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Apologies for my tardiness. Morning meetings and phone calls! :-)
Quotes of the Day:
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela
"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."
- Lou Holtz
"To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style."
- Aldous Huxley
1. Hamas uses N Korea, Iran arms in its Israel assault, military says
2. S. Korea, U.S. to stage joint large-scale air drills next week
3. OKN’s Continuing Engagement with North Korean Defectors and Ambassadors for North Korean Human Rights of South Korea and the United States
4. S. Korea warned Russia it will not sit idly by if Moscow hands over missile technology to N. Korea: FM
5. Arrival of N. Korean arms in Russia 'almost certain': British defense ministry
6. Defense chief says N. Korea keeps violating 2018 military agreement near maritime buffer zone
7. Unification minister says N.K. leader's daughter could be successor
8. Is Korea Losing Its Competitive Edge?
9. ROK-US navy forces conduct massive maritime exercise
10. Is there feasible way to tackle South Korea's shrinking military manpower?
11. South Korean and US forces stage drills for reaction to possible 'Hamas-style' attack by North Korea
12. What North Korea Is Learning from the Hamas-Israel War
13. Haunted by Guilt, Vilified Online: A Year After the Seoul Crowd Crush
14. South Korea Must Return Buddhist Statue to Japan, Supreme Court Says
15. Meet the Pastor Who Has Helped 1,000 People Escape North Korea
1. Hamas uses N Korea, Iran arms in its Israel assault, military says
Russia, Hamas, as well as Iran and the Houthis and others in Africa. north Korea is a global threat contributing to global instability and conflict.
Hamas uses N Korea, Iran arms in its Israel assault, military says
About 10% of weapons came from N Korea while 5% were from Iran: Israeli official.
By Lee Jeong-Ho for RFA
2023.10.26
Seoul, South Korea
rfa.org
Hamas has used weapons sourced from North Korea and Iran to target Israel, the Israeli military said, supporting Radio Free Asia’s earlier report on the alleged arms connection between the North and Hamas.
Hamas used Iranian-made mortar rounds and North Korean rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) in its attack against Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military stated during an official media tour Thursday, as reported by AFP.
“I think about five to 10 percent of the weapons here [were] made in Iran,” an Israeli military official, who asked for the condition of anonymity, was cited as saying. “And 10% [are] North Korean. The rest of it was made inside the Gaza Strip.”
“I think the most surprising thing was the amount of weapons that they brought inside Israel,” the official added.
Earlier this month, RFA reported on the potential use of North Korean weapons by Hamas militants. RFA’s thorough analysis was based on a video that displayed a man holding what seemed to be North Korean-made rocket launchers.
Following the report, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the findings, with its intelligence indicating a military connection between North Korea and Hamas.
The latest confirmation from Israel followed as Pyongyang has been issuing statements, blaming the United States in the Middle East conflict. The conflict was a “tragedy created entirely by the United States,” North Korea’s official Korea Central News Agency said on Monday, claiming that Washington “has turned a blind eye to Israel, its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, continuous armed assaults, civilian casualties, and the expansion of Jewish settlements.”
The move is widely seen as the North’s attempt to bolster its anti-American coalition, which could potentially strengthen its leverage against the U.S. and its allies. Over the past few weeks, North Korea’s foreign policy has shown signs of a larger strategy at play. From supporting Hamas to bolstering ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang appears keen on crafting a united front against Washington.
The strategy appears to bear results by aligning those opposed to U.S. policy. Last week, a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was displayed at an anti-U.S. protest in the West Bank, underscoring the deep sentiments of the Palestinian people against the U.S.
The Oct. 7 attack, in which North Korean and Iranian weapons are used, killed over 1,400 individuals in Israel, primarily civilians, according to an official figure. In response, Israel has launched airstrikes that have led to approximately 7,000 deaths from the Palestine side, with the majority also being civilians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Casualties are anticipated to increase on both sides as Israel’s military announced on Thursday that it had conducted a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces reported that its tanks and infantry units “struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts” before withdrawing to Israeli territory.
Edited by Elaine Chan and Taejun Kang.
rfa.org
2. S. Korea, U.S. to stage joint large-scale air drills next week
Perhaps we would return Foal Eagle (or as my satirical friends in 1st SFG used to call it, "foul buzzard") to its traditional time on the calendar in October/November. And just to really stir things up we can rename the March exercise back to Team Spirit.
S. Korea, U.S. to stage joint large-scale air drills next week | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · October 27, 2023
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States will conduct a joint large-scale aerial exercise, involving stealth fighter jets, next week to enhance combined operational capabilities, Seoul's Air Force said Friday.
The five-day Vigilant Defense 24 will kick off Monday, involving some 130 South Korean and U.S. aircraft, amid joint efforts to bolster defense capabilities against North Korean military threats.
The exercise will mobilize South Korean F-35A fighters, E-737 airborne early warning and control aircraft, KC-330 tanker transport aircraft, as well as U.S. F-35A and F-35B fighters and other warplanes, according to the South's military branch.
It said the U.S. has deployed F-35A fighters from the mainland and FA-18, F-35B and other aircraft based in Japan for the training event.
During the exercise period, the allies will stage round-the-clock aerial drills, including those on airborne alert interdiction and close air support operations, to enhance the interoperability of the allies' advanced fighter jets.
An Australian KC-30A multi-role tanker transport aircraft will also join the exercise for air-to-air refueling training with South Korean and U.S. warplanes, it said.
The U.S. 7th Air Force, under the U.S. Forces Korea, emphasized the "defensive" nature of the exercise, noting that it is not meant to be "provocative" to any particular country.
"Combined flying training events like Vigilant Defense 24 are entirely defensive in nature, are not related to any current real-world threats or situations and are not intended to be threatening or provocative toward any other country," it said.
North Korea has long accused the allies' joint military drills of being rehearsals for an invasion.
Last year, the North staged a spate of missile launches during Vigilant Storm 23, the precursor of this year's latest air exercise.
This file photo, provided by Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff on Nov. 19, 2022, shows South Korean and U.S. fighter jets staging a combined aerial exercise with a U.S. B-1B strategic bomber over the Korean Peninsula. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Chae Yun-hwan · October 27, 2023
3. OKN’s Continuing Engagement with North Korean Defectors and Ambassadors for North Korean Human Rights of South Korea and the United States
OKN is doing important work. We need to learn from escapees and support their work in trying to improve human rights in north Korea, getting information to the Koreans in the north , and pursuing a free and unified Korea.
OKN’s Continuing Engagement with North Korean Defectors and Ambassadors for North Korean Human Rights of South Korea and the United States
By
OKN Correspondent
October 26, 2023
One Korea Network is committed to advocating for improving human rights in North Korea and, more importantly, giving voice to the North Korean defectors, both here in the US and in South Korea and beyond.
