It’s time for a new approach to North Korea, write Jana Hajzlerova of the Czech-Korean Society and Michael Raska of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, for Asia Times. The current international policy toward the country has largely failed to curtail its WMD programs and change its policies. A hard power approach is also fraught with danger. Time, then, for a more ‘Scandinavian’ approach of individual states building relationships with the hermit nation in order to gradually bring it in from the cold.
China’s stumbling bond market experienced a dramatic rebound this week after the central bank reportedly directed banks to make loans through an interbank system called “X-Repo” that was introduced last year but had remained largely untapped, writes Steve Wang. The market had been in one of its worst declines in recent years over the last two months; X-Repo has been a rather effective cure.
The Tata-Mistry turf battle has entered the quasi-judicial arena. Tata Sons’ ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry, in his first legal salvo against the conglomerate, appealed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Tuesday. He wants the body to either replace the company’s current board or appoint a retired Supreme Court judge as non-executive chairman.
China’s football academies may be a complete waste of time, according to experts in the game. Beijing is building thousands of dedicated football schools in order to produce a generation of world-class players, but footballing ability cannot be drilled into youngsters: they have to develop a bond with the ball in infancy.