Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

"Note that behind these concepts rests a distinction between a central political vision which lies at the core of a nation's or movement's political will, and the unfolding of that vision into ideas, guidelines, and media products for political warfare purposes. The unfolding process is complex, and an understanding of its patterns is essential to coherent and purposeful political warfare, both defensive and offensive. Note also that the process is dynamic; even in the most rigidly structured and strictly disciplined nations it can change with lightning rapidity. It may also be subject to slow, glacial movement, discernible only by extended trend-line analysis but still meaningful in cumulative effect. Recent history includes instructive cases of political warfare conducted either in ignorance of such forces or, more disastrously, on the basis of over sophisticated and schematic perceptions of them."

-Paul Smith, "On Political Warfare"

"All war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal."

- John Steinbeck, “Once There Was a War”

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed by the masses.”

- Plato

1. Experts: North Korean Full Range ICBM Test Could Challenge US on Interception

2. S. Korea, U.S., British Marines hold joint infiltration drills

3. Unification minister meets top Japanese officials in Tokyo

4. N. Korea fired 4 cruise missiles Wednesday: defense minister

5. Talking like ‘capitalist’ South Koreans can lead to prison or death in North Korea

6. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ Laborers forced to begin group commutes to work while singing in what appears to be the regime’s efforts to strengthen control over the people

7. S. Korea co-sponsors UNHRC draft resolution on N.K. human rights after 5 yrs

8. Yoon to lead session at Biden's Summit for Democracy

9. Yoon calls for actively protecting defense industry secrets

10. [Editorial] Don’t damage integrity of public broadcast (South Korea)

11. U.S. sees no imminent sign of nuclear weapons use by N. Korea: Kirby |

12. Korea drops WTO trade complaint against Japan

13. Daughter of North Korean dictator seen wearing $1,900 Dior jacket

14. Why normalizing US-North Korea relations is a prerequisite for denuclearization

15. The Real Reason South Koreans Aren’t Having Babies

1. Experts: North Korean Full Range ICBM Test Could Challenge US on Interception

Comments from Dr. Bruce Bechtol, Dr, Bruce Bennett, Jonathan McDowell, and me are below.

Experts: North Korean Full Range ICBM Test Could Challenge US on Interception

March 21, 2023 9:21 PM

Christy Lee

voanews.com

Washington —

Western experts analyzing North Korea’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile tests are watching to see whether Pyongyang will follow up by firing an ICBM into the Pacific Ocean on a flat trajectory more like a real attack on the United States.

Such a test would be intended to demonstrate North Korea’s ability to reach the mainland United States with a nuclear weapon as well as to gauge whether the Biden administration would try to intercept it, the experts told VOA’s Korean service.

North Korea said it launched a Hwasong-17 ICBM on March 16 to "give a stronger warning" to the U.S. and South Korea, saying those nations were escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula with large-scale military drills. The allies were three days into their 11-day Freedom Shield live exercises that Pyongyang views as a rehearsal for an invasion.

The Hwasong-17 was fired into space on a trajectory that sent it to over 6,000 kilometers in altitude and about 1,000 kilometers in distance before it splashed into the waters off North Korea’s eastern coast, according to state media.

North Korea has not conducted a full-range test of its ICBMs involving longer and lower flight paths as if they were aimed at a distant adversary. The country has tested them only on a lofted trajectory.

Experts said North Korea may test fire either its Hwasong-17 or Hwasong-15 to full range into the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate its capability to target the United States. North Korea said it launched the Hwasong-15 ICBM in February.

The Hwasong-17 has a maximum range of 15,000 kilometers, which means it is capable of hitting targets anywhere in the U.S. The Hwasong-15 has the range of about 13,000 kilometers, making it capable of reaching almost all of the continental U.S.

Jonathan McDowell, a satellite and space expert at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said, "It's quite likely they could do such a test."

The astrophysicist continued to say that North Korea could test fire a Hwasong-17 into the Pacific, in international waters near Hawaii.

Proving capability

In December, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said the country could launch an ICBM on a high angle "to clear up" any "doubts" about its capability.

In February, she said North Korea could use the Pacific Ocean as a "firing range" to aim its missiles.

Bruce Bechtol, a former intelligence officer at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and now a professor at Angelo University in Texas, said the goal of undertaking a full-range ICBM test aimed at the Pacific would be to prove the missile has the capability of reaching the U.S.

"What that does is it demonstrates definitively that North Korea has the capability to do what it claims it can do, which is firing a missile at a long enough range successfully that it could hit the United States," said Bechtol. "The Hwasong-15 and the Hwasong-17 serve one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to strike American territory."

Decision to intercept

Experts say President Joe Biden needs to decide whether to authorize an interception if North Korea fires an ICBM on an operational trajectory.

Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, said it is uncertain "whether President Biden is prepared to do that after Kim Yo Jong said that would be an act of war." He continued, "We have to show North Korea that [it] can't keep doing these extreme provocations, but we can't be sure that President Biden would have the courage to do that."

On March 7, Kim Yo Jong said, "It will be regarded as a clear declaration of war against the DPRK, in case such military response as interception takes place against our tests of strategic weapons that are conducted without being detrimental to the security of neighboring countries in the open waters and air which do not belong to the U.S. jurisdiction."

The DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said, "We may not have any missile defense assets in the proper location to shoot down a missile that is targeting the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

Maxwell continued, "If it is not tracking to a target in the U.S. or allies' territory, we are unlikely to shoot it down because our defensive capabilities only extend to U.S. and allied territory."

Where in Pacific

Bennett said the U.S. is less likely to intercept a missile if North Korea launches it below the equator into the South Pacific.

However, he said, "If it goes near Hawaii, the chance that it could be intercepted goes up a whole lot."

He continued, "The U.S. would find some serious incentives for intercepting it because we don't know if it has a nuclear warhead on it. What happens if Kim decides to test his seventh nuclear test by putting it on a ballistic missile and shooting it out over the Pacific?"

Maxwell said, "It is unlikely that we will know whether a missile is carrying a nuclear payload unless we have very good intelligence."

Targeting a location in the ocean near Hawaii would demonstrate a range of only about 7,000 kilometers, Bennett said.

voanews.com

2. S. Korea, U.S., British Marines hold joint infiltration drills

In war, the UN Command, as the force provider of international forces/sending states will make this capability happen by providing the right sending states forces to the Commander of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command to meet the commander's requirements for specific missions.This is one of he reasons we need to ensure the long term viability of the UN Command.

S. Korea, U.S., British Marines hold joint infiltration drills | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · March 23, 2023

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korean, U.S. and British Marines have staged combined "high-intensity" airborne and maritime infiltration drills in a southeastern coastal area, the Marine Corps here said Thursday, in a move to bolster joint operational capabilities.

The drills took place in Pohang, 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Wednesday and Thursday, as part of the ongoing South Korea-U.S. Ssangyong amphibious landing exercise that began Monday.

The exercise mobilized reconnaissance units from the South's 1st Marine Division and the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as troops from Britain's Royal Marines Commandos. It marked British troops' first participation in the exercise.

British and South Korean Marines take part in amphibious landing training during combined Marine drills with U.S. troops in Pohang, 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 22, 2023. (Yonhap)

During the drills, the combined troops infiltrated a target area for amphibious landing operations by sea and air, scouted the area and directed precision fire strikes at enemy targets, the Marine Corps said.

On the second day of the exercise, the troops were set to conduct shooting drills while on the move, and strengthen their capabilities to carry out combined missions designed in part to adapt to and maneuver in Korean terrain, it added.