OKN has led efforts recently to engage the North Korean defectors who reside in the US (which include US-resettled NK defectors, as well as defectors who resettled in South Korea first and later moved to the United States), with the ambassadors for North Korean human rights of both South Korea and the United States.
Most recently, OKN helped organize and brought North Korean defectors to a meeting with Ambassador Shin-wha Lee, the Republic of Korea (ROK) Ambassador for International Cooperation on North Korean Human Rights, in New York City. (Members of PSALT NK joined this meeting in New York.) This meeting builds upon the first-ever meeting with Ambassador Lee and a large delegation consisting of US-resettled North Korean defectors that was held in Washington, D.C., in April of this year.
Both meetings provided a wonderful opportunity for Ambassador Lee to meet and talk with North Korean defectors who live in the United States.
OKN also organized and brought US-resettled North Korean defectors to the US State Department for a special meeting with Ambassador Julie Turner, the United States Special Envoy on North Korean Human Rights Issues, in early September, immediately following Ambassador Turner’s confirmation by the US Senate. This meeting was the first meeting held by Ambassador Turner with a large delegation of US-resettled North Korean defectors.
OKN is immensely grateful and deeply appreciates both Ambassador Lee and Ambassador Turner for these meetings with North Korean defectors, and we thank them both for their commitment to improving the human rights situation in North Korea and giving voice to the North Korean defectors.
The North Korean defectors that attended these meetings in April, September, and October with Ambassador Lee, and Ambassador Turner, are also grateful for the opportunity to meet and discuss their stories and talk about issues related to their escape, resettlement, and new lives living in America. Other topics, such as China’s terrible policy of repatriating North Korean refugees, were discussed as well.
The April meeting with Ambassador Lee, and the September meeting with Ambassador Turner, were held in collaboration with the Free Korean Association (FKA), a group made up of North Korean defectors residing in the metropolitan DMV area.
OKN again thanks Ambassador Lee for making time to meet North Korean defectors in the US despite her very busy travel schedule; and OKN thanks Ambassador Turner for meeting the defectors at the State Department in light of her transition to her new position. Most importantly, OKN is deeply grateful to the North Korean defectors who took time off from work and school to attend these meetings.
Please continue to support OKN in our mission, part of which is fighting for human rights in North Korea and working with the courageous North Korean defectors.
Thank you!
원코리아네트워크, 지속적인 탈북민 및 한미 양국 북한인권대사와의 만남 추진
4. S. Korea warned Russia it will not sit idly by if Moscow hands over missile technology to N. Korea: FM
But are our combined intelligence capabilities good enough to know if they do?
S. Korea warned Russia it will not sit idly by if Moscow hands over missile technology to N. Korea: FM | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · October 27, 2023
By Kim Seung-yeon
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top diplomat warned Friday that Seoul will retaliate against Russia if Moscow transfers its missile technology to North Korea amid growing concerns over suspected expanding military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Foreign Minister Park Jin said, "Yes," when asked by a lawmaker during a parliamentary audit whether South Korea informed Russia that Seoul would not stand idly by and would retaliate if Russia transfers missile technology or weapons technology to North Korea. However, Park did not elaborate on what actions South Korea would take.
The United States said that Pyongyang sent more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow, a revelation that followed the rare summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.
Park's remarks came a day after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan issued a joint statement strongly condemning the arms transaction that runs afoul of the U.N. Security Council resolutions, confirming some of the weapons deliveries as being completed.
Britain's defense ministry also said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it is "almost certain" the North Korean munitions have arrived in western Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.
Park declined to confirm the U.S. disclosure of the arms delivery, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence, but said there are "various suspicious circumstances."
On China's recent forced repatriation of North Korean defectors, Park said he delivered Seoul's objection to the move to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, through a diplomatic channel.
"We made it clear that North Korean defectors should not be forcibly sent back, and we relayed our concerns," Park said, adding that North Korean defectors are a matter of international human rights.
Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks during the inaugural preparatory meeting for the 2024 South Korea-Africa leaders' summit at the foreign ministry in Seoul, in this file photo taken Oct. 13, 2023. (Yonhap)
elly@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Seung-yeon · October 27, 2023
5. Arrival of N. Korean arms in Russia 'almost certain': British defense ministry
Multiple source reporting, US, ROK, and UK.
Arrival of N. Korean arms in Russia 'almost certain': British defense ministry | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · October 27, 2023
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- Britain's defense ministry has said it is "almost certain" that North Korean munitions have arrived in western Russia for the country's use in its war against Ukraine amid persistent speculation over their arms transfers.
The information followed Washington's revelation that Pyongyang had sent more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Moscow as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a rare summit last month.
"Despite Russia's official rejection of recent reports, it is almost certain that North Korean munitions have now reached ammunition depots in western Russia," the British ministry said in a post updated on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday (local time).
"These depots support Russian military operations in Ukraine," it added.
The ministry said should Pyongyang continue to send military-related shipments at the current pace, it will be "on course" to become one of Moscow's "significant" overseas arms providers, alongside Iran and Belarus.
The international community has condemned the suspected arms agreement, which would violate multiple United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions banning any weapons trade with the North, which Russia itself has voted for.
In a recent joint statement lambasting the two countries, Seoul, Washington and Tokyo confirmed part of such weapons deliveries and said the North is seeking military assistance to advance its own military capabilities.
Britain's defense ministry said while it is "unclear" what Moscow has agreed to provide to Pyongyang at the current stage, the package would likely include financial compensation, military technology provision and cooperation in other areas, such as space technology.
"It is unlikely the full package has been finalized," the ministry said, adding the package was likely among the top agenda items discussed in recent high-level exchanges between the two countries.
Citing commercial satellite imagery provided by Planet Labs, the U.S. media outlet Voice of America reported Friday that signs of cargo deliveries were detected at the North and Russia's border area and the North Korean port of Najin, reinforcing suspicions over their arms agreement.
This illustration depicts a suspected arms agreement between North Korea and Russia following a Sept. 13, 2023, summit between their leaders. (Yonhap)
mlee@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · October 27, 2023
6. Defense chief says N. Korea keeps violating 2018 military agreement near maritime buffer zone
Concur. But the class for withdrawal might need to be tempered. I think Korea must use the agreement (and potential withdrawal from it) to achieve strategic effects. All this discussion is interesting but how can South Korea (and the alliance) gain strategic advantage by using the CMA for its benefit? Withdrawing from it may make us feel good but are we using ROK and alliance actions for best strategic effects?
The ROK and specifically MND but most important the ROK NSC, should be asking what strategic effects do we desire to achieve and what effects can we achieve through discussion and possible withdrawal from the CMA.
That said, one of the actions is in this very article. Calling our north Korean violations certainly supports an information campaign to expose north Koran strategy The discussion and action surrounding the CMA should be used to to achieve information effects.
