Quotes of the Day:

“Only those who decline to scramble up the career ladder are interesting as human beings. Nothing is more boring than a career man.” 

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 

“Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate."  

- Chuang Tau

“Home by Christmas” statement by General MacArthur, November 28, 1950

The Associated Press had reported last Friday that General MacArthur discussed

the campaign with Major General John B. Coulter and remarked, with a smile:

“You tell the boys that when they get to the Yalu (River) they are going home. I

want to make good on my statement that they are going to eat Christmas dinner at

home.”

1. N. Korea to hold key party meeting this week for 2023 policies

2. Defector-turned-lawmaker warns N.K. leader against phishing scams

3. U.S. flaunts deterrence capabilities in exercise near Korean Peninsula

4.  [Editorial] Centralize the effort to combat cyber warfare (South Korea)

5. [Column] Argument for a Korean War archive

6. North Korea hacked 892 foreign policy experts

7. [Newsmaker] Kim Keon-hee expands role as first lady

8. US to Deploy Battalion-level Troops for Combined High-Tech Combat Training Next Year

9. Seoul's roundabout plan to compensate Japan's wartime forced labor victims appears to be in motion

1. N. Korea to hold key party meeting this week for 2023 policies

​I cannot wait to hear their pronouncements.

​

N. Korea to hold key party meeting this week for 2023 policies | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · December 25, 2022

SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea plans to hold a key ruling party meeting this week to review this year's policies and discuss major tasks in 2023.

Drawing keen attention from the outside world is the possibility that the reclusive Kim Jong-un regime will unveil strategies on inter-Korean relations and a stalemate in denuclearization talks with the United States.

Pyongyang's state media reported that the 6th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party will be held in late December to decide on "work plans for 2023 and a series of important issues arising in the development of the Party and the revolution at present."

During the upcoming event, North Korea may unveil its main external policy directions and offer an indication of plans for another nuclear test, as well as additional launches of long-range missiles. South Korea's defense authorities said they are keeping an eye on the North's reported preparations for a massive military parade.

Kim may also use the party's session to deliver a major speech in lieu of his New Year's Day address, usually presented on Jan. 1.

He has refrained from giving his New Year's Day address since 2019, when he delivered a speech at a plenary session of the party.

Pyongyang is scheduled to celebrate major political anniversaries next year, including the 75th founding anniversary of its Korean People's Army on Feb. 8.

The North usually commemorates every fifth and 10th anniversary of such major events with mass rallies or military parades.

julesyi@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · December 25, 2022

2. Defector-turned-lawmaker warns N.K. leader against phishing scams

We have to aggressively target the regime's all purpose sword. (I know I am like a broken record).

Defector-turned-lawmaker warns N.K. leader against phishing scams | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · December 25, 2022

SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) -- Defector-turned-lawmaker Tae Yong-ho warned North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday against using fake accounts to send phishing emails in his office's name.

Rep. Tae of the ruling People Power Party held a press conference at the National Assembly after police determined North Korean hacking entities sent out mass phishing emails under the name of the lawmaker's secretary in May.

"I warn Kim Jong-un that such fraud will no longer work," he said, adding he too was surprised by the sophistication of the emails.

"It's been proven once again that the Kim Jong-un regime is stalking my every move 24/7," Tae said. "The hacking units of the Kim Jong-un regime have been hacking my cell phone, computer and laptop at every opportunity."

The lawmaker, who defected to South Korea while serving as a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy in London, said the latest incident taught him once again that his every activity has a large impact on the Kim regime.

"I will not bow to the Kim Jong-un regime's fraud and stalking, and with my first intentions in mind, work more actively until the day of reunification with my life at stake," he said.

hague@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · December 25, 2022

3. U.S. flaunts deterrence capabilities in exercise near Korean Peninsula

Not flaunting. Just demonstrating the facts. We have the capabilities and the will to use them if the north attacks.

