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☆ The First Lady and the Dior Pouch: A Political Crisis Grips South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Then came a much more personal scandal: spy cam footage that showed his wife accepting a $2,200 Dior pouch as a gift. The video of Ms. Kim, which emerged late last year, has caused a rift between Mr. Yoon and one of his most trusted lieutenants. It has roiled his political party — one senior member called on Ms. Kim to apologize and compared her to Marie Antoinette. For nearly two years, Ms. Kim has challenged how this deeply patriarchal society views the role of the presidential spouse. She has talked about Mr. Yoon’s devotion to her, saying in 2022 that he had vowed to cook for her and “kept that promise for the past decade.”

Persons: Yoon Suk, Kim Keon Hee, Kim, Yoon, Marie Antoinette, “, ” Locations: South Korea, United States, Japan

☆ Is Kim Jong-un Really Planning an Attack This Time?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-21 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two veteran analysts of North Korea — the former State Department official Robert L. Carlin and the nuclear scientist Siegfried S. Hecker — sounded an alarm this past week in an article for the U.S.-based website 38 North, asserting that Mr. Kim was done with mere threats. “Kim Jong-un has made a strategic decision to go to war,” they wrote. But there is still stark disagreement over where Mr. Kim’s new tack might be leading. “The North Koreans won’t start a war unless they decide to become suicidal; they know too well that they cannot win the war,” said Park Won-gon, a North Korea expert at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “But they would love their enemies to believe that they could, because that could lead to engagement and possible concessions, like the easing of sanctions.”

Persons: Robert L, Carlin, Siegfried S, Hecker —, Mr, Kim, “ Kim Jong, ”, Donald J, Kim’s Organizations: North, State Department, U.S, Trump, Koreans, Ewha Womans University Locations: North Korea, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, South Korea, United States, Seoul

☆ North Korea Says It Is No Longer Interested in Reunifying With the South
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-16 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea’s approach toward South Korea has swayed widely over the past decades. But, according to state media reports on Tuesday, North Korea has formally abandoned peaceful reunification as a key policy goal. In announcing the drastic shift, the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said the North no longer saw the South as “the partner of reconciliation and reunification” but instead as an enemy that must be subjugated, if necessary, through a nuclear war. In recent decades, the reunification of the two Koreas has become increasingly unlikely as the economic gap between them widened and mutual enmity deepened. Mr. Kim unveiled his new stance on South Korea in a party meeting at the end of last month and in a speech he gave to the North’s rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, on Monday.

Persons: Kim Jong, Kim Organizations: Supreme Locations: South Korea, North Korea

☆ North Korea Launches Rocket With Its First Spy Satellite
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL — North Korea launched a rocket on Tuesday in what South Korea said was an attempt to put its first military reconnaissance satellite in orbit, this time with technological help from Russia. The rocket flew to the south over the sea between the Korean Peninsula and China, the South Korean military said in a brief statement. North Korea launched its new Chollima-1 rocket from its satellite launching station in Tongchang-ri near its northwestern border with China in May and again in August. This week, North Korea told the International Maritime Organization that it would soon make a third attempt. And this time, North Korea received assistance from Russia, helping the North overcome its technological shortcomings, according to South Korean officials who have monitored its launch preparations in Tongchang-ri in recent weeks.

Persons: Korea , Organizations: South Korean, South, International Maritime Organization Locations: SEOUL, North Korea, Korea, Russia, China, United States, South Korea, Japan, Tongchang, , South Korean

☆ President’s War Against ‘Fake News’ Raises Alarms in South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Allies of President Yoon Suk Yeol are attacking what they see as an existential threat to South Korea, and they are mincing few words. In this case, the accused is not a foreign spy, but a Korean news outlet that has published articles critical of Mr. Yoon and his government. The president, a former prosecutor, is turning to lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he calls disinformation, efforts that have largely been aimed at news organizations. Since Mr. Yoon was elected last year, the police and prosecutors have repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”Some South Koreans accuse Mr. Yoon of repurposing the expression as justification for defamation suits and to mobilize prosecutors and regulators to threaten penalties and criminal investigations. Many are exasperated that their leader has adopted the phrase, a rallying cry for strongmen around the world that is also further dividing an increasingly polarized electorate at home.