Would it be better to leave the CMA in effect and suspend its elements that harm ROK and alliance military readiness and instead use it to be able to call out comminuted north Korean violations of it. Would that possibly achieve better information effects? Or would simply withdrawing from the CMA take away that "benefit?"
Defense chief says N. Korea keeps violating 2018 military agreement near maritime buffer zone | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · October 27, 2023
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said Friday that North Korea has violated the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement near the western maritime buffer zone on a few thousand occasions, reiterating his call to suspend the accord in order to bolster military readiness.
Shin made the assessment during a parliamentary audit session that North Korea's violations of the military tension reduction agreement near the northwestern islands were "much more serious than was previously known."
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik speaks during a parliamentary audit session held at the National Assembly on Oct. 27, 2023. (Yonhap)
The Comprehensive Military Agreement, signed under former liberal President Moon Jae-in amid a reconciliatory mood, calls for setting up maritime buffer zones that ban artillery firing and naval drills to prevent clashes in the tensely guarded region.
Shin said North Korea has fired artillery shells in the western maritime buffer zone about 110 times and has left the gun barrels and portholes open 3,400 times since its signing, estimating the number of violations over the past five years to be "close to 3,600."
"(North Korea) doesn't seem to recognize leaving the porthole (of artillery pieces) open as a violation (of the agreement)," Shin said, noting it was part of the accord.
The minister said the state audit agency has been reviewing the inter-Korean agreement to decide whether to conduct an inspection, without elaborating.
Seoul's Defense White Paper enumerates 17 cases of major violations of the inter-Korean agreement until the end of 2022, with 15 of them taking place last year. It noted there are a number of violations, including opening the gun ports of coastal artillery and leaving the portholes open, among others.
In late 2022, North Korea fired artillery shots into maritime buffer zones near the inter-Korean border and ballistic missiles into the East Sea and sent five drones across the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, raising questions over the effectiveness of the military agreement.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Eun-jung · October 27, 2023
7. Unification minister says N.K. leader's daughter could be successor
I think the minister is correct in that we cannot rule out the possibility. That said, I think such speculation is premature. We should ask if such speculation is helpful or can it be exploited for information purposes? How can we exploit it. Or does discussion of the succession process possibility actually benefit the regime by potentially or inadvertently reinforcing regime legitimacy?
Unification minister says N.K. leader's daughter could be successor | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · October 27, 2023
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister said Friday he leaves open the possibility that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's daughter, Ju-ae, could be the country's heir apparent given her public appearances.
"We cannot rule out such a possibility at this point," Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said during a parliamentary audit session when asked if the daughter could become the future successor of the reclusive regime.
"We need to be open to the possibility when looking at recent activities," he added.
Ju-ae, believed to be around 10 years old, made her first public appearance on Nov. 18, when she, along with her father, attended the firing of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile.
The minister added he "has not been able to confirm" whether the North Korean leader has a son.
"The North Korean regime seems to be stable under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, but it lacks a formal system for the succession of the top leadership, which makes it fundamentally unstable and considerably vulnerable," the minister said.
This file photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 9, 2023, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un (R) and his daughter, believed to be named Ju-ae, attending a paramilitary parade in Pyongyang to mark the 75th anniversary of the regime's founding day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
colin@yna.co.kr
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en.yna.co.kr · by Kang Yoon-seung · October 27, 2023
8. Is Korea Losing Its Competitive Edge?
Is Korea Losing Its Competitive Edge?
english.chosun.com
October 27, 2023 13:31
Korea signed a wide range of business deals with contractors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar during President Yoon Suk-yeol's recent state visit to the Middle East. Korean construction companies, automakers and petrochemical companies are competing globally and are widely viewed as optimum partners for Middle Eastern countries. Korea has now inked US$79.2 billion worth of deals in the fields of energy, infrastructure, electric vehicles and defense with companies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE over the last two years.
According to the UN Industrial Development Organization, Korea ranks third in the world after Germany and China in terms of manufacturing competitiveness as of 2018, up from 17th place in 1990. It ranks first in shipbuilding and displays, fourth in petrochemicals and sixth in cars, machine tools and steel. Korea is also virtually top-ranked in terms of memory chips and rechargeable batteries and is the world's eighth-largest arms exporter. This was possible due to the innovative efforts and sweat of Korean entrepreneurs and workers.
But whether Korea will retain that competitiveness 10 to 20 years down the road is doubtful. Last year, it saw a record high number of export products lose competitiveness, requiring the country to rely on imports instead. Nine out of Korea's top 10 exports to China lost competitiveness. Korea used to achieve a surplus in trade with China since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, but this year it is expected to shift into deficit. There are 136 Chinese companies on the Fortune Global 500 list, and only 16 are Korean. Last year, Taiwan, home to chipmaker TSMC, beat Korea in terms of per-capita GDP. Korea's exports are precariously dominated by semiconductors, continues to be at the mercy of the volatile chip market.
It is extremely difficult for a country to regain its lead once it is overtaken by a rival. Unless it pursues ceaseless innovation, a country will fall behind in the global race, and the technology gap will keep widening. Korea must respond to climate change and other global trends and continue to revolutionize and fuse industries. The outdated education and rigid labor system need to change, while red tape must be scrapped to spur creativity and a spirit of experimentation.
Read this article in Korean
- Copyright © Chosunilbo & Chosun.com
english.chosun.com
9. ROK-US navy forces conduct massive maritime exercise
Sustained high level exercises.
ROK-US navy forces conduct massive maritime exercise
donga.com
Posted October. 27, 2023 08:03,
Updated October. 27, 2023 08:03
ROK-US navy forces conduct massive maritime exercise. October. 27, 2023 08:03. by Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com.
The South Korean Navy announced on Thursday that, since Tuesday as part of the "2023 Homeland Defense Exercise," a large-scale joint maritime maneuver exercise preparing for various maritime provocations from North Korea has been underway in the western waters off Taean County, South Chungcheong Province.
This exercise, which will run until Friday, aims to enhance the joint and combined operational capabilities to respond to enemy provocations and strengthen military readiness. The exercise involves over 30 warships, including the Navy's Aegis destroyer, "Yulgok Yi I," P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, AW-159 maritime operations helicopters, coastal defense units from the Army, combat aircraft such as FA-50 and F-4E from the Air Force, and Coast Guard vessels. The Navy explained that the U.S. Navy's maritime patrol aircraft and U.S. military assets stationed in South Korea, including Apache helicopters, are also participating.
During this exercise, South Korean and US forces conducted a maritime counter-special operations exercise (MCSOF) to rapidly detect and eliminate North Korean special forces infiltrating the northwest and the West Sea coast using hovercraft. North Korea operates a base in Goampo of Yongyon County, Hwanghae Province, near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea, with dozens of hovercraft capable of high-speed penetration at 70-90 km/h. Participating forces are also conducting local response and maritime interception operations against North Korean provocations in the West Sea NLL area.