Sunday

December 25, 2022

 dictionary + A - A 

U.S. flaunts deterrence capabilities in exercise near Korean Peninsula

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/12/25/national/defense/Korea-B52-Stratofortress/20221225175053273.html

A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bomber flies alongside three F-22 Raptor stealth bombers and a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft in the distance during a training mission near the Korean Peninsula on Dec. 20. [DEFENSE MINISTRY]

Two U.S. B-52 bombers participated in a three-day exercise near the Korean Peninsula to highlight the U.S. military's extended deterrence capabilities in the western Pacific, according to the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command on Friday.

The command’s announcement that the mission had wrapped up was released the same day that North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea. 

The two B-52 Stratofortress bombers were dispatched to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Dec. 18, according to a press release by the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command.

The command said that the B-52 crews then “integrated with U.S. Air Force F-22s rotationally based in the region” as well as with regional allies during the exercise.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that the United States flew B-52 bombers and F-22 stealth fighter jets near South Korea Tuesday as a demonstration of U.S. “extended deterrence” against North Korea.

According to the ministry, South Korean F-35A and F-15K fighters also participated in the joint air drills, which were held in South Korea’s air defense identification zone (Kadiz) southwest of Jeju Island.

“The B-52s signified the United States’ ability to project nuclear-capable bombers across the globe to integrate with Allies and partners and provide extended deterrence options against aggression in the region,” the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command said.

The deployment of the two B-52 bombers and the F-22 stealth fighters by the U.S. military follows last month’s agreement between South Korean and U.S. defense officials to bolster Washington’s security assurances to Seoul by increasing joint military drills and regularly deploying U.S. strategic assets, including long-range bombers and aircraft carriers, to the region.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the allies will “continue to strengthen [their] combined defense posture” in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The statement from the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command was released the same day that the North fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea.

The missiles, which were launched from the Sunan area near Pyongyang at 4:32 p.m., flew 250 kilometers (155 miles) and 350 kilometers, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The most recent launches brought the total number of missiles fired by Pyongyang this year to 67.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang’s state media reported that the 6th plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party will be held in late December to decide “a working plan for 2023 and a series of important issues arising in the development of the Party and the revolution at present.”

The ruling party’s plenary session will be closely watched for clues about the regime’s military agenda and external policy toward South Korea and the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may also use the party gathering to deliver a major speech instead of giving it on New Year’s Day.

Kim has not delivered a speech on Jan. 1 since 2019, when he chose instead to give a speech at a party plenary session.

At the eighth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party held in January 2021, Kim used the occasion of a speech to party members to outline several sophisticated military assets sought by his regime, which included a spy satellite.

The North last week launched two medium-range ballistic missiles, one of which state media claimed carried a test satellite that was the final step for the development of the regime's first reconnaissance satellite, scheduled to be launched in April next year.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released low-resolution black-and-white photos showing a view from space of Seoul and Incheon, which the agency said was taken by the test satellite.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]

4. [Editorial] Centralize the effort to combat cyber warfare (South Korea)

Sunday

December 25, 2022

 dictionary + A - A 

[Editorial] Centralize the effort to combat cyber warfare

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/12/25/opinion/editorials/cyber-security-North-Korea/20221225195025719.html

North Korea collected information on South Korea by impersonating reporters covering President Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee or as officials from the Korea National Diplomacy Academy or secretaries of Rep. Thae Young-ho, a North Korean defector and a member of the governing People Power Party. After a North Korean hacking group sent emails to 892 South Korean experts in diplomacy, unification, security and defense from April to October, 49 of them connected to a phishing site and handed over their sensitive documents to the hacking group in the North.

The intelligence authorities found that North Korea’s hacking of the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) in 2014 and the sending of emails in the name of the National Security Office in 2016 were also conducted by the hacking group named “Kimsuky.” The hacking group also planted malware in computers for users not to be able to use important data and demanded money from them. As a result, two out of the 13 small companies under attack had to pay money to the hackers.