Persons: Yoon Suk, Yoon Locations: South Korea, Korean

Over Halloween weekend last year, nearly 160 young people died in a crowd crush in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul. For those who survived or lost loved ones, the past year has been a time of deep frustration and trauma. Many wrote online that the young victims and survivors should blame themselves. In December, Lee Jae-hyeon, 16, a survivor who had lost two of his best friends in the crowd crush, took his own life after battling online detractors of the victims. As the first anniversary of the disaster approached, survivors and victims’ family members struggled with unanswered questions, missing their loved ones and at the same time deeply troubled by the government’s response.

Persons: Lee Jae, “, ” Locations: Itaewon, Seoul

☆ South Korea Must Return Buddhist Statue to Japan, Supreme Court Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court of South Korea ruled on Thursday that a Buddhist statue currently in government custody must be returned to a Japanese temple, ending a decade-old dispute between temples in both countries. South Korean thieves stole the 20-inch gilded bronze statue in 2012 from a Buddhist temple on Tsushima, a Japanese island halfway between the two countries. The thieves were caught in South Korea while trying to sell the statue, which has been designated an important cultural asset in Japan. But Buseoksa, a Buddhist temple in western Korea, claimed the artifact, saying it was made there in the 14th century. The Japanese temple, Kannonji, and Tokyo were not part of the lawsuit but have demanded the statue’s return.

Persons: Kannonji Organizations: South Locations: South Korea, South, Tsushima, Japan, Korea, Buseoksa, Tokyo

☆ Little Punishment or Change After South Korea’s Halloween Calamity
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The families’ worst fears were confirmed when the police agency cleared its own top bosses and those at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of any wrongdoing, while prosecutors indicted 12 local police and other officials on charges such as negligence of official duty. No verdicts have come as the trials have dragged on. Investigators asked prosecutors to indict the Seoul police chief on similar charges, but the prosecutors have yet to act. On the night of Oct. 29, person after panicked person called police and fire department hotlines for hours, reporting a dangerous crowd surge developing in the cramped alleyway in Itaewon. Eventually, hundreds of people began to fall on top of each other as waves of revelers pushed up and down the sloping strip of pavement, jostling to go in opposite directions.

Persons: revelers Organizations: Ministry of, Seoul police Locations: Seoul, Itaewon

A recent rally in Seoul carried the sound of a rock festival — high-amp speakers throbbing with the K-pop hit “Gangnam Style” — if not the look of one. The crowd of mostly elderly people waved South Korean and American flags to the song’s revised refrain: “Anti-communist style!” When speaker after speaker revved up the crowd with pro-American, anti-communist chants, the crowd shouted, “Hooray for President Yoon Suk Yeol!”Days later, when thousands of mostly younger protesters marched through the same city center, they shook handheld signs and chanted, “Out with Yoon Suk Yeol!”Park Yeol, a regular at such rallies, showed up as an inflatable caricature of the South Korean leader. Fellow protesters took selfies while putting him in a headlock. “Some people try to punch me,” said Mr. Park, 50. “But that’s the point: I want to demonstrate how mad people are at Yoon.”

Persons: revved, Yoon Suk, “, ”, Yoon Organizations: South Locations: Seoul

☆ North Korea Says It Will Expel U.S. Soldier Who Fled Over the Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea has decided to expel Pvt. Travis T. King, the American soldier who fled across the inter-Korean border into its territory on July 18, the North’s state media said on Wednesday. After 70 days of investigation, North Korea found Private King guilty of “illegally intruding” into its territory and decided to expel him, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. The news agency said that Private King had confessed to illegally entering North Korea because, it said, he “harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.”North Korea did not immediately release details on its plans to deport Private King, including whether he would be sent back to South Korea through the Demilitarized Zone, which separates North and South Korea. Private King fled to the North through the DMZ.