"This exercise served as an opportunity for South Korean, U.S. and British Marine reconnaissance troops to share each of their skills and strengthen their mission capabilities through realistic training," Lt. Col. Kim Cheol-myoung, commander of the South Korean unit, was quoted as saying.

The Ssangyong exercise is taking place in and around Pohang through April 3, in line with the allies' push to reinforce readiness against North Korea's military threats. "Ssangyong" means double dragon in Korean.

The drills had not been held since its last edition in 2018 amid the preceding Moon Jae-in administration's drive for inter-Korean rapprochement.

South Korean and U.S. Marines take part in a reconnaissance exercise as part of the ongoing Ssangyong drills in Pohang, 272 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on March 22, 2023. (Yonhap)

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 채윤환 · March 23, 2023

3. Unification minister meets top Japanese officials in Tokyo

Good news. Sustain the diplomatic momentum between the ROK and Japan.

As an aside, the Unification Ministry has no counterparts in key countries. It might be useful and possibly send a strong signal if Japan and the US (and other friends of the ROK) established unification sections within their Foreign Ministry/State Department to work on how their countries will support the ROK in the unification process.

Unification minister meets top Japanese officials in Tokyo | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 23, 2023

SEOUL/TOKYO, March 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification minister met with Japan's foreign minister and its chief cabinet secretary on Thursday to discuss North Korea's threats and other pending issues, according to his office.

Kwon Young-se had talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in Tokyo on the second day of his four-day trip to Japan, the unification ministry said.

What was discussed included security situations on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul-Tokyo cooperation on the North's threats and the issue of those abducted by the North decades ago.

"Both governments need to make further efforts to make the bilateral ties healthy," Kwon said at the start of his meeting with Hayashi.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se (L) poses for a photo with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo on March 23, 2023, ahead of their talks. (Yonhap)

He then had a separate meeting with Matsuno and exchanged views on the abductee issue.

At least 516 South Koreans are estimated to have been detained in North Korea after being abducted by the North following the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the ministry. The North in 2002 admitted having kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens decades ago and returned five to Japan.

On Friday, Kwon will meet with Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Fukushiro Nukaga, chairman of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union.

Kwon's trip came amid South Korea's efforts to mend long-frayed ties with Japan and bolster trilateral cooperation with Washington and Tokyo to better cope with the North's nuclear and missile threats.

It marked the first trip to Japan by a South Korean unification minister in 18 years.

President Yoon Suk Yeol held summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week and discussed ways to boost cooperation on wide-ranging issues.

This photo, taken March 22, 2023, shows Unification Minister Kwon Young-se speaking to reporters at Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul before leaving for Japan for a four-day trip. (Yonhap)

sooyeon@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 김수연 · March 23, 2023

4. N. Korea fired 4 cruise missiles Wednesday: defense minister

Now that the ROK/US combined exercise is concluding will we continue to see provocations from the regime?

The buried lede is this excerpt on a trilateral alliance. I wish the Defense Minister had been a little more ambiguous.

Lee dismissed the possibility that the South, the U.S. and Japan would pursue a trilateral military alliance on the back of a recent thaw in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

"The expression, '(trilateral) military alliance,' is not proper, and there is no such possibility at all," he said.

Lee also rejected the speculation that Seoul's push for the "complete normalization" of its military information-sharing pact with Tokyo could lead to the signing of a bilateral logistics support agreement and the South's integration into the U.S.' broad missile defense system.

"I can clearly say that it's not," he said.

(LEAD) N. Korea fired 4 cruise missiles Wednesday: defense minister | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · March 23, 2023

(ATTN: UPDATES with minister's remarks in paras 6-11)

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said Thursday that North Korea fired four cruise missiles the previous day, though a detailed analysis is still under way to confirm their specifics.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff has said it detected "multiple" missile launches from the North's eastern city of Hamhung on Wednesday morning.

"We believe four (missiles were fired)," the minister said during a session of the National Assembly's committee on national defense. "We have conducted the initial analysis, and the South and the United States are examining it in a more detailed way."

Commenting on whether the North has secured technologies to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and mount it on tactical weapons, the minister said the country is seen as having achieved "considerable" progress.

The North has been ratcheting up tensions through missile provocations, including a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile launch last week, as the South and the U.S. are conducting a major combined military exercise.

Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup speaks during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly in Seoul on March 23, 2023. (Yonhap)

During the session, Lee said there is a possibility the North would launch its first military spy satellite next month, as it has announced a plan to finish preparations for the launch by April.

"That is because the North has been accumulating technologies needed for a satellite launch through intercontinental ballistic missile launches," he said.

Lee dismissed the possibility that the South, the U.S. and Japan would pursue a trilateral military alliance on the back of a recent thaw in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

"The expression, '(trilateral) military alliance,' is not proper, and there is no such possibility at all," he said.

Lee also rejected the speculation that Seoul's push for the "complete normalization" of its military information-sharing pact with Tokyo could lead to the signing of a bilateral logistics support agreement and the South's integration into the U.S.' broad missile defense system.

"I can clearly say that it's not," he said.

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 송상호 · March 23, 2023

5. Talking like ‘capitalist’ South Koreans can lead to prison or death in North Korea

"Honey, please call me comrade."

Note the corruption and hypocrisy in the north and among officials. And this is another indicator that information does get into north Korea and how important it is that we work to get more information in .

What would be cool is if South Korea media and Koreans in the South began to adopt the north Korean dialect. If they made the north Korean dialect "cool" then the Koreans in the north would not get in trouble. Of course some would assume that would mean those adopting the north Korean dialect are supporters of the regime and instead of a free and unified Korea they seek a Korea dominant in the north. I make this recommendation half in jest. And of course we do want the Koreans in the north to learn the dialect in the South as that will help them prepare for a free and unified Korea.

But I would incorporate the controversy over the different dialects into Korean dramas and have Koreans in the South discuss what is happening in the north and how the Korean people in the north are oppressed by the regime to include that their language use is controlled by the eregime.

Excerpt:

“The South Korean lifestyles shown in South Korean movies is a fantasy world to North Koreans,” the first source said. “No matter how much the North Korean authorities emphasize our national identity and characteristics, it will not be easy to eradicate the [Seoul] dialect.

Those most in danger of being caught speaking like South Koreans are families of judicial officials, because their power enables them to watch more illegal media without punishment, the first source said.

Ironically, these are the same people whose job it is to crack down on illegal videos, the source said.

These officials “are supposed to keep and protect the system,” he said. “But they are the ones immersed in South Korean movies and dramas … to the point that they are the ones spreading around South Korean words.”

Talking like ‘capitalist’ South Koreans can lead to prison or death in North Korea

Publicly calling your spouse ‘honey’ – not ‘comrade’– could put your life at risk.

By Jieun Kim for RFA Korean

2023.03.22

rfa.org

North Koreans are secretly watching and listening to so many South Korean movies and songs smuggled into the country that they are becoming increasingly worried that they might let a banned word slip – and face prison time or even death for using “capitalist” lingo, sources in the country tell Radio Free Asia.

“Residents who are already accustomed to the South Korean way of speaking now feel like they have to practice the Pyongyang dialect,” said a resident in the northwestern province of North Pyongan, referring to the capital.

“They are worried that South Korean words will unintentionally or unknowingly come out of their mouths and that they will be punished,” he said.

For example, North Korean women dare not call their husbands or boyfriends “jagiya” (which correlates to honey) or “oppa” (another term of endearment which literally means older brother). Instead, they must stick with “dongji,” (comrade), the source said.

People are also having to avoid using South Korean loan words from English such as ‘paesyeon’ (fashion), ‘heeoseutail’ (hairstyle) and ‘waipeu’ (wife).

“Even openly saying ‘I love you’ is evidence that they have seen South Korean movies and such language has become normalized,” the source said.

North Korean authorities are aware of the spreading use of South Korean terms and are intent on “wiping out the rotten language of capitalism,” said a second source based in the same province.

RFA previously reported instances of people being punished for speaking like South Koreans, and also shocking cases where people were executed for trying to sell contraband videos and music on thumb drives.

But the recently passed Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act goes even further.

North Korea sentenced to death a man who smuggled and sold copies of the Netflix series “Squid Game” [shown], sources have told RFA. Credit: AFP Photo / NETFLIX

Under this law, those found to have even taught or influenced others toward adopting this kind of speech could get the death penalty.

But for some people, speaking like an upper class Seoulite just comes naturally after decades of exposure.

So that’s prompted an odd situation where people are having to relearn how to speak like a proper North Korean through practice, sources say.

Divided by a common language

Though North and South Koreans speak a mutually intelligible language, the peninsula can be divided into several major regional dialects.

Since the end of the Korean war, the respective governments of the North and South enacted differing standardization policies that have led to differences in spelling, the use of loan words from other languages, and most importantly, pronunciation.

In the North, the dialect of the capital Pyongyang is considered standard, whereas in the South, the standard language is modeled after how people talk in Seoul.

Additionally, the seven decades of separation since the end of the Korean War have resulted in each side of the border adopting different slang, idioms and even terms of endearment.

Under North Korean policy, loan words originating in English or other Western languages have been effectively scrubbed from the standard language – unlike in the South, where such loan words are readily absorbed into everyday use.

But advances in technology over the years made South Korean media more accessible to North Koreans despite government efforts to stop them from watching it.

First it was clumsily distributed in the 1980s in bulky VHS cassettes, but by the late 90’s the medium of choice became video CDs. By the early 2000s, people were sharing the latest hit series on easily concealable USB flash drives, and now they are passed around on tiny microSD cards.

Among young people especially, it has become more than a trend to speak like a South Korean by emulating illegal media. It could be said in many cases that it is how they naturally speak, and they are simply emulating each other.

Alternate reality

These movies and TV shows have done more than introduce North Koreans to new slang and vocabulary. They have unveiled a world of freedom and prosperity they have come to envy, and as such South Korean-style speech has come to represent those dreams, the first source said.

Among young North Koreans, it has become more than a trend to speak like a South Korean by emulating illegal foreign shows [shown]. Credit: Associated Press file photo

“The South Korean lifestyles shown in South Korean movies is a fantasy world to North Koreans,” the first source said. “No matter how much the North Korean authorities emphasize our national identity and characteristics, it will not be easy to eradicate the [Seoul] dialect.

Those most in danger of being caught speaking like South Koreans are families of judicial officials, because their power enables them to watch more illegal media without punishment, the first source said.

Ironically, these are the same people whose job it is to crack down on illegal videos, the source said.

These officials “are supposed to keep and protect the system,” he said. “But they are the ones immersed in South Korean movies and dramas … to the point that they are the ones spreading around South Korean words.”

Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster

rfa.org

6. ＜Inside N. Korea＞ Laborers forced to begin group commutes to work while singing in what appears to be the regime’s efforts to strengthen control over the people

The most draconian population and resources control measures exist in north Korea.

But to the regime, "is that all you got?" Marching and singing? Do you really think that will improve loyalty to the regime and control over the population?

Excerpt:

“They are not only reporting about things related to work, but also issues in people’s personal and family lives to the Workers’ Party. A cadre said that the party has ordered that they need to investigate people’s family lives and even the sound of a pin dropping.”

The reporting structure began full-fledged operation in March. Group commutes to work is just one part of a larger change in how the regime watches its people.

＜Inside N. Korea＞ Laborers forced to begin group commutes to work while singing in what appears to be the regime’s efforts to strengthen control over the people

asiapress.org

FILE PHOTO: A young person mobilized for an apartment construction project in Pyongyang. Taken by Gu Gwang Ho in Pyongyang in August 2011. (ASIAPRESS)

North Korea is strengthening its control over its citizens through their workplaces. Starting in mid-March, workplaces ranging from small enterprises to major mines have been forcing their workers to march while singing on their way to work. ASIAPRESS reporting partners in North Hamgyung Province and Yanggang Province provided details. (KANG Ji-won)

◆ Lining up at 7 AM to head to work

“Every morning, people are ordered to go to work in groups. At 7 AM, the only people in the streets are those lining up to go to work. Things have gotten to the point where people think it’s strange for those who are not working, like me, to [just] be walking [around],” the reporting partner in Yanggang Province said.

In short, workplaces are forcing their employees to line up every morning and go to work while singing, despite the fact they are not elementary students.

It may be strange, but the regime has occasionally done this when the state of affairs are tense or when the regime wants to strengthen social controls. What, then, is the Kim Jong-un regime looking to do?

ASIAPRESS received a similar report from a reporting partner in Musan County, North Hamgyung Province. Musan County has the country’s largest iron mine (with around 10,000 workers), and the reporting partner said that, starting in mid-March, people started to go to work every morning in groups while singing.

“There are several work sites in the Musan Mine, but the employers have created work commuting groups based on where people live with the work site work unit leaders responsible for each group. They explained that the reason for this is to prevent people from skipping work, deserting their workplaces, and eliminating out-of-work people. If even one person deserts the workplace, then the entire work unit has to take collective responsibility. They’re trying to divide up control over the labor force.”

In March, the start of the US-ROK joint military drills led the North Korean regime’s media outlets to claim repeatedly that the drills are “practice for war” while emphasizing the rise in tensions in the Korean Peninsula. Recent reports about people commuting to work in groups, however, appear aimed at simply strengthening control and management over the labor force.

◆ Managing people’s daily lives through workplaces

The reporting partner in Musan County gave ASIAPRESS further explanation about the role of workplaces in people’s lives:

“Over the past several years, all workplaces have been examining the lives of laborers to see whether they are involved in non-socialist or anti-socialist acts, crime, and the spread of groundless rumors. Now, they are even investigating the laborers’ personal time after they leave work. If there’s an issue that arises, the workplaces report this to the Workers’ Party, which then relays the issue to law enforcement or the prosecutors’ office.”

In the case of Musan Mine, the workplaces are monitoring the commutes of laborers to check to see if there are any people who skip work or desert their jobs so they can identify wanderers, jobless people, defectors, and criminals. And that’s not all.

◆ Investigating people’s families

“They are not only reporting about things related to work, but also issues in people’s personal and family lives to the Workers’ Party. A cadre said that the party has ordered that they need to investigate people’s family lives and even the sound of a pin dropping.”

The reporting structure began full-fledged operation in March. Group commutes to work is just one part of a larger change in how the regime watches its people.

※ ASIAPRESS communicates with reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.

asiapress.org

7. S. Korea co-sponsors UNHRC draft resolution on N.K. human rights after 5 yrs

Human rights upfront approach.

(2nd LD) S. Korea co-sponsors UNHRC draft resolution on N.K. human rights after 5 yrs | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 23, 2023

(ATTN: RECASTS lead; UPDATES with comments from foreign ministry, minor edits throughout)

SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has co-sponsored a U.N. human rights council draft resolution on North Korea's gross rights violations for the first time in five years, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Seoul has participated as a co-sponsor in the draft resolution to be adopted at the 52nd regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) around April 3, according to the ministry.

The South Korean government will "continue to proactively participate in the U.N. and the international community's efforts to improve North Korea's dire human rights situations," the ministry said.

"South Korea's return as a co-sponsor to the UNHRC resolution after a five-year hiatus reflects our position that emphasizes freedom, democracy, peace and universal values, and aims to become a global pivotal state," Lim Soo-suk, spokesperson for the ministry, said during a regular press briefing.

The latest draft resolution, led by Sweden and the European Union, urged the North to ensure freedom of speech both online and offline, allow the establishment of independent media and reconsider its law on blocking cultural content from outside the reclusive country.

In 2020, North Korea adopted a new law on "rejecting the reactionary ideology and culture" that bans people from distributing or watching media originating from South Korea, the United States and other countries.

Submitted to the council Tuesday (Geneva time), the draft resolution also called on Pyongyang to disclose all relevant information, including the whereabouts, of foreigners detained or kidnapped in the North to the families of the victims.

It appears to reflect the Seoul government's demand for the North to clarify the death of a South Korean fisheries official who was fatally shot by the North's coast guard near the Yellow Sea border between the two Koreas in 2020, observers said.

The UNHRC has adopted a resolution condemning North Korea's human rights abuses every year since 2003.

South Korea, however, did not co-sponsor such a U.N. resolution from 2019 to 2022 under the previous Moon Jae-in administration that apparently sought to avoid tensions with the North and resume inter-Korean dialogue.

The South co-sponsored a U.N. General Assembly resolution on North Korea's human rights in December last year for the first time in four years, following the launch of the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration in May.

Youtube

https://youtu.be/pLA6mBttckE

julesyi@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by 이원주 · March 23, 2023

8. Yoon to lead session at Biden's Summit for Democracy

South Korea stepping up and demonstrating our shared values.

Thursday

March 23, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Yoon to lead session at Biden's Summit for Democracy

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/23/national/diplomacy/Korea-Yoon-Suk-Yeol-Joe-Biden/20230323183426945.html

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, speaks at the opening of the inaugural Summit for Democracy from the White House in Washington on Dec. 9, 2021. Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will co-host the second Summit for Democracy next Wednesday. [AP/YONHAP]

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will lead a plenary session on economic growth and shared prosperity as a co-host of U.S. President Joe Biden's second Summit for Democracy next week, said the presidential office Thursday.

The two-day virtual summit will be held on March 29 and 30 and is expected to bring together some 120 global leaders invited by Biden.

"It is meaningful that South Korea is taking the lead in tackling the global issue of a retreat in democracy through the co-hosting the second Summit for Democracy," National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han told reporters in Seoul.

Kim added that the summit with be an opportunity to "demonstrate domestically and internationally how President Yoon is concretely implementing his vision of freedom and solidarity, thereby enhancing Korea's political credibility."

Earlier this month, the presidential office confirmed Biden formally requested Yoon to chair one of five plenary sessions of the virtual summit.

South Korea is among five co-hosting countries alongside Costa Rica, the Netherlands and Zambia.

On Wednesday, Yoon will chair the first leader-level plenary entitled, "Democracy Delivering Economic Growth and Shared Prosperity."

Yoon will "share the know-hows of Korea that has grown," said Kim, overcoming war and poverty, and the summit is expected to serve as an opportunity to "enhance Korea's international leadership and prestige."

On the second day, Korea will also host an Indo-Pacific regional session under the theme of "Challenges and Progress in Addressing Corruption."

The event will bring together leaders and ministers in the Indo-Pacific region and discuss their proposals and commitments for promoting democracy and addressing corruption.

"We will have an opportunity to elevate our international leadership and national status by demonstrating our commitment to practicing norms and values on the international stage," said Kim.

The Summit for Democracy was inaugurated by the United States in December 2021, in keeping with Biden's campaign pledge to bring together the United States and like-minded allies to show the world that democracy is a better alternative to autocracy.

Like in 2021, China and Russia will not take part in Biden's summit next week.

Taiwan is expected to be among the summit's participants this year.

The summit "does not exclude any specific country, and it is even less about a confrontation between blocs," said a senior official in the presidential office Thursday.

Yoon plans to "emphasize that the principle of liberal democracy is the source of Korea's growth and can enhance the country's competitiveness by awakening the creativity of individual citizens," added the official.

The United States launched the summit in 2021 "to put new and high level focus on the need to strengthen democratic institutions, protect human rights and accelerate the fight against corruption, both at home and abroad," said Robert Berschinski, senior director for democracy and human rights at the U.S. National Security Council, in a press briefing Wednesday.

"As President Biden has said, we are currently at an inflection point when it comes to the future of democracy."

The summit comes ahead of Yoon's state visit to the United States upon the invitation of Biden scheduled for next month to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]

9. Yoon calls for actively protecting defense industry secrets

Because north Korea is conducting aggressive espionage to steal them.

Thursday

March 23, 2023

dictionary + A - A

Yoon calls for actively protecting defense industry secrets

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/23/national/defense/defense-industry-Defense-Counterintelligence-Command-Korean-military/20230323094950697.html

President Yoon Suk Yeol [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the Defense Counterintelligence Command on Wednesday and called for actively protecting defense industry secrets to ensure critical technologies are not leaked, his office said.

Yoon made the remark while receiving a closed-door briefing from command officials as the first president to visit the command in 31 years.

"Do everything in your power to fulfill your proper duty, including by directing all of your energy to active counterintelligence activities," he was quoted as saying.

Yoon also said a firm military security posture must be established in order for the military to become a "strong military of science and technology."

"Defense industry secrets must be actively protected to ensure the defense industry's critical technologies are not leaked to the outside," he said.

During a separate visit to the Cyber Operations Command, Yoon stressed the importance of the command's role in effectively responding to cyber threats that have "no front or rear."

"We must break from the defensive concept centered on responding to the enemy's cyber threats, and develop a preemptive and active operation concept," he was quoted as saying.

Yonhap

10. [Editorial] Don’t damage integrity of public broadcast (South Korea)

There should be no government appointed board members to KBS and MBC. The government should have no control over the media. Or if you want to follow another model, have one broadcaster such as the UK''s BBC or the US PBS. But multiple media organizations should not have a government hand involved.

Thursday

March 23, 2023

dictionary + A - A

[Editorial] Don’t damage integrity of public broadcast

The Democratic Party (DP) has rubber-stamped a bill to revise the Broadcasting Act provisions on board organization of public broadcasters and naming of their presidents at the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee to directly go to a final vote at the plenary session. The vote in the committee was proceeded without the presence of People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers after filling up the seats with independent lawmakers who used to be DP members. The revised bill bypassed the Legislative and Judiciary Committee chaired by a PPP lawmaker to head to a full vote in the legislature.

The keystone of the contentious revision is to increase the number of board directors at KBS and MBC currently at 11 and nine, respectively, to 21 each. (For comparison, the BBC has 14 board members and NHK has 7 to 10.) Although the DP claims the purpose is to enhance independence and neutrality of public broadcasters, it is suspected of doing the opposite.

The board members are mostly recommended by the National Assembly (five), broadcast industry organizations (six), and academy (six). But the industry organizations like the Korea Producers and Directors Association and media societies are mostly liberal and support the DP. A third union of MBC accused the DP of trying to hand out recommendations to the political groups. Civic group Media Network for Justice also criticizes the move as an attempt to “permanently put public broadcasters under the DP.”

Public broadcasters have always been under the sway of the governing power. They must divorce with political patrons and return to the civilian society. But if the board member recommendation falls in one particular side, bias could deepen. The act could undermine the primary media role of checking the sitting power.

The law may not see the daylight if President Yoon Suk Yeol veto the bill railroaded by the DP. The majority party could come under fire for trying to dominate public broadcasters after fully exploiting them when it was the governing party.

If the DP had really sought genuine broadcast, it should have pursued the version it adopted as its party agenda in 2016. The revision called for the ruling and opposition parties each to recommend board members by the ratio of seven to six and appoint the president of public broadcast companies through more than two thirds of approvals from board members. The version certainly would have helped protect the independence of public broadcasters.

But after president Moon Jae-in took power, the DP threw away the reform outline. Now it wants to fill the board seats with members friendly to the party. The DP must stop an attempt to dominate public broadcasters and damage the foundation of democracy.

11. U.S. sees no imminent sign of nuclear weapons use by N. Korea: Kirby |

Of course that is the problem with north Korea, which is a master of denial and deception. We have to work hard to penetrate the hard target of north Korea so that we can observe imminent nuclear use and counter it.

Excerpts:

John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, made the remarks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly stressed the need for the country's military to take an "immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack" when necessary.

"There is no indications or no information at this time that would lead us to believe that some sort of actual strike by North Korea is imminent," the NSC official said when asked if the North may be preparing to take a nuclear attack.

"But we're watching and monitoring as best we can," Kirby told a White House press briefing.

U.S. sees no imminent sign of nuclear weapons use by N. Korea: Kirby | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by 변덕근 · March 23, 2023

By Byun Duk-kun

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Yonhap) -- There is no indication that North Korea may use its nuclear weapons to attack the United States or its allies in the near future, a spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) said Wednesday.

John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, made the remarks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly stressed the need for the country's military to take an "immediate and overwhelming nuclear counterattack" when necessary.

"There is no indications or no information at this time that would lead us to believe that some sort of actual strike by North Korea is imminent," the NSC official said when asked if the North may be preparing to take a nuclear attack.

"But we're watching and monitoring as best we can," Kirby told a White House press briefing.

John Kirby, NSC coordinator for strategic communications, is seen answering questions during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on March 22, 2023 in this captured image. (Yonhap)

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile on Sunday (Korea time), which its state media later said was a simulation of a "tactical nuclear counterattack."

Pyongyang has been consistently intensifying its nuclear rhetoric since last year when it enacted a new law that it said would allow "preemptive" use of nuclear weapons against South Korea and the U.S.

Kirby said the U.S. remains committed to engaging with the North, but that it will continue to enhance its defense capabilities amid an ongoing lack of dialogue with Pyongyang.

"Again, we urge Mr. Kim to sit down with the United States, without preconditions," he said. "(We are) willing to sit down without precondition to talk about deescalation of tensions and denuclearization of the peninsula."

"He (Kim) hasn't taken us up on that offer, so we are going to continue to make sure we've got the requisite military capabilities in place," added Kirby.

North Korea last held denuclearization talks with the U.S. in 2019.

Youtube

https://youtu.be/Bzz48uRMpaw

bdk@yna.co.kr

(END)

12. Korea drops WTO trade complaint against Japan

Good news but this will be panned by President Yoon's political opposition.

Korea drops WTO trade complaint against Japan

The Korea Times · March 23, 2023

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands prior to their expanded summit talks at Kishida's residence in Tokyo, March 16. Yonhap

Korea on Thursday completed procedures to drop a complaint it filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Japan over Tokyo's trade curbs as it began domestic procedures to put Japan back onto its "white list" of trusted trade partners, the industry ministry said.

The moves are in line with Seoul's effort to improve relations with the neighboring country long marred by historic and diplomatic rows stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rules of the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul's industry ministry said that it withdrew the WTO complaint it filed in 2019 against Japan's tighter regulations on exports to Seoul of three materials ― fluorinated polyimide, photoresist and hydrogen fluoride ― that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays.

The export curbs were seen as Japan's apparent retaliation against the Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to pay compensation to victims of Japan's wartime forced labor, and Tokyo vowed to lift them during last week's summit meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The ministry also announced a revision to government rules on exports and imports of strategic items as a first step to put Japan back onto the list of nations with a fast-track trade status.

The Seoul government removed Japan from its white list in 2019, requiring tough screening in trading "strategic items" that could potentially be diverted for military use, after Japan removed Korea from its "white list" of trusted trading partners.

Currently, a total of 28 nations, including the United States, Britain and France, are on Korea's trade white list.

Following last week's summit meeting, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to have close consultations on reinstating each other to their respective white lists.

Japan's reinstatement to the Korean list is expected to take around two months, given necessary administrative procedures, according to Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun. Yoon has called for shortening the period to advance the bilateral relationship in a swift manner.

Japan did not make public its timeframe for the pledges.

The series of reconciliatory measures came after the Yoon government announced plans earlier this month to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor without asking Japan for contributions despite strong opposition by the opposition party and victims. (Yonhap)

The Korea Times · March 23, 2023

13. Daughter of North Korean dictator seen wearing $1,900 Dior jacket

A hoodie jacket is higher than the per capita income of the Korean people in the north.

I recall one of the reasons Thae Yong Ho escaped from north Korea with his family is because he said he could no longer explain and justify the contradictions of north Korea and the Kim family regime. This is one of those contradictions as is the work of diplomats described below.

Daughter of North Korean dictator seen wearing $1,900 Dior jacket

The Korea Times · March 23, 2023

North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, left, and his daughter, Ju-ae, inspect the launch of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile from the Sunan area in Pyongyang, March 16. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

Kim Ju-ae, daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jung-un, was recently seen wearing a luxurious jacket in a photo released by the regime earlier this month. The image illustrates how detached the dictator and his family are from a public rumored to be suffering from widespread poverty and starvation.

The young girl believed to be 10 years old, was seen wearing a Dior Kid's Hooded Down Jacket in a photo from March 16 released by the North's Korean Central Television the following day. The photo shows the father and daughter watching screens showing the launch of a Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile, together.

The jacket, according to local media outlets, was confirmed by the sewing pattern of Dior. The double-cross mixed with "X" showing rectangles and rhombuses matched that of the brand. The brand's webpage showed the outfit was tagged $1,900 (2.4 million won).

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his daughter, Ju-ae, inspect a combined tactical drill, which took place March 18 and 19, to bolster the country's war deterrence and nuclear counterattack capability in this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, Monday. Yonhap

North Korean diplomats consider the purchase of luxury brand goods for Kim's family a top priority, according to North Korean defector Ryu Hyon-woo, a former North Korean ambassador to Kuwait.

In October 2020, the North Korean dictator was seen wearing a wristwatch that no average North Korean civilian would ever be able to afford, as he stood in front of a public crowd during a military parade in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the country's main political faction, the Workers' Party of Korea.

While shedding tears and calling on the crowd to endure the hardships faced by the country, a Portofino Automatic by IWC was seen on his left wrist. The Swiss brand watch was selling for at least 14 million won.

The findings came as Pyongyang has been firing different kinds of ballistic and cruise missiles towards the East Sea to apparently provoke South Korea and the United States, Seoul's strongest military ally. Each missile firing is known to cost at least tens of millions of dollars. Pyongyang has launched missiles more than ten times this year.

The Korea Times · March 23, 2023

14. Why normalizing US-North Korea relations is a prerequisite for denuclearization

I wish this was not behind the paywall at nK News so I could read the entire article and determine if I could criticize this article as another appeasement strategy.

But actually I would say the prerequisite for denuclearization is unification if you agree with the assumption that under no circumstances will Kim ever give up his nuclear weapons.

That said I would consider using "normalization" as a tool for influence operations but for normalization to take place there north would have to drastically change its human right practices.

Why normalizing US-North Korea relations is a prerequisite for denuclearization

By treating the North Korean issue exclusively as a nonproliferation concern, the US sets itself up for failure

Marialaura De AngelisMarch 20, 2023

https://www.nknews.org/pro/why-normalizing-us-north-korea-relations-is-a-prerequisite-for-denuclearization/

U.S. President Joe Biden (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un | Image: The White House and Rodong Sinmun, edited by NK News

One of the most severe misunderstandings of U.S. engagement with North Korea is what, exactly, the two sides are negotiating. And as tensions once again rise on the peninsula, this misunderstanding now stands in the way of de-escalation and re-engagement efforts.

For the U.S., denuclearization is the goal of any talks with the Kim Jong Un regime. The DPRK represents a critical threat to nonproliferation rules and norms established by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to the national security of the U.S. and its allies in the Northeast Asia region.

But the

15. The Real Reason South Koreans Aren’t Having Babies

Excerpts:

I asked many people whether they thought South Korea was losing anything in its spurning of reproduction. Some had trouble grasping the question. A few mentioned something about having to pay higher taxes in the future. One woman, a 4B adherent, said she jokes with her friends that the solution to South Korea’s problems is for the whole country to simply disappear. Thanos, the villain in The Avengers who eliminates half the Earth’s population with a snap of his fingers, didn’t do anything wrong, she told me. Meera Choi, the doctoral student researching gender inequality and fertility, told me she’s heard other Korean feminists make the exact same joke about Thanos. Underneath the joke, I sensed a hopelessness that bordered on nihilism.

After talking with so many thoughtful and kind young people, I mostly felt sad that, a generation from now, there will be fewer like them in their country. One morning outside my hotel, I watched a father in a suit and trench coat wait with his young son on the corner. When a school bus pulled over, he helped the boy on, and stood there waving and smiling at him through the bus’s windows as the little boy trundled down the aisle to his seat. The father waved frantically, lovingly, as if he couldn’t squeeze enough waves into those last few moments in which he held his son’s gaze. He was still smiling long after the bus drove off.

The Real Reason South Koreans Aren’t Having Babies

Gender, rather than race or age or immigration status, has become the country’s sharpest social fault line.

By Anna Louie Sussman

The Atlantic · by Anna Louie Sussman · March 21, 2023

On the days she’s feeling most generous toward men—say, when she sees a handsome man on the street—Helena Lee can sometimes put her distaste aside and appreciate them as “eye candy.” That’s as far as she goes: “I do not want to know what is inside of his brain.” Most of the time, she wants nothing at all to do with men.

“I try to have faith in guys and not to be like, ‘Kill all men,’” she says. “But I’m sorry, I am a little bit on that side—that is, on the extreme side.”

Her father, she says, was abusive and moved out when she was 6, and she has lived with her mother and grandmother ever since, a mini-matriarchy that suits her fine. She wears her hair in a bob, and on the day we met, she had on a black-denim button-down and a beige trench coat. In college, male classmates told her she’d be cuter if she “fixed her gay style.” The worst part, she said, was that they were surprised when she was offended—they thought they’d paid her a compliment. She is 24, studying for civil-servant exams, and likes reading Andrea Dworkin, Carl Sagan, and the occasional romance novel, which she considers pure fantasy.

Lee is part of a boycott movement in South Korea—women who are actively choosing single life. Their movement—possibly tens of thousands strong, though it’s impossible to say for sure—is called “4B,” or “The 4 No’s.” Adherents say no to dating, no to sex with men, no to marriage, and no to childbirth. (“B” refers to the Korean prefix bi-, which means “no”.)

They are the extreme edge of a broader trend away from marriage. By one estimate, more than a third of Korean men and a quarter of Korean women who are now in their mid-to-late 30s will never marry. Even more will never have children. In 1960, Korean women had, on average, six children. In 2022, the average Korean woman could expect to have just 0.78 children in her lifetime. In Seoul, the average is 0.59. If this downward drift continues, it will not be long before one out of every two women in the capital never becomes a parent.

Many countries’ populations are aging and, in some cases, shrinking. In January, China recorded its first population decline since the 1960s, when the country had been racked by famine. America’s birth rate has been falling since the Great Recession (though 86 percent of American women still have at least one child by the time they’re in their 40s). But South Korea’s fertility rate is the lowest in the world.

Marriage and children are more closely linked in South Korea than nearly anywhere else, with just 2.5 percent of children born outside of marriage in 2020, compared with an OECD average of more than 40 percent. For nearly 20 years, the Korean government has tried to encourage more marriages and more babies. In 2005, the government recognized low fertility as a matter of national importance and put forth its Framework Act on Low Birth Rate in an Aging Society, versions of which have been renewed every five years.

The government has tried expanding maternity leave, offering couples bigger and bigger bonuses for having babies, and subsidizing housing in Seoul for newlyweds. The mayor there has proposed easing visa restrictions to import more cheap foreign nannies, while some rural governments fund bachelors seeking foreign brides. In 2016, the government published a “birth map” online showing how many women of reproductive age lived in different regions—a clumsy attempt to encourage towns and cities to produce more babies. It prompted a feminist protest with women holding banners that read my womb is not a national public good and baby vending machine. The map was taken down.

In all this time, the country has spent more than $150 billion hoping to coax more babies into the world. None of its efforts are working. Many Korean metro systems have hot-pink seats designated for pregnant women, but when I visited Seoul in November, six months pregnant myself and easily tired, I was rarely able to snag a seat; they were filled with dozing elderly people.

There are a lot of reasons people decide not to have a baby. Young Koreans cite as obstacles the high cost of housing in greater Seoul (home to roughly half the country’s 52 million citizens), the expense of raising a child in a hypercompetitive academic culture, and grueling workplace norms that are inhospitable to family life, especially for women, who are still expected to do the bulk of housework and child care. But these explanations miss a more basic dynamic: the deterioration in relations between women and men—what the Korean media call a “gender war.”

“I think the most fundamental issue at hand is that a lot of girls realize that they don’t really have to do this anymore,” Lee told me. “They can just opt out.”

By one estimate, more than a third of Korean men and a quarter of Korean women now in their mid-to-late 30s will never marry. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

The plummeting fertility rate has its roots in the rapid transformation of Korean society. After the Korean War, many people migrated from villages to work in urban factories for miserable wages, as part of a state-led economic transformation that became known as the “Miracle on the Han River.” High-school and college enrollment shot up. A prodemocracy movement eventually led to the toppling of military rule in 1987, and to new freedoms. After the 1997 financial crisis, companies restructured, and Korea’s corporate culture—known for demanding long hours in exchange for job security—took on the precarity familiar to Americans.

But gender roles were slower to evolve. Chang Kyung-sup, a sociologist at Seoul National University, coined the term compressed modernity to describe South Korea’s combination of lightning-fast economic transformation and the slow, uneven evolution of social institutions such as the family. More and more women entered higher education, finally surpassing their male counterparts in 2015. But educated women were still often expected to drop out of the workforce upon marriage or motherhood. The family remained the basic unit of society, and both the old order and the new assigned familial responsibilities nearly exclusively to women. Women’s ambitions have expanded, but the idea of what it means to be a wife and mother in Korea has not. As a result, resentments on both sides of the gender divide have flourished.

On a sunny day in November, I met Cho Young-min, 49, at a café in Gangnam. After more than two decades in marketing, she runs a business creating urban gardens. She sees the gender war partly as a result of that disconnect in expectations, and the fact that, for the first time, men and women are now genuinely competing for jobs.

The unemployment rate in Korea is relatively low, less than 4 percent, but it’s significantly higher for people in their 20s. Mandatory male military service—South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea—gives women what many men perceive as an advantage in the labor market, a head start of 18 months to two years. Women counter this with data on the pay gap, the largest in the OECD at 31 percent.

For nearly 20 years, the Korean government has tried to encourage more marriages and more babies. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

“To women’s minds, before, they had a very small portion of the pie, like this”—Cho held her thumb and index finger close together. “Now they are expanding the portion, bit by bit. It’s still very small compared to the men’s portion. But to men, they are losing.”

Last March, Yoon Suk-yeol was elected president on a wave of male resentment. He pledged to abolish the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which he said treated men like “potential sex criminals.” And he blamed feminism for the country’s low birth rate, suggesting that it “prevents healthy relationships between men and women,” adding that this was “not a problem that can be solved by giving out government subsidies.”

According to exit polls, nearly 59 percent of men ages 18 to 29 voted for Yoon, while 58 percent of women in that age group voted for the liberal candidate. One commentator declared it the “incel election.” Several people noted to me that in a country as ethnically homogenous as South Korea, the election emphasized the extent to which gender, rather than race or immigration status, has become the key social fault line.

Cho Jung-min had always planned to be married by 23. Her mother had married young, and given birth to her at 22. Cho loved having a young mom; the two of them watch the same TV shows and admire the same singers. “I wanted to do the same thing for my child,” Cho told me. But when she was 17 or 18, she’d mentioned her marriage plan to a friend. “Then why are you struggling so hard to study and go to university?” her friend asked. Good question. “That was one of the turning points,” she told me. Cho is 32 now and single.

We met at an Indian restaurant near her office. Cho has wavy black hair and swanned in wearing a stylish wool coat and sparkly scarf. She had studied and worked in France for years, but moved home during the pandemic. She is now a corporate strategist at a luxury e-retailer, where many of her workdays stretch until 10 or 11 p.m. (This is not uncommon: Last week a government proposal to raise the cap on the legal workweek from 52 hours to 69 hours was abandoned after young people and women’s groups protested.)

These hours provide Cho with little opportunity for dating, which, anyway, has not been a resounding success. She’s gone on four or five blind dates in the past two years. (Blind dates set up by friends or colleagues, as well as large matchmaking companies, are common ways of meeting people in South Korea, where online dating is not as widespread as it is in the U.S.) She found the men closed-minded, with “a traditional way of thinking.” Men, she said, “always want to debate with me: ‘Why are you thinking that way?’ They all need to teach me.” She doesn’t tell them she’s a feminist. Her mom has warned her not to, because she thinks it could be dangerous.

When I asked why she thought young Koreans were retreating from dating, Cho immediately brought up physical safety. “These days, there is a lot of violence during dating, so we start to feel very afraid,” she said.

In 2016, a 34-year-old man murdered a woman in a public restroom near the Gangnam metro station in Seoul. Although he said he was motivated by women routinely ignoring him, police blamed mental illness. This was a germinal event for many Korean young women, who were furious and terrified; it could have happened to anyone.

Indeed, a 2016 survey by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family found that 62 percent of South Korean women had experienced intimate-partner violence, a category that included emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as a range of controlling behaviors. In one 2017 study of 2,000 men, nearly 80 percent said they had been psychologically or physically abusive toward their dating partners.

Not long ago, Cho was on a bus waiting to get off at her stop when an SUV pulled over. A man got out and started throwing bowling balls into the street. A woman climbed out after him, crying and screaming, and he began hitting her. Cho called the police. “I thought it was only on the news,” she said. “I realized that it can also happen to me.”

Many women I interviewed said that their childhood had been marked by domestic violence and that they feared being hurt by men they might date, or filmed in an intimate moment.

Meera Choi, a Yale doctoral student, is researching gender inequality and changes in family formation in South Korea—what she calls a “crisis of heterosexuality.” When I expressed my surprise at how prevalent fears like Cho’s seemed to be, she estimated that 20 of the 40 women she had recently interviewed about these issues had experienced either familial or dating violence.

South Korea’s fertility rate is the lowest in the world. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

Women’s ambitions have expanded, but the idea of what it means to be a wife and mother in Korea has not. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

Many of the women I spoke with said that patriarchy and sexism haunted their earliest memories. Some had grown up waiting until all the men in their families had finished eating before sitting down to their cold leftovers. They’d watched their parents dote on their brothers. They’d been hit by fathers and sexually harassed at school. They’d grown up and gone to job interviews and promptly been asked about their marital status.

But many said they had only come to articulate these experiences after encountering feminism—frequently online. They described a moment of awakening, perhaps even radicalization. They read about femicides, stalking, and digital sex crimes, known as molka, reported cases of which have been on the rise since 2011.

The world over, men are loud on the internet. The Korean website Ilbe.com, known for its overt anti-feminism, receives about 20 million visits each month, in a country of just under 52 million people. (Its users are anti- lots of other things too: anti-LGBTQ, anti-liberal, anti-immigrant). The Ilbe community has elements of the alt-right and the manosphere; some have likened it to 4chan or incel forums. Users refer to Korean women as kimchinyeo, or “kimchi women,” stereotyping them as vain, materialistic, and manipulative. Men share sexist memes and complaints about reverse discrimination that one Korean writer has described as “paranoid misogyny.”

In 2015, some women began to fight back. They created a website, Megalia, where they practiced the art of “mirroring”: They adopted the same rhetorical devices, sick humor, and misogynistic tropes, but used them to make fun of men. In response to the objectification of Korean women and complaints about their small breasts, women poked fun at Korean men for, they claimed, having small penises. The Megalia logo was a reference to this: an image of a hand with the thumb and pointer finger close together. They flipped the gender of common refrains about women, posting comments like “Women prefer a virgin man” and “Men should stay in the kitchen.” Jeong Eui-sol, a lecturer in gender studies at Chungnam National University in Daejeon, describes this as “troll feminism.”

Megalia shut down in 2017, after many users left for a new feminist community, Womad. But feminist ideas were traveling in other ways too. The novel Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, about the sexism that characterized a Korean woman’s life from childhood through motherhood, sold more than a million copies, and was made into a popular film. Kim Jo-eun, a sociologist studying gender and demography at KDI School of Public Policy and Management, in Sejong, found a sharp rise in the number of Google searches for misogyny and feminism after the Gangnam murder. Searches for feminism rose again in 2018, when Korea’s #MeToo reckoning began.

Distrust and even hatred between women and men, Kim believes, is the key to understanding South Korea’s declining birth rate. It’s not that women are with a partner and “thinking about having one or two more babies,” she told me. “It’s that you just don’t want to be in a relationship with men in Korea.”

Although Megalia’s methods were controversial, it accomplished its aim of making misogyny visible. In Helena Lee’s view, the success of the online feminist movement was that it showed women whom they were dealing with, and why men were not worth appeasing. “You don’t have to do plastic surgery; your appearance is not your worth; you don’t need to have long, flowy hair; you don’t have to do makeup; nurturing or mommying your boyfriend is not good for you,” she said, reciting some of the ideas that she and fellow feminists sought to impart.

What the movement did not do, most agree, is enlighten men or change their views. Instead, for men who already felt victimized and angry, it helped turn feminism into a dirty word.

Men are still expected to be breadwinners, and work an average of five more hours a week than women: 40.6 hours versus 35.2. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

If Korean women chafe at men’s expectations of them, the reverse is true as well.

Men are still expected to be breadwinners, and they work an average of five more hours a week than women—40.6 hours versus 35.2. Many Koreans still expect that the man or his family will buy a newlywed couple’s home, even when both partners have careers. Indeed, one study found that parental income is a strong predictor of whether a man will marry, but has no effect on marriage rates for women.

I met Ha Jung-woo at a café one evening after work. Ha is 31, tall and handsome, with a warm smile and impeccable manners, the kind of guy you wish you could clone for all your single straight girlfriends. He went to the University of Texas at Austin and had a serious relationship there, with a Korean American student. After they broke up and he moved home, he met another woman here. They shared the same values, he said. If they watched a movie together, they would cry at the same things, and if they were reading the news, they’d get angry over the same things. He liked that she laughed a lot.

