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About the June Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Worker’s Party...
The 8th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was held in Pyongyang from June 16-18, 2023. The KCNA reports that the interim outcomes for the first...
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What’s the problem regarding radioactive water discharge from the Fukushima...
As previously noted, the outrage over Japan’s discharging of over 1 million tons of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean (“discharge” for short)...
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Is Lee Jae-myung ready for trial?
In a speech to the RoK Parliament on June 19, 2023, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, stated that he intended to renounce his parliamentary immunity in order to...
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A Kaleidoscope of Stories about Korean Society
Review of the book The Koreas: The Birth of Two Nations Divided by Theodore Jun Yoo In 2023, the book The Koreas: The Birth of Two Nations Divided by South Korean Professor Theodore Jun Yoo was...
View ArticleWhat’s the problem regarding radioactive water discharge from the Fukushima...
The disputable situation surrounding the safety of discharging water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which the author discussed in Part 1, prompted a team of 21 South Korean...
View ArticleOn the outcome of the ROK’s Conservative Party congress and the parliamentary...
Perhaps the author’s articles focus too heavily on South Korean domestic politics, but even so, when he describes the lengthy planning for an event, he should at least briefly summarize how it went....
View ArticleSouth Korea at the Ukrainian Crossroads
A year has passed since Russia launched a special military operation to denazify Ukraine’s criminal regime. Against this backdrop, various parties continue to try to draw South Korea into the conflict...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol Turns to Japan
One of the most significant festivals in the Republic of Korea is March 1, which honors the widespread protests against Japanese colonial rule. Under President Moon Jae-in the holiday became a memorial...
View ArticleThe Spring Madness Continues
The United States, South Korea, and Japan continue to conduct bilateral and trilateral exercises designed to combat North Korea. This activity has climaxed in Freedom Shield military exercises between...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol’s Visit to Japan
Yoon Suk-yeol, the current president of South Korea, has consistently expressed a desire to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan, in contrast to his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. Yoon has said that both...
View ArticleOn Kim Sung-han’s resignation
National Security Advisor of the Republic of Korea (to put it bluntly, a key advisor on foreign and national security affairs of South Korea) said that he was stepping down on March 29, 2023, less than...
View ArticleLarge Military Exercises End on the Korean Peninsula but “Spring Fever” Goes On
While we concentrated on the March 23 shooting in last week’s Chronicle of Moving to the Dangerous Line, the Korean Central News Agency broke news on March 24 that merits separate thought as Pyongyang...
View ArticleSouth Korea and the US leaks scandal
Several Pentagon and CIA documents relating to the Ukraine crisis surfaced on the Internet in early April. If the contents of the revealed documents are accurate, we are currently seeing the biggest...
View ArticleSeoul’s efforts to intensify the human rights issue in North Korea are met...
On March 28, 2023 South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol stated that “the reality of the horrific human rights violations against the North Korean people must be fully revealed to the international...
View ArticleA Chronicle of Tensions on the Korean Peninsula in Early April 2023
Despite this author’s previous article’s assumption that the heat of the “spring escalation was subsiding,” April 2023 will not be an easy month for the Korean Peninsula due to a series of memorable...
View ArticleAn Azerbaijani named Ashot, or a little more on how the North Korean arms...
We recently discussed how stories of North Korean weapons shipments to Russia were now being proven by saying things like, “Here’s a train with weapons on it; you can’t see them, but believe us,...
View ArticleAnti-prediction on the anticipation regarding the outcome of Yoon Suk-yeol’s...
A genre the author refers to as “anti-predictions” may be found in his various works. They describe the most dismal developments in the hope that others who read them would approach the situation in a...
View ArticleWaiting for the launch of North Korea’s first military intelligence satellite
This author will discuss the current round in the confrontation between the two Koreas in his next article, and pause for a moment to look at a more significant event. On April 18 Kim Jong-un, General...
View ArticleWill the Lee Jae-myung case be followed by a Song Young-gil case?
On April 17, 2023 Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, the country’s main opposition party, made a public apology, not in relation to his own personal situation, but in relation to...
View ArticleIs South Korea going to supply Ukraine with arms?
On April 19, 2023 President Yoon Seok-yeol gave an interview to Reuters in which he said, among other things, that “If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any...
View ArticleThe President of the Republic of Korea’s Visit to the United States: A...
On April 24, 2023, President Yoon Suk-yeol arrived in Washington on Monday for a six-day state visit under the slogan “Alliance in action toward the future.” This was the sixth meeting between Yoon...
View ArticleThe President of the Republic of Korea’s Visit to the United States: An...
Having described the course of the visit, let’s move on to a more in-depth analysis of the main statements, which include the joint statement of the two presidents on the results of the summit, speech...
View ArticleThe President of the Republic of Korea’s Visit to the United States: An...
Yoon and Biden’s opening monologue was theatrical, just like the Washington Declaration. “The United States and the ROK are constructing an Alliance that will provide future generations with a firm...
View ArticleThe President of the Republic of Korea’s Visit to the United States: An...
The context in which Russia was mentioned deserves its own section because, prior to the visit and following Yoon Suk-yeol’s interview with Reuters, many people anticipated or feared that, as a holiday...
View ArticleConcerning Signs of Chill in Relations Between China and South Korea
Given recent diplomatic advancements between the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as the President of the Republic of Korea’s visit to the United States, this article investigates issues that may...
View ArticleThe Gangneung self-immolation: a sign of the acute confrontation between the...
