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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…

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…

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.”…