Furthermore, South Korean and U.S. forces conducted realistic training to enhance their joint and combined operational capabilities through information exchange and practical maneuvers of major forces according to scenarios of enemy provocations, said the South Korean military. "We will strengthen our joint and combined operational capabilities to prepare for various maritime provocations and establish a resolute posture to respond immediately in the event of enemy provocations," said Adm. Hwang Jong-seo, the on-site commander and deputy commander of the Navy's Second Fleet.
한국어
donga.com
10. Is there feasible way to tackle South Korea's shrinking military manpower?
This is a strategic problem for the ROK/US alliance. We must not think that technology can replace all manpower requirements.
The answer: a robust and WELL trained reserve force of soldiers aged 25-40. The current reserve system must be overhauled or replaced.
This also provides renewed rationale for the United Nations Command and its sending states acting as a force provider to the ROK/US CFC to provide necessary ground forces and MASS for specific missions under the tactical control of the ROK/US CFC.
Is there feasible way to tackle South Korea's shrinking military manpower?
The Korea Times · October 27, 2023
Soldiers of the South Korean Army march at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 26, during a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of Armed Forces Day. Yonhap
Size of nation's armed forces to fall below 400,000 by 2038: report
By Lee Hyo-jin
Concerns about South Korea’s shrinking pool of military conscripts are not new.
The demographic cliff caused by the country’s plunging birthrate – the lowest among OECD member nations – has long been cited as the main cause of a foreseeable plunge in new recruits by the nation's armed forces.
Under current laws, all able-bodied South Korean men aged over 19 are obliged to serve in the military. Women can volunteer to serve in the military as officers or non-commissioned officers.
As of 2022, the number of South Korea’s military personnel stood at 480,000, falling below the 500,000 benchmark for the first time, according to a report published in July by Cho Kwan-ho, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. The figure is about 40 percent of the size of North Korean troops, which is estimated at around 1.14 million.
In his report, Cho predicted that the size of the South Korean military will remain at an average of 470,000 troops over the next 10 years. But he projected the figure to decrease to 396,000 by 2038.
The anticipated decline in military personnel poses serious concerns to South Korea's national security, a country that remains technically at war with North Korea.
To address those concerns, the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) is considering revising measures to expand military conscription to orphans and North Korean defectors, who are currently exempt from mandatory service as they are classified as socially vulnerable groups. If implemented, the MMA estimates around 600 to 700 orphans and 150 to 250 North Korean defectors will be subject to conscription every year.
However, these measures are not enough to resolve the chronic shortage of enlistees, experts said, who called for more drastic solutions.
Men wait for physical checkups prior to military conscription at a branch of the Military Manpower Administration in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Feb.1. Joint Press Corps
No panacea
"There is no panacea to the decreasing number of soldiers caused by the demographic crisis," said Kim Yeoul-soo, chief of the Security Strategy Office at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs. "In order to address this issue, the government should review various measures ranging from immediate mitigation plans to long-term revisions that require a lot of discussions."
One feasible and relatively easy measure the government can take is to extend the compulsory military service period, he said.
The duration of the military service was initially set at 30 months, but has been reduced to between 18 to 21 months. Under current laws, active duty enlisted personnel should serve 18 months in the Army or Marine Corps, 20 months in the Navy and 21 months in the Air Force.
Kim also said now may be the time to review an existing law that exempts athletes who win an Olympic medal or a gold medal in the Asian Games from mandatory military service, as well as measures allowing draft dodgers, such as conscientious objectors, to perform other forms of national service instead of military conscription.
"I don't want to undermine their contributions to the country, but considering the severity of the current situation regarding our military manpower, I think the government should reconsider the incentives given to those athletes," he said.
The military expert also touched on women's conscription, a subject that often leads to gender conflicts here. People who oppose female conscription say the debate should come only after the male-dominated culture in the military is overhauled and other forms of social discrimination against women are resolved.
"The government should more actively discuss including women in the military service. In some countries like Israel, women have to serve two years in the military and in the reserves until the age of 38," Kim said.
The decades-old debate over women's conscription flared up again recently after the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the lawfulness of the Military Service Act that subjects only men to conscription.
The ruling, issued in September in response to a petition filed by five men, including current and prospective draftees, viewed that the current law does not breach the right to equality. The court, however, noted that the country may have to seriously consider legislation to conscripting both men and women or shifting to a volunteer military system to tackle the decline in draftees.
Shin Jong-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a think tank, said the military should improve its reward and service conditions to entice more people to enlist.
"Before discussing ways to enlist more young people, the government should first think about why they shun joining the army," he said. "No conscript is happy when he gets called up and almost everyone recalls their time in the military as being a nightmare."
Shin said the military should give more benefits to those deployed in strategic locations compared to those who are stationed in Seoul and the metropolitan areas.
Rep. Sung Il-jong of the ruling People Power Party attends a National Assembly audit session of the South Korean Army held at Gyeryongdae military headquarters in South Chungcheong Province, Oct. 23. Yonhap
Foreigners to the rescue?
Recently, the idea of including foreign nationals in the military was floated by Rep. Sung Il-jong of the ruling People Power Party (PPP). He proposed the measure during a National Assembly audit session of the Military Manpower Administration earlier this month.
“The administration should actively and positively review the idea of allowing healthy, young foreign nationals who pass a Korean language proficiency test to volunteer for military service, and then granting them citizenship,” he told MMA chief Lee Ki-sik.
The lawmaker cited as an example the U.S.'s Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI), a recruiting program that allows certain non-Americans to join the military and apply for citizenship.
Sung said a Korean version of the American military recruiting program, if implemented, would encourage immigrants to feel more pride as members of Korean society.
Kim at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, however, commented that the lawmaker's proposal seems premature as Korea still remains predominantly homogeneous.
“It could be considered as an option in the future, but not immediately. For now, we should think of ways to more effectively utilize the resources we have rather than including foreign nationals in the military, which handles sensitive information,” he said.
The Korea Times · October 27, 2023
11. South Korean and US forces stage drills for reaction to possible 'Hamas-style' attack by North Korea
Maybe we have this backward. Perhaps Hamas was using north Korea styled attacks.
South Korean and US forces stage drills for reaction to possible 'Hamas-style' attack by North Korea
AP · by Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] · October 27, 2023
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean and U.S. troops have been conducting live-fire exercises this week to hone their ability to respond to potential “Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks” by North Korea, South Korea’s military said Friday.
The two forces regularly conduct live-fire and other training, but this week’s drills come after Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel raised security jitters in South Korea, which shares the world’s most heavily fortified border with rival North Korea.
Experts say the North’s forward-deployed long-range artillery guns can fire about 16,000 rounds per hour in the event of a conflict, posing a serious threat to Seoul, which is about 40-50 kilometers (25-30 miles) from the border.
