Opinion

  A high-ranking defector of North Korean has said that president Kim Jong-Un is planning a ‘prime time’ nuclear weapons push in 2017. The development comes as Pyongyang wants to take advantage of leadership transitions in South Korea and the United States. As per the revelation made by Thae Yong-Ho, who fled his post as North Korea’s deputy ambassador to ...

  While the world looks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to see where he’ll take Japan next year, a lesser-known name is a better guide to the country’s long-term future. Tai Jeng-wu, 65, took over as president of Sharp Corp. in August after Foxconn Technology Group, and its founder Terry Gou, won a four-year battle for control of the struggling ...

  Even if it doesn’t get to host the IPO of Saudi oil giant Aramco, potentially the biggest float of all time, Hong Kong should still be able to maintain its billing as the world’s No. 1 venue for share sales next year. But with limited tech deals on the horizon, and most in the listing queue rather staid Chinese ...

  Are you someone who has faith in the power of free markets? Then you should naturally accept the evidence that human activity is bringing about climate change. Free and competitive markets work efficiently in large part because they are phenomenal information aggregators, gathering and sorting facts about consumer preferences and business production costs, and guiding market participants to engage ...

  What the former assistant secretary of the Navy said is descriptive of the entire military. Each service’s culture, and interservice rivalries, and bureaucratic viscosity are resistant to reform. Which is why the next secretary of defense, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, has the most difficult management challenge in American government. He comes from a service whose core mission, ...

  Last week, when the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates, it was a sign for many investors that things were getting back to normal. For China, facing large-scale capital outflows and a declining currency, it was a sign of a serious problem. For the past decade, China has maintained a “soft peg” of the yuan, allowing it to rise ...

  One of the least discussed challenges of the incoming Trump administration may also be among the most economically consequential: what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled entities that own or guarantee about half of all U.S. home mortgages. Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has said he wants to put housing finance back into ...

  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor yesterday. It is the site of surprise attack by Japanese that pulled America into World War II. The attack had been prepared in secret by Japan for months. But it was over within two hours. At least 2,300 Americans died on December 7, 1941, when more than 300 Japanese fighter ...

  Some climate activists worry that Donald Trump’s presidential election will be the death knell for the global environment. That’s almost certainly untrue. Whatever Trump’s attitude toward climate science and energy policy, two big outside factors will be much more important — technological progress and policy in developing nations. First, the good news. Renewable energy technology is already unstoppable. No ...

  While much attention has been focused on Japan’s big ailing companies and their prospects for survival, a few small developments show some promising signs for the country’s future. Kicking off a week in deals, Asahi Glass Co. said on December 20 it would buy CMC Biologics for 60 billion yen ($512 million), helping its move into contract drug manufacturing. ...