President Yoon Suk Yeol returned to his office Sunday after a six-day trip to the US, touting an accord to give South Korea a bigger say in a potential US nuclear response to North Korea as an upgrade to the existing Seoul-Washington mutual defense treaty. The Washington Declaration, which gives Seoul a seat at the table on using Washington’s nuclear force in exchange for swearing off an independent nuclear buildup, is a major shift from the previous administration’s approach to Pyon

Politics April 30, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk to expand investment in South Korea, “an ideal place” for such high-tech investments, at a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a summit with his US counterpart in Washington this week. “Korea has the world’s best robots and an unmatched talent pool,” Yoon said in a statement Wednesday released by his office. “Korea is the country where Tesla will see the highest level of efficiency needed to run gigafactorie

Politics April 27, 2023

The US Chips Act, signed into law in August to reduce America’s reliance on foreign-made semiconductors by increasing domestic production, is a win-win to both the US and South Korea, US President Joe Biden said Wednesday. “It’s creating jobs in South Korea, not just SK but with Samsung and in other industries,” Biden said during a press conference following a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol, referring to the world’s largest and second-largest memory chipmakers,

Politics April 27, 2023

The US should remind South Korea and its people of unwavering bipartisan support for using nuclear weapons to defend the Asian ally from North Korea’s nuclear threats, a job Washington could do better from now on to reassure Seoul while warning Pyongyang, according to Edwin Feulner, founder of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. The remarks by the former president of the conservative think tank came as President Yoon Suk Yeol and his US counterpart are expected to roll out a joint de

Foreign Affairs April 26, 2023

Closer ties between South Korea and Japan prompted by the recent deal to end a historical feud over Tokyo’s colonial rights abuses will change the way China deals with Seoul-Tokyo efforts to curb North Korea’s growing nuclear ambitions, a former Japanese ambassador to the US said Tuesday. Referring to the Seoul-Tokyo summit in mid-March, where the two leaders vowed to move past the dispute to fight off North Korea, Ichiro Fujisaki, the Japanese envoy who served as ambassador between

Foreign Affairs April 25, 2023

South Korea and the US sanctioned a North Korean believed to be linked to cybercrimes meant to bankroll North Korea’s nuclear and weapons programs -- the first ban the two allies have jointly rolled out on a single individual. Sim Hyon-sop, the North Korean in question, worked for a North Korean bank already sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council resolutions, and was responsible for “creating fake accounts, money laundering and other illegal financial activities,” th

North Korea April 24, 2023

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung suggested on Monday that President Yoon Suk Yeol should balance ties with the US and China, saying diplomacy is not always black-and-white, amid his party’s criticism of Yoon’s remarks as overly leaning on Washington and being “self-destructive.” In a Reuters interview last week, Yoon for the first time indicated support for arms aid to Ukraine if a human rights crisis prompts it. He also described China’s claims to Taiwan as a global

Politics April 24, 2023

Chinese Foreign Minister said Friday Taiwan belongs to China, vowing to fight off anyone threatening to dispute the fact, a day after South Korea summoned China’s top envoy in Seoul for Beijing’s open criticism of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s remarks on Taiwan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday it will not allow others to “meddle in conversations involving the Taiwan issue,” in response to Yoon’s interview with Reuters this week. He opposed changing the

Foreign Affairs April 21, 2023

South Korea on Friday expressed regret over mass visits by Japanese lawmakers to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, a move Seoul sees as an attempt to whitewash Tokyo’s wartime wrongs since the shrine honors 14 World War II leaders convicted as war criminals. Earlier in the same day, some 90 lawmakers from several political parties paid their respects, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida sending an offering to the shrine. He has done so five times since October 2021, when he took of

Foreign Affairs April 21, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed the government to prepare a warplane to evacuate South Koreans in Sudan, a country rocked by a power struggle between its military and a state-sponsored militia called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). According to a statement released by Yoon’s office Friday, the president had told his defense and foreign ministers to draw up the plan as part of broader safety contingencies amid the escalating clashes that erupted Saturday. Street battles have since left S

Politics April 21, 2023

Whether South Korea will supply arms to Ukraine depends on Russia's actions from now on, a senior official at the presidential office said Thursday following a warning from Moscow that such a decision “constitutes aggression” against Russia. Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any arms aid to Kyiv, no matter where it comes from, is a “hostile anti-Russian act,” referring to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s interview with Reute

Politics April 20, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday his administration will work to realize the ideals of liberal democracy, at an annual ceremony marking the April 19 Revolution, a movement against election fraud that brought down South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, in 1960. “The spirit of the revolution is written into our Constitution. That we cannot overlook freedoms of any single individual is what we must uphold as we run government. I will personally make sure we internalize tha

Politics April 19, 2023

Infrared thermal cameras picked up signs that North Korea could have been unilaterally resuming factory operations at the suspended inter-Korean industrial park, a breach of an agreement that South Korea says will have consequences. At least four factories in the Kaeseong Industrial Complex seem to be in operation, according to Radio Free Asia. It said Tuesday that factory activity at one of those plants, which makes rice cookers, looks exceptionally high, citing an expert on satellite images. T

North Korea April 18, 2023

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating fell to 33.6 percent last week, a six-month low largely prompted by a skeptical public urging the president to confront the US over its recent leak of secret intelligence reports suggesting Washington may have been spying on Seoul. Yoon’s first deputy national security adviser brushed off the damaging leak that made headlines two weeks ago, saying the US seems to have had “no malicious intent,” without offering any concrete eviden

Politics April 17, 2023

South Korea fired warning shots at a North Korean patrol boat that crossed the maritime border in the West Sea on Saturday, amid escalating tension prompted by the North’s latest missile test Thursday. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday that it fired the shots after the North had not responded to warnings, pushing the boat back to the North from the de facto sea boundary known as the Northern Limit Line. The NLL, disputed by Pyongyang since 1953 when it was drawn up foll

North Korea April 16, 2023