The three-day firing exercises, which began Wednesday, involved 5,400 South Korean and U.S. soldiers, 300 artillery systems, 1,000 vehicles and air force assets, according to South Korea’s military.
In a simulated response to “the enemy’s (possible) Hamas-style surprise artillery attacks,” the exercises practiced strikes designed to “remove the origins of the enemy’s long-range artillery provocations at an early date,” South Korea’s Ground Operations Command said in a statement.
North Korea didn’t immediately react to the drills. It typically views major U.S.-South Korean military training as invasion rehearsals and responds with missile tests.
South Korea and the United States have been expanding their regular military drills in the face of North Korea’s advancing nuclear program. Since last year, North Korea has carried out more than 100 missile tests, some of them simulated nuclear attacks on South Korea and the U.S.
AP · by Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] · October 27, 2023
12. What North Korea Is Learning from the Hamas-Israel War
Hamas attacks may be better than a war game for north Korea. What if is is validating north Korean concepts that north Korean advisors have provided to military forces throughout the Middle East and Afrcia areas? We should remember that north Korea not only proliferates weapons but training and advisors as well.
So maybe the lesson north Korean is learning is that some of its tactics are working.
I wonder if we should reactivate the Tunnel Neutralization Teams on the DMZ and look for the 17 other tunnels we have not yet found?
What North Korea Is Learning from the Hamas-Israel War
So what effect, if any, will the Hamas attack have on the Korean peninsula? There will be military personnel in both the North and South who will learn tactical lessons from that attack.
The National Interest · by Bruce W. Bennett · October 24, 2023
On October 7, Hamas carried out a heinous attack against civilian targets in Israel. And their tactics—torturing and murdering over 1,000 civilians, including women and children—signal their prime objective: to force Israel into retaliating against Hamas in Gaza in ways that would inflict collateral damage on Palestinian civilians. Moreover, Hamas kidnapped many civilians, clearly seeking to force Israel to carry out a ground offensive mission to rescue those hostages. Such a ground offensive would cause substantial Palestinian casualties. Hamas likely hopes it will exhaust Israel and turn the world against it. Hamas perceives that Israeli attacks resulting in large numbers of Palestinian casualties will give it the international support needed for recognition as a separate country.
Implications for Korea
So what effect, if any, will the Hamas attack have on the Korean peninsula? There will be military personnel in both the North and South who will learn tactical lessons from that attack. But at the strategic level, the situations are very different for Hamas and North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be reluctant today to try the overall Hamas strategy. Kim knows that if he did and killed hundreds of South Koreans, he would justify a South Korean military response and become South Korea’s number one military target. And while South Korea and the United States may not always know his location, they likely know his location some of the time and have the weapons to precisely eliminate that location and him if Kim ever pushes them to do so.
Because his personal survival is his number one priority, Kim is extremely unlikely to attack South Korea in a way that puts his survival seriously at risk. Indeed, Kim has learned since 2010 that lower-level provocations (like missile launches) and plausibly deniable limited attacks (like the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan) are the best kinds of provocations to demonstrate his power while avoiding serious South Korean and U.S. responses for now.
Nuclear Weapons are Key to North Korean Coercion
And that appears to be one of the reasons why Kim is trying to build a significant nuclear weapon force. Once he has 200 to 300 nuclear weapons or more, he will likely feel that South Korean and U.S. retaliations will be limited by fears that any retaliation against North Korean attacks could well escalate to nuclear war, which is not an acceptable risk. This condition, called the “nuclear shadow,” could make it safer for Kim to carry out limited conventional attacks.
In June this year, the U.S. intelligence community released an extract from a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that says that Kim is most likely to use his nuclear weapons for coercive purposes. North Korean officials already publicly threatened to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the United States in response to their combined military exercises and Korean peninsula visits to U.S. strategic weapon systems. Kim seeks to reduce these South Korean and U.S. efforts to strengthen their alliance. Ironically, North Korean threats alone have had the opposite effect—increasing the South Korean and U.S. exercises and strategic weapon system visits.
But Kim can’t back down given the other failures of his government. To do so would make him look weak and potentially subject to overthrow by various internal groups in his regime. So, he likely hopes that he can escalate his provocations against the cooperative South Korean and U.S. defensive efforts. Such escalations could include North Korean limited attacks once his nuclear shadow can cover his escalations. Kim is anxious to weaken the South Korea-U.S. alliance and eventually decouple it. He hopes that without the alliance, South Korea will be subject to domination by North Korea, facilitated by North Korean military superiority. Indeed, one poll indicates that even with the alliance, a plurality of South Koreans perceive that North Korean nuclear weapons make the North militarily superior to the South.
Kim could initially escalate his provocations using plausibly deniable special forces attacks on South Korean military or industrial facilities. Of course, the North Korean personnel executing such attacks may be detected. Thus, Kim would want a fairly significant nuclear shadow to cover such possible failures and deter South Korean and U.S. responses.
He might then escalate to limited use of artillery against the South, especially if his nuclear shadow appears to be limiting South Korean and U.S. responses. For example, Kim might threaten to destroy some facilities in the South if South Korea and the United States hold their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. While historically, South Korea has threatened an escalated response to such attacks, the United States has sought to limit such escalation, fearing North Korean retaliation with conventional forces. In the future, the North may threaten to escalate to nuclear weapon use against South Korean and U.S. retaliation, leading to even greater U.S. caution. Kim would likely find such a debate about acceptable retaliation to further his interest in damaging the South Korea-US alliance.
And if these attacks don’t work, Kim could turn to limited use of nuclear weapons to test the alliance. For example, he could fire a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear weapon out over the East Sea/Sea of Japan and detonate it in the air to test it. After all, China’s 4th nuclear weapon test was delivered by a ballistic missile—a precedent for Kim. Kim might even seek to cause electromagnetic pulse (EMP) damage with such a test against South Korea and Japan.
Such North Korean actions could seriously undermine South Korean assurance in U.S. extended deterrence, including the U.S. nuclear umbrella. After all, the United States has declared for many years that the main purpose of its nuclear weapons is to deter adversary nuclear weapon use. Thus, at least some in South Korea could conclude that a coercive North Korean nuclear test, especially one that causes EMP damage to South Korea, would reflect a failure of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. More South Koreans would almost certainly conclude that the U.S. nuclear umbrella was ineffective if the United States failed to eliminate the North Korean regime in response to such a nuclear weapon use. Washington has promised to do so in response to any North Korean nuclear weapon use.
What Can South Korea and the United States Do?
If South Korea and the United States allow Kim to acquire more nuclear weapons, they will eventually make themselves vulnerable to escalated North Korean coercion. However, they have been unsuccessful in getting North Korea to negotiate any limits on its nuclear weapon program. Indeed, Kim “promised to ‘exponentially increase’ nuclear warhead production” in 2023.
