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☆ North Korean Trash Balloons Hit South Korean President’s Compound
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Weeks into North Korea’s campaign of launching balloons loaded with trash across the world’s most heavily armed border, some of them hit a symbolically significant target in South Korea on Wednesday: the presidential office in the heart of Seoul, the capital. North Korea has released more than 3,000 of the trash balloons since May, many of which have reached the South after floating across the Demilitarized Zone between the two nations. On Wednesday, for the first time, some of them landed inside the sprawling compound in central Seoul that includes the office of President Yoon Suk Yeol. The authorities did not say exactly how many had reached the compound, one of the most tightly guarded places in South Korea. The team found “nothing dangerous or contaminating,” South Korea’s presidential security service said in a brief statement.

Persons: Yoon Suk Organizations: Officials Locations: South Korea, Seoul, North Korea

☆ As Many South Koreans Shun Marriage, Two Women Try to Redefine Family
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The event was to celebrate and discuss the book written by Hwang Sunwoo and Kim Hana, both 47, about their life together as single women in South Korea. He told the two women that they were making the country’s birthrate, already the world’s lowest, even worse. But with millions of South Koreans shunning the institution of marriage, the family-centered support system is rapidly unraveling. The nation’s quality of support network — measured by whether people have someone to rely on in a time of need — is the lowest among developed nations. South Korea also has the highest suicide rate among those nations.

Persons: Hwang Sunwoo, Kim Hana, ” Ms, Hwang, “, ” Locations: South Korea

☆ Same-Sex Couples in South Korea Win Landmark Rights Ruling
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a landmark ruling for gay rights in South Korea on Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples qualify for the national health insurance’s dependent coverage, a decision that rights activists hoped could pave the way for legalizing same-sex marriage in the country. The decision would allow same-sex couples in the country to register their partners as dependents in national health insurance coverage like married couples or couples in a common-law marriage can. It was one of the numerous benefits denied to same-sex and other couples living outside of the traditional norms of family in South Korea. In its ruling on Thursday, the country’s highest court ruled that denying a same-sex couple national health insurance dependent coverage “just because they are of the same sex” constitutes a serious discrimination that infringed upon citizens’ “dignity and values, their rights to pursue happiness, their freedom of privacy and their rights to be equally treated by the law.”.

Persons: ’ Locations: South Korea

☆ North Korean Diplomat Defects to the South, Shares News of Political Purge
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-16 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The defector, Ri Il-kyu, 52, made the comments in an interview with a newspaper in Seoul, which was also the first time his defection became public. Mr. Ri was a political counselor at the North Korean Embassy in Cuba when he fled to South Korea last November. He is the most senior North Korean official known to defect to the South in nearly a decade. They were among the best-known North Korean diplomats dealing with Washington. But they soon disappeared from North Korean state media.

Persons: Kim Jong, Donald J, Trump, Kim, Ri Organizations: North, North Korean Embassy, North Korean, Chosun Ilbo, Washington Locations: United States, North Korean, Seoul, Cuba, South Korea, Korean

☆ Car Plows Into Pedestrians in South Korea, Killing Nine
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Nine people were killed when a car crashed into pedestrians near a busy intersection in central Seoul on Monday, officials said. Four others were injured in the incident in front of city hall, but their wounds were not life-threatening, said Kim Chun-soo, a senior fire department official. The driver of the car claimed that he lost control of it when it suddenly accelerated, local news media reported. Kim Seong-hak, a public safety official at the Jung-gu district in central Seoul, said the authorities could not immediately confirm the reports, adding that the police were investigating the driver. He also said officials were investigating whether the driver was drunk or on drugs.

