Quotes of the Day:

An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person's main task in life – becoming a better person.

– Leo Tolstoy

"The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

– Socrates

"To understand the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

– Bertrand Russell

1. Has Russia Abandoned the Eurasian Dream? (And the relation to Korea)

2. JCS chief, USFK commander inspect combined command amid joint drills

3. The Lee administration scrapped the August 15th Doctrine, stating, "Restoring trust between North and South Korea is a priority."

4. This 95-Year-Old Dreams of Walking Home to North Korea

5. US seeks shipbuilding expertise from South Korea and Japan to counter China

6. Kim Jong Un inspects warship, says US-ROK drills show ‘will to provoke war’

7.  KHNP denied access to power plant projects in N. America, Europe under Westinghouse deal: sources

8. Chinese man given 8 yr prison term in U.S. for exporting firearms, ammunition to N. Korea

9. (URGENT) N. Korean leader's sister says President Lee Jae Myung unfit to change course of history

10. Kim vows 'rapid' nuclear buildup, rebuffs Seoul’s outreach

11. Wartime OPCON transfer seen as key leverage for S. Korea at Lee-Trump summit

12. Presidential office calls NK leader's criticism of S. Korea-US drills 'repetitive response'

13. Eroding public support for Lee

14. North Korean defector-turned-restaurateur paints bitter portrait of 1990s famines

15. Ambassadors stress solidarity, diplomacy in face of North Korea’s role in Ukraine conflict

16. The Key To Ukraine Peace? A Korean-Style Buffer Zone

1. Has Russia Abandoned the Eurasian Dream? (And the relation to Korea)

From my friend and colleague from north Korea who has endured horrendous suffering at the hands of the Chinese and the Kim family regime, Ms. Jihyun Park. She can speak with authority about the nature of the Kim family regime.

There is a lot to unpack in this powerful essay from the Alaska Summit to Korean politics.

War or peace or fighting or surrender?

During the Cold War, President Reagan once said:

“There’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender. But history teaches that appeasement only leads to greater danger. The real choice isn’t between peace and war, but between fight and surrender.”

Excerpts:

Putin needs time. He wants sanctions lifted and the pressure from human rights groups—backed by the International Criminal Court—to ease.

Trump, on the other hand, needs to show that wars stop during his presidency. That’s part of his promise to Americans. But that’s not a real solution—it’s image politics, short-term at best.

And here lies a striking irony: When Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un sat in the same car, critics denounced it. But when Trump and Putin sit together, some glorify it as a scene of “saving humanity.” That’s the contradiction of today’s global discourse.

This confusion is even sharper inside Korean society. Some treat Ukraine as the main enemy and lean pro-Russia, while still supporting the U.S.-Korea alliance, praising Syngman Rhee, and even calling for unification.

But they ignore one truth: Russia bears historical responsibility for Korea’s division. Changing names doesn’t erase the war crimes they committed.

This shows that Korean society still hasn’t come to terms with history and ideology. Instead, it keeps making emotional, situational choices—missing the essential questions of freedom and system survival, while being swayed by slogans and images.

So the real question we must ask is simple:

“Has Russia abandoned the Eurasian dream—or is it still pursuing it?”

And that question leads to the deeper one: will we have the courage to fight, or will we choose the path of surrender?

게시판

Has Russia Abandoned the Eurasian Dream?

https://m.blog.naver.com/freedom88-/223976474134

freedom88-

1시간 전

 이웃추가

본문 기타 기능

Has Russia Abandoned the Eurasian Dream?

The recent meeting between Trump and Putin drew global attention. Speculation abounds about what the two discussed in private, riding together in that car.

Some say they covered the war in Ukraine, China’s isolation, even the Korean Peninsula. But chances are, they didn’t. If Trump truly is a leader, he wouldn’t hand a dictator the very chains that could bind him. He already paid a heavy political price after dealing with Kim Jong-un.

But the real issue isn’t what was said in that meeting. What matters is the image itself: Trump and Putin, side by side. At first, I thought Trump invited European leaders just for show. But that wasn’t it.