Persons: Travis T, King, “, Private King Organizations: Korean Central News Agency, U.S . Army Locations: Korea, North Korea, South Korea, North

The police in South Korea on Wednesday accused 17 American soldiers and five other people of distributing or using synthetic marijuana that had been brought into the country through the U.S. military’s postal service. A Philippine national and a South Korean national were under arrest, said the police in the city of Pyeongtaek. Synthetic marijuana is an illegal substance in South Korea. Cha Min-seok, a senior detective, said the drug investigation was one of the largest in recent years involving American soldiers. In South Korea, after the police finish a criminal investigation, prosecutors review it, sometimes conducting their own inquiry, before deciding whether to bring indictments.

Persons: Cha, Detective Cha Organizations: Philippine, South Locations: South Korea, South Korean, Pyeongtaek, U.S

☆ World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-17 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mia Lee Sorensen’s Danish parents used to tell her that her birth family in South Korea had put her up for adoption. But when Ms. Sorensen found her birth parents in South Korea last year, they could not believe she was alive. South Korea has the world’s largest diaspora of intercountry adoptees, with more foreign adoptions overall than any other nation. Those adoptions have continued today, even as the country suffers one of the world’s lowest birthrates. In 2021, the top intercountry adoption hubs were Colombia, India, Ukraine and South Korea.

Persons: Mia Lee Sorensen’s, Sorensen Locations: South Korea, Korea, intercountry, Korean, United States, Europe, Colombia, India, Ukraine, China

☆ Kim Jong-un Inspects Missiles and Nuclear Bombers in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected nuclear-capable strategic bombers in Russia on Saturday, according to Russian state media, as he continued a trip that has raised fears of the two nations deepening their military ties against a common enemy, the United States. Mr. Kim arrived in Primorsky Krai, in Russia’s Far East, on Saturday morning traveling via his armored train. When Mr. Shoigu visited Pyongyang in July, Mr. Kim took him to an exhibition of missiles and other weapons, raising fears that Russia was turning to North Korea for ammunition badly needed in its war against Ukraine. United States officials have repeatedly warned that North Korea was already shipping artillery shells and army rockets to Russia and that in return it wanted Russian technology to advance its own military capabilities. The prospect of such military exchanges presents a double challenge for Washington: Conventional weapons from North Korea could help Moscow prolong its invasion of Ukraine, while technical help from Russia would expand the North’s nuclear threat against the United States and its allies in the region, South Korea and Japan.

Persons: Kim Jong, Kim, Sergei K, Shoigu Organizations: RIA Novosti, Ukraine, Washington Locations: Russia, United States, Primorsky Krai, Russia’s Far, Russian, Pyongyang, North Korea, Korea, Moscow, Ukraine, South Korea, Japan

☆ Kim and Putin Meet in Russia: Ukraine War Live Updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-13 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | Anushka Patil | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin, the Russian president, are both pariahs, isolated from the West, but the war in Ukraine has elevated the North Korean leader’s significance to the Kremlin. Mr. Putin told reporters before the start of the summit that the meeting was being held at the cosmodrome because Mr. Kim “shows great interest in rocket technology,” RIA journalists reported on Telegram. Mr. Kim arrived in Russia on Tuesday from North Korea, having traveled to the meeting on his armored train, a trip that took days. North Korea also has one of the largest fleets of tanks in the world, though most are Soviet-era models. Earlier Wednesday, South Korea reported that North Korea had launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim, Kim “, Kim’s, Dmitri S, Peskov Organizations: Vostochny Cosmodrome, Sputnik, North, Vostochny, Kremlin, United Nations Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, North Korea, Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s, Amur, Pyongyang, Khasan, Korea, Soviet, Moscow, South Korea, North Koreans

They gazed into the workings of a rocket launchpad. They tucked into crab dumplings, sturgeon and entrecôte. And they lifted their glasses at a flower-lined table in the conference room of a remote Russian spaceport, toasting the Kremlin’s “sacred struggle” against a “band of evil,” otherwise known as the West. Russia, nearing the 19-month mark in its brutal war of attrition against Ukraine, arrived requiring more ammunition and military equipment for the battlefield, which Pyongyang keeps in abundance. North Korea came looking for food, fuel and cash, according to analysts, in addition to technological help for its missile and satellite programs, and parts for its old, Soviet-era military and civilian aircraft.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Kim Jong, Kim Organizations: North Korean, Vostochny Locations: Russian, Russia, Moscow, Pyongyang, Ukraine, North Korea, Komsomolsk, Vladivostok

One such train was spotted on Monday heading north, near where the borders of North Korea, Russia and China meet. It was moving in the direction of Vladivostok, where Mr. Putin is attending an economic forum. On Tuesday, North Korean state media confirmed that Mr. Kim had indeed left Pyongyang, the North’s capital, for Russia by train. South Korean officials said soon afterward that he had crossed the border. The green train that officials look for is the special bulletproof one that Mr. Kim — and his father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before him — have used to visit China, Russia or the former Soviet Union.