Kim is thus giving South Korea and the United States little choice but to consider a coercive campaign of their own to moderate, if not freeze, North Korean nuclear weapon production. They need to let Kim Jong-un know that if he threatens their existence with nuclear weapons, they will threaten his existence with outside information—one of the things he appears to fear most. They need to threaten Kim with exponentially increasing efforts to send outside information into North Korea, including far more extensive broadcasts of K-pop and other sources that Kim hates. They could do so on computer media like USB drives and perhaps even make a soap opera seeking to accurately describe “the life and times of Kim Jong-un.” They could also transmit to the North Korean elites proposed arms control and other agreements, offers of aid if North Korea refrains from provocations, and information on the lethality of South Korean and U.S. weapons. South Korea and the United States need to tell Kim that these activities will only cease when he agrees to freeze his nuclear weapon production and actually does it.
Kim could, of course, escalate, transitioning to limited attacks without full nuclear shadow coverage. South Korea and the United States’ best approach to deterring such escalation is to be thoroughly prepared—like individuals who play chess or Go, planning four or five moves ahead. They could identify targets for military retaliation against North Korean military attacks. Such targets could include the regime leadership, the Supreme Guard Command that protects those leaders, and the Ministry of State Security, all key to Kim maintaining control of North Korea.
And if North Korean attacks include nuclear weapons, the United States needs to clearly understand how it would respond. Ideally, guidelines developed mutually by South Korea and the United States would define such responses, much as the United States did with NATO starting in the 1960s. The United States may need a greater degree of flexible nuclear response than in the recent Nuclear Posture Reviews.
South Korea and the United States should rein in North Korean nuclear weapon production and prepare to respond to escalated North Korean coercion. While Kim probably won’t resort to a Hamas-style attack, he certainly shares Hamas’ goal of cultivating U.S. reluctance to get involved militarily in the region. By preventing North Korea from enhancing its nuclear shadow, South Korea and the United States will hopefully deter potential North Korean escalation.
So what effect, if any, will the Hamas attack have on the Korean peninsula? There will be military personnel in both the North and South who will learn tactical lessons from that attack.
Bruce W. Bennett is a senior international/defense researcher at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. He works primarily on research topics such as strategy, force planning, and counterproliferation within the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center.
Image: Creative Commons.
13. Haunted by Guilt, Vilified Online: A Year After the Seoul Crowd Crush
Yes, this tragedy will forever haunt Korea.
So many of us have walked that area over the years.
Haunted by Guilt, Vilified Online: A Year After the Seoul Crowd Crush
Survivors of the Itaewon disaster and relatives of victims continue to wrestle with unanswered questions and grief as they push for official accountability.
By Choe Sang-HunPhotographs by Chang W. Lee
Reporting from Seoul
- Oct. 27, 2023
- Updated 6:32 a.m. ET
nytimes.com · by Choe Sang-Hun Chang W. Lee · October 27, 2023
Survivors of the Itaewon disaster and relatives of victims continue to wrestle with unanswered questions and grief as they push for official accountability.
A memorial to the victims was unveiled on Thursday in the cramped alley in Itaewon where the stampede occurred last year.
Survivors of the Itaewon disaster and relatives of victims continue to wrestle with unanswered questions and grief as they push for official accountability.
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.
A government investigation failed to explain why desperate calls to the police were ignored for hours. Senior officials refused to take responsibility. The disaster quickly became politicized, dividing people — and quarreling political parties — over who should be held accountable. Many wrote online that the young victims and survivors should blame themselves. The survivors said they felt revictimized.
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. In a video message, he asked his parents not to blame themselves for his death.
“I wish that I would have parents like you in my next life,” he said.
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.
The most haunting thing has been the sense of guilt among survivors and families who feel they failed to protect their friends and children.
Mr. Seo and his fiancée, Lee Joo-young, 28, became trapped in the crowd when they went for a stroll through Itaewon after visiting a wedding-dress shop. Waves of people pushed into a narrow alleyway from both ends, creating a deadly, suffocating pressure in the middle.
Walls of people pressed in from all sides, Mr. Seo said, leaving no wriggling or breathing space. In front of him, he saw stacks of people who had fallen on top of one another. “Move back! Move back!” people shouted, but nothing happened.
Mr. Seo passed out while standing. When he came to, he found Ms. Lee standing next to him unconscious, but there was nothing he could do to revive her.
He relives the nightmarish scene several times a day.
“The most difficult part is the sense of guilt,” Mr. Seo said. “I came out alive, but I could not save her although she was standing right next to me.”
Ms. Lee was a designer who created cartoon characters based on the cats, one black and one white, that she raised. She sold stickers, dolls, pouches and mugs bearing the cats’ image.
“She never failed to call me between 9 and 10 in the evening, when she was driving home after work,” Mr. Seo said. “I feel her absence when my phone no longer rings.”
Lee Jeong-min, 61, victim’s father
Mr. Lee — the father of Ms. Lee, Mr. Seo’s fiancée — has been campaigning with other victims’ families to persuade the country that official negligence was to blame for the disaster. But he has found the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol unwilling to acknowledge responsibility.
Park Geun-hye, the last president affiliated with Mr. Yoon’s governing People Power Party, saw her political fortunes crash after the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014. That disaster killed more than 300 people, most of them high school students. The victims’ families and their supporters helped organize enormous protests that eventually led to Ms. Park’s impeachment in 2017. Mr. Yoon’s party has moved to forestall similar public discontent after Itaewon.
“Yoon Suk Yeol feared he would become a second Park Geun-hye,” Mr. Lee said.
Victims’ families call the government’s investigation a whitewash because it never properly addressed what they say was official incompetence. No top official has been held accountable.
“The government has been ignoring us as if they wished we didn’t exist,” Mr. Lee said.
Kim Cho-rong, 33, survivor
For survivors, life has never been the same.
Ms. Kim, an author, suffered memory lapses and panic attacks. She sometimes struggled to go to the bathroom or to take the bus. Depression and suicidal impulses led her to seek psychiatric counseling.
Part of her depression stemmed from what she called South Korean society’s inability to “sympathize with the sufferings of other people” and its tendency to blame individuals in a disaster rather than to look into broader — and potentially embarrassing — structural causes.
People online called the young victims delinquent fun-seekers who should be responsible for their disorderliness when they followed Western customs like Halloween festivities. On a recent afternoon, a young mother and daughter walked past a white tent near Seoul City Hall, where mourners had paid tribute in front of photographs of Itaewon victims. When the girl asked who the people in the images were, the mother replied curtly, “That’s what would happen to you if you didn’t behave.”
Online, right-wing commenters vilified the families’ quest for accountability as a campaign to destabilize the government and seek more compensation. They showed up with loudspeakers at the families’ rallies, shouting that North Korea was behind the disaster.
“It appeared that our society dealt with a tragedy by spreading hate,” Ms. Kim said.