That moment was meant to display something bigger—the essence of today’s world order: the unity of free democracies against the camp of dictatorships.

And here’s the key point: Ukraine is not America’s ultimate enemy. Russia is.

Dictatorships like North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran still stand firm. Russia, North Korea, and China don’t have a formal alliance, but their bond is stronger than a treaty. What ties them together isn’t paperwork—it’s ideology.

On the surface, their interests clash, and sometimes they seem to turn their backs on each other. But they’ve never accepted freedom or democracy. They’ve always acted under the same banner: preserving their regimes, suppressing liberty, and resisting the West. Their unity isn’t a matter of convenience—it’s an instinctive alliance to defend their systems.

Recently, U.S. intelligence warned that “North Korea is in its most favorable strategic position in decades.” This isn’t just rhetoric.

Pyongyang is gaining weapons and supplies through military cooperation with Russia. It’s applying battlefield lessons from Ukraine to train its special forces. It’s ready to restart nuclear tests at any moment—and all of this is backed by Putin.

For Putin, North Korea and China are indispensable—not only to keep his war going but also to pursue his Eurasian dream.

North Korea, in turn, is using Russia’s needs to strengthen its regime. That’s why it’s unlikely that Putin shared any strategy with Trump about undermining Pyongyang or Beijing.

During the Cold War, President Reagan once said:

“There’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender. But history teaches that appeasement only leads to greater danger. The real choice isn’t between peace and war, but between fight and surrender.”

Those words ring true today. If we keep yielding ground, the day of ultimatum will come.

So, where is the path to peace? The answer is simple.

We must make it clear to our adversaries: we’re ready to pay any price, and there is a line they must never cross.

Winston Churchill also reminded us: human destiny cannot be measured in material terms. When great forces shake the world, we realize we are not beasts but human beings. As long as time and space exist, duty exists. And peace can only rest on the courage to fulfill that duty.

Putin needs time. He wants sanctions lifted and the pressure from human rights groups—backed by the International Criminal Court—to ease.

Trump, on the other hand, needs to show that wars stop during his presidency. That’s part of his promise to Americans. But that’s not a real solution—it’s image politics, short-term at best.

And here lies a striking irony: When Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un sat in the same car, critics denounced it. But when Trump and Putin sit together, some glorify it as a scene of “saving humanity.” That’s the contradiction of today’s global discourse.

This confusion is even sharper inside Korean society. Some treat Ukraine as the main enemy and lean pro-Russia, while still supporting the U.S.-Korea alliance, praising Syngman Rhee, and even calling for unification.

But they ignore one truth: Russia bears historical responsibility for Korea’s division. Changing names doesn’t erase the war crimes they committed.

This shows that Korean society still hasn’t come to terms with history and ideology. Instead, it keeps making emotional, situational choices—missing the essential questions of freedom and system survival, while being swayed by slogans and images.

So the real question we must ask is simple:

“Has Russia abandoned the Eurasian dream—or is it still pursuing it?”

And that question leads to the deeper one: will we have the courage to fight, or will we choose the path of surrender?

2. JCS chief, USFK commander inspect combined command amid joint drills

Why can't the Korean press acknowledge the bilateral command of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command (CFC) and instead emphasize USFK which is a sub unified command of INDOPACOM? The ROK/US CFC belongs equally to the ROK and the US.

JCS chief, USFK commander inspect combined command amid joint drills | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Lee Minji · August 19, 2025

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) on Tuesday underscored the importance of combined training in bolstering the allies' defense posture to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, the JCS said.

JCS Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo and USFK Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson, who also serves as the commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, made the point as they visited a military unit amid the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise currently under way.

"Our training is complex, combined, joint, all-domain and ensures our readiness to meet any challenge," Brunson said during his visit to the Combined Military Information Support Operations Component Command. "Our ability to fight tonight and win tomorrow is grounded in how we train today."

He stressed the South Korea-U.S. alliance is the allies' "asymmetric advantage" that can directly counter any threats from adversaries.

Kim highlighted the importance of military information support operations in modern warfare and called for utmost efforts to maximize combined operational capabilities through close communication.