Persons: Kim Jong, —, Vladimir V, Putin —, Putin, Mr, Kim, Kim —, Kim’s Organizations: Soviet Union Locations: Russia, North Korea, China, Vladivostok, North Korean, Pyongyang

☆ North Korea Finds New Leverage in the Ukraine War
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, a rare trip to Russia this month to discuss military aid for President Vladimir V. Putin’s Ukraine war effort could provide two things the North has wanted for a long time: technical help with its weapons programs, and to finally be needed by an important neighbor. North Korea has not been used to getting a lot of attention other than global condemnation for its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. But Russia’s urgency to make new gains in the war is offering Mr. Kim a bit of the geopolitical spotlight — and a new way to both irk the United States and draw closer to Moscow and Beijing. Though Russia has long been a crucial ally for the isolated North, relations between the two countries have at times grown tense since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. And Russia accounts for very little of the economic trade that North Korea needs; China alone provides nearly all of that.

Persons: Kim Jong, Vladimir V, Kim Locations: North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, United States, Moscow, Beijing, Soviet Union, Korea, China

☆ North Korean Satellite Launch Fails, Again
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea on Thursday launched a space vehicle carrying its first military reconnaissance satellite, but failed to put it into orbit. North Korea said it would try to launch the satellite again in October. North Korea’s new Chollima-1 rocket, launched at 3:50 a.m. local time from its space launch station in Tongchang-ri, near its northwestern border with China, flew south over the sea between Korea and China. The launch triggered an emergency warning in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, where residents were asked to take cover. North Korea later said its launch had failed because the “emergency blasting system” of the rocket’s third stage malfunctioned.

Persons: Kim Jong, Japan Organizations: Thursday, Locations: Korea, North Korea, Tongchang, China, Japan, Okinawa, Japan, Philippines

☆ Radioactive Water Is Complicating Japan and Korea’s New Friendship
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At a busy intersection in Seoul this summer, a banner from the main opposition Democratic Party barked “No!” to Japan’s plan to dump treated radioactive water from its destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific. Across the street, a placard from the governing People Power Party said the real threat was the opposition spreading conspiracy theories that would scare people away from seafood: “The Democratic Party is killing the livelihoods of our fishermen!”Japan’s imminent decision to release more than 1.3 million tons of treated water at Fukushima Daiichi, the power plant that was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011, has raised alarms across the Pacific. But in South Korea, it has triggered a particularly raucous political debate, with the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol and its enemies slugging it out through banners, YouTube videos, news conferences and protests. What sets South Korea apart from other critics in the region is that its government has endorsed Japan’s discharge plan despite widespread public misgiving, only asking Japan to provide transparency to ensure the water is discharged properly. The authorities are running online advertisements and holding daily news briefings to dispel what they call fear-mongering by the opposition and to convince the people that the water will do no harm.

Persons: Democratic Party barked, Yoon Suk Organizations: Democratic Party, People Power Party Locations: Seoul, Fukushima, South Korea, Korea, Japan

When President Biden meets with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday, the allies will have another nation in mind: China. Japan, South Korea and the United States share the common interest of competing with an increasingly assertive China and ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Just last week, Mr. Biden banned new American investment in key technological industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities. Washington has also kept a large military presence in both South Korea and Japan in part to counterbalance China’s influence in the region. But China’s economic growth also puts South Korea and Japan in an awkward position.