Persons: Kim Chun, Kim Seong Locations: Seoul

The debate between Donald J. Trump and President Biden had analysts in Asia fretting. During Thursday night’s debate, President Biden told former President Donald J. Trump that the United States is the “envy of the world.”After watching their performance, many of America’s friends might beg to differ. In Europe and Asia, the back-and-forth between the blustering Mr. Trump and the faltering Mr. Biden set analysts fretting — and not just about who might win the election in November. Image Mr. Biden leaving the debate stage. Kasit Piromya, Thailand’s foreign minister from 2008 to 2011 and a former ambassador to the United States, lamented the state of American politics.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, ”, fretting —, ” Simon Canning, ” Sergey Radchenko, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, “, Putin, “ I’ve, Mr, Kenny Holston, François Heisbourg, Trump’s, “ I’m, Heisbourg, Radoslaw Sikorski, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Sikorski, Joe Biden’s, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Daniela Schwarzer, Bogdan Butkevych, “ Trump, Chan Heng Chee, Ms, Chan, Lee Byong, ’ ”, Koichi Nakano, Haiyun Jiang, Narendra Modi, Tara Kartha, —, Shen Dingli, don’t, Kasit, Damien Cave, Lee Wee, Choe Sang, Vivian Wang, Camille Elemia, Mujib Mashal, Ségolène Le Stradic, Marc Santora Organizations: Johns Hopkins School, International Studies, —, Mr, Russia, New York Times, Trump, Bertelsmann Foundation, Washington , D.C, Credit, Kremlin, Kyiv Independent, Biden unnerves, Institute for Far Eastern, Kyungnam University, Sophia University, The New York Times, Washington, National Security Council of, ”, Weibo Locations: Asia, Australian, United States, Europe, Australia, Washington, Russia, China, North Korea, Ukraine, Lebanon, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Gaza, Jerusalem, France, Washington ,, American, Ukrainian, North, Seoul, “, United, Tokyo, The New York Times India, National Security Council of India, New Delhi, Beijing, India, Communist, Shanghai, U.S, Southeast Asia

☆ North Korea Says It Tested Multiple-Warhead Missile Technology
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-26 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea said for the first time on Thursday that it had tested technology for launching several nuclear warheads with a single missile, days after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited the North and raised the prospect of expanded military and technical cooperation. The test on Wednesday was “aimed at securing the MIRV capability,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. MIRV stands for “multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle,” a missile payload containing several warheads, each of which can be sent to a different target. The report said the test had involved part of a MIRV system, not a full-fledged multiple-warhead missile. But experts believe the North is far from mastering the technology.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, MIRV, Kim Jong, Kim Organizations: Korean Central News Agency Locations: Korea, Russia, United States

☆ Deadly Fire Exposes Harsh Conditions Migrant Workers Face in South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-25 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They were descendants of Koreans who moved to Northeast China, fleeing Japan’s brutal colonial rule in the early 20th century. In a twist of history, many like them have come to South Korea in recent decades, looking for better-paying jobs in their forebears’ homeland, now one of the world’s richest countries. The disaster drew new attention to the stark realities faced here by migrant workers, from China and from elsewhere. South Korea, with its shrinking population, has been rapidly increasing the number of workers it accepts from abroad to toil at the lowest rung of its labor market. Foreign workers are nearly three times as likely as the average South Korean to die in a work-related accident, according to a recent study.

Persons: Locations: China, South Korea, Hwaseong, Seoul, Koreans

☆ Fire at Lithium Battery Plant in South Korea Kills at Least 16
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-24 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A fire at a lithium battery factory near Seoul on Monday killed at least 16 workers and left six others missing, officials said. The toll from the blaze, one of the deadliest in South Korea in recent years, was expected to rise as rescuers searched the building in Hwaseong, 28 miles south of Seoul. Kim Jin-young, an official with the Hwaseong Fire Department, said 102 people had been working in the factory, owned by the battery maker Aricell, when the fire broke out. Many of the dead and missing workers were migrants from China and other countries, and officials feared they had been trapped inside the building. Workers who fled the fire said it started when a single battery cell caught fire, triggering a series of explosions among some of the 35,000 lithium battery cells stored on the factory’s second floor, according to Mr. Kim.

Persons: Kim Jin, Kim Organizations: Hwaseong Fire Department, Workers Locations: Seoul , South Korea, Hwaseong, Seoul, China

☆ His Photos Exposed a Bloody Crackdown, but His Identity Was a Secret
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is an iconic image — a black-and-white photo of a blood-splattered student being clubbed by a paratrooper medic. It was the first photo to slip through the military cordon around Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980, exposing the brutal suppression of what would be known as the Gwangju Democratization Movement. But for years, the identity of the photographer — an unassuming man named Na Kyung Taek — remained a secret. Mr. Chun’s rule ended in 1988, and now many in South Korea support a Constitutional revision to sanctify Gwangju’s role in the country’s democratization. But he was still haunted by what he saw that fateful spring.