Both Kim and Brunson noted that an "ironclad" combined defense posture is a powerful strength that can support efforts to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula, adding that such capabilities can only be strengthened through practical training, according to the JCS.

The visit came as South Korea and the United States launched their summertime drills Monday for an 11-day run through Aug. 28.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un denounced the combined exercise as showing their will to "ignite a war" and called for a "rapid expansion" of nuclear arms, Pyongyang's state media said Tuesday. Seoul and Washington have described the annual drills as purely defensive.

Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo (L) and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Xavier Brunson visit the Combined Military Information Support Operations Component Command on Aug. 19, 2025, in this photo provided by the JCS. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

mlee@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · Lee Minji · August 19, 2025

3. The Lee administration scrapped the August 15th Doctrine, stating, "Restoring trust between North and South Korea is a priority."

This is a Google translation of a Yonhap report.

This is so disappointing to read. The 8.15 Unification Doctrine was the ebt planning the ROKgovernment has done toward unification. I guess it is time to just retire altogether since our ally is making such a huge strategic mistake. And Kim Jong Un is thinking of Napoleon right now: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." Especially when the Levee administration is harding him with political warfare victory after political warfare victory.

But we must keep up the fire and press on with helping the Korean people on both sides of the DMZ in solving the "Korea question." (the unnatural division of the peninsula).

We are hosting researchers from the Korean Institute of National Unification (KINU) next month in DC so I will be pressing them on this.

Video at the link.

The Lee administration scrapped the August 15th Doctrine, stating, "Restoring trust between North and South Korea is a priority."

https://www.ytn.co.kr/_ln/0101_202508181646371299

August 18, 2025, 4:46 PM

AD

[Anchor]

The government announced that it will scrap the "August 15 Unification Doctrine" announced by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration and focus on restoring trust between the South and the North.

This appears to be a follow-up measure to President Lee Jae-myung's Liberation Day speech, in which he pledged to respect the North Korean regime and continue to pursue a policy of reconciliation and cooperation. This

is reporter Lee Jong-won.

[Reporter]

The Ministry of Unification has officially announced the abolition of the "August 15 Unification Doctrine," a unification discourse announced by

the Yoon Seok-yeol administration. This comes three days after President Lee Jae-myung declared in his Liberation Day speech that he would respect the North Korean regime and refrain from pursuing absorption unification or any hostile actions.

[Koo Byung-sam / Ministry of Unification Spokesperson: This is to abolish the "anti-North absorption unification" and "free northward advance theory" of

the previous Yoon Seok-yeol administration's August 15 Unification Doctrine and to clarify the North Korea policy keynote of peaceful coexistence.] The "August 15 Unification Doctrine," announced on Liberation Day last year, contained a strategy to stimulate the North Korean people's desire for free unification and bring about change from below.

 At the time, the Yoon Seok-yeol administration denied it, but some saw it as a de facto absorption unification plan.

[Yoon Seok-yeol / Former President (August 15th last year): Complete liberation will be realized only on the day when a free, democratic, and unified nation with the people as the masters of the entire Korean Peninsula is established.]

The government's declaration to abolish the August 15th Doctrine is a follow-up to President Lee's Liberation Day speech, and

the Ministry of Unification added that even when the doctrine was announced, there were procedural issues due to excessive emphasis on values and ideologies such as freedom and human rights and insufficient collection of opinions from the National Assembly.

Above all, it seems to reflect President Lee's will to prioritize measures to restore trust between the South and the North, and his directive to prepare for a phased implementation of possible parts of the inter-Korean agreement can be interpreted in the same context.

[Lee Jae-myung / President (August 15th): It would be natural to start by restoring trust and restoring dialogue immediately. Trust is built through actions, not words.]

Recently, North Korea, through Kim Yo-jong's statement, announced that it would solidify its hostile policy toward the South, and claimed that the absorption-based unification plan is explicitly written into our Constitution.