She has celebrated Halloween in Itaewon every year since 2016. All the festivities were held without major problems until last year. Ms. Kim went through her photographs from 2017, when more people gathered than there were last year. One picture showed Ms. Kim smiling in the same alleyway where the crowd crush would occur years later.
“That was when I realized that I did nothing wrong,” she said, “and that there was nothing wrong about going out to have fun.”
Lee Hyo-suk, 63, victim’s mother
Much of the country has moved on. But for the bereaved families, time remains frozen on the day their relatives died. One father said he cried for two days after a gift his daughter had ordered for his wedding anniversary arrived two weeks after her death.
Parents said they avoided gatherings of relatives because the absence of their children was more conspicuous and more painful. Some kept memories of their children alive by preserving how their bedrooms had been when they died.
“I miss my daughter the most when I lie in my bed,” said Lee Hyo-suk, whose daughter Jeong Ju-hee, 30, died in Itaewon. “When she came home, she used to lie next to me and talk.”
Ms. Lee said there was nothing she could do about her grief except visiting Ms. Jeong’s grave and banding together with other victims’ families. They console one another and fight for the truth about their children’s death to ensure that a similar tragedy will not happen again. With the support of opposition lawmakers, the families are pushing for a special law to start a new investigation that is independent of government influence.
“I had never imagined that this kind of disaster would happen to me,” Ms. Lee said. “Now I know that it could happen to anyone.”
nytimes.com · by Choe Sang-Hun Chang W. Lee · October 27, 2023
14. South Korea Must Return Buddhist Statue to Japan, Supreme Court Says
Another strange case.
South Korea Must Return Buddhist Statue to Japan, Supreme Court Says
The artifact, which was taken to Tsushima centuries ago, was stolen and smuggled back to South Korea by thieves in 2012.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/world/asia/south-korea-japan-buddhist-statue.html?searchResultPosition=2
A photograph of the Buddhist statue, which represents a bodhisattva known as Kanzeon in Japan and Gwaneum in South Korea.Credit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
By Choe Sang-Hun
Reporting from Seoul
Oct. 26, 2023
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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 incident added yet another dispute to the contentious relations between the two countries, which have long bickered over historical grievances.
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 temple won a court injunction in 2013 preventing its return to Japan.
A legal battle ensued between Buseoksa and the South Korean government. The Japanese temple, Kannonji, and Tokyo were not part of the lawsuit but have demanded the statue’s return. There was no evidence that the artifact had been brought to Japan illicitly, Kannonji said.
In a ruling in 2017, a provincial court in South Korea said the statute should be given to Buseoksa on the grounds that it had been taken centuries earlier by Japanese pirates. But in February, an appeals court ruled that the statue belonged to the Japanese temple because it had owned it long enough peacefully and publicly.
In a final say on the matter, the Supreme Court said on Thursday that the current Buseoksa was likely to be the same temple where the statue was originally made. But it added that the rightful owner was the Japanese temple for the same reason cited by the appeals court.
Buseoksa called the ruling outrageous. “It essentially legalized the plunder of cultural assets, saying that if you keep the plunder long enough, it becomes yours,” Buseoksa’s head monk, the Venerable Wonwoo, said on the phone. “It means that if you lose something through looting, you lose it forever.”
The statue represents a bodhisattva known as Kanzeon in Japan and Gwaneum in South Korea.
Even after the statue is returned to Japan, Buseoksa said that Buddhists in South Korea would continue their campaign to persuade Japan to return thousands of ancient artifacts that they said had been taken centuries ago by pirates and invaders from Japan.
Choe Sang-Hun is the Seoul bureau chief for The Times, focusing on news in North and South Korea. More about Choe Sang-Hun
15. South Korean politics is one big row about history
This is probably one of the most important articles for us non-Koreans to read to try to understand a little bit of the political problems in South Korea. This very issue was described by a Korean friend earlier this week.
There are about three questions I would ask Koreans to determine their political views:
How do you feel about Korean history? from the Japanese occupation to how the Miracle on the Han was accomplished? (e.g., do you credit Park Chung Hee? Do you support the way history is taught in Korean schools? What are your views on Kwangju?)
How do you feel about north Korea? (e.g, do you think reconciliation and coexistence is possible? How do you assess the nature, objectives, and strategy of the Kim family regime? Is the regime a threat to the ROK?)
How do you feel about unification? (e.g. do you support a conferenation process or a UNited Republic of Korea that is free and prosperous under democratic rule?)
South Korean politics is one big row about history
Traditional distinctions of left and right scarcely apply to the country
The Economist
Just as America has wrestled for years with whether to remove monuments to Confederate generals, so South Korea is gripped by a row about a bust. It concerns a statue of Hong Beom-do, a 20th-century Korean guerrilla leader, which stands on the grounds of the Korea Military Academy in Seoul. Those on the South Korean left consider Hong a nationalist hero; the right claims he fought against the ideals on which the Republic of Korea was founded and says the statue should be removed. On October 16th, after weeks of squabbling in parliament and newspapers, the military academy began to remove the bust as part of a sweeping renovation.
Americans who call for the removal of Confederate monuments are mostly on the left; preservationists such as Donald Trump are right-wingers. In South Korea it tends to be the other way round. This mismatch points to a common misunderstanding of South Korean politics. Western ideas of “left” and “right” do not apply to its two major factions.
In the West, the left-right divide has traditionally been defined by differences over economic and social policy as well as culture. South Korea is different. Of its two main parties, the People’s Power Party (PPP) is often labelled right-wing and the Democratic Party (DP) left-wing. Yet they espouse more or less the same pro-market economic policies and prefer to leave the chaebol, the family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korea’s economy, mostly undisturbed. Neither supports socially liberal causes like gay rights or takes a liberal view of immigration. South Korea’s rival factions—which also include civil-society organisations, newspapers and intellectuals—are largely distinguished by their contrasting views on modern Korean history.
For the notionally right-wing pPP, it is dominated by the fight against communism. Just as the civil war between capitalist and communist Korea never formally ended, despite the guns falling silent in 1953, so the South’s political conflict with the communist North continues. Hence the right’s aversion to Hong. A leading figure in the struggle against Japanese colonisation between 1910 and 1945, he led a resistance force in 1920 to two important victories against Japanese troops. The next year, after the occupation became more brutal, he fled to the Soviet Union, where he fought alongside Russia’s communists against the Japanese and later became a member of the Bolshevik party.
The supposedly left-wing dp is more exercised about Japanese imperialism and the South Korean military dictatorships it helped inspire. Hong’s bust was placed in the Korean Military Academy at the behest of Moon Jae-in, a DP president, as an attempt to link the modern South Korean armed forces with the guerrilla struggle against Japanese colonialism.
These contrasting points of emphasis yield notable foreign-policy differences. The dp and its allies remain deeply mistrustful of Japan, as was seen in their recent denunciation of the release of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Absurdly, the dp’s leader, Lee Jae-myung, said this would go down in history as “the second Pacific war”. The ppp is more ambivalent about Japanese colonisation and willing to set aside the many crimes it visited on Koreans. Some on the party’s fringe go so far as to suggest colonisation was a necessary evil to facilitate Korea’s modernisation.
The parties’ biggest difference is on North Korea. The South Korean “left” recalls the crucial role of North Koreans in the anti-Japanese struggle and expresses a deep fraternal yearning for a unified Korea. While in office between 2017 and 2022 Moon Jae-in bent over backwards to engage diplomatically with the North. His failure has blunted his party’s peacemaking instincts a bit. Even so, the ppp remains markedly more hostile to the North. It considers unification desirable, but only possible after the North’s totalitarian regime has collapsed. For Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s ppp president, “the power of force is the only way to guarantee true peace.”
Americans would recognise another feature of South Korean politics: vicious partisanship. Yoon Suk-yeol calls his dp opponents apologists for totalitarianism. His defence minister once said Mr Moon should have his throat slit. Mr Lee calls Mr Yoon’s presidency a “dictatorial regime”. As in America, there are two explanations for this ultra-aggressiveness. First, the factions’ single main disagreement is emotive. Also, on most governing issues, there is nothing to choose between them—except an often cynically exaggerated enmity. ■
Read more from Banyan, our columnist on Asia:
The Economist
15. Meet the Pastor Who Has Helped 1,000 People Escape North Korea
He has done important work. I know others who are responsible for getting a lot of people out over the last 30+ years, including the only one who was responsible for getting the only 60+ people out of north Korea in 2022 during the pandemic. But I am gratified that this film has been made to tell the difficult stories of our Korean brothers and sisters from the north.
Meet the Pastor Who Has Helped 1,000 People Escape North Korea
Beyond Utopia reveals a different kind of superhero and sobering details about a secretive villain
By Henry WongPUBLISHED: 26 OCTOBER 2023
Esquire · October 26, 2023
“I’m not a hero, I’m just a pastor,” Kim Seongeun tells me in a London office. After watching Beyond Utopia, a documentary about North Korean defectors, you may find those words hard to believe. The unassuming figure, also known as Pastor Kim, has helped around 1,000 people escape from the totalitarian state for over 20 years, as they embark on what is one of the most dangerous journeys in the world: across the Yalu River, into China’s mountains, and along inhospitable borders, to reach the haven of South Korea. The pastor’s “just” begins to look a little misplaced.
The documentary, directed by Madeleine Gavin and in cinemas now, follows two escape attempts from North Korea: the Roh family, travelling with two children and a grandmother, and the son of Soyeon Lee, a defector based in South Korea, who hopes to reunite with his mother. Gavin intersperses those gripping real-time stories with a history lesson about the two Koreas as well as footage, covertly shot, from inside the dictatorship. Whatever you think of the tyrannical regime, as much as we read about weapons of mass destruction and Kim Jong-un’s leadership, your ideas will likely be changed by this picture, of a backwards country with food and water shortages. One where civilians must gather human excrement for fertiliser. At the centre of it all is South Korea-based Pastor Kim, who has built a network of “brokers” along the escape route in China, Vietnam, Laos, Manchuria and Thailand.
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Challenges include the Chinese authorities (who will return any caught defectors to North Korea), treacherous jungle crossings, the weather. Covid made things even harder. And there is little money to work with when things go wrong. The church is one of the only establishments funding the missions, the pastor explains, and the South Korean government can do little for diplomatic reasons. As you might expect, the pastor – the kind of reassuring person you would text in a crisis – has a lot of tales. One of the strangest rescue missions happened in 2013. He was supposed to help one orphan escape but along the way, 14 villages joined the mission. Pastor Kim prayed, and suddenly, he received a phone call from a Korean emigrant in American who had read online about The Caleb Mission, the organisation which Pastor Kim runs. She transferred $12,000 immediately to help. He attributes that to God’s blessing, but any mission would not have been possible without the pastor’s groundwork.
A little like Oskar Schindler, Pastor Kim has led a life that could inspire Hollywood films. He helped his now-wife to escape North Korea. Then he helped her friends. He has broken bones and undergone surgery from injuries sustained on escape attempts. While on a mission, his son died. “I promised to my son and to God that both my wife and I would devote our life to rescue North Korean defectors,” he says. “That’s what keeps us going.” But still: what does he do when he has a bad day? This is the first time, his interpreter tells me with some surprise, that he has been asked this question. Sometimes, the pastor explains, he wants to go on vacation with his daughter and wife, but it is hard to find the time. “Without God, I probably could have become an alcoholic or drug addict, because I have to deal with a crazy amount of stress and trauma and death.”
Soyeon Lee
Dogwoof
Beyond Utopia plays out like a thriller. When you watch extraordinary mobile phone footage of escapes – none of which is a recreation, the introductory credits stress – the word that often comes to mind is: how? How did the filmmakers convince defectors, who surely have other things on their mind, to be on film? Gavin assures me that all defectors gave consent for the footage to be used and Pastor Kim’s network has cameras hidden along the over 800-mile border of North Korea and China. Early buzz for Beyond Utopia, which debuted at Sundance Festival and won in the audience category for U.S Documentary, means many more people will soon be watching (especially if the Oscars come calling).
In 2014, The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, caused an international crisis from Hollywood. The comedy, which mocked North Korea and depicted the death of Kim (with plenty of R-rated jokes), led to a hack of its owner Sony Pictures. Embarrassing emails and films were leaked; hackers threatened to attack film premieres. The US has claimed the hacks were organised by North Korea, though its government has denied involvement. Does Gavin think Beyond Utopia might have a similar blowback? Authorities definitely know about the film, according to the director, as well as the work of Pastor Kim. “In The Interview, they mocked Kim Jong Un and blew a rocket up his butt – that is something that was intolerable to him,” Gavin says. “What we say about Kim Jong Un in our film, is that he’s a strong man, and a brutal dictator, and by all accounts, this is not something that particularly bothers him.”
One of the bittersweet feelings explored in Beyond Utopia, and one which you may wish to see explored more fully, is the torment defectors experience once they arrive in South Korea. “If you go on a fancy vacation, you still miss your hometown and your food,” Pastor Kim explains. “So obviously for North Korean defectors, they miss their home, they miss their food.”
During the pandemic, he set up a community centre in South Korea for defectors, where they meet to cook together and share information about what’s going on in their hometowns. “They all have the same experience and heartbroken stories.” On rare days off, he visits the centres and catches up with the defectors. Or else, they come to church on Sundays; they learn to lead normal lives, they listen to K Pop. The children love BTS. Life, it seems, often comes down to routine, food and pop music.
‘Beyond Utopia’ is out now in cinemas
Esquire · October 26, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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