Persons: —, Na, Chun, Chun’s Locations: Gwangju, South Korea, South

☆ Russia and North Korea’s Defense Pact Is a New Headache for China
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( David Pierson | Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the contest of global narratives, China has sought to cast itself as a peaceful nation opposed to dividing the world into rival camps. In contrast, it has accused the United States of building alliances that will drive the world toward a new Cold War. Yet Russia and North Korea’s mutual defense treaty, which calls for the two countries to provide immediate military assistance to each other in the event of war, is exactly the kind of bloc-building that China has charged the United States with. China’s closest strategic partner and its only treaty ally — Russia and North Korea — are now the ones heightening the risk of Cold War-style confrontation in northeast Asia. The pact also creates more headaches for Beijing by appearing to deepen the semblance of a trilateral axis between China, Russia and North Korea, which China has sought to avoid.

Persons: —, ”, Yun Sun Organizations: “, Stimson Locations: China, United States, Russia, North, — Russia, North Korea, Asia, Beijing, “ Beijing, Washington

☆ Russia and North Korea’s Defense Pact Is a Told-You-So Moment in Asia
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Motoko Rich | Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With ballistic missiles regularly flying nearby, Japan and South Korea need little reminder of the threat that North Korea and its nuclear arsenal poses to its neighbors. But the pledge, along with indications that Russia could help bolster North Korea’s continuing quest to build its nuclear capabilities, rattled officials in Tokyo and Seoul. Mr. Kim has grown increasingly hostile toward South Korea and this year abandoned a longtime goal of reunifying with the South, however unlikely that might have been. Now he describes the South solely as an enemy that must be subjugated, if necessary, through a nuclear war. And he has often tested his ballistic missiles by flying them toward Japan, demonstrating North Korea’s provocative stance toward its former colonizer.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim Organizations: Korean Central News Agency, Analysts Locations: Japan, South Korea, Korea, Russia, Pyongyang, Ukraine, Tokyo, Seoul

☆ Putin and Kim Sign Pact Pledging Mutual Support Against ‘Aggression’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, revived a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between their nations on Wednesday, as the Kremlin deepened its security relationship with North Korea and vowed solidarity in challenging the United States. Neither Russia nor North Korea immediately released the text of the new treaty. But Mr. Putin, speaking at a joint briefing in Pyongyang after the two leaders signed the document, said the pact called for the nations to aid one another in the event of “aggression” against either country. The pledge of mutual assistance is likely to further alarm Washington and its allies. It could presage not only deeper support by North Korea for Russia’s war in Ukraine but also greater support from Moscow in aiding Mr. Kim’s quest for better-functioning nuclear weapons, missiles, submarines and satellites — a development that would increase anxiety among America’s Asian allies, especially South Korea.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim, ” Mr Organizations: Kremlin Locations: Russia, North, North Korea, United States, Pyongyang, Moscow, Washington, Ukraine, South Korea

☆ Putin Is to Visit North Korea, a Sign of Deepening Military Ties
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-17 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will visit North Korea this week for a meeting with its leader, Kim Jong-un, their second in nine months, as the two countries deepen military ties to support Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine with North Korean weapons. Mr. Putin last visited North Korea in 2000, when he became the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit the nation. Mr. Kim met with Mr. Putin in Russia’s Far East last September, ushering in a new era of relations between the two countries. For Mr. Kim, it was a rare moment of his country, a pariah in the West, being sought after as an ally. For Russia, it’s a strengthening of ties with a country that is providing it with much-needed munitions for its war in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim Organizations: Mr Locations: Russia, North Korea, Ukraine, North, Russian, Russia’s Far, West

☆ Why Did North Korea Bombard the South With Trash Balloons?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

North Korea launched 720 balloons across the world’s most heavily armed border overnight Saturday, hitting South Korea with their payloads: plastic bags full of cigarette butts and other trash. Since last Tuesday, North Korea has sent roughly 1,000 of these trash balloons across the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. Once the balloons reached South Korean airspace, their timers released the plastic bags containing assorted rubbish, including scraps of used paper and cloth. The South Korean military dismissed initial reports that the balloons were carrying human waste, but it did note that some of the trash appeared to be compost. But if North Korea persisted in its “nonsensical and irrational provocation,” the South warned of taking “all steps North Korea could find unbearable.”

