North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line that divides the Koreas on Thursday, according to the South Korean military. The soldiers retreated to their side of the border after the South fired warning shots. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday that “several North Korean soldiers crossed the border into our side of the Demilitarized Zone” at around 11 a.m. Thursday. According to the JCS, the North Korean soldiers made it about 20 meters south of the

Defense June 21, 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared solemn in the early hours Wednesday as he stood solo on the red carpet laid out at the airport in Pyongyang for the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was making his first visit to the country in 24 years. Putin, who is in the habit of arriving fashionably late to meetings with world leaders, touched down in Pyongyang some three hours later than planned, at well past 2 a.m. After landing at the Pyongyang airport, the Russian president joined

Foreign Affairs June 19, 2024

North Korean soldiers have been injured and killed in landmine explosions on their side of the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean military said Tuesday. “The North Korean military is pushing ahead with the DMZ operations despite a series of fatal explosions of landmines,” an official at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters. The JCS said its closed-circuit TV captured smoke near the sites where the landmines are believed to have

Defense June 18, 2024

A research center dedicated to Israeli studies opened Tuesday under the Seoul National University, becoming the first such academic institution in South Korea. Amb. Akiva Tor, Israeli envoy to South Korea, said in an opening ceremony on this day that the center’s launch “marks an auspicious beginning.” Israel Education Research Center will be “the first academic center in Korean higher education dedicated to the study of Jewish civilization and Israeli society,” he

Politics June 18, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s impending trip to North Korea, which Seoul authorities say could happen any moment, reflects a mutual interest in building a closer bond for the two countries facing self-inflicted isolation from the West, experts say. The last time Putin was in Pyongyang in 2000, he was stopping by on his way to the summit of the Group of Eight or G8 in Japan, long before Russia was suspended indefinitely from the group of leading industrialized countries over the annexa

Politics June 16, 2024

Han Dong-hoon, who led the ruling People Power Party through the April election for the National Assembly, is rumored to be entering the race to be the next leader of the party, according to reports Thursday. Han, who was justice minister until December and was considered to be a close ally of President Yoon Suk Yeol, helmed the ruling party as an interim leader for the final three months of the Assembly election season. He stepped down to take responsibility for the ruling party’s crushin

Politics June 13, 2024

The governors of two South Korean provinces bordering North Korea on Wednesday clashed on how to deal with activists flying leaflets targeting North Koreans over the border, after once again being harassed by trash balloons launched by Pyongyang over the weekend. Kim Dong-yeon, the governor of Gyeonggi Province from the Democratic Party of Korea, said at a meeting with provincial military and fire authorities the same day that if things got worse he would strengthen surveillance against attempts

Politics June 12, 2024

The ruling People Power Party on Tuesday protested the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally picking the chairs of key standing committees of the National Assembly late Monday. The Democratic Party once again used its majority in the Assembly to convene a plenary session and appoint the chairs of 11 out of the 18 committees without involving the ruling party. Last week, the Democratic Party left out the ruling party in electing the Assembly speaker, marking the first such instance in the histor

Politics June 11, 2024

South Korea’s anti-corruption watchdog was slammed by the Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday over its decision to strike down a petition against First Lady Kim Keon Hee. The petition, filed with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission in December last year, claimed that Kim had accepted bribes. The commission said in a previously unannounced briefing Monday that it was closing the case against the first lady as the existing laws have no provisions for holding spouses of elected p

Politics June 11, 2024

South Korea and the United States completed a review of joint guidelines for responding against a possible nuclear attack by North Korea, according to the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul. After holding a third meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group in Seoul on Monday, the ministry said the South Korea-US joint guidelines, in the process of being finalized, would touch on the alliance's policies and principles for nuclear deterrence on the Korean Peninsula. The ministry described th

Defense June 10, 2024

North Korea appears to be installing loudspeakers on the front lines on Thursday, a day after South Korea resumed the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts from near the border for the first time in six years, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The JCS said in a message to reporters Monday that North Korea was believed to be preparing for their own broadcasts targeting the South across the border. “We have identified signs of North Korea setting up loudspeakers in the border areas

Defense June 10, 2024

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said late Saturday that North Korea was flying balloons loaded with trash once again, as the wind was forecast to veer south. Following the JCS announcement an alert was issued across Seoul and areas near the border warning residents to beware of falling objects and to report sightings to authorities. The South Korean military has been watching for another wave of the North Korean balloons after a group of activists called Fighters for Free North Korea t

Defense June 8, 2024

A group of North Korean defectors in Seoul tried to fly giant balloons carrying K-pop and other South Korean popular culture content across the border, with a few appearing to have entered North Korean skies early Thursday, according to the South’s military authorities. The defector group, which calls itself Fighters for Free North Korea, said in a statement on this day they flew the balloons in a tit-for-tat response following the hundreds of North Korean balloons filled with trash and pr

Politics June 6, 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday in his Memorial Day address to the nation that South Korea must become stronger to change North Korea and free North Koreans. At the ceremony held at the Seoul National Cemetery, the president said that “fellow Korean compatriots living north of the border, just about 50 kilometers from right here, are suffering from starvation, deprived brutally of their freedom and human rights.” “Peace is maintained through strength, not through submissi

Politics June 6, 2024

The speaker to lead the first half of the National Assembly through its new term was elected Wednesday in a vote that was held in the absence of the ruling People Power Party. The first plenary session of the new Assembly term was convened on this day before a bipartisan agreement could be reached over appointment of committee chairs. The Democratic Party of Korea -- which outnumbers the People Power Party by 171 to 108 -- is pushing to chair all of the 17 committees of the Assembly. The ruling

Politics June 5, 2024