 궁금해서 찾아봤다. 삼성의 경영법이나 이건희 리더십에 대한 낯간지러운 책 아니면 삼성의 지배구조나 경영……