Persons: ” Organizations: South Korean Locations: Korea, North Korea

☆ New Scandal Engulfs South Korean Leader in Wake of Marine’s Death
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South Korean marines were sent in after monsoon rains flooded a rural section of the country’s heartland last July. When the ground gave way, five of them were swept away in the churning brown water and one, Lance Cpl. Nearly a year later, the death of the 20-year-old marine has become an impeachment threat for South Korea’s leader, President Yoon Suk Yeol. The South Korean military is no stranger to tragic accidents, but this latest episode has evolved into the first major political crisis for Mr. Yoon since his party’s crushing defeat in parliamentary elections last month. The career military officer who investigated Lance Corporal Chae’s death has accused the Defense Ministry of whitewashing the probe and absolving top military brass of responsibility — all under pressure from Mr. Yoon.

Persons: Lance Cpl, Chae Su, Yoon Suk, Yoon, Corporal Chae’s Organizations: South, Defense Ministry Locations: United States, Korea, China

☆ Latest North Korean Offensive: Dumping Trash on South Korea From the Sky
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea has resumed an unusual operation to show anger at South Korea: dumping trash from the sky across the world’s most heavily armed border. Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, the South Korean military said that it found 260 balloons drifting across the Demilitarized Zone, the buffer between the two Koreas. Soon, residents across South Korea, including some in Seoul, the capital, reported seeing plastic bags falling from the sky. The South Korean military said the garbage was released by timers when the balloons reached its airspace. Its unusual offensive this week prompted South Korea to send a cellphone alert to residents living near the inter-Korean border to refrain from outdoor activities and watch out for unidentified objects falling from the sky.

Organizations: South Korean, South Locations: Korea, South Korea, Seoul, North Korea

☆ China, Japan and South Korea Hold Regional Summit Overshadowed by U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The leaders of South Korea and Japan on Monday sought to restore economic cooperation with China, their biggest trading partner, after years of souring relations, but their three-way talks were overshadowed by heightened tensions between China and the United States, Seoul and Tokyo’s most important military ally. The trilateral meeting — featuring President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and Premier Li Qiang, the second-highest official in China — was the first in four and a half years. Talks focused mainly on areas where common ground could more easily be found, such as protecting supply chains, promoting trade and cooperating on the challenges of aging populations and emerging infectious diseases. The leaders tiptoed around thorny regional security issues like Taiwan and North Korea. “The three nations agreed to expand practical cooperation in a way their people can feel its benefits,” Mr. Yoon said during a joint news conference with Mr. Kishida and Mr. Li, announcing 2025 and 2026 as the “years of cultural exchanges” among the three nations.

Persons: Yoon Suk, Fumio Kishida, Li Qiang, China —, Mr, Yoon, Kishida, Li Organizations: North Korea , Mr Locations: South Korea, Japan, China, United States, Seoul, Taiwan, North Korea

☆ North Korean Rocket Carrying Spy Satellite Explodes After Takeoff
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea attempted to put a military reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Monday, the South Korean military said, but the rocket carrying the satellite exploded midair shortly after takeoff, marking the country’s third failed attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit. Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, has made deploying a fleet of spy satellites one of his latest military ambitions. North Korea has said it needs satellites to increase its ability to monitor and target its enemies and to make its nuclear deterrence more credible. After two failed attempts, North Korea placed its first spy satellite into the orbit last November. On Monday, North Korea said it would launch the first of the three before June 4.

Persons: Kim Jong, North Korea , Mr, Kim Organizations: South Korean Locations: Korea, North Korea, United States, Asia, Pacific

☆ Kim Ki-Nam, Chief Propagandist in North Korea for Decades, Dies at 94
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Kim Ki-nam, who was often called “North Korea’s Goebbels,” a reference to the Nazi propagandist, because of his role in manufacturing and enforcing totalitarian propaganda for all three generations of the country’s ruling Kim family, has died at 94, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday. Mr. Kim, who was not related to the North Korean dictators, died on Tuesday of multiple organ failures after having been sick for a year, according to the reports. Mr. Kim’s tenure as the leader of North Korea’s propaganda apparatus extended from the days of Kim Il-sung, who founded the country at the end of World War II, to 2017. Propaganda is central to the Kim family’s Stalinist grip on power. The daily coverage of North Korea’s news media, all state-controlled, brims with propaganda designed to keep its 26 million people in the thrall of a personality cult surrounding the ruling family.