Persons: Biden, Camp David, Xi, ”, ” Jake Sullivan Organizations: Beijing, Huawei, United States, United, South, U.S Locations: Japan, South Korea, Camp, China, Beijing, United States, Taiwan Strait, U.S, Washington, United, Ukraine, Taiwan, Korea’s belligerence . Washington, Seoul, Pacific

With threats growing in Asia, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet at Camp David on Friday, taking a major step toward a three-way military and economic partnership that would have been nearly inconceivable before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the United States has tried to counter challenges from both China and North Korea, one key obstacle has been the tense and sometimes downright hostile relationship between Japan and South Korea, its two most important friends in the region. Now, Tokyo and Seoul are trying to quickly move past seemingly irresolvable disputes over the bitter history between them, as Russian aggression against Ukraine highlights their own vulnerabilities in a region dominated by China. President Biden hopes to cement the nascent improvement in relations when he hosts Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea at the Maryland presidential retreat. It will be the first time that leaders of the three nations have ever met outside the context of a larger summit, as well as the first time that Mr. Biden has invited world leaders to Camp David.

Persons: David, Biden, Fumio Kishida, Yoon Suk, Camp David Locations: Asia, United States, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, China, North Korea, Tokyo, Seoul, Maryland

☆ North Korea Claims U.S. Soldier Fled ‘Maltreatment’ in Army
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

North Korea said on Wednesday that Pvt. Travis T. King, the American soldier who fled across the inter-Korean border into its territory on July 18, wanted to seek refuge in the isolated Communist country or a third country, according to a state media report. The report by the Korean Central News Agency is the first time the North has commented on Private King’s case. During an investigation by North Korean officials, Private King “confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feelings against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army,” the Korean Central News Agency said, using the abbreviation of the country’s official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Private King “admitted that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK,” saying that he did so because he “was disillusioned at the unequal American society,” the news agency said.

Persons: Travis T, King “, “ Organizations: Korean Central News Agency, North, U.S . Army, Democratic People’s, DPRK Locations: Korea, DPRK, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

☆ South Korea Unveils Truman Statue on Armistice Anniversary
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War, one American received a special honor in South Korea: former President Harry S. Truman, in whose memory a new, nearly 14-foot-tall statue was unveiled on Thursday. Although not all South Koreans were happy to see another monument for the war or a new edifice to an American leader built on their soil, conservatives wanted to celebrate Truman, who perhaps affected the fate of South Korea more than any other U.S. president. When North Korea invaded the South in 1950, Truman sent American troops and engineered a United Nations resolution to support the South with Allied forces. South Korea celebrates the armistice anniversary as a victory for the free world that helped the nation become one of Asia’s richest economies, while North Korea remains a hunger-stricken, nuclear-armed international pariah. “The Americans’ choice to have such a decisive leader as President Truman in the White House when North Korea invaded saved South Korea and the free world,” said Cho Gab-je, a prominent conservative journalist and publisher who led the campaign to build a Truman statue.

Persons: Harry S, Truman, ”, Cho Organizations: Allied, Truman Locations: South Korea, North Korea, Nations

☆ The Korean War in Photos, 70 Years After the Truce
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Choe Sang-Hun | More About Choe Sang-Hun | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Korean War broke out when a Soviet-backed, Communist North invaded the pro-American southern territory of the Korean Peninsula in 1950, leading to one of the most harrowing conflicts of the 20th century and setting the tone of the Cold War in Asia. Despite American officials who initially described the Communist invaders as little more than “bandits,” the war dragged on for three disastrous years. The American-led United Nations forces suffered a crushing defeat when the North Koreans swept down the peninsula in 1950, occupying Seoul, the South Korean capital, before they were pushed back to the north. Between 2 million and 3 million people — including 36,500 American troops — were estimated to have been killed. But with no formal peace treaty ever established, the two Koreas technically remain at war.

Persons: Kim Jong Organizations: Korean, Troops, United Nations, North Locations: Soviet, Communist North, American, Asia, Seoul, South

The three-year Korean War was the single most traumatic event in modern Korean history. It came to a halt in a truce 70 years ago, after millions had been killed. The guns fell silent along the Demilitarized Zone, a 155-mile-long strip of land that divides the Korean Peninsula. But a formal peace treaty was never signed, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically at war. Millions of troops on both sides stand ready to plunge back into battle at a moment’s notice.

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