New 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 comments made by Xing Haiming, China’s ambassador to Seoul, concerning South Korea’s foreign policy. The problems began on June 8, 2023, when South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung visited the residence of Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming, for a dinner meeting in order to discuss Japan’s plans to dump radioactive waste water from the damaged Fukushima…
A chronicle of the escalation between North and South Korea in late April and May 2023
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 Pyongyang’s test of its new solid-fuel ICBM, the Hwaseong-18, the US and South Korea conducted joint air force exercises involving B-52H strategic bombers supported by South Korean F-35A and F-15K and US F-16 fighter jets. On April 16 a North Korean patrol boat crossed…
Read more about the "lanti-leaflet law" and the activities of Park Sang-hak and Co
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 his “Fighters for a Free North Korea. We depicted the biography of Park Sang-hak in our previous article dealing with him, including attempts at terrorist attacks from the territory of the PRC with the help of drones, which he recognized himself, and the fact that, according to defector Hong Gang Chol, in their circle the plan to deliver objects infected with coronavirus…
The Gangneung self-immolation: a sign of the acute confrontation between the government and the unions, in which there is no clear right or wrong
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 kilometers east of Seoul. Yang suffered serious burns and was taken first to a nearby hospital and then airlifted to a specialized hospital for burn treatment in Seoul, but the next day died. The deceased was a high-ranking official of the local branch of the national construction…
Is 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 large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support.” Yoon noted that his government is exploring how to help protect and rebuild Ukraine, just as South Korea received international aid during the 1950-53 Korean War. “I believe there won’t be limitations to the extent of the support to defend and restore a country…
Will 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 past events which primarily involved Song Young-gil, his predecessor as party leader. Song Young-gil was the leader of the Democratic movement in the 1980s, and also served as mayor of Incheon, served three terms as a deputy in the National Assembly, and was, for a time, Moon Jae-in’s Special Envoy to Russia…