Informal Institute for National Security Thinkers and Practitioners

Quotes of the Day:

“Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles.”

– Fyodor Dostoevsky

"If you wish to become a philosopher, the first thing to realise is that most people go through life with a whole world of beliefs that have no sort of rational justification, and that one man's world of beliefs is apt to be incompatible with another man's, so that they cannot both be right. People's opinions are mainly designed to make them feel comfortable; truth, for most people, is a secondary consideration."

~Bertrand Russell, ‘The Art of Philosophizing: And Other Essays’

"Politicians always think they know what people feel. It's a fallacy, because there is no such thing as 'the people.' It is a discursive device for summoning the people that you want. You're constructing the people, you're not reflecting the people."

– Stuart Hall

1. South Korea’s snap presidential election 2025: All you need to know

2. South Korean election: The country votes for a new president after six months of political chaos

3. South Korea’s Election Likely to Reset Ties With China

4. South Korea presidential election: can a new leader heal a fractured nation?

5. Hegseth says the U.S. will reposition military amid threat from China

6. North Korea Gets a Weapons Bonanza From Russia

7. S. Korea stresses importance of maintaining USFK in talks with U.S. lawmakers

8. Presidential rivals make last-ditch campaign push with election 2 days away

9. Hwang Kyo-ahn quits presidential race to back Kim Moon-soo

10. S. Korea's exports down 1.3 pct on-year to US$57.3 billion in May on Trump tariff effect: data

11. Will South Korea Abandon Taiwan (and US Alliance) Under New President?

12. South Korean Women Are Powerful—and Powerless

13. From a Seoul office, a North Korean defector governs the province of his birth

14. Russian Embassy in Pyongyang posts letter written by North Korean soldier deployed to Russia

15. Strategic pivot, not pullback, if US troops relocate from Korea, says Harris

1. South Korea’s snap presidential election 2025: All you need to know

From my friend and colleague at HRNK:

Lee Sung-yoon, board member of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, described the policy differences between the rival camps as “immutable” and referred to earlier comments by the Democratic Party’s Lee, because of which some view him as being soft on China and Russia.

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“In the past, Lee has said South Korea should not get involved in China’s posture towards Taiwan, and just say thank you to both Beijing and Taiwan and stay out of the conflict. He has said of the trilateral defensive drills among US, Japan and South Korea as ‘a defence disaster’ and an ‘extremely pro-Japanese act’. And more than once he has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy incited Russia to invade because he was a political novice who said unfortunate things.”

The analyst said Lee has – over the course of the election campaign – tried to walk back some of his statements in a bid to appeal to more moderate voters.

However, “I would venture to guess that people sitting in the councils of power in Washington, DC, or Tokyo or in Kyiv, Ukraine, are not overly jubilant at the prospect of a Lee administration,” he said.

Graphics at the link:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/31/south-koreas-snap-presidential-election-2025-all-you-need-to-know

South Korea’s snap presidential election 2025: All you need to know

Al Jazeera English · by Zaheena Rasheed

Voters in South Korea are choosing a new president to replace Yoon Suk-yeol who was impeached and removed from office over his brief and ill-fated martial law bid in December.

The snap election on June 3 is pivotal, with implications for South Korea’s democratic future, as well as its ties with China, the United States and its nuclear armed neighbour, North Korea.

Who are the candidates?

There are six candidates on the ballot, but the main contenders are Lee Jae-myung of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DP), and Kim Moon-soo of the governing conservative People Power Party (PPP).

Who is expected to win?

Lee, 61, a human rights lawyer-turned-politician, is the clear frontrunner.

A Gallup Korea poll on May 28 showed 49 percent of respondents favoured the liberal candidate, while 36 percent said they would vote for Kim, 73, a staunch conservative who served as labour minister in Yoon’s government.

Trailing in third place is Lee Jun-seok of the conservative New Reform Party, at 9 percent.

What are the key issues?

Yoon’s botched martial law bid has cast a shadow over the race.

It put Lee, who lost the last election to Yoon in 2022, back on track for the presidency.

The leader of the opposition was instrumental in foiling the president’s plan. On December 3, when Yoon declared martial law – in a bid to quash the Democratic Party-dominated parliament, which he portrayed as “anti-state” and a “den of criminals” – Lee rushed to the National Assembly and climbed the walls of the building to avoid the hundreds of armed troops deployed there. He livestreamed his exploit, urging supporters to come to the parliament and prevent the arrest of legislators.

Despite the troop blockades, enough legislators managed to make it to the parliament and vote to end martial law. The assembly went on to impeach Yoon on December 14.

“This election would not have happened if not for the declaration of martial law by Yoon Suk-yeol and his impeachment,” said Youngshik Bong, research fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. “These issues have sucked in all others like a vortex. Everything else is marginal.”

On the campaign trail, Lee has pledged to bring to justice anyone involved in Yoon’s failed bid and has also promised to introduce tighter controls on the president’s ability to declare martial law.

Where the candidates stand on the martial law attempt

Lee, the opposition leader, has also proposed constitutional changes to introduce a four-year, two-term presidency – at the moment, South Korean presidents are only allowed a single term of five years. Lee has also argued for a run-off system for presidential elections, whereby if no candidate secures 50 percent of the popular vote, the top two candidates take on each other in a second round.

“A four-year, two-term presidency would allow for a midterm evaluation of the administration, reinforcing responsibility,” he wrote on Facebook, calling for a constitutional amendment to enable the change. “Meanwhile, adopting a run-off election system would enhance the legitimacy of democratic governance and help reduce unnecessary social conflict.”

The PPP’s Kim has accepted Lee’s proposals for a constitutional amendment to allow a two-term presidency, but has suggested shortening each term to three years.

Yoon’s martial law bid, however, has left the PPP in crisis and disarray.

Infighting plagued the embattled party as it tried to choose the impeached president’s successor. Although Kim won the party primary, its leaders tried to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. On the eve of the party’s campaign launch, they cancelled Kim’s candidacy, only to reinstate him after party members opposed the move.

Bong, at Yonsei University, said the infighting as well as divisions in the conservative camp over Yoon’s decree has cost it support.

“Kim Moon-soo has not set his position clearly on the martial law declaration,” Bong said. “He has not distanced himself from the legacy of Yoon, but at the same time, he has not made it clear whether he believes the declaration of martial law was a violation of the constitution. So the PPP has not really had enough energy to mobilise its support bases.”

Still, Kim appears to have eroded what was a more than 20 percent point gap with Lee at the start of the campaign.

But he has failed to convince the third placed contender – Lee Jun-seok – to abandon his bid and back the PPP to improve its chances. The New Reform Party’s Lee, who is 40 years old, said on Tuesday there would be “no candidate merger” with “those responsible for the emergency martial law”.

What about foreign policy?

Although policy debates have taken a backseat, the outcome of the election could reorient South Korea’s approach towards North Korea. The two neighbours are technically in a state of war as the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and ties between them are at a new low.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for rewriting his country’s constitution to scrap the longstanding goal of unifying the war-divided nations and described Seoul as an “invariable principal enemy”. Pyongyang has also severed communication lines, and the two countries have clashed over balloons and drones carrying rubbish and propaganda.

Lee of the Democratic Party has promised to ease tensions if elected, including by restoring a military hotline, and committed to maintaining the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.

Kim, however, has backed Yoon’s hardline approach, promising to secure “pre-emptive deterrence” through tools such as ballistic missiles and the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons. He has said he would also seek a path for the country to pursue nuclear armament by securing the right to reprocess nuclear fuel, a key step towards building atomic weapons.

The two candidates also differ in their approach to the US, the country’s most important security ally, and to China, its biggest trading partner.

Lee, who espouses what he calls a pragmatic foreign policy, has said it is crucial to maintain South Korea’s alliance with the US and pursue security cooperation with Japan. However, he has pledged to prioritise “national interests” and said there’s “no need to unnecessarily antagonise China or Russia”.

Kim, meanwhile, has questioned Lee’s commitment to the US-South Korea alliance, and has promised to hold an immediate summit meeting with US President Donald Trump if elected to discuss tariffs.

“I have a very friendly and trusting relationship,” with the US leader, Kim has said.

He has also indicated a willingness to discuss sharing more of the cost of stationing US troops in the country, something Trump has demanded for years.

Lee Sung-yoon, board member of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, described the policy differences between the rival camps as “immutable” and referred to earlier comments by the Democratic Party’s Lee, because of which some view him as being soft on China and Russia.

“In the past, Lee has said South Korea should not get involved in China’s posture towards Taiwan, and just say thank you to both Beijing and Taiwan and stay out of the conflict. He has said of the trilateral defensive drills among US, Japan and South Korea as ‘a defence disaster’ and an ‘extremely pro-Japanese act’. And more than once he has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy incited Russia to invade because he was a political novice who said unfortunate things.”

The analyst said Lee has – over the course of the election campaign – tried to walk back some of his statements in a bid to appeal to more moderate voters.

However, “I would venture to guess that people sitting in the councils of power in Washington, DC, or Tokyo or in Kyiv, Ukraine, are not overly jubilant at the prospect of a Lee administration,” he said.

When will we know the results?

Koreans overseas have already cast their ballots, and early voting took place on Thursday and Friday. Large numbers of people turned out for the early vote, including the two frontrunners.

According to the National Election Commission, some 44.4 million people in the country of 52 million are eligible to vote. On election day, which is a public holiday, polling stations will open at 6am (22:00 GMT) and close at 8pm (20:00 GMT).

Counting will begin immediately and the winner will be known that evening or in the early hours of the following day. The candidate who receives the most votes will be deemed the winner, even if they don’t win 50 percent of the votes.

Al Jazeera English · by Zaheena Rasheed

2. South Korean election: The country votes for a new president after six months of political chaos

But one should not overlook all the political chaos caused by the opposition party before the marital law debacle.

But in the end, like most elections, it will be; "it's the economy, stupid."

Excerpts:

All the while, South Korea’s economy has suffered, with US President Donald Trump’s trade war and a potential global recession looming in the background. Two men are each promising to help the country recover if elected – a lawyer turned politician dogged by legal cases who survived an assassination attempt, and a former anti-establishment activist turned conservative minister.

Polls open on Tuesday morning and a winner could be declared by Wednesday.

...

At the forefront of voters’ minds is the country’s flailing economy and rising cost of living. Youth unemployment has surged and consumption has declined, with the economy unexpectedly contracting in the first quarter of this year.

Part of that is due to Trump’s trade war – which has hit South Korea’s export-reliant economy hard. South Korea’s exports to the US fell sharply in the first few weeks of April after US tariffs kicked in, and the nation’s largest airline has warned the downturn could cost it up to $100 million a year.

Though officials from both nations have met for tariff talks, the political turmoil at home is likely slowing progress and hampering a possible trade deal until a new South Korean president is elected.

That’s why both main candidates have focused on the economy, promising to stabilize the cost of goods and improve opportunities in housing, education and jobs.

But there’s a host of other problems the next president will have to tackle, too – such as the country’s rapidly aging society and plummeting birth rates, which represent an urgent demographic crisis also seen in other countries in the region like Japan and China. Among the common complaints of young couples and singles are the high cost of childcare, gender inequality and discrimination against working parents.

South Korean election: The country votes for a new president after six months of political chaos | CNN

CNN · by Jessie Yeung · June 1, 2025

South Korean presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Kim Moon-soo.

Getty Images

Seoul, South Korea CNN —

After half a year of political turmoil, uncertainty and division, South Korea will vote for a new president to succeed Yoon Suk Yeol, the disgraced former leader who plunged the democratic nation into chaos by declaring martial law in December.

This election feels particularly significant; the country, a US ally and Asian economic and cultural powerhouse, has floundered for months with a revolving door of interim leaders while navigating Yoon’s impeachment trial and a multipronged investigation into the fateful night of his short-lived power grab.

All the while, South Korea’s economy has suffered, with US President Donald Trump’s trade war and a potential global recession looming in the background. Two men are each promising to help the country recover if elected – a lawyer turned politician dogged by legal cases who survived an assassination attempt, and a former anti-establishment activist turned conservative minister.

Polls open on Tuesday morning and a winner could be declared by Wednesday.

Here’s what you need to know.

Who are the main candidates?

Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, speaks while campaigning in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Lee Jin-man/AP

The frontrunner is Lee Jae-myung, 60, of the liberal opposition Democratic Party.

A former underage factory worker from a poor family, Lee became a human rights lawyer before entering politics. He is a former mayor and governor, and most recently served as a lawmaker after narrowly losing to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election.

He survived an assassination attempt in January 2024 when a man stabbed him in the neck during a public event.

He again made headlines on December 3, 2024 – the night Yoon declared martial law and sent troops to parliament. Lee was among the lawmakers who rushed to the legislature and pushed past soldiers to hold an emergency vote to lift martial law. He live streamed himself jumping over a fence to enter the building, in a viral video viewed tens of millions of times.

On the campaign trail, Lee promised political and economic reforms, including more controls on a president’s ability to declare martial law, and revising the constitution to allow two four-year presidential terms instead of the current single five-year term.

South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech to declare martial law in Seoul on December 3, 2024.

The Presidential Office/Reuters

Soldiers try to enter the legislature in Seoul after the martial law decree on December 4, 2024.

Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

He has emphasized easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while holding on to the longtime goal of denuclearizing North Korea; he also supports boosting small businesses and growing the AI industry.

But Lee has also been dogged by legal cases, including several ongoing trials for alleged bribery and charges related to a property development scandal.

Separately, he was convicted of violating election law in another ongoing case that has been sent to an appeals court.

Lee denies all the charges against him. Speaking to CNN in December, he claimed he had been indicted on various charges “without any evidence or basis,” and that the allegations are politically motivated.

Lee’s main rival is Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP).

The People Power Party's presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo at an election campaign event in Goyang, South Korea, on May 21, 2025.

Lee Jin-man/AP

When Yoon left the party in May, he urged supporters to back Kim – a 73-year-old former labor minister, who had been a prominent labor activist at university, even being expelled and imprisoned for his protests. He eventually joined a conservative party, and stepped into the nomination after several rounds of party infighting.

The PPP initially selected Kim as its candidate; then dropped him, eyeing former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo instead. The party finally chose Kim after he filed legal challenges.

But the PPP remains deeply divided and its candidate trailed Lee in pre-election polling. In a statement after his nomination, Kim vowed to seek unity and build a “big tent” coalition to take on Lee, according to Reuters.

Kim has also promised to reform the country’s politics, judiciary and election management systems to rebuild public trust. His campaign emphasized making South Korea business-friendly through tax cuts and eased restrictions, and by promoting new technologies and nuclear energy.

Several third-party and independent candidates are also running for the presidency. They include Lee Jun-seok, a former PPP leader who founded his own conservative New Reform Party last year.

What are the issues on the table?

At the forefront of voters’ minds is the country’s flailing economy and rising cost of living. Youth unemployment has surged and consumption has declined, with the economy unexpectedly contracting in the first quarter of this year.

Part of that is due to Trump’s trade war – which has hit South Korea’s export-reliant economy hard. South Korea’s exports to the US fell sharply in the first few weeks of April after US tariffs kicked in, and the nation’s largest airline has warned the downturn could cost it up to $100 million a year.

Though officials from both nations have met for tariff talks, the political turmoil at home is likely slowing progress and hampering a possible trade deal until a new South Korean president is elected.

Vehicles produced by South Korean automaker Kia Motors are waiting to be shipped at the Port of Pyeongtaek on April 3, 2025.

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

That’s why both main candidates have focused on the economy, promising to stabilize the cost of goods and improve opportunities in housing, education and jobs.

But there’s a host of other problems the next president will have to tackle, too – such as the country’s rapidly aging society and plummeting birth rates, which represent an urgent demographic crisis also seen in other countries in the region like Japan and China. Among the common complaints of young couples and singles are the high cost of childcare, gender inequality and discrimination against working parents.

Then there are regional tensions. There’s the ever-present threat from North Korea, which has rapidly modernized its armed forces, developing new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States. Experts have warned in recent years that the country may also be preparing to resume nuclear tests, which it paused in 2018.

Across the Yellow Sea lies China, which South Korea has a strong trade relationship with – but historically fraught diplomatic relations.

South Korea also maintains a close security alliance with the US, and hosts nearly 30,000 American troops in the country. In recent years, South Korea, Japan and the US have drawn closer together, working to counter Chinese influence in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region.

What happened to Yoon?

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol (center) arrives at the Seoul Central District Court for a criminal hearing in Seoul, South Korea, on May 19, 2025.

Chris Jung/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Yoon was removed from office in April following months of legal wrangling, after parliament voted to impeach him late last year.

It was a remarkable fall from grace for the former prosecutor turned politician, who rose to prominence for his role in the impeachment of another president – only to eventually meet the same fate.

Soon after, Yoon moved out from the presidential residency and into an apartment in the capital Seoul. But his legal battles are ongoing; he faces charges including insurrection, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death (though South Korea has not executed anyone in decades). Yoon denies all charges against him.

CNN’s Yoonjung Seo and Gawon Bae contributed to this report.

CNN · by Jessie Yeung · June 1, 2025

3. South Korea’s Election Likely to Reset Ties With China

Does this mean that China's and north Korea's political warfare strategies will be successful?

Excerpt:

the front-runner favors diplomacy with North Korea and China to improve strained relations.

South Korea’s Election Likely to Reset Ties With China

Both of the main candidates support the alliance with the United States, but the front-runner favors diplomacy with North Korea and China to improve strained relations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/world/asia/south-korea-china-election.html?searchResultPosition=1

Banners showing South Korea’s two main presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung, left, and Kim Moon-soo, right. The June 3 election outcome will have an impact on the country’s foreign policy.Credit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Choe Sang-Hun

Reporting from Seoul

June 1, 2025,

12:01 a.m. ET

If the front-runner for the presidential election on Tuesday wins, South Korea is likely to enter a major course correction in its diplomacy to improve ties with North Korea and China.

South Korea’s relations with North Korea and China became increasingly strained under former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was expelled from office in April following his short-lived imposition of martial law. Under Mr. Yoon, South Korea became more confrontational toward North Korea, shunning dialogue and encouraging the spread of outside information into the isolated country. North Korea abandoned its long-held policy of supporting reunification with South Korea, redefining the South as an enemy that must be subjugated, if necessary, with its nuclear weapons.

Mr. Yoon also disturbed a delicate balance South Korea had always struggled to maintain between Washington and Beijing. While China emerged as South Korea’s biggest trade partner in the post-Cold War decades, the United States remained as its only military ally. Mr. Yoon not only openly sided with the United States in the strategic competition between Washington and Beijing, but he also antagonized Beijing by raising suspicions that it has sent spies to South Korea and may have manipulated its elections.

“The relations between South Korea and China became the worst ever,” said Lee Jae-myung, the candidate most likely to win the presidential election according to pre-election polls. He has criticized Mr. Yoon’s policy toward China. “I will stabilize and manage the relations,” he said.

Image

South Korea’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, took a strong line against Chinese influence. He was alongside Xi Jinping, China’s leader, it the APEC summit in San Francisco in 2023, where they exchanged greetings.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

In many ways, the foreign policy platforms of Mr. Lee and his main rival, Kim Moon-soo, share similarities.

Want to stay updated on what’s happening in China, North Korea and South Korea? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

Both vowed to deepen their country’s alliance with Washington, reaffirming it as the foundation of South Korean diplomacy. They pledged to invest more in South Korea’s defense capabilities and strengthen a joint deterrence with the United States to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear threat. And they supported trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan for regional security.

Mr. Lee and Mr. Kim also recognized an urgent need to establish a rapport with President Trump, who is asking South Korea to pay more for 28,500 American troops based on its soil while imposing steep tariffs on cars, steel and other exports that are key for its ally’s export-driven economy.

But there are sharp differences too. Mr. Lee and Mr. Kim represent opposing views of a country deeply divided over North Korea and China.

Mr. Kim and his right-wing People Power Party, which had supported Mr. Yoon, called his left-wing Democratic Party opponents “pro-North Korea” and “pro-China” forces, saying they would undermine Seoul’s alliance with Washington for the sake of improving ties with Beijing and Pyongyang.

Trump Administration: Live Updates

Updated May 31, 2025, 5:08 p.m. ETMay 31, 2025

During the campaign, Mr. Kim tried to tap into widespread sentiments against North Korea, and especially against China, among older South Koreans and young male voters. He called Mr. Lee an irresponsible fence-sitter in the geopolitical competition between Washington and Beijing, while describing himself as staunchly pro-American.

Image

South Korea’s presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, left, and Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party during a TV debate in Seoul in May.Credit...Pool photo by Kim Hong-Ji

“China was our enemy, whose Communist Party invaded our country during the Korean War,” Mr. Kim said during a TV debate last month. “Then how can we treat China at the same level with the United States?”

Mr. Lee and his party called such accusations part of a witch hunt that South Korean conservatives have used to “demonize” their liberal rivals ever since the Cold War era.

He reiterated that he would prioritize the alliance with the United States, if he had to choose. But he accused Mr. Kim of “unnecessarily antagonizing” China, North Korea and Russia. He said he would seek “pragmatic diplomacy” and try to improve ties with those countries, within the framework of its alliance with Washington, to ease tensions around the Korean Peninsula.

“Cooperation with the United States and Japan is essential,” he said. “But we should not put all our eggs in one basket.”

Mr. Lee is saying “many of the right things,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. But the question, he said, was: “Are those statements coming out of the candidate’s camp a policy preview or are they campaign clichés?”

Officially, both Mr. Lee and Mr. Kim support dialogue with North Korea. But they diverge sharply over how to deal with the North’s nuclear threat.

Mr. Kim appealed to growing calls among South Koreans for their country to build its own nuclear weapons, promising that if elected he would negotiate with Mr. Trump to be able to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel from South Korea’s nuclear power plants. That is what is needed to produce materials for an atomic bomb.

Image

South Koreans have closely watched North Korea’s missile tests. The two main election candidates diverge sharply over how to deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear threat.Credit...Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

He even vowed to “accumulate technologies for designing nuclear weapons, if necessary, through close cooperation with the United States.” Another option, he said, was to ask the United States to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea.

Mr. Lee called such suggestions foolish and infeasible, noting the decades-old U.S. policy of nuclear nonproliferation. He supported enriching uranium to secure a stable supply of fuel for South Korea’s nuclear power plants but not to build nuclear weapons.

"If we reintroduce American tactical nuclear weapons, we cannot demand that North Korea denuclearize,” he said.

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.

4. South Korea presidential election: can a new leader heal a fractured nation?

Conclusion:

The new leader will also face massive challenges bringing South Korean society together in the current climate. Political polarisation and the spread of disinformation worsened under Yoon’s presidency – and these trends will be hard to reverse.

Alexander M. Hynd

Opinion | South Korea presidential election: can a new leader heal a fractured nation?

High levels of support for front runner Lee Jae-myung suggest a widespread desire to repudiate Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3312519/south-korea-presidential-election-can-new-leader-heal-fractured-nation

Alexander M. Hyndin Melbourne, Australia

Published: 12:00pm, 1 Jun 2025

On Tuesday, South Koreans will head to the polls to choose the country’s new president. The election may draw to a close one of the most chaotic and contentious periods in the country’s post-1987 democratic era.

South Korea has been embroiled in a political crisis since December, when former president Yoon Suk-yeol disastrously declared martial law.

Yoon ordered security forces to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, leading to a dramatic late-night confrontation. His unconstitutional decree was overturned after just six hours.

The fallout was equally dramatic: Yoon was impeached and removed from office in a drawn-out process that was not finally resolved until April.

This period coincided with massive street demonstrations both opposing and supporting Yoon, a far-right assault on a courthouse, and a physical stand-off between investigators and Yoon’s personal security team.

The country, meanwhile, has cycled through three short-lived caretaker leaders.

With weak economic growth and high costs of living, in addition to an equally challenging security environment, South Korea is in desperate need of bold and effective leadership.

Kim Moon-soo, the People Power Party’s presidential candidate, speaks during a presidential election campaign in Goyang, South Korea, on May 21. Photo: AP

Who are the candidates?

The Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung is the clear front runner to be the next president, after finishing a close second in the previous 2022 election.

Recent polling put the veteran left-leaning politician at about 49 per cent support as the race entered the final week.

This is a double-digit lead over his main conservative opponent, Kim Moon-soo, polling at 35 per cent. Another conservative candidate, Lee Jun-seok, is polling at 11 per cent. Notably, for the first time since 2007, there are no female candidates standing to be president.

The high levels of support for Lee Jae-myung suggest a widespread desire among the public to repudiate Yoon’s martial law declaration.

Kim, the labour minister in Yoon’s administration, has apologised for December’s declaration. But his opponents have continued to question him about it.

Kim’s challenge has been to build a coalition of moderates and mainstream conservatives who firmly opposed the martial-law declaration, while also winning support from those who believe far-right conspiracy theories around election fraud. Yoon, the former president, is continuing to promote these narratives.

Lee Jae-myung (centre) of the Democratic Party takes a selfie with supporters after voting at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Lee Jae-myung’s compelling background

Lee Jae-myung’s personal story has uplifting parallels with South Korea’s own history of economic and political development.

Lee was born into poverty; the exact date of his birth is not known. He worked in factories from a very young age and permanently injured his left arm in an industrial accident when he was still a child.

He went on to earn a scholarship to study law and, by the late 1980s, had established himself as a labour lawyer and activist.

This activist image was highlighted when he live-streamed himself dramatically scaling a fence to enter the National Assembly and vote down Yoon’s martial-law declaration in December. He has previously compared himself to populist, progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders.

More recently, however, he has moderated his political rhetoric and policy platform to appeal to centrists and even some conservative voters.

This shift may also help shield Lee from the “red-baiting” claims left-leaning South Korean candidates typically face from conservative opponents that they are “communists”, “pro-China”, or “pro-North Korea”.

But Lee is also plagued by legal troubles, including corruption charges linked to a land development project. These charges, frequently highlighted by his opponents, risk derailing his administration if he wins the election.

Pedestrians cross a road in front of the Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul in February. Weak economic growth and high costs of living are among the issues plaguing South Korea. Photo: AFP

What are the main issues?

Some international commentators have focused on how the next president will handle North Korea. South Koreans, however, are more interested in the candidates’ plans to fix the country’s troubled economy.

Lee Jae-myung has pledged to immediately establish an emergency economic task force if he takes office.

There has also been a vigorous debate over South Korea’s future energy policy. Kim favours expanding nuclear-energy production to about 60 per cent of the country’s energy mix. Lee has voiced safety concerns about nuclear power, arguing “the era of building more reactors should come to an end”.

Additionally, questions remain over potential constitutional reform to end South Korea’s so-called imperial presidency system, which has been blamed for centralising too much power in the hands of the president.

The system dates back to the rewriting of the constitution following mass protests in 1987. This established direct presidential elections and a single, five-year term.

Both Lee and Kim support changing this to a four-year, two-term presidential system, similar to the United States.

Political divide widens along gender lines for young first-time voters in South Korea

Big challenges ahead

On the international stage, the new leader will face an uphill battle negotiating with US President Donald Trump over his punitive tariffs. Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on South Korean goods in April, but lowered them temporarily to 10 per cent until early July.

Before his impeachment, Yoon was widely reported to be practising his golf skills to attempt to find common ground with Trump, much as former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe did.

The new leader will also face massive challenges bringing South Korean society together in the current climate. Political polarisation and the spread of disinformation worsened under Yoon’s presidency – and these trends will be hard to reverse.

Alexander M. Hynd is a lecturer of Korean politics and international relations at the University of Melbourne. This article was first published by The Conversation.

5. Hegseth says the U.S. will reposition military amid threat from China

I know there are those in the Pentagon who are solely focused on fighting a war over Taiwan but we really need to get our narrative right so as not to undermine our alliances (which is perhaps the objective of some). In the statement of nearly every official and pundit about moving US forces from Korea there is such an underlying tone that indicates a lack of knowledge of and concern for US interests in Northeast Asia and on the Korean peninsula. It is as if many of these officials and pundits view Korea as a wasteful distraction for US strategic interests and the US military. And they continue to demonstrate a lack of understanding of what US forces do in terms of deterrence, defense and support to the ROK/US Combined Forces Command which is the warfighting command charged with deterrence and defense in Korea. They also do not understand how forces in Korea can contribute to US strategic agility throughout the Indo-Pacific when properly focused and employed.

The people who are advocating for force posture changes have given no indication of the strategic, operational, or tactical rationale for such changes other than saying we have to focus on the "pacing threat." Please tell me what putting a 4,500 person Brigade Combat Team in Guam from Korea does for us - how does an Army BCT in Guam help us with the feared "pacing threat?" Please provide what effects that you think it will achieve. And then please provide the method for how a BCT will maintain readiness on the island of Guam (especially as Marines are moving in from Okinawa)?

The bottom line is what does moving 4,500 troops from Korea to Guam really do for the US? Do we understand that the US will foot the entire taxpayer bill for the move and for support in Guam and will forgo great support they get from Korea while in Korea? This of course is a minor consideration if the move will achieve significant strategic, operational, and tactical effects. But there has been no official who has presented an adequate description of thoise effects.

As I have written, I want all US forces with our allies properly focused on deterrence and defense throughout the Indo-Pacific with the strategic agility to respond to multiple contingencies. We can no longer afford to view the myriad threats as stovepiped for compartmented, especially since our intelligence community has assessed the new emerging threat as "adversarial cooperation" with the CRInK providing mutual support to its members. We need to take a holistic view to deterrence and defense.

Optimizing U.S. and Allied Forces for Deterrence and Defense Throughout Indo-Pacom: From Korea to Australia and Everywhere in Between

https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/05/24/us-allies-deterrence-indo-pacific/

Excerpts:

U.S. interests could diverge from those of South Korea, as the South sees its primary threat coming from North Korea.

"I do think we're likely to see a change in force posture on the peninsula. I think the administration has been starting to signal that pretty openly," says Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., who was attending the Shangri-La dialogue.

"I think the message from the Trump administration," he added, "is that all that matters is what South Korea does on China. And the reality is that U.S.-South Korea interests go far beyond what South Korea does on China."

Hegseth says the U.S. will reposition military amid threat from China

NPR · by Anthony Kuhn

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on Saturday. Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a stark warning Saturday about China's threat to the status quo in Asia. He said the U.S. is refocusing its strength and policies on deterring China, and coaxed China's neighbors and U.S. allies to help.

"It has to be clear to all that Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific," Hegseth told civilian and military officials at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top defense summit.

The U.S. does not seek conflict, nor intend to "dominate or strangle China, to encircle or provoke," Hegseth insisted. "We do not seek regime change."

Previous U.S. administrations have offered similar reassurances to Beijing. But retired Chinese Senior Col. Zhou Bo, now a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, says he thought Hegseth's speech was "far more hostile than any of his predecessors made at the Shangri-La Dialogue," and were infused with "ideological rivalry."

Zhou adds that Hegseth's Singapore speech was more supportive of U.S. allies than Vice President Vance's starkly critical remarks at the Munich Security Conference in February. So, Zhou asks, "which one should we really believe?"

Refocusing U.S. military posture on China

Hegseth said the U.S. is "reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China."

One implication of this is that the U.S. could withdraw some of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to deal with China, including in a case of a potential conflict between mainland China and Taiwan, which the Pentagon calls its "sole pacing scenario." The Pentagon says it has no plans to pull its forces out of South Korea, but insists it must have the "strategic flexibility" to put troops where it needs them.

U.S. interests could diverge from those of South Korea, as the South sees its primary threat coming from North Korea.

"I do think we're likely to see a change in force posture on the peninsula. I think the administration has been starting to signal that pretty openly," says Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., who was attending the Shangri-La dialogue.

"I think the message from the Trump administration," he added, "is that all that matters is what South Korea does on China. And the reality is that U.S.-South Korea interests go far beyond what South Korea does on China.

"America first" defense policies

Hegseth's emphasis on U.S. priorities echoed much of President Trump's "America First" rhetoric. The defense secretary slammed the Biden administration's policies as "feckless," while praising President Trump's acumen as a dealmaker and efforts to seal its borders to an "invasion" of illegal immigrants.

"We are not here to pressure other countries to embrace and adopt our politics or ideology," Hegseth told the assembled leaders and military officials.

Hegseth conceded that geography makes it necessary for Asian nations to rely on China economically, while seeking defense cooperation with the U.S.

"But beware the leverage that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] seeks with that entanglement," he warned. "Economic dependence on China only deepens their malign influence and complicates our defense decision space during times of tension."

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his country would remain non-aligned, and against major powers carving out spheres of influence. He said Malaysia would continue to welcome the U.S. presence in the region, but also continue to value it ties with China.

"What Southeast Asia needs is a dynamic equilibrium," he said, "that enables cooperation without coercion, and balance without bloc politics."

European leader warns of double standards

In a speech at the forum the evening before Hegseth spoke, French President Emmanuel Macron offered a critique of U.S. policies, and encouraged nations to maintain strategic autonomy amid the U.S.-China rivalry.

"We want to cooperate. But we don't want to be instructed on a daily basis what is allowed, what is not allowed and how our life will change because of the decision of a single person," he said, apparently alluding to Trump.

Macron also rejected the double standard of rushing to defend Taiwan — a self-governing island that China claims as part of its territory — while abandoning Ukraine, a move which he said would undermine the U.S.' own credibility.

China's embassy in Singapore shot back on its Facebook page that "comparing the Taiwan question with the Ukraine issue is unacceptable," as the Taiwan issue is China's internal affair.

"If we use a double standard to look at a double standard," it argued, "we still end up with a double standard."

in response to Hegseth's remarks, the embassy said in a separate Facebook post that the U.S. "claims to safeguard peace and not to seek conflicts. We've heard it. Let's see what moves will it take."

NPR · by Anthony Kuhn

6. North Korea Gets a Weapons Bonanza From Russia

"Adversarial cooperation" of the CRInK.

North Korea Gets a Weapons Bonanza From Russia

Kim Jong-un seized on Russia’s need for support in its war against Ukraine. His reward is a rapidly modernizing military that threatens the delicate balance of power on the Korean Peninsula.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/world/asia/north-korea-russia-weapons.html?searchResultPosition=2

A photograph released by North Korean state media in May showing Korean People’s Army tanks during a training competition at an undisclosed location in North Korea.Credit...KCNA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Choe Sang-Hun and Ivan Nechepurenko

Choe Sang-hun reported from Seoul, and Ivan Nechepurenko reported from Tbilisi, Georgia.

May 31, 2025

Attack drones directed by artificial intelligence. Tanks with improved electronic warfare systems. A newly built naval destroyer fitted with supersonic cruise missiles. A new air-defense system. Air-to-air missiles.

The list of new weapons being touted by North Korea grows almost by the week.

Long-held conventional wisdom had it that North Korea — crippled by international sanctions, natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic — was unable to upgrade its decrepit Soviet-era military because it lacked the money, fuel, spare parts and technology required. But its wily leader, Kim Jong-un, found a solution to his country’s decades-old problem. He courted Russia after it invaded Ukraine three years ago and ran into a dire shortage of both troops and conventional weapons, like artillery shells. North Korea had plenty of both to provide.

In return, Moscow has revived a Cold War-era treaty of mutual defense and cooperation with Pyongyang, supplying North Korea not only with fuel and food, but also with materials and technologies to modernize its military, according to South Korean officials and analysts. They warn that the growing expansion of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, if left unchecked, could threaten a delicate military balance around the Korean Peninsula.

The disintegration of the old Soviet bloc, and the subsequent collapse of North Korea’s economy, created a yawning gap between North and South Korea in their conventional weapons abilities. To counter that, North Korea in recent decades dedicated its limited resources to developing nuclear warheads and their delivery missiles. Still, the North’s conventional weaponry remained many years behind that of South Korea and the United States, which keeps 28,500 troops in the South.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has brought Mr. Kim a military bonanza.

It gave North Korea opportunities to test its weapons and troops, and to gain valuable insights into modern warfare. Its conventional weapons industry has entered a renaissance, thanks to Russia’s insatiable demand for its artillery shells and missiles and the military technology flowing the other way, South Korean analysts said.

Image

Remains of a missile believed to have been made in North Korea that struck Kharkiv, Ukraine, last year.Credit...Reuters

Mr. Kim now has greater ability to destabilize the East Asia region and more leverage should he sit down again with President Trump or China’s leader, Xi Jinping, they said.

“North Korea appears to be entering a strategic golden age,” said Yang Uk, an expert on the North Korean military at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

The alliance has benefited President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, too. For months, Russian officials concealed the fact that North Korean troops were taking part in efforts to push Ukrainians out of the Kursk region, in western Russia. It was only at the end of April, when most of the Ukrainian-occupied area had been liberated, that the head of the Russian General Staff said during a public meeting with Mr. Putin that North Korean troops “provided significant assistance” to the Russian army there.

Perhaps more valuably, North Korea sent millions of artillery rounds, as well as many missiles, to Russia. South Korean officials said that North Korea was also cooperating with Russia to build drones for both nations. Russia’s resurgence in the war has given Mr. Putin a stronger hand in any potential peace negotiations with Ukraine, and with Mr. Trump.

Want to stay updated on what’s happening in North Korea and Russia? Sign up for Your Places: Global Update, and we’ll send our latest coverage to your inbox.

The courtship between Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin deepened when they met in Russia’s Far East in September 2023. Mr. Kim was shown around a Russian space-launch station, an aircraft manufacturing factory and air force and naval bases, compiling what South Korean analysts called a “bucket list” of Russian technologies he wanted to get his hands on.

Last June, Mr. Kim invited Mr. Putin to Pyongyang, the North’s capital, to sign an alliance treaty. Soon, North Korean troops began streaming into Russia, numbering up to 15,000 in all, according to South Korean intelligence officials

North Korean troops took part in recapturing two villages in the Kursk region, said Dmitri Kuznets, an analyst with the news outlet Meduza, which was outlawed by the Kremlin and operates from Latvia. But the true extent of the troops’ contribution has been debated.

Image

Russian soldiers in March in the Kursk region. North Korean troops helped push occupying Ukrainian forces out of part of the region.Credit...Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

Valery Shiryaev, an independent Russian military analyst, said in a post on Telegram, a popular messaging app, that the participation of Koreans in real battles was Mr. Kim’s idea, so that he could test his army.

“All of them are getting an incredible experience now and will come back as real veterans,” Mr. Shiryaev said. “There are no such people in the South Korean Army, which undoubtedly fills Kim Jong-un with pride.”

Analysts in South Korea and other Western powers have been tallying Mr. Kim’s hardware gains. They have monitored aircraft and ships carrying what appeared to be Russian military technologies to North Korea.

Mr. Kim also began more frequently visiting munitions factories and watching weapons tests. He oversaw the test firing of an antiaircraft missile system in March amid indications that he was getting badly needed Russian help to modernize its decrepit air defense. He later inspected reconnaissance and the self-destructing attack drones that used artificial intelligence to hit targets. Mr. Kim’s prioritizing of drones alone would help significantly narrow the gap with South Korea in conventional weapons, analysts said.

In April, Mr. Kim and his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, widely believed to be his heiress, attended the launching of the North’s first naval destroyer, the Choe Hyon. He later watched the ship test-fire various missiles. One of them was called a supersonic cruise missile by North Korea, and it resembled the nuclear-capable Russian cruise missile 3M22 Zircon, said Hong Min, a military expert at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

While launching the destroyer, Mr. Kim reconfirmed that he was also building a nuclear-powered submarine.

Image

A photograph released by North Korean state media in April showed the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and his daughter, Kim Ju-ae, at the launch ceremony of a newly built destroyer that significantly upgraded the country’s marine power.Credit...KCNA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Early in May, Mr. Kim visited a tank factory where he said that “the armored weapons of the last century” were being replaced, state media reported. He later inspected expanded and modernized munitions factories, praising a fourfold increase in artillery shells, a key North Korean export to Russia.

Mr. Kim also visited an air force unit and watched what looked like a MiG-29 fighter jet hitting a midair target with an air-to-air missile. Such a scene was a far cry from the days when North Korea could rarely get its fighter jets off the ground for lack of fuel and spare parts.

The weapons that North Korea has been brandishing suggest Russian help in developing them, said Lee Sung-joon, a South Korean military spokesman.

South Korean officials usually take North Korea’s claims with a dose of skepticism, as it has often exaggerated its military achievements for propaganda purposes.

And the pressure that Mr. Kim has been exerting on his engineers to complete new weapons quickly has led to mishaps. This past month, when North Korea launched its second destroyer, the ship capsized, prompting an angry Mr. Kim to order the arrests of several officials.

But with Russia’s help, North Korea is moving faster to fulfill its ambitious plans for upgrading weaponry announced in 2021, said Choi Yong-hwan, an analyst at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul. Building bigger ships would allow North Korea to start joint naval exercises with Russia around the Korean Peninsula, as South Korea has done with the United States for decades, he said.

Image

A news program displayed at a railway station in Seoul in April showed a file image of Mr. Kim, right, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last year as they met in Pyongyang, North Korea.Credit...Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press

Multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions ban arms trading with North Korea. But military cooperation with Russia “has proved a perfect route for the North to evade sanctions and overcome its technological limits,” said a report from the institute.

There remains doubt over how much sensitive technology Russia is willing to share with North Korea. North Korea has repeatedly failed to launch military spy satellites. And to build a nuclear-powered submarine, the country would need a small nuclear reactor.

Such a submarine, which would vastly improve its ability to cross the Pacific and launch a nuclear attack on the United States mainland, was so politically risky that Moscow would be “very, very cautious,” said Doo Jin-ho, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.

But the mere threat it could happen gives Mr. Kim more leverage, and North Korean state media has shown part of what it said was a nuclear-powered submarine under construction.

“It’s the most dangerous weapon North Korea has unveiled so far,” said Mr. Hong, of the Korea Institute for National Unification.

Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.

Ivan Nechepurenko covers Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the countries of the Caucasus, and Central Asia.

7. S. Korea stresses importance of maintaining USFK in talks with U.S. lawmakers

No, no, no.

To my Korean friends. You cannot be fixated on numbers. Basing deterrence and defense on a specific number of troops is frankly juvenile military analysis.

If this debate and discussion is centered simply around the specific number of troops, everyone is going to lose. Changes are coming. You can either fight them and lose or view this as an opportunity to achieve strategic agility that will provide deterrence and defense throughout the Indo-Pacific which in the end will be in both US and Korean and other allied interests.

Sure you might be able to influence US lawmakers to put another force "floor" for number troops in Korea in the next NDAA. You might win the battle but you will lose the "war" in the long run because instead of advocating for maintaining a specific number you should be focused on working with the US and allies to ensure we have the right capabilities in the right place to be able to respond to multiple contingencies at the right time to defend our interests. These discussions should be viewed as an opportunity to shape our combined military force posture to be better strategically aligned to protect mutual and multiple national security interests.

Please do not focus all your efforts on keeping 28,500 troops in Korea. There is no magic number for deterrence and support to defense. We need to focus on demonstrated capability and will - strategic reassurance and strategic resolve.

S. Korea stresses importance of maintaining USFK in talks with U.S. lawmakers | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · May 31, 2025

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- A senior South Korean defense official has underscored the importance of maintaining the current troop level of the 28,500-strong U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) during meetings with U.S. lawmakers Saturday, the South's defense ministry said.

The move came amid speculation that the United States may partially pull out the USFK to seek "strategic flexibility" to better deal with an assertive China.

Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Cho Chang-rae made the point as he met with U.S. congressional delegations representing the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual defense forum in Singapore. Cho attended the gathering instead of acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho.

In the talks, Cho emphasized the South Korean military and the USFK should continue to work together to maintain regional peace and stability by enhancing deterrence against North Korea on the Korean Peninsula on the back of a firm combined defense posture, the ministry said.

Cho also stressed the South Korea-U.S. alliance has played a key role for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region and called for bipartisan support in further advancing the relationship, as he thanked the U.S. Congress for its continued efforts in keeping the troop level of the USFK unchanged.

Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Cho Chang-rae (R) and U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) (C) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) pose for a photo during their talks on May 31, 2025, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual defense forum in Singapore, in this photo provided by South Korea's defense ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

In response, the U.S. lawmakers reaffirmed Washington's extended deterrence commitment to South Korea, using all military capabilities, and assessed the South Korea-U.S. alliance remains "ironclad," according to the ministry.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the Pentagon is considering the idea of withdrawing around 4,500 troops, or 16 percent, of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. The Pentagon has dismissed the report as untrue while Seoul ruled out any talks over such an issue, which requires bilateral consultation.

Still, a senior U.S. defense official has emphasized the need to "modernize" the alliance with South Korea and "calibrate" U.S. force posture on the Korean Peninsula to deter China.

During Saturday's talks, both sides also discussed bilateral defense issues, including cooperation in the shipbuilding and arms industries and deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

Cho called for U.S. congressional support for easing legal hurdles and signing the Reciprocal Defense Procurement Agreement to advance science and technology cooperation in areas including shipbuilding, naval maintenance, repair and overhaul, artificial intelligence and manned-unmanned teaming systems, the ministry said.

The U.S. lawmakers pledged congressional support to bolster bilateral cooperation in the shipbuilding and arms industries. Both sides expressed grave concerns over Pyongyang and Moscow's illegal cooperation and concurred on the need for a stern response with the international community.

Attending the talks were U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Brian Mast (R-FL) and Greg Stanton (D-AZ).

mlee@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Lee Minji · May 31, 2025

8. Presidential rivals make last-ditch campaign push with election 2 days away

Presidential rivals make last-ditch campaign push with election 2 days away | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Woo Jae-yeon · June 1, 2025

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- As the June 3 presidential election loomed just two days away, candidates on Sunday pressed on with their final efforts to consolidate their support base and persuade swing voters.

Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party campaigned in his hometown of Andong, approximately 190 kilometers southeast of Seoul, before meeting with voters across the wider Gyeongsang region.

He apparently hoped to win over even a small number of voters in the area, a traditional stronghold for conservative candidates where his party typically has little support.

Earlier in the day, Lee vowed to ensure "fair treatment" for patriots and veterans who dedicated themselves to defending the country.

"The fundamental duty of the state is to uphold patriotism in an honorable manner," he wrote on his Facebook page. "I will establish independence, national defense and democracy as the three pillars of our support for them to improve their recognition and treatment as well as honor them with the due respect they deserve," he said, vowing to expand medical services and provide better financial support for them.

Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party campaigned in the wider Seoul area on Sunday, starting in Gwanggyo New Town, Gyeonggi Province, in an effort to consolidate support in the region where he formerly served as governor. Lee Jun-seok of the minor conservative New Reform Party also campaigned at Dongtan Lake Park in Hwaseong in Suwon, 33 kilometers south of Seoul, making a final push to win over voters. He is expected to launch a rally in Seoul later in the day.

South Korea will elect a new president on Tuesday after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.

This combined photo taken May 30, 2025, shows presidential candidates of South Korea's major political parties -- (from L to R) Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party, Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok of the minor conservative New Reform Party -- during their campaign rallies. (Yonhap)

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Woo Jae-yeon · June 1, 2025

9. Hwang Kyo-ahn quits presidential race to back Kim Moon-soo

Hwang Kyo-ahn quits presidential race to back Kim Moon-soo

https://www.chosun.com/english/national-en/2025/06/01/TW2LTDSEHNDYBC46QQVPMS4YWI/

By Jung A-im,

Kim Seo-young

Published 2025.06.01. 16:34

Former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn speaks during a press conference outside the government complex in Seoul on May 24, urging acting President Han Duck-soo to take action against election fraud. /News1

South Korean independent presidential candidate Hwang Kyo-ahn said on June 1 that he is withdrawing from the race to support People Power Party’s Kim Moon-soo.

Speaking on a YouTube broadcast, Hwang said he wanted to focus all his efforts on helping Kim, saying, “I will withdraw and dedicate all my efforts to supporting Kim Moon-soo to protect the government.”

Hwang also said, “My final task is to prevent election fraud,” noting, “Fortunately, Kim has pledged to address election irregularities.”

He stressed the urgent need to stop Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung from winning, describing it as a matter of national importance. “Kim is the only candidate capable of fighting against anti-state forces,” Hwang added.

10. S. Korea's exports down 1.3 pct on-year to US$57.3 billion in May on Trump tariff effect: data

(2nd LD) S. Korea's exports down 1.3 pct on-year to US$57.3 billion in May on Trump tariff effect: data | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · June 1, 2025

(ATTN: ADDS byline, more info in 2nd, last 7 paras, photo)

By Kim Na-young

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's exports dropped 1.3 percent from a year earlier in May, snapping a three-month winning streak, as outbound shipments to the United States sharply went down amid the U.S. President Donald Trump administration's sweeping tariff policies, government data showed Sunday.

Outbound shipments came to US$57.3 billion last month, compared with $58.02 billion a year ago, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Imports shrank 5.3 percent on-year to $50.3 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of $6.94 billion.

Containers are waiting to be shipped at a port in the southeastern city of Busan on April 30, 2025. (Yonhap)

In May, shipments to the U.S. slid 8.1 percent from a year ago to $10 billion mainly due to the weak exports of the automotive sector, hit by the Trump administration's 25 percent tariffs.

Exports to China also decreased 8.4 percent on-year to $10.4 billion on low demand for semiconductors and petrochemical products, while exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) lost 1.3 percent to $10 billion.

On the other hand, exports to the European Union gained 4 percent to $6 billion, up for the third consecutive month, on strong demand for automobiles and semiconductors.

"The U.S. tariffs seem to be affecting the global economy and South Korea's exports, proven by a decrease in South Korea's exports to the two biggest markets -- the U.S. and China," Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun said.

"In particular, the sharp drop in international oil prices to the low $60 range in May led to a more than 20 percent on-year decline in exports of petroleum and petrochemical products, which was another major factor in the overall decrease in outbound shipments," he added.

By item, chip exports climbed 21.2 percent on-year to $13.8 billion, the highest figure for any May, on robust demand for high-value products, such as high bandwidth memory (HBM).

Outbound shipments of wireless communications products added 3.9 percent to $1.3 billion, driven by a 30 percent jump in smartphone exports.

Exports of computers, including solid state drives, increased 2.3 percent to $1.1 billion, while exports of biohealth products and vessels rose 4.5 percent and 4.3 percent to $1.4 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively.

Auto shipments, however, fell 4.4 percent to $6.2 billion on sluggish exports to the U.S.

Exports of petroleum products slipped 20.9 percent to $3.6 billion, while petrochemical exports dipped 20.8 percent to $3.2 billion.

Agro-fisheries and cosmetics exports, meanwhile, expanded 5.5 percent and 9.3 percent to both hit a record high of $1 billion.

"To minimize the damage to our export companies and maximize national interest, the government will clearly communicate our position on U.S. tariff measures to the Trump administration and work toward mutually beneficial solutions," Ahn said.

This file photo taken on April 29, 2025, shows cars waiting to be exported at a port in Pyeongtaek, about 65 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)

nyway@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · by Kim Na-young · June 1, 2025

11. Will South Korea Abandon Taiwan (and US Alliance) Under New President?

So do Lee and Trump align? What could that mean for the alliance?

Conclusion:

So, the foreign policy stakes of this election are high. Despite his progressive credentials, Lee is a Trumpist foreign policy candidate. He is transactional and disinterested in the liberal order. His election will accelerate the erosion of East Asian regional rules, as is already evident in Europe.

Will South Korea Abandon Taiwan (and US Alliance) Under New President?

19fortyfive.com · by Robert Kelly · May 27, 2025

Key Points – Lee Jae-myung is favored to win South Korea’s snap presidential election on June 3rd, following President Yoon Seok-yeol’s impeachment.

-Lee’s anticipated foreign policy, described as “Trumpist” due to its transactional and value-free nature, signals a potential shift.

-He controversially suggests South Korea might not side with the US if China attacks Taiwan and advocates for re-engaging with Russia.

-This stance stems from South Korea’s proximity to threats and doubts about US reliability under President Trump. Such a policy could severely strain the US-South Korea alliance and further erode the rules-based order in East Asia.

South Korea Will Soon Elect A New President

South Korea will hold a presidential election on June 3. This was unanticipated. The country’s previous president, Yoon Seok-Yeol, was impeached and removed earlier this year. The candidates have now been formally declared, and the campaign has begun.

The consensus is that the leftist or progressive candidate, Lee Jae Myung, will win. Lee nearly won the last election in 2022. However, a factional left-wing candidate pulled nearly 3% away from Lee, throwing the election to Yoon. That outcome is unlikely this time. Public disgust over the impeachment will likely give Lee the presidency.

While domestic issues will dominate the debate, as in any democracy, Lee’s foreign policy instincts will cause controversy among South Korea’s overseas partners.

South Korea and Sino-Russian Imperialism

Lee has provoked the most controversy with various comments over the years that South Korea should not take sides if China attacks Taiwan. Lee’s approach seems to be strategic ambiguity and hedging. That is, rather than commit to a US-led coalition to defend Taiwan, South Korea will initially hang back.

South Korean defection on cooperation against Chinese revisionism would worsen the erosion of the rules-based order in East Asia. The core norm of that order is that military conquest to change borders is illegitimate. A Chinese attack on Taiwan would obviously violate that principle. South Korean defection over Taiwan would also undercut South Korea’s moral claim on international assistance should it later be attacked by North Korea or perhaps China.

More importantly for Seoul, should the US fight China over Taiwan, South Korean nonparticipation would end the US-South Korea alliance at a stroke. It is inconceivable that the US would extend a security guarantee to a wealthy, conventionally powerful state that chose not to help the US in its most significant conflict since World War II. Lee never notes this in his comments on China. This is a huge, unresolved issue in South Korea’s grand strategy.

Lee has also suggested that South Korea should resume regular diplomatic and economic intercourse with Russia despite the ongoing Ukraine invasion. This would be a similarly sharp U-turn in South Korean foreign policy. The previous conservative administration participated in the sanctions on Russia and provided the shells that powered the Ukrainian offensive in 2023. However, given Trump’s similar desire to end the sanctions and isolation of Russia, Lee’s transactional, value-free foreign policy orientation is in good company now. Lee, like Trump, appears to have little interest in defending liberal norms.

South Korea Could Go It Alone

Still, there is logic in Lee’s position beyond obvious selfishness and buck-passing. South Korea is proximate to China and faces a tough local competitor in North Korea. Should it participate in a war over Taiwan, it would almost certainly absorb many Chinese missile strikes.

US airbases in South Korea would be used to conduct strike packages against Chinese targets, which would bring further retaliation. If South Korea, as the US ally most near China, were to commit to fighting it in a Taiwan war, it would need an iron-clad US commitment that America would fight for South Korea.

Unfortunately, US President Donald Trump is incapable of making such commitments. Indeed, Trump is notorious for breaking contracts and simply abandoning partners as a businessman and president. In Europe today, the US’ Article 5′ commitment to NATO is almost certainly a dead letter. No one believes that the US under Trump would fight Russia to defend Europe. Lee and his circle are likely figuring that the same applies to South Korea.

Worse, if China defeated the US over Taiwan, South Korea would be stuck next to a belligerent, angry China, even as the US simply withdrew from the region. South Korea also has the alternative of developing nuclear weapons to defend itself without US help, which, too, would allow it to stand aside from any Taiwan conflict.

So, the foreign policy stakes of this election are high. Despite his progressive credentials, Lee is a Trumpist foreign policy candidate. He is transactional and disinterested in the liberal order. His election will accelerate the erosion of East Asian regional rules, as is already evident in Europe.

About the Author: Dr. Robert E. Kelly

Dr. Robert E. Kelly is a professor of political science at Pusan National University. Kelly is also a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor. You can find him on X: @Robert_E_Kelly.

19fortyfive.com · by Robert Kelly · May 27, 2025

12. South Korean Women Are Powerful—and Powerless

One of the underlying Korean issues we outsiders are mostly oblivious to.

Excerpts:

“How are we going to tackle all these problems if the government and politicians don’t openly address gender inequality?” Jung said.

Things have reached the point that some young women look to avoid romantic relations with men all together, under the slogan of “4B,” or four “nos”—to childbirth, marriage, dating, and sex with men. Part of a social trend dubbed “birth strike” or “marriage strike,” Yoon and the PPP have capitalized on this phenomenon to stir up more anti-feminist sentiment.

Undeterred, more “no-marriage women” or “willfully unmarried women” are forming communities with like-minded peers to grow old together and care for one another, pointing to potential solutions for the challenges that lie ahead. They call for more policy support for one-person households or laws that extend rights and services available to conventional families to a broader range of companionships that includes those not related by blood or marriage.

Jung, the protester, says she feels stuck between a rock and a hard place. She is desperate to push the PPP out of power but also wary of being taken for granted by the DP, “like fish that have already been caught” and thus no longer need to be fed. But she remains optimistic, saying her experience of the solidarity formed in recent protests marked a “turning point” for many like her.

“Protests and political mobilization have been literally our daily life for the past four months,” she said. “I’m ready to hit the streets again if politicians keep refusing to listen to our voices. We’ll watch how—or whether—the politicians will respond to our voices with our eyes wide open, our fists clenched, and our light sticks and flags ready.”

South Korean Women Are Powerful—and Powerless

Korean women have helped topple governments but still have trouble gaining political office.

By Hawon Jung, a journalist and author of Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide.

Foreign Policy · by Hawon Jung

South Korea

May 30, 2025, 2:45 PM

the-full-story-functional-tag

The Full Story is a partnership between The Fuller Project and Foreign Policy.

They took to the streets en masse through last winter, braving icy weather, sitting on freezing pavements through snowy nights to call for the ouster of then-South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. Politicians praised them as “the hope for the whole nation” who “saved our democracy.”

Young women were a major force behind the months-long protests that helped bring down Yoon in April after his unconstitutional declaration of martial law last December. Waving bright K-pop light sticks that turned the streets into a sea of colorful lights, their presence was so overwhelming that the anti-Yoon protesters became known as the “light stick troops” and their movement the “light stick revolution.”

Yoon had risen to power on an anti-feminist platform in 2022, riding a wave of misogynistic sentiment among young men in South Korea—no surprise, then, that young women were highly motivated to remove him from power. But while Yoon’s brief, shock imposition of martial law triggered an ongoing political crisis, it also put the spotlight on one of South Korea’s biggest political failures. Despite the prominent role played by women in pro-democracy demonstrations, both past and present, there are barely any women in positions of political power.

This is no accident but the result of deep, structural inequities. South Korea is the world’s 12th-largest economy as well as a tech and pop culture powerhouse—it also has one of the worst records on women in the industrialized world. The country has the largest gender pay gap among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with women earning under 70 percent of what men earn. Women make up only 6 percent of corporate boardrooms.

The political sphere is no different—women account for 20 percent of parliamentary seats, only slightly higher than the share in North Korea and well below the OECD average of 34 percent. When South Koreans hit the ballot box in Tuesday’s presidential election to select their replacement for Yoon, all seven of their options will be men.

The recent outburst of female activism was driven by anger over Yoon’s martial law as well as his anti-feminist policies. But it also highlighted many young women’s desire to challenge the country’s deeply male-dominated politics. One popular political slogan summed up the sentiment: “The hands holding the K-pop light sticks will one day hold the [speaker’s] gavel.”

“Women and girls drove the momentum of many mass demonstrations during our key political moments,” said Jung Choun-Sook, a former two-term lawmaker with the center-left Democratic Party (DP). “But these women were often sidelined as cheerleaders with no real political power once the protests were over and the political dust settled. I really hope that things will be different this time.”

Twenty percent of parliamentary seats being held by women might seem low, and it is. But it is still a record for South Korea, the result of decades-long efforts by women such as Jung.

Unlike in many other countries where women fought for years to win suffrage, equal voting rights for women were included in South Korea’s first constitution, which was drafted after the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945. Still, when the country’s first elections were held in 1948, not one of 198 elected officials was a woman.

It was only in a by-election held a year later that the country elected its first female parliamentarian, Im Yeong-sin. Im, a close friend of then-President Syngman Rhee, later also served as trade minister, facing down protests from some male officials that “those who urinate while standing can’t report to a person who urinates while seated.” This would set the tone for the years to follow.

Women remained a tiny minority in the National Assembly, comprising about 10 out of 300 seats all the way until the 1990s. It was only after the country introduced gender quotas in 2000—requiring political parties to nominate women for at least 30 percent of proportional candidate seats—that the number of female lawmakers started to increase meaningfully. Feminist groups pushed for the change, and a strong wave of feminist and #MeToo movements have further fueled calls for more political representation of women and paved the way for landmark laws to combat gender discrimination and violence.

In response to these shoots of progress, the women’s movement has faced a major backlash. The right-wing People Power Party (PPP)—of which Yoon was a member until he became president—began tapping into growing anti-feminist sentiment among young men to win elections. Under Yoon’s administration, budgets to help victims of gender violence and discrimination were slashed. The country’s gender equality ministry—which Yoon had threatened to dismantle—lost much of its influence. Women perceived to be feminists faced growing threats of discrimination, bullying, or physical attacks for reasons including simply having short hair.

Against this backdrop came Yoon’s martial law debacle—driving Arden Jung, a 31-year-old graphic designer, to spend every single weekend from December to April marching on the streets of Seoul.

“There was this boiling anger among women like me about all the attacks on women, whether misogynistic violence or AI-generated deep-fake porn crimes,” she said. “So, when the [anti-Yoon] protests began, I thought: ‘Now is the time to go out and speak my mind. We’ve really had enough—we can’t take this anymore.’”

She took part in nearly 30 demonstrations, waving a large flag emblazoned “Introvert” to encourage other introverts to come out and join her. The flag went viral, and she soon found herself surrounded by throngs of protesters who silently marched along with her.

Women ages 20 to 40—who comprise 12 percent of the total population—accounted for about a third of hundreds of thousands of protesters during the peak of the anti-Yoon rallies. Many women like Jung were already well prepared, having led or joined numerous women’s street protests in recent years—whether campaigning for abortion access or condemning widespread tech-based sexual abuse.

“In many [anti-Yoon] protests, the front rows were always occupied by young women waving K-pop light sticks,” said Park Hee-won, an organizer of the recent rallies. “I could even recognize some of them because they were always there on the front rows, day after day, week after week, rain or shine.”

For months, women took to the protest stage calling for the creation of an anti-discrimination law, more gender equality education at school, and reforming a restrictive law that defines rape on the basis of physical violence, not consent.

Yoon’s impeachment brought hope for the young women seeking these changes. But political polarization in the country—especially the widening “gender divide” among its youth—has complicated such prospects.

South Korean voters have often been split by region or generation, with older people supporting the PPP and those in their 40s and 50s, who came of age during the anti-military dictatorship movement of the 1980s, largely voting for the DP.

But voters under 40 are sharply divided by gender. Women tend to vote for the DP or more progressive parties, while men are supporting right-wing parties such as the PPP, according to several surveys and the election results of recent years.

Ironically, this has led to both of the main parties shunning women’s issues.

“The PPP thinks, ‘Young women won’t vote for us anyway,’ and the DP thinks, ‘They’ll vote for us anyway, so we need to work harder to woo young men,’” said Jung, the ex-lawmaker.

Since Yoon and the PPP weaponized anti-feminism, gender equality and feminism have become “controversial, burdensome issues few would want to touch” across the political aisle, Jung said. Many politicians and activists agree.

“It’s the presidential election season. But no gender policies or policies for gender equality are being announced anywhere,” Chung Choon-saeng, a lawmaker of the liberal minority Rebuilding Korea Party, said in early May. One news magazine called the upcoming election “the presidential election for the half [of the population].”

While women expect little from the PPP, there has been growing anger at the DP’s silence on the issue. Lee Jae-myung, the DP’s presidential candidate and front-runner in the race, positioned himself as a champion of women’s rights during his failed 2022 presidential bid against Yoon. This time around, he remained mum on the issue for months, only announcing policies to combat gender violence and workplace discrimination after weeks of public criticism and mounting calls by rights groups to “respond to the voices of women voters.”

“For us, it’s considered strategically unwise to describe certain policies as those for ‘women’ or ‘gender equality’ too much because as soon as we utter those words, it becomes a source of political controversy, leaving us vulnerable,” one senior DP aide said on the condition of anonymity. The party is instead taking a “low-key approach” by incorporating women’s issues in policies for youth, labor, or other fields “quietly” so as not to risk offending young male voters, the aide said.

But Jung warned that women’s issues are at the heart of many pressing problems faced by South Korean society.

South Korea has the world’s lowest birth rate, with women far less likely to want to marry or have children than men, posing a looming demographic disaster for the economy. Researchers point to the patriarchal family culture and the significant double burden on working moms, who are much more likely to experience career setbacks in male-dominated workplaces.

With fewer babies born each year, South Korea is also one of the world’s fastest-aging societies. It’s expected to lose more than half of its 51 million population by the end of the century. Half its population is expected to be above the age of 65 within 50 years—already, 40 percent of South Korea’s older people live below the poverty line, the highest among the advanced economies. Women make up 60 percent of the above-65 population and have a significantly higher rate of poverty than men in that age group.

“How are we going to tackle all these problems if the government and politicians don’t openly address gender inequality?” Jung said.

Things have reached the point that some young women look to avoid romantic relations with men all together, under the slogan of “4B,” or four “nos”—to childbirth, marriage, dating, and sex with men. Part of a social trend dubbed “birth strike” or “marriage strike,” Yoon and the PPP have capitalized on this phenomenon to stir up more anti-feminist sentiment.

Undeterred, more “no-marriage women” or “willfully unmarried women” are forming communities with like-minded peers to grow old together and care for one another, pointing to potential solutions for the challenges that lie ahead. They call for more policy support for one-person households or laws that extend rights and services available to conventional families to a broader range of companionships that includes those not related by blood or marriage.

Jung, the protester, says she feels stuck between a rock and a hard place. She is desperate to push the PPP out of power but also wary of being taken for granted by the DP, “like fish that have already been caught” and thus no longer need to be fed. But she remains optimistic, saying her experience of the solidarity formed in recent protests marked a “turning point” for many like her.

“Protests and political mobilization have been literally our daily life for the past four months,” she said. “I’m ready to hit the streets again if politicians keep refusing to listen to our voices. We’ll watch how—or whether—the politicians will respond to our voices with our eyes wide open, our fists clenched, and our light sticks and flags ready.”

This post appeared in the FP Weekend newsletter, a weekly showcase of book reviews, deep dives, and features. Sign up here.

Foreign Policy · by Hawon Jung

13. From a Seoul office, a North Korean defector governs the province of his birth

"Change is coming.

Do not be frustrated because change has not happened.

Make human rights a priority.

Change is coming."

– Kim Gumhyuk

From a Seoul office, a North Korean defector governs the province of his birth

Ji Seong-ho serves as leader of a place where he can’t set foot, tasked with preparing for unification that may not come

Jooheon Kim | Joon Ha Park May 30, 2025

Ji Seong-ho, a North Korean defector who now serves as governor of North Hamgyong Province, sits in his office beneath portraits of former governors and a datachart of the region during an interview with NK News on May 14, 2025 | Image: NK News

Each morning in a quiet corner of northern Seoul, Ji Seong-ho walks into an office lined with maps of cities he cannot visit and nameplates marking towns he no longer calls home.

From behind his desk in a government complex in Gugi-dong, Ji receives briefings and leads meetings like any other provincial administrator.

But unlike his counterparts in the South, he governs territory still firmly under North Korean control.

Appointed in Aug. 2024 by then-President Yoon Suk-yeol, the defector-turned-lawmaker now serves as the official governor of North Hamgyong Province, North Korea’s northeasternmost region and a place he has not set foot in since his escape nearly two decades ago.

His post exists under the Committee for the Five Northern Provinces (이북5도위원회), a largely symbolic South Korean government agency under the country’s safety ministry, tasked with preparing for the administration of the North in the event of reunification.

But while his jurisdiction may exist only on maps and in government records, Ji sees his role as more than ceremonial, no matter how unlikely unification may now appear.

The Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces building in northern Seoul, which houses the office of Governor Ji Seong-ho | Image: NK News (May 14, 2025)

A SHADOW GOVERNMENT

The Committee for the Five Northern Provinces traces its roots back to 1949, just one year after South Korea’s independent government was formed. Then-President Syngman Rhee appointed governors to each of the five northern provinces, insisting that a unified Korea would need functioning local governments ready to step in.

The move was both ideological and strategic, Ji said, part of an effort to extend South Korea’s liberal democratic system across the entire peninsula, even if only on paper.

“This is an institution founded on constitutional legitimacy, and it is also administratively connected to government bodies like the Ministry of Unification, because it is envisioned as the administrative foundation for governance in the North after unification,” he explained.

Article 3 of South Korea’s Constitution bases its territorial claim to the entire “Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands.” While the definition of “Korean Peninsula” is not explicitly outlined, both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of Korea have consistently interpreted it to include all areas currently under North Korean control.

As a result, South Korea continues to appoint governors to each of the five northern provinces that it claims to this day.

Ji’s authority over North Hamgyong Province extends across 14 cities and counties, with each district backed by advisory committees and appointed township officials.

His office coordinates with advisers and committee members tasked with writing policy plans for areas they cannot currently access, including proposals for education, public health, religious freedom and local governance.

Ji described his work as a mix of research, contingency planning and bureaucratic continuity.

“Simply put, it’s a full-time job with regular daily attendance,” he said.

Each January, the office holds a policy briefing to outline the year’s goals. Ji said his team of about 20 civil servants focuses on integrating defectors into future provincial structures and drafting guidelines to help ease the transition from authoritarian rule to democratic governance.

He emphasized that his office’s role includes preserving traditional Korean culture, which he noted has diminished in the North under decades of authoritarian Kim family rule.

“That’s why preserving it is one of our key tasks,” he said.

Ji Seong-ho, governor of North Hamgyong Province, organizes documents on his desk in Seoul on May 14, 2025. | Image: NK News

FROM STREET CHILD TO LAWMAKER

Ji followed an improbable path to becoming the governor of his home province.

Born in 1982 in Hoeryong, a coal mining town in North Hamgyong, he grew up near one of the regime’s most notorious prison camps. His family was firmly at the bottom of North Korea’s caste system, and his father toiled in the mines.

During the 1990s famine, Ji lived as a street child, or kotjebi (꽃제비), scavenging to survive. He started jumping on moving trains to steal coal, trading it for food. While clinging to one of those trains in 1996, he fell and was run over by the wheels, eventually losing his left leg and left arm after being operated on without anesthesia. A decade later, he escaped the country and made it to the South.

Ji became an advocate for defectors and people with disabilities, and in 2020, he was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the conservative People Power Party.

There, he pushed legislation to support defectors and raise awareness of human rights abuses in the North. Ji said his presence sent a powerful message to defectors.

“There weren’t many success stories among them to look up to. But I think my life speaks to them. I’ve been through great hardship, and that pain resonates,” the governor recalled.

The PPP’s electoral defeat in April 2024 brought an end to Ji’s term as a proportional representative lawmaker. But just months later, he was appointed as governor of North Hamgyong, a role that he relishes for its separation from partisan politics.

“It wasn’t always easy to create something that was truly mine as a lawmaker,” he said. “I worked to revise and improve policies for North Korean defectors, but here, I’m the captain. I’m the governor. I can dream freely, within the framework of a liberal democracy.”

Ji in front of data charts related to North Hamgyong Province at his office in Seoul | Image: NK News (May 14, 2025)

A BLUEPRINT FOR HOME

At the core of Ji’s vision for his home province is a principle he refers to as economic dignity. Reunification, he believes, should not simply integrate the North into the South — it must empower those from the North to lead.

One of Ji’s most ambitious ideas is to build a defector-led financial system that will help escapees in the South enter the middle class and later return to the North to lead reconstruction.

“I want to create a bank led by defectors. I want to establish a bank that helps people truly live, overcome poverty, restore their status and give hope to North Korean residents,” he said.

Ji also hopes to turn the DPRK’s northeastern port cities into tourist and entertainment hubs. He envisions building casinos in Rajin and Sonbong, paired with venues for K-pop concerts, shopping centers and affordable tourism packages targeting visitors from China and Russia.

“With high-speed trains and buses coming in, people could visit Chongjin for tourism in the morning, do some shopping, and then head to a K-pop concert or casino in the evening,” he said.

Ji frames his plans not as wishful thinking but as a mechanism for economic change.

“Right now, North Korean defectors are still suffering, many are trafficked in China, men are forced to work like slaves with no pay, only food, and constant threats,” he said. “But after unification, it could be Chinese and Russian workers coming to North Hamgyong as foreign laborers.”

The 43-year-old also hopes to reckon with his hometown’s darkest chapters, drafting plans to turn prison camps into human rights museums. The idea, he explained, is to create a “second Auschwitz memorial” where future generations can learn about the brutality of totalitarian rule and the consequences of global inattention.

“It’s a way to show the reality — how the North Korean regime massacred its own people,” he said.

A map marking North Hamgyong Province, Ji’s designated area of governance, is displayed at the Committee for the Five Northern Korean Provinces building in Seoul. | Image: NK News (May 14, 2025)

A FUTURE STILL OUT OF REACH

Despite his sweeping blueprint for North Hamgyong Province, Ji said he recognizes the limits of his symbolic authority as the governor of a region where he can’t even step foot.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s formal abandonment of reunification as a goal in late Dec. 2023, coupled with his designation of South Korea as a “belligerent” separate state, has also made the committee’s mission seem increasingly anachronistic.

Despite this, Ji believes in the value of quietly preparing for unification. He said his focus is not on the political theater but on long-term planning that could guide South Korea if the situation on the ground suddenly changes.

“Even if it is primarily symbolic, if we can put together real, practical proposals and place them on the table, just having that is already a good outcome,” he said.

Whether or not Ji remains in his post depends on the continued support of the next South Korean administration set to be elected on June 3, and on the persistence of reunification as an ROK policy goal.

For now, Ji said, the mission is to serve.

“What’s important, I believe, is to focus on doing the work I can from where I stand. That’s the perspective I’ve always held.”

Edited by Alannah Hill

14. Russian Embassy in Pyongyang posts letter written by North Korean soldier deployed to Russia

June 1, 2025

Russian Embassy in Pyongyang posts letter written by North Korean soldier deployed to Russia

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-06-01/national/northKorea/Russian-Embassy-in-Pyongyang-posts-letter-written-by-North-Korean-soldier-deployed-to-Russia/2320255

Published: 01 Jun. 2025, 14:13

Updated: 01 Jun. 2025, 17:08

A letter written by a North Korean solider disclosed by the Russian embassy in Pyongyang [YONHAP]

A handwritten letter from a North Korean soldier deployed to Russia was released by the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang.

The embassy on Friday posted four pages of a letter on its Facebook account, describing it as a message left by a North Korean soldier at a hospital in Russia.

North Korea's Kim oversees military artillery firing contest

North Korea, Russia upgrade transportation links, promote high-level exchanges as strategic partnership deepens

South Korean military accidentally fires machine gun toward North

North Korea completes renovation of Tumen River railway station linked to Russia

One page was written in Korean and the other three in Russian. The letter included hand-drawn illustrations of the North Korean and Russian flags, along with depictions of medical staff.

Beneath the phrases “DPRK-Russia friendship and solidarity,” “sincerity,” and “family-like affection,” the soldier wrote: “To all the doctors, nurses and cooks of the department who have been selflessly devoted like a loving mother, I offer my greetings. Thank you.”

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The letter continued: “The sincerity you have shown us will be remembered forever in the history of DPRK-Russia friendship.”

At the bottom of the letter, the soldier signed off as “Ri Jeong○, 4th Battalion, 92nd Brigade.”

Russia officially acknowledged last month that North Korean troops had been deployed to the country. Since then, Moscow has openly highlighted their presence and praised them for their so-called heroic acts. The letter appears to be part of efforts to showcase the two countries’ alliance.

Vladimir Solovyov, a host on Russian state television, shared footage of North Korean soldiers participating in combat drills on his Telegram channel last Wednesday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]

15. Strategic pivot, not pullback, if US troops relocate from Korea, says Harris

Wide ranging interview.

I hope both Korean and US government officials (and the publics in both countries) will listen to the Admiral/Ambassador.

Excerpts:

Harris underscored the need for the US military to break down stovepipes to better cope with regional threats, admitting, “We have been stovepiped in our approach to operational planning, and I was guilty of that when I was the PACOM commander.”

“We have the Taiwan problem, we have the North Korea problem and we have the China problem, and we tend to look at these as if they’re independent problem sets without any spillover of effects. And that’s wrong. We have to look at it holistically,” Harris said.

“If we move forces from Korea to somewhere else, it’s so that we can better integrate all of the challenges that we face in the Indo-Pacific. It’s not a reduction in commitment; it’s a refocusing of our ability to meet all of the challenges that confront us.”

Strategic pivot, not pullback, if US troops relocate from Korea, says Harris - The Korea Herald

koreaherald.com

Herald Interview

Strategic pivot, not pullback, if US troops relocate from Korea, says Harris

Published : June 1, 2025 - 14:33:01 Updated : June 1, 2025 - 17:02:21

Ji Da-gyum

No US resistance to wartime OPCON transfer to S. Korea; handover depends on meeting conditions — time, effort, money

Harry Harris, a former US ambassador to South Korea, retired four-star admiral in the US Navy and former commander of the US Pacific Command, speaks to The Korea Herald on Friday in an interview at the International Convention Center Jeju, in conjunction with the Jeju Forum. (Jeju Forum Secretariat)

SEOGWIPO, Jeju Island — Repositioning of US forces on the Korean Peninsula, even if it occurs, would not signify a diminution of America’s defense commitment to South Korea, but rather reflect a strategic and holistic recalibration to meet regional challenges across the Indo-Pacific region, former US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris said.

Harris repudiated stovepiped approaches, underscoring the improbability of conceiving of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula as discrete from a Taiwan crisis or other potential regional flashpoints, in an interview with The Korea Herald on the sidelines of the Jeju Forum at the International Convention Center Jeju.

Anxiety over a possible reduction in the roughly 28,500 US troops in South Korea has flared anew, following a Wall Street Journal report in May that the Pentagon is weighing an option to pull out approximately 4,500 troops and move them to other locations in the Indo-Pacific region. Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell publicly stated that the report of a US Forces Korea drawdown is “not true,” but his denial has done little to assuage Seoul’s concerns.

“There’s always the possibility that we’re going to restructure forces in the Pacific, but it’s not a scaling back,” said Harris, a former four-star admiral in the US Navy and former commander of the US Pacific Command, when asked about the prospect and feasibility of a USFK reduction.

“That term has a negative connotation. It implies that we’re somehow going to reduce our commitment to Korea. I don’t think that will ever happen.”

Harris pointed to the Pentagon’s classified internal “Interim National Defense Guidance” — which he has not personally seen, but which the Washington Post reported on in late March — as signaling a shift in US military focus to the Indo-Pacific region, with China identified as the central focus.

“That's not a negative reduction of forces. That's so that we are better postured to defend Korea and meet our obligations to our other treaty allies and deal with the possibility of having to confront China over Taiwan,” Harris said.

Harris underscored the need for the US military to break down stovepipes to better cope with regional threats, admitting, “We have been stovepiped in our approach to operational planning, and I was guilty of that when I was the PACOM commander.”

“We have the Taiwan problem, we have the North Korea problem and we have the China problem, and we tend to look at these as if they’re independent problem sets without any spillover of effects. And that’s wrong. We have to look at it holistically,” Harris said.

“If we move forces from Korea to somewhere else, it’s so that we can better integrate all of the challenges that we face in the Indo-Pacific. It’s not a reduction in commitment; it’s a refocusing of our ability to meet all of the challenges that confront us.”

US and South Korean Marines take part in urban terrain training during the Korean Marine Exchange Program at the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, March 13. (US Marine Corps)

Troop numbers do not define commitment

Asked whether the number of US troops in South Korea, by itself, is what matters most in terms of deterrence and the strength of the alliance, Harris said, “No, it is not.”

“It is the commitment to defend Korea to the best of our ability in order to meet our treaty obligations,” Harris explained. “If — this is a big if, this is hypothetical again — if North Korea invaded South Korea again, then it would require far more than the 28,000 troops that are here in South Korea to help South Korea defend itself.”

Harris further highlighted that the US has air force wings and marine units stationed in Japan, and that the US 7th Fleet is based in Yokosuka in central Japan, stating, “There are forces that will come from all over the region.”

In response to Seoul’s growing apprehensions regarding the strategic flexibility of US Forces Korea, Harris emphasized that the issue ought to be viewed within the broader framework of addressing regional challenges through a holistic approach.

Strategic flexibility means the ability to be rapidly redeployed for expeditionary operations and used for broader regional missions beyond the Korean Peninsula, including a potential Taiwan contingency.

“It would be hard to imagine a North Korean scenario independent of a Taiwan scenario, or some other scenario, if they were to happen. I see the hidden hand of China in a lot of this. And so, we cannot look at these things as independent actions,” Harris said.

“We have to consider them in a holistic way. And so that’s why strategic flexibility is important — not only for the United States, but it’s important for South Korea as well.”

US and South Korean soldiers participate in a 19-kilometer ruck march as they work to earn an Expert Infantry, Soldier or Field Medical Badge at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, April 25. (US Army)

OPCON transfer when conditions are met

With regard to the South Korean military’s regaining of wartime operational control, or OPCON, Harris said the transfer will take place once the conditions agreed upon by both allies are met.

“There’s no resistance from the United States on the idea of OPCON transition,” Harris said. “I think it’s simply a matter of meeting the conditions that were determined, and that’s just a matter of time, effort and money.”

When asked what ought to be the foremost priority for the South Korean military to further bolster its capabilities, should the US request that it assume a greater share of responsibility in countering North Korean threats, Harris identified command and control as one of the foremost priorities.

“One is command and control, which is not a thing, but a capability, in order to effectively command and control forces — including US forces,” Harris said.

“So, in order to effectively command and control forces — including US forces — if we achieve OPCON transition, the transition of operational control of Korean forces during wartime, then Korea will have to have the ability to command and control American forces as well as, obviously, Korean forces, for which you already have that capability.”

Harris denied that any shift had taken place, responding to a question about whether the nature of the Korea-US alliance has changed under US President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine.

“No, I don’t think so. I think it’s about focusing on the threats and how we are going to meet our treaty obligations.”

At the same time, Harris noted that while burden-sharing negotiations are expected to continue, Washington’s strategic focus is now shifting toward China and the broader Indo-Pacific region.

As for Seoul, a debate exists over whether it should seek greater autonomy in its alliance amid Washington’s more inward-looking “America First” foreign policy. In response to such calls, Harris was unequivocal: “Today, the alliance is needed more than ever. But that’s my opinion.”

“If the South Korean people, as manifested by the people they elect into office, feel that the alliance has served its course, or if they feel — that’s a hard point — that the alliance should somehow change so that Korea can embark on a more independent course, that’s up to Korea,” Harris said.

“It’s not up to the United States, nor is it up to anyone else. It’s an independent decision that has to be made by both countries. We can’t want it more than South Korea wants it.”

dagyumji@heraldcorp.com

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De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

Phone: 202-573-8647

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

De Oppresso Liber,

David Maxwell

Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy

Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation

Editor, Small Wars Journal

Twitter: @davidmaxwell161

email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com

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