Persons: Kim Ki, Korea’s Goebbels, ”, Kim, Kim’s, Kim Il, thrall Locations: North Korean

☆ Stinging Election Loss Leaves South Korean Leader at a Crossroads
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The results, released on Thursday, were disastrous for Mr. Yoon. Voters pushed him to the verge of being a lame duck, giving the opposition one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in recent decades. He becomes the first South Korean president in decades to contend with an opposition-controlled Parliament for his entire time in office. The outcome — and the increasingly polarized South Korean political climate that Mr. Yoon helped intensify — heralded deepening deadlock in a country that is crucial to U.S. efforts to counter China and North Korea. It reduces the odds of Mr. Yoon achieving anything that requires bipartisan support.

Persons: Yoon Suk, Yoon Organizations: Voters, South, Washington Locations: South, South Korean, U.S, China, North Korea, Tokyo

☆ South Korean Parliamentary Election to Set Tone for Rest of Leader’s Term
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the two years since he was elected, President Yoon Suk Yeol has made his mark in foreign policy, forging deeper ties with the United States and Japan. Mr. Yoon has a shot at a do-over on Wednesday, when South Koreans head to the polls to select a new Parliament. Dozens of parties are vying for the 300 seats in the National Assembly, South Korea’s single-chamber legislature. However, the contest is largely between Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party and the main opposition camp, the liberal Democratic Party. Both have intense followings, but the eventual winner is expected to be decided by moderate and swing voters.

Persons: Yoon Suk Yeol, Yoon Organizations: South Koreans, National Assembly, People Power Party, Democratic Party Locations: United States, Japan

☆ North Korea Missile Test Hints at Greater Menace to U.S. Bases
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile off its east coast on Tuesday, an indication that the country was continuing to develop missiles capable of targeting American military bases in the Western Pacific. The missile, launched from near Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, did not fly over Japan, as have some of the IRBMs that North Korea has launched in the past. Instead, it fell in waters between the two countries after flying for 372 miles, the South Korean military said. South Korean and American officials were analyzing data collected from the test to learn more about the missile, the military said. Last month, North Korea said it had tested one such engine on the ground.

Organizations: Western Pacific, South Korean Locations: Korea, Western, Pyongyang, North Korea, Japan, United States

☆ South Korea’s 2024 Parliament Election: What to Know
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

South Koreans go to the polls on April 10 to select a new 300-member National Assembly. Mr. Yoon won the presidential election in March 2022 by a razor-thin margin, and three months later, his People Power Party won the most big-city mayor and provincial governor races. But two major handicaps have hobbled his presidency: his party’s lack of control in the single-chamber Assembly and Mr. Yoon’s low approval ratings. Mr. Yoon will also see it as lending political legitimacy to his policy of aligning South Korea more closely with the United States. But if the opposition scores a decisive win, it will further weaken Mr. Yoon’s leadership and may turn him into an early lame duck, political analysts say.

Persons: Yoon Suk, Yoon Organizations: National Assembly, Democratic Party, People Power Party Locations: Korea, United States

☆ South Korea Needs Foreign Workers, but Often Fails to Protect Them
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-02 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the nation is more dependent than ever before on an import to keep its factories and farms humming: foreign labor. This shift is part of the fallout from a demographic crisis that has left South Korea with a shrinking and aging population. President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government has responded by more than doubling the quota for low-skilled workers from less-developed nations including Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of them now toil in South Korea, typically in small factories, or on remote farms or fishing boats — jobs that locals consider too dirty, dangerous or low-paying. With little say in choosing or changing employers, many foreign workers endure predatory bosses, inhumane housing, discrimination and other abuses.

Persons: —, Yoon Suk Organizations: Samsung, Hyundai, LG Locations: South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, Philippines, Bangladesh

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