On May 1, 2023, 50-year-old Yang Hoe-dong doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire around 9:35 a.m. in front of the district courthouse in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, 163...
View ArticleFumio Kishida’s visit to South Korea
As the readers recall, Yoon Suk-yeol, the new President of the Republic of Korea, advocated right from the start for enhancing ties with Japan and shifting attention from the issues of the bygone past...
View ArticleThae Yong-ho – is this the end of his career?
Readers of previous articles by the present writer will know that the present author has a special interest in defectors from North Korea. As a result of their efforts a number of extravagant myths...
View ArticleOn Olena Zelenska’s visit to South Korea
On May 16, 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol met with First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, who arrived in Seoul as a special envoy for her husband, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky....
View ArticleThree Steps closer to the Red Line
In late April and early May 2023, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration took several steps towards aggravating inter-Korean relations. However, although the Washington Declaration was the most notable of...
View ArticleRead more about the “lanti-leaflet law” and the activities of Park Sang-hak...
After the publication of the piece on “Three Steps closer to the Red Line,” the author was asked to elaborate on the situation pertaining to the anti-leaflet law and the activities of Park Sang-hak and...
View ArticleAbout Yoon Suk-Yeol’s trip to Hiroshima and other meetings with European...
From May 19 to 21, President Yoon Suk-yeol attended the G7 Summit in Hiroshima. Yoon Suk-yeol is the fourth South Korean leader to attend the G7 leaders’ meeting; this time, he was invited to the...
View ArticleAbout Yoon Suk Yeol’s trip to Hiroshima and other meetings with European...
As can be observed, the “Korean-Ukrainian theme” plays an important role in the author’s work since the United States and the rest of the Western world continue to put pressure on the South Korean...
View ArticleAbout Yoon Suk-Yeol’s trip to Hiroshima and other meetings with European...
Yoon’s invitation to the summit, according to First Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo, “will be an opportunity to reaffirm our status as a global partner in defending the rules-based...
View ArticleSouth Korean space rocket, third launch
The launch of a North Korean satellite at the end of April 2023 brought the entire world to a standstill, but the South is also competing in the space race, and the author is paying close attention to...
View ArticleThe Gwangju Uprising – and how South Korea’s dealt with this issue during the...
In a previous article, discussing the way the South Korean government marked the anniversary of the Jeju uprising, this author noted that the authorities’ approach to commemorating the anniversary of...
View ArticleDPRK satellite launch: a rocky start, but failures happen
The development of the satellite was one of the key weapons projects announced by Kim Jong-un during the congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea in January 2021, along with a solid-fuel...
View ArticleOn the results of the meetings the South Korean Minister of Defense held in...
In early June 2023, the 20th edition of the “Shangri-La Dialogue,” an international forum for security in Asia, took place in Singapore, and witnessed a lot of developments of particular interest for...
View ArticleA chronicle of the escalation between North and South Korea in late April and...
In this latest in his series of digests on the increasingly tense situation on the Korean peninsula the author presents an overview of the situation up to mid-June 2023. On April 15, in response to...
View ArticleNew complications in relations between South Korea and China
Recently, while outlining the deterioration in relations between Beijing and Seoul, the present author commented on a new scandal that further inflamed tensions. It has to do with highly critical...
View ArticleContinuation of the Song Young-gil “money envelope” case
The Seoul Central District Attorney’s Office continues to investigate the high-profile corruption scandal in the ranks of the Toburo Democratic Party, known as the “cash envelopes” case, in which its...
View ArticleComments on the replacement of South Korea’s Unification Minister
On June 29, 2023, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol replaced the Minister of Unification and other key members of his cabinet. The new minister, responsible for relations between the two Koreas is...
View ArticleA wave of fake news about famine in today’s North Korea
In the second half of June 2023, a wave of claims hit the world media that North Korea was allegedly experiencing a famine comparable to the Arduous March of the 1990s. A BBC article supposedly based...
View ArticleWhat’s the problem regarding radioactive water discharge from the Fukushima...
Even a visit to the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant by a delegation of government experts did not dampen the excitement surrounding Japan’s planned radioactive water discharge, and the main...
View ArticleConflict Between North and South Korea from Mid-June to Mid-July 2023 from...
The author of the previous issue of this digest writes that the usual pattern of escalation surrounding the USA and South Korean military exercises has given way to news events since the beginning of...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol swings to the right
Although the rule of President Yoon Suk-yeol began with declarations of national unity, by late June or early July 2023, there have been a number of actions that hint to a rightward tilt. These actions...
View ArticleSome comments on the Russian Defense Minister’s visit to North Korea
July 27, 2023, was the 70th anniversary of the official end of the Korean War. In the DPRK this date is widely celebrated, and this year one of the main events in the ceremonies was the arrival of a...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol’s Eastern European Tour. Part One. President of the Republic of...
On July 17, 2023, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol returned home after completing an eight-day overseas trip that took him to Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol’s Eastern European Tour. Part Two. The Warsaw Summit
We continue our series on the South Korean president’s trip to Eastern Europe. After concluding his visit to Vilnius for the NATO summit on July 12, Yoon proceeded to Warsaw for a three-day official...
View ArticleYoon Suk-yeol’s East European tour. Part Three. Visit to Kiev
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol paid an unexpected visit to Ukraine on July 15, 2023, following a three-day official visit to Poland that we previously discussed. Yoon has consistently indicated...
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