The Ministry of Unification repeatedly emphasized that our government's official unification plan is a three-stage national community unification plan that proceeds through the stages of reconciliation and cooperation, followed by the confederation of the South and the completion of a unified state, and that it is based on recognition of both systems and reconciliation and cooperation.

 This is YTN's Lee Jong-won.

Cameraman: Go Min-cheol

Video Editing: Choi Yeon-ho

Design: Jeon Hwi-rin

YTN's Lee Jong-won (jongwon@ytn.co.kr)

※ 'Your tip becomes news'

[KakaoTalk] Search for YTN and add the channel

[Phone] 02-398-8585

[Email] social@ytn.co.kr

4. This 95-Year-Old Dreams of Walking Home to North Korea

Can we understand this? The human domain dominates everything. Everyone wants to go home.

I would think the Propaganda and Agitation Department might want to make this happen to exploit its messaging potential.

But what about the 78,000 South Korean POWs that the Kim family regime never allowed to return to their homeland and instead created a perpetual system of slaves to work in the mines?

This 95-Year-Old Dreams of Walking Home to North Korea

After 70 years in the South, former POW wants to spend his twilight inside a Kim regime he never stopped fighting for

https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/this-95-year-old-dreams-of-walking-home-to-north-korea-c6919ec3

By Dasl Yoon

Follow | Photographs by Jean Chung for WSJ

Aug. 19, 2025 10:55 am ET

GIMPO, South Korea—As a young man seven decades ago, Ahn Hak-seop fought for Kim Il Sung in the Korean War. South Koreans captured him, imprisoned him and demanded he embrace capitalism. He once spurned an opportunity to go home to North Korea, pinning his return on an ultimatum explained by the message plastered on his home’s mailbox: “Withdraw U.S. troops.”

Ahn, now 95 and in poor health, has a final wish: “I want to die in North Korea.”

On Wednesday, Ahn, cane in hand, will depart his small home, stepping atop his American-flag doormat before boarding a vehicle to a border checkpoint. From there, he’ll try to walk into North Korea through the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the countries since 1953.

The two Koreas have arranged prisoner exchanges in the past, but this isn’t an exchange: North Korea hasn’t agreed to take in the former soldier. In fact, it won’t even pick up the phone to hear the request.

Of the many potential dangers of crossing the border for Ahn, the biggest risk is getting turned away by the Kim regime he has stubbornly supported through decades in exile.

Ahn's residence in a suburb of Seoul lies about as close to North Korea as a civilian can get.

“I’m not looking for a life in the North—I know I could die today or tomorrow,” said Ahn, who suffers from a lung condition that makes breathing difficult. “I just want to be buried there.”

For South Korea’s left-leaning President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in early June, the stakes may be higher. His administration has dismantled propaganda loudspeakers, flattered Pyongyang and vowed to restore trust between the nations. But Ahn’s unilateral repatriation could mark a breakthrough with the North.

All Pyongyang has to do is break its silence and promise to take Ahn back. Without such assurances, Seoul officials say greenlighting the repatriation will be difficult. Ahn said he would keep trying until he succeeds. 

Volunteer for the North

Ahn was born in 1930 during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, in a central area that straddles both countries today.

Kim Il Sung’s forces invaded the South in June 1950, and Ahn volunteered for the North Korean army two years into the war. He received orders in Pyongyang to deliver coordinates to a Communist Party base located in the South.

He embarked in a seven-soldier unit, fully armed and willing to climb snowy mountains in the dead of winter, he said. His six comrades fell one after another. After nine months, he found himself the sole survivor. That was when South Korean soldiers surrounded him.

Active hostilities in the Korean War ended with a 1953 armistice. Photo: CLAUDE DE CHABALIER/AFP/Getty Images

Ahn said he resisted capture. But he begrudgingly accepted after a bullet grazed his arm, which left a scar. He was treated for his wounds, he said, before being sent to the South Korean police for days of brutal interrogation.

Roughly three months later, the 1953 armistice that ended active hostilities between the two Koreas was signed. It left a stalemate that remains in place today.

The two sides traded thousands of prisoners of war after fighting halted. But South Korea’s U.S.-backed military dