On February 8, on the eve of Diplomatic Worker’s Day, Russia’s Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Georgy Zinoviev, together with Embassy staff, the Russian Military Attaché and a Russian trade delegation, visited the site of the former Russian Imperial Mission in Seoul. This building, designed by the Russian architect Afanasy Seredin-Sabatin, was built in 1890 but was destroyed during the 1950-1953 Korean War. Only a fragment of the building, the watch tower, still stands. It is protected as a historical heritage site of the Republic of Korea. The Korean authorities have recently completed the restoration of the building…

We ended the previous text with the 7 January firing and then separately noted the 14 January ICBM launch, but tensions are not subsiding and their new degree is gradually becoming the new normal. Missile launches on one side, joint exercises on the other. From 15 to 17 January, the navies of the Republic of Korea, the United States and Japan conducted joint exercises in waters south of Jeju Island. Two South Korean destroyers, five U.S. Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, and two ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force participated. It was the first trilateral naval drills since an agreement was reached last June to hold them regularly…

The attacker was quickly apprehended and turned out to be a 15-year-old schoolboy. Most likely, due to his age, full information about him will not be disclosed. Some sources claim that he is even under 15, and that this exempts him from criminal responsibility for assault. He has been treated for depression and has been taking pills, but the result of his assessment by medics for mental health problems is not yet known. The police hospitalized the teenager (under the emergency hospitalization system…

After taking over as Chairman of the Emergency Committee, Han Dong-hoon has been active in mobilizing supporters and raising the party’s ratings in the regions. Particular attention was paid to regions that are considered swing ones and on which the outcome of elections often depends to a large extent. Han also proposed reducing the number of lawmakers from 300 to 250 by cutting proportional representation or merging constituencies, and on January 18, he promised to seek…

The session ended, and the idea of peaceful unification was discarded. Even the monument dedicated to it was removed. What did Seoul have to say on the matter? During a cabinet meeting held just hours after Kim Jong-un’s speech was published…

While preparing the material, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK was held on January 23–24, 2024, where Kim Jong-un’s proposed strategy for the development of local industry began to take shape. The Politburo meeting lasted for two days, which is rather rare. The meeting structure suggests that there was significant conceptualization taking place. The composition of the observers suggests that it was a nationwide planning meeting. The meeting included “members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, members, and alternate members of the Political Bureau…

The 10th session of the Fourteenth National People’s Congress of the DPRK, is best known for its radical reversal of the policy on relations between North and South Korean. However, specialists may also find some of the other issues discussed during the session to be of interest. In addition to the foreign policy issues discussed earlier, in his speech, “On the Next Tasks for the Prosperity and Development of the Republic and the Improvement of the People’s Welfare” Kim Jong-un made…

The military and political section of Kim Jong-un’s keynote speech began by summing up the current situation. “Far from improving, the security situation of our state has continued to deteriorate day by day, and today it is facing a more serious risk of war than any other region in the world.” Therefore “preparations for the great event have become an unfortunate reality.” Kim also notes the importance of paying attention to the situation in the Middle East. “The deputies present at this session should not consider the horrors…

We are monitoring the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the South Korean opposition leader, which may have significant political consequences in light of the upcoming parliamentary elections. After the incident, the police quickly assembled a 68-member investigation team to check on approximately 40 individuals, including the suspect who was detained at the scene. The investigations comprised searches of the suspect’s residence, office, vehicle, phone records, and bank transactions. Lee Jae-myung was released from the hospital on Jan. 10, eight days after he was stabbed in the neck…

South Korean politics has many individuals with the surname Lee. This includes Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Lee Jun-seok, a former conservative leader who began his independent career at age 38, and Lee Nak-yon, who is on his way to become the leader of a breakaway faction. The 71-year-old former DPK chairman, a four-term lawmaker, served as prime minister from 2017 to 2020 during the Moon Jae-in administration. As both premier and party leader, Lee demonstrated his competence as an administrator…

After discussing the issues surrounding conservatives, some members of the audience criticized me for not showing support towards Lee Jun-seok, who took a more impartial stance compared to other conservatives. In response, we can recall precisely what Lee was warned for by the ethics committee, including his more significant tendency to solidarity with Ukraine. However, a detailed account of the ex-People Power Party (PPP) chairman’s recent activities is necessary. Indeed, the 37-year-old…

Back in the summer of 2022, factional infighting in the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had gotten so out of hand that interim party chief Woo Sang-ho suggested getting rid of insults such as the word “watermelon.” In South Korea, this is considered a significant insult, despite its seemingly minor nature. For instance, the term ’banana’ is sometimes used as an insult towards American or overly Westernized South Koreans, implying that they are “yellow on the outside but white on the inside.”…