South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol took office on Tuesday in a regal inauguration ceremony featuring tens of thousands of people – a jarring image compared to the barren streets under the strict coronavirus protocol of leftist predecessor Moon Jae-in – emphasizing freedom as the paramount value of the country.
After yet another rally this weekend condemning Japan for its escalating trade dispute with South Korea, residents of the Seoul neighborhood that serves as home to the nation’s presidential office are organizing an event to protest the “endless protests” they have endured since 2016.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry announced on Tuesday that it will spend 1.1 trillion won (about $993 million) on cross-border initiatives with North Korea next year, an increase of 14.3 percent over current spending.
The government of leftist South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced this weekend that it would cut the number of ground troops in the nation’s armed forces by 118,000, significantly reduce the number of high-ranking military officials, and scrub a plan to prepare for an invasion of Pyongyang.
Park Geun-hye, the former president of South Korea and its first female chief executive, was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Friday for corruption and abuse of power charges, effectively a life sentence for the 66-year-old defendant. She was also ordered to pay $17 million in fines.
Former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, who held office from 2008 to 2013 and is now 77 years old, was arrested late Thursday night on corruption charges. The allegations include bribery, embezzlement, abuse of power, breach of the public trust, illegally withholding presidential documents, tax evasion, and election law violations. The charges carry a combined sentence of up to 45 years in prison.
Contents: NY Times publishes a generational analysis of South Korea; North Korea cancels joint cultural event because of ‘insulting’ media reports; Brief generational history of South Korea since World War II
Contents: China and South Korea reach an agreement on THAAD missile defense system; Chinese geologists warn of looming nuclear disaster from North Korean tests
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, assessing South Korean opposition to his aggressive nuclear and missile programs, must believe his predecessors — father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung — are out there working in the netherworld to do what they can to influence acceptance by the world community of Pyongyang as a nuclear-armed power.
Contents: North Korea tests a ballistic missile capable of reaching US mainland; South Korea’s president Moon approves new THAAD development; What could trigger another world war?; War between Russia and China
North Korea has issued a demand to South Korea’s government to extradite former president Park Geun-hye in response to a dubiously sourced Japanese news article claiming Park planned to assassinate dictator Kim Jong-un.
The Chinese government has reached out to new South Korean President Moon Jae-in seeking a closer bond with Seoul, likely at Washington’s expense, urging Moon to “join hands with China” economically and scale back military expansion under his predecessor, Park Geun-hye.
According to exit polls, liberal candidate Moon Jae-in won South Korea’s emergency presidential election by a wide margin, succeeding impeached conservative president Park Geun-hye.
Contents: Ancient tensions flare between China and North Korea; China’s relations deteriorate with both South and North Korea
(Reuters) A South Korean court said on Friday it had approved a warrant to arrest ousted president Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in March over allegations of bribery.
The government of South Korea announced Wednesday that an election to choose the successor for impeached President Park Geun-hye will be held on May 9.
Thae Yong-ho, a former North Korean embassy official who became one of the highest-ranking defectors from his country, said on Thursday that a potential upcoming nuclear test by the outlaw regime in Pyongyang could “break the country in two pieces” and topple the government of Kim Jong-un.
South Korea’s Park Geun-hye has become the first president in its history to be ousted from power via impeachment following allegations of granting inappropriate government access to a senior member of a pseudo-religious organization.
CNN reports that South Korea is accelerating plans to deploy a highly trained “decapitation unit,” a commando squad intended to take out the “wartime command” structure of North Korea in the “event of war.”
Although South Korea’s embattled President Park Geun-hye once made a show of asking the national legislature to decide her fate, offering to leave office at whatever moment they decided, she became much less enthusiastic about the idea after they voted to impeach her.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un claimed in a New Year’s Day address that his military is close to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Contents: Russia and Japan fail to agree on ending World War II; Former UN leader Ban Ki-moon may run for president of South Korea
The office of South Korean President Park Geun-hye has denied any corrupt motive for a large order made of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra as well as anti-aging medications and vitamin injections.
North Korea has finally commented on America’s election of Donald Trump as its next president, insisting that Pyongyang has no plans to change its policies based on the new head of state.
An estimated million South Koreans took to the streets over the weekend demanding their president, Park Geun-hye, step down over allegedly sharing classified information with a friend. The scandal, erupting in late October, has damaged Park’s economic proposals and threatens to herald in an opposition government that may undo her work in office.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye asked her nation’s forgiveness in a second apology address Friday over sharing classified information with a longtime friend with ties to a mysterious cult, and she denied accusations of allowing exorcisms to occur in the presidential palace.
South Korea coast guard agents used machine guns to chase Chinese ships illegally fishing in Korean waters back towards China this week, prompting a stern statement from Beijing’s Foreign Ministry expressing extreme disappointment in Korea’s refusal to permit this illegal behavior.
Choi Soon-sil, a friend of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who Park has admitted was privy to presidential speeches and other unspecified sensitive information without clearance, says she has committed a crime that “deserves death” upon returning to Seoul.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye is reeling from the revelation that she had consulted a longtime friend, Choi Soon-sil, for help drafting speeches and allowed her to see classified government information despite her lack of security clearance and ties to a man U.S. officials have referred to as a “Korean Rasputin.”
A South Korean military source told the national outlet Yonhap that his government is ready to reduce Pyongyang “to ashes” after the latest North Korean nuclear test, with “every Pyongyang district… completely destroyed.”
The foreign ministers of China, Japan, and South Korea are looking to schedule a meeting in Japan next week, the first time Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will have visited Japan and first such visit since Xi Jinping became president.
The government of North Korea has announced that it will cease communicating with American officials through its mission in New York and instead shift to “relations under the wartime law of the DPRK,” following the announcement of the first direct sanctions on dictator Kim Jong-un by the American government last week.
On Wednesday, South Korean officials rejected yet another call from Pyongyang for bilateral talks, as the communist Kim Jong-un regime pushes for a “reunification” plan that would put Seoul under his command.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani publicly opposed North Korea’s nuclear program this week during a historic three-day summit between him and South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye in Tehran, Iran.
South Korean military officials have obtained satellite photos of what appears to be a replica of Seoul’s presidential office, the Blue House (Cheongwadae), built in North Korea, apparently intended to be used for missile target practice.
The government of North Korea has announced that it is seeking to conduct its fifth-ever nuclear test, placing a miniaturized warhead on a ballistic missile, “in a short time,” following weeks of threats that Pyongyang will attack South Korea and the United States with nuclear bombs if it feels such a move necessary.
On Monday, the South Korean government confirmed that a high-ranking North Korean intelligence officer defected to the South last year.
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s remarks suggesting support for the nuclear armament of Japan and South Korea have sparked intense conversation in the media of both nations. Many believe the absence of America in Asia will lead to war, with Japan fearing Chinese aggression, South Korea fearing Japan, and both hoping North Korea’s strength does not match its words.
North Korea has once again asserted that it will use its nuclear weapons arsenal against the United States. Unlike previous statements, however, a note from the rogue state’s foreign minister on Monday insisted that North Korea is fully equipped and ready to use a nuclear weapon on the United States, not just willing to do so.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula are still running high, as the North Koreans announced the successful test of a solid-fuel rocket booster and threatened to assassinate South Korean president Park Geun-Hye by “scorching” her offices with an “ultra-precision strike.”