The North’s cyber hacking and attacks are nothing new. According to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korea carried out 600,000 attempts at hacking on South Korea this year alone, primarily to steal defense technology data. Since hacking cryptocurrency-trading sites from 2017, North Korea made more than 1.5 trillion won ($1.17 billion), including in South Korea, to help finance its missile development.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made it official. He suggested the possibility of using cyberwar in times of crisis after comparing cyberwarfare to an “almighty weapon together with nuclear weapons and missiles.” The weight of cyberwar was proven in the Russia-Ukraine war. Two months before the aggression, Russia spread malware to major institutions in Ukraine to damage its defense capabilities. One month before the invasion, Russian hacking groups penetrated the network of the Ukraine government and financial systems of the private sector. Shortly before and after the invasion, Russia hacked most of those systems.

Despite the top-caliber IT infrastructure in South Korea, questions remain over whether the country can deal with these attacks. A big problem is the lack of an integral system to effectively cope with cyber threats from the North. In the South, the NIS is responsible for cybersecurity for the public sector, the Korea Internet & Security Agency for the private sector, and the Cyber Command for the military. We must establish a combined command center at a national level just like the United States, Japan and China.

Eleven bills related to the installation of a cybersecurity control center have been proposed since 2006. But they could not be passed due to deepening concerns about the NIS using the center as a means to spy on officials and ordinary citizens. The top spy agency plans to enact a law to set up an integral body in it, where the national security adviser serves as the chief. According to its proposal, the presidential office takes final responsibility for cyber defense and the National Assembly oversees the organization. As national security and privacy and properties are at stake, the government and the legislature must discuss it quickly beyond partisan interest.

5. [Column] Argument for a Korean War archive

I think South Korea should establish a global archive. It was their war and it should gather all the data it can from around the world and be a central repository.

Excerpts:

If a global archive is set up in South Korea, it could help overcome the limits of U.S.-centered data for a solid understanding of the war. In “The Origins of the Korean War,” Prof. Bruce Cummings of the University of Chicago raised the possibility that the United States encouraged North Korea to invade South Korea. But his argument proved wrong after an old Soviet document pointed to the other direction. The case clearly necessitated comprehensive research on the war.

The committee plans to collect data from 35 countries in total, including 21 which sent combat troops and medical supplies, China, Russia and members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, not to mention Taiwan and Japan. The data to be gathered are not confined to government documents as the committee wants to include a number of news reports, photos and videos produced by the private sector and create a digital data base.

Foreign countries have archives dedicated to certain wars. In Texas, the Vietnam Center and Archive with a huge collection of related data was built in 1989 with the cooperation of Vietnam War veterans to teach lessons to future generations about the war. Independence, a city in the state of Missouri, also a research section on the Korean War in the Harry Truman Presidential Library.

Demand to open a global archive in South Korea is growing thanks to its geopolitical advantages. First of all, the country maintains good relations with a number of related countries. Though its ties with China and Russia suffered a temporary setback over the Thaad deployment and the Ukraine war, South Korea’s relatively friendly relations with China and Russia will certainly help the country to secure related documents from them.

Second, South Korea also has advantage in language. Thorough research on the Korean War calls for an ability to understand the Korean language. But foreign experts capable of using Korean proficiently are quite limited in number, while there are many Koreans who can use English, French and Russian fluently. Another strength comes from the fact that Koreans can learn Chinese and Japanese languages more easily than their Western counterparts. If South Korea installs a global archive after working hard to collect foreign language-based data, we can let foreign scholars or journalists visit the country to study the Korean War. It will also help raise our global stature.

Sunday

December 25, 2022

 dictionary + A - A 

[Column] Argument for a Korean War archive

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/12/25/opinion/columns/Korean-War-archive-South-Korea/20221225194655765.html

Nam Jeong-ho

The author is a columnist for the JoongAng Ilbo.

Next year, 2023, will mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement signed in Panmunjom on July 27, 1953. The brutal war ended, but the Korean Peninsula is still bisected. South and North Korea are technically still at war. But the problem is a completely different interpretation of the 1950-53 Korean War depending on ideological interpretations. Some even claim the war began from the South’s aggression against the North.

Under such precarious circumstances, politicians and academics in South Korea are pushing hard to set up a global archive to correctly catalogue the substance of the forgotten war by collecting all related data scattered around the world. The following is a lead-up to the call for the global archive project being pushed ahead of the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement to help people not repeat such tragedies.

A noteworthy debate took place at the National Assembly on September 13 even amid a heated battle between the People Power Party (PPP) and the Democratic Party (DP) over the indictment of DP Chair Lee Jae-myung on charges of election law violation. The debate was focused on devising strategies to successfully establish a global archive on the Korean War in South Korea. In the discussion, over 10 lawmakers from both parties took part, including five-term lawmaker Sul Hoon of the DP and PPP chief policymaker Sung Il-jong, together with senior historians to gather wisdom for a successful establishment of the archive.

They aim to discover and collect all Korean War-related documents and possessions of veterans scattered in 35 countries — including South and North Korea and the 16 countries that sent troops to help South Korea — to accurately record the history of the war. Political heavyweights and other figures joined the move because it goes beyond partisan interest. The participants decided to set up an excavation committee for global records on the war inside the legislature with Reps. Sul and Sung and former National Institute of Korean History president Cho Kwang serving as co-chair of the committee.

Members of the committee also include other DP lawmakers, such as Rep. Ahn Gyu-back and Jung Tae-ho, and PPP lawmakers, including Chung Woon-chun, as well as independent lawmaker Yang Jung-suk, all serving as vice chairs of the committee. The project was initiated by Rep. Sul, who first recognized the importance of creating the archive, and gained traction after Rep. Sung joined the crusade.

Rep. Sung pointed out that the Korean Peninsula became “a hotbed for a global power contest after the liberation” and noted the “divergent historical evaluation of the war” even after seven decades. He expressed hope that the global archive can teach lessons about the war to future generations so that they can appreciate the history without any bias.

The Korean War is still full of mysteries. One is why the Soviet Union did not participate in a UN Security Council meeting in July 1950 — which led to the establishment of the United Nations Command — despite its veto power. Some claim that Joseph Stalin, the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, wanted to weaken the power of America and China by drawing the U.S. into the war. But the truth has yet to be found. Another mystery is why Hungary, a member of the Soviet bloc, provided logistics support to South Korea together with allied forces. Hungary may have helped South Korea on humanitarian grounds without knowing that the Soviet Union was behind the invasion. But no one knows exactly about the strange support from Hungary.

North Korea’s domestic situation before and after the aggression on June 25, 1950 also needs to be clarified, including how the Soviets trained the North Korean military and what strategies they drew up to attack South Korea. A report sent by the three-star head of the Soviet military advisory group in Pyongyang to Moscow could offer a key clue to the mystery. The report could still be sleeping in Russia’s government archives of foreign policy records, including the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The chief advisor orchestrated the North’s methodical preparations for the invasion. He is known to have drawn up attack operations and backed the North Korean Army behind the scenes.

Despite all the mysteries surrounding the war, historical documents and other materials are critically lacking. It was a genuine international war involving the two Koreas, UN troops from 16 countries, the Chinese Army and the Soviet forces. Also, it was a war that had significant impact on the world order amid the Cold War. To correctly comprehend the significance of the war, diverse materials hidden in institutions at home and abroad must be collected and looked into.

But reality points to a different direction. Scholars in South Korea have mostly relied on historical documents in the country and North Korea. They have been able to access the vast data at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) since the 1970s, but could not overcome the limits from American angle. European countries, like the UK and France, conducted their own research on the Korean War, but most of the results of their study were not introduced to South Korea. After the normalization of relations with the Soviet Union in 1990, Soviet internal documents on the Korean War could be delivered to South Korea to discover untold stories of the forgotten war. But many documents are still not disclosed yet.

If a global archive is set up in South Korea, it could help overcome the limits of U.S.-centered data for a solid understanding of the war. In “The Origins of the Korean War,” Prof. Bruce Cummings of the University of Chicago raised the possibility that the United States encouraged North Korea to invade South Korea. But his argument proved wrong after an old Soviet document pointed to the other direction. The case clearly necessitated comprehensive research on the war.

The committee plans to collect data from 35 countries in total, including 21 which sent combat troops and medical supplies, China, Russia and members of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, not to mention Taiwan and Japan. The data to be gathered are not confined to government documents as the committee wants to include a number of news reports, photos and videos produced by the private sector and create a digital data base.

Foreign countries have archives dedicated to certain wars. In Texas, the Vietnam Center and Archive with a huge collection of related data was built in 1989 with the cooperation of Vietnam War veterans to teach lessons to future generations about the war. Independence, a city in the state of Missouri, also a research section on the Korean War in the Harry Truman Presidential Library.

Demand to open a global archive in South Korea is growing thanks to its geopolitical advantages. First of all, the country maintains good relations with a number of related countries. Though its ties with China and Russia suffered a temporary setback over the Thaad deployment and the Ukraine war, South Korea’s relatively friendly relations with China and Russia will certainly help the country to secure related documents from them.

Second, South Korea also has advantage in language. Thorough research on the Korean War calls for an ability to understand the Korean language. But foreign experts capable of using Korean proficiently are quite limited in number, while there are many Koreans who can use English, French and Russian fluently. Another strength comes from the fact that Koreans can learn Chinese and Japanese languages more easily than their Western counterparts. If South Korea installs a global archive after working hard to collect foreign language-based data, we can let foreign scholars or journalists visit the country to study the Korean War. It will also help raise our global stature.

6. North Korea hacked 892 foreign policy experts

You know my comments about going after the all purpose sword.

This is why you should never advertise yourself as an expert.

North Korea hacked 892 foreign policy experts

The Korea Times · December 25, 2022

North Korean hackers sent almost 900 spear phishing emails to South Korean foreign policy experts this year and attacked the country's online shopping malls to demand cyber assets, according to the National Police Agency. Gettyimagesbank

Police say almost 900 received phishing emails, and some ended up paying ransom

By Ko Dong-hwan

North Korean carried out cyberattacks on at least 892 foreign policy experts from South Korea to steal their personal data and email lists as well as carrying out ransomware attacks against online malls, according to the National Police Agency. The South Korean authorities said Sunday that the attacks were meticulous enough to have tricked some of the victims into signing into fake websites, exposing their login details to the attackers.

The attacks, mainly targeting think tank experts and professors, began as early as last April, the agency said. The hackers sent spear phishing emails from multiple accounts posing as figures in South Korea, including a secretary from the office of Rep. Tae Yong-ho of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) in May, and an official from the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in October. The emails included a link to a fake website or an attachment carrying a virus that is triggered when opened.

Forty-nine of the recipients ended up visiting the fake websites and logging in, allowing the hackers to infiltrate and monitor their email accounts and download data from them, the agency said.

The police said that the hackers laundered their IP addresses and employed 326 "detour" servers in 26 countries to make it difficult to trace them online.

The police suspect that the hackers are the same group that hacked Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power in 2014. The authorities pointed to the IP addresses indicating the origin of attack, the hackers' attempts to coax their targets into signing up for foreign websites, how the hackers infiltrated and managed the detour servers, the hackers' use of North Korean diction, as well as the fact the hackers targeted experts of diplomacy, inter-Korean unification, national security and defense as reasons to believe so. The police mentioned they investigated a North Korean hacking group called Kimsuky numerous times.

Paik Jong-wook from the National Intelligence Service speaks during a press conference at a national cybersecurity cooperation center in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Dec. 22. Courtesy of National Intelligence Service

The police also said this year was also the first time they detected North Korean hackers using ransomware, which encrypts the files of the target device and demands a ransom for unlocking them. Apart from sending emails to the foreign policy experts, the hackers attacked shopping malls with cybersecurity vulnerability. Nineteen servers operated by 13 companies were hit; two of the companies paid the ransom of 2.5 million won ($1,980) worth of bitcoins to the group.

Lee Gyu-bong, chief of the police agency's counter cyber terror bureau, said that the bureau has been tracking the email addresses from which the spear phishing mails were sent as well as inspecting the bitcoin exchange market overseas.

The police suspect that North Korean hackers' activities will continue for some time and urged people to increase security for their email accounts and other personal databases.

In a press conference last Thursday, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) also predicted Pyongyang's cyberattacks to continue next year. Forecasting potential threats to the country's cybersecurity in 2023, Paik Jong-wook, one of the deputy presidents of the NIS, said that state-backed hackers like those from North Korea and China will continue their attacks on Seoul to steal South Korean technologies related to the nuclear industry, space, semiconductors, national defense and joint strategies with the U.S. against Pyongyang.

"North Korean hackers might use deepfakes to produce and spread fake videos online as propaganda against Seoul, just like how Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was portrayed in a fake video surrendering to Russia in the early phase of the ongoing war," Paik said. "We consider smartphones, computers and other personal devices of the president and ministers primary targets to protect from those hackers."

Paik said North Korean hackers are trained to have the world's top capabilities to infiltrate virtual assets like digital coins. He assumed Pyongyang has stolen some 1.5 trillion won in cryptocurrency around the world since 2017, including 80 million won this year alone, and more than 10 million won from South Korea.

"There were an average of 1.18 million attempted cyberattacks by organized hackers from across the world against the South Korean government per day last month," Paik said. "It's become an old tale that this volume of online attacks can be prevented singularly by the government."

The NIS on Nov. 30 introduced a new cybersecurity cooperation center so that the government and private cybersecurity providers can work jointly to protect against cyberattacks around the clock.

The Korea Times · December 25, 2022

7. [Newsmaker] Kim Keon-hee expands role as first lady

[Newsmaker] Kim Keon-hee expands role as first lady

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · December 25, 2022

First Lady Kim Keon-hee speaks during a dinner with young people living in institutional care on Friday at Cheong Wa Dae. (Yonhap)

Kim Keon-hee is expanding her role as first lady, straying from her earlier promise that she would not play a role “beyond that of a spouse.”

While Yoon Suk-yeol was still a presidential candidate, the couple had said that Kim would not serve as first lady in the traditional sense if he is elected.

Kim told a press conference held last year that she would not have a formal presence as first lady during her husband’s tenure in office, and that she would “not have a role beyond that of a spouse” at the presidential office.

Yoon said in a press conference held Dec. 22 last year in North Jeolla Province that he has “long thought that the custom of having a first lady is outdated.”

How Kim handles her role as first lady has come under scrutiny since Yoon took office.

“I believe it’s a good thing that the first lady is doing her job,” said Park Jie-won, the former President Kim Dae-jung’s chief of staff and onetime National Intelligence Service director, during a phone call with The Korea Herald on Sunday.

“Her work and activities should, however, be managed by the presidential office,” said Park, who recently rejoined the Democratic Party of Korea.

“The press corps should also have access to cover them,” he added.

On the first lady meeting with the family of a victim of the Oct. 29 crowd crush in Itaewon, Park told a radio interview on Nov. 11 that she “touched people’s hearts.”

“She wept with the bereaved family and apologized to them. Why isn’t the president doing what the first lady is doing? She is doing a much better job.”

Cambodian news outlets posted stories of First Lady Kim Keon-hee meeting with the 14-year-old Aok Rotha at Seoul’s Asan Medical Center on Dec. 21. (Yonhap)

After Yoon was sworn in, he removed the first lady’s office as promised. The first lady's official schedule is still announced through briefings or press releases, and the press corps is usually not informed in advance or invited to cover it.

The presidential office on Sunday sent a message to the press corps publicizing a Korea Herald news article on the first lady’s activities.

The message linked to the article posted on the Cambodian outlet Khmer Times website, which was about Kim catching up with Aok Rotha, a 14-year-old Cambodian boy who recently received a sponsored heart surgery at Asan Medical Center in Seoul. Kim first met Rotha during her trip to Phnom Penh last month.

The opposition has criticized the first lady’s public appearances.

Democratic Party’s supreme council member Rep. Jang Kyung-tae called Kim visiting Rotha’s family during her Cambodia trip “poverty porn” while appearing as a guest on online media outlet Ohmynews’ YouTube show on Nov. 17.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)

koreaherald.com · by Kim Arin · December 25, 2022

8. US to Deploy Battalion-level Troops for Combined High-Tech Combat Training Next Year

The ROK Army's Korea Combat Training Center (KCTC)

US to Deploy Battalion-level Troops for Combined High-Tech Combat Training Next Year

world.kbs.co.kr

Politics

Written: 2022-12-25 12:55:13 / Updated: 2022-12-25 13:39:20

Photo : KBS News

The United States will reportedly involve battalion-level troops for the first time next year for its high-tech combat training with South Korea.

According to the military on Sunday, battalion-level U.S. troops will participate in two separate brigade combat training exercises at the Army's Korea Combat Training Center (KCTC) from next year.

The KCTC training is a high-intensity combat training, in which South Korean and U.S. troops use the multiple integrated laser engagement system for simulated combat exercises, without using live ammunition.

The United States has mobilized company-level troops for the combined drills until this year.

The U.S.' plan to deploy battalion-level troops for the training is interpreted as a move to strengthen the allies' combined defense posture amid continued provocations by North Korea and heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea and the United States reportedly plan to hold the KCTC training in March and December next year.

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9. Seoul's roundabout plan to compensate Japan's wartime forced labor victims appears to be in motion

Seoul's roundabout plan to compensate Japan's wartime forced labor victims appears to be in motion

Posted on : Dec.25,2022 10:25 KST Modified on : Dec.25,2022 10:25 KST

The plan to compensate by subrogation has been rejected by victims and their advocates, who call for direct compensation from offending Japanese corporations

https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/1073018.html

The Hankyoreh confirmed Friday that the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan is in the process of adding a clause on compensation to victims to its articles of association.

This is leading some to presume that the government has begun the preliminary preparation process for carrying out its “compensation by subrogation” plan, which for some time now has been strongly considered a likely method of resolving the issue of colonial-era use of forced Korean labor by Japan.

According to the Hankyoreh’s investigation, the foundation held a meeting of its board of directors on Nov. 21 and made the decision to add a phrase about compensation to victims to its articles of association.

The foundation plans to apply for approval of the articles to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety sometime next week. The foundation was first established in 2014 to support Korean victims of forced labor under imperial Japan.

The government’s “compensation by subrogation” plan would entail the Korean government using its budget to pay out compensation to the plaintiffs first in the stead of the companies being accused of using forced labor — namely, Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. After this, the South Korean government would claim the right to indemnity from a foundation created by collecting “voluntary” donations from Korean and Japanese companies.

Currently, the foundation’s articles of association contain no wording that points to the possibility for victims to be compensated.

It seems that the foundation’s board of directors has prepared a legal basis for the foundation to enforce a compensation by subrogation plan through a change in their articles of association.

Those in the diplomatic world say that changing the foundation’s articles of association is the first step of the government beginning full-scale preparations to implement the subrogation plan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also expected to step up its efforts in persuading the victims to accept the plan.

On Nov. 7, Seo Min-jeong, the director of the Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with groups supporting the victims of forced labor and explained concepts related to the compensation by subrogation plan.

However, such actions taken by the government are not very aligned with a “victims first” approach and are likely to be a source of difficulties in the future.

So far, the victims have rejected the subrogation plan, instead demanding direct compensation and an apology from the Japanese companies responsible.

“The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is trying to improve South Korea-Japan relations by hastily resolving the issue of forced labor, such as by [pushing for the] compensation by subrogation [plan],” the Campaign for Peace and Historical Justice for South Korea and Japan, which was launched in August by several civic groups to resolve historical issues between Korea and Japan, said on Dec. 8.

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Senior Advisor, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com