In 2021, they got engaged. The date was set, the venue booked. Both sets of parents had agreed that they would, together, help buy the newlyweds an apartment; her family would cover 30 percent of the purchase price, Ha 20 percent, and his father the remaining 50 percent. But then his father’s textile business suffered some setbacks, and he could put up only 30 percent. Ha was happy to take out a loan—he had a secure job. But he says that the news of his dad’s diminished circumstances spooked his fiancée’s family, and she called off the engagement.

Ha was devastated. He asked her: “Is it your decision or your parents’ decision?” When she said it was her decision, he gave up.

Yoon Jun-seok is in his second year of a combined master’s and Ph.D. program in electrical engineering at the prestigious Seoul’s Korea University. When we met at a café near campus, he wore a San Francisco Giants hoodie, and black slide sandals with the Giants logo on them. He has few female friends, and has never had a girlfriend. He doesn’t feel that dating is “necessary” right now. At 25, his only priority is to finish his doctorate, which will take another five or six years, and then line up a steady job.

At that point, he’ll be about 32. Then, and only then, does he think he might make an effort to date. “If I can get married, then maybe I prefer between 35 and 40,” he said. “Raising kids in Korea costs a lot.”

In a 2020 survey of 1,000 South Koreans in their 30s, more than half of men who did not wish to marry cited financial concerns as their main hesitation; a quarter of women said they were “happy living alone,” while another quarter named “the culture of patriarchy and gender inequality” as their chief objection to marriage. (Another recent survey by two matchmaking companies found that women were reluctant to marry because they anticipate an asymmetrical division of housework, whereas men hesitated because of “feminism.”)

On my first morning in Seoul, I met Jung Kyu-won, a bioethicist who teaches law and medicine at two universities in Seoul, for coffee. We had been emailing about the gender war, and he had asked his male students if they would speak with me. The young men weren’t comfortable being interviewed, but they shared their thoughts with him, which he summarized for me. (That it was so much easier to find women willing to talk about these issues than men seemed perhaps connected to the problem itself.) They had a long list of complaints, many of which boiled down to a lack of trust in potential female partners, and resentment over the expectation that they would bear nearly all the financial responsibilities in a relationship.

Jung is in his late 50s and has been divorced for many years. He recently read an article about women’s expectations for a husband, he told me, and realized that he himself, despite his professional accomplishments, didn’t meet their salary requirements.

Some young people I met wish things were different. Shin Hyun, 20, is a devout Christian studying comparative literature and culture at Seoul’s Yonsei University. He is close to his parents, who always told their children, “You guys are my greatest reward.” He’s keen to marry and experience parenthood for himself one day. “I don’t think you can feel a love that’s greater than parental love,” he told me.

Walking around Seoul, I began to wonder where the children were hiding. Throughout the city, I saw “no-kids zones”—restaurants and cafés with stickers on their door announcing the establishment’s no-kids policy. But the children must be somewhere, right?

Very few rich countries have successfully reversed a decline in fertility, and none has climbed back above the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman after dropping below it. (Dion Bierdrager for The Atlantic)

One evening, I went with a translator to Daechi-dong, an area in Gangnam famous for its concentration of hagwon—cram schools. He pointed up at the office buildings lining the boulevards, noting which schools were on which floors—this one was known for languages, that one for math. At about 9:30 p.m., cars (all with moms at the wheel) pulled up to idle by the curb. By 10, children and teenagers of all ages, laden with heavy-looking backpacks, streamed out into the street.

A few nights later, I sat down with Lira, a cheerful woman in her late 40s who asked that I use just her first name for privacy reasons. She grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, when students attended hagwon only if they were weak in a given subject. Now the schools are essential for any kid who wants to get into a decent college. Lira’s daughter studied at a high-pressure hagwon, 30 to 40 minutes from their house, to get into a competitive high school. It cost about $2,400 a month, “a lot of our family’s expenses,” Lira said. When I asked if her husband helped with any of the arrangements—researching the best hagwon, the daily drop-off and pickup, the fresh meals and special treats she made to ease her daughter’s stress—it took her a minute to stop laughing before she could say no: “In Korea, child care is more the woman’s responsibility.”

Indeed, many of the mothers I spoke with, despite being married, sounded like what I would soon become: a single mom. At 40, I decided to use eggs that I’d frozen a few years earlier for in vitro fertilization—something that is not only frowned upon in Korea, but basically impossible: The Korean Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology allows only married women to obtain donor sperm.

One day, toward the end of my trip, I visited a clinic run by CHA Fertility Center. I was surprised, given CHA’s growing egg-freezing business, to hear a director of the center tell me that she personally doesn’t support women becoming single parents, because “it’s not good for the child.” But as young people eye the heterosexual nuclear family with more and more skepticism, South Korea may need to accept, and even support, other models.

Very few rich countries have successfully reversed a decline in fertility, and none has climbed back above the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman after dropping below it. Paul Y. Chang, a Harvard sociologist who studies family life in Korea, sees the material and social challenges there as intertwined. “If you provide housing for every single unemployed man, my guess is they’ll be a little bit less misogynistic and less angry at the world,” he said. Similarly, “if we’re able to somehow force companies to pay women equally, and give them promotional pathways that are equivalent to what the men get, then I’m sure that it would take the edge off the feminism.” A more secure society could make people more comfortable planning for a future that includes marriage and children.

But most of the women I spoke with pushed back on these ideas. Some considered Korean society irredeemably misogynistic. Many women said they were happy living with their pets; others had started dating women.

Park Hyun-joon, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, directed the Korean Millennials Project, for which he and colleagues surveyed about 5,000 Korean adults ages 25 to 49. He has found that many Koreans see family as “a luxury good.” But he also acknowledged the divergence in values between women and men, an issue that is less easily solved by policy interventions. “I clearly see why Korean women don’t want to get married to Korean guys,” he said. “Their political and cultural conservatism probably makes them pretty unattractive in the marriage market.”

Or as one young woman I spoke with put it, her friends “kind of hate men, and they are afraid of them.”

I wondered whether the real luxury Park was referring to was trust—the capacity to believe that tomorrow will be better than today, and that your fellow citizens are working to make it so.

I asked many people whether they thought South Korea was losing anything in its spurning of reproduction. Some had trouble grasping the question. A few mentioned something about having to pay higher taxes in the future. One woman, a 4B adherent, said she jokes with her friends that the solution to South Korea’s problems is for the whole country to simply disappear. Thanos, the villain in The Avengers who eliminates half the Earth’s population with a snap of his fingers, didn’t do anything wrong, she told me. Meera Choi, the doctoral student researching gender inequality and fertility, told me she’s heard other Korean feminists make the exact same joke about Thanos. Underneath the joke, I sensed a hopelessness that bordered on nihilism.

After talking with so many thoughtful and kind young people, I mostly felt sad that, a generation from now, there will be fewer like them in their country. One morning outside my hotel, I watched a father in a suit and trench coat wait with his young son on the corner. When a school bus pulled over, he helped the boy on, and stood there waving and smiling at him through the bus’s windows as the little boy trundled down the aisle to his seat. The father waved frantically, lovingly, as if he couldn’t squeeze enough waves into those last few moments in which he held his son’s gaze. He was still smiling long after the bus drove off.

Reporting for this article was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

The Atlantic · by Anna Louie Sussman · March 21, 2023

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

If you do not read anything else in the 2017 National Security Strategy read this on page 14:

"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."

Access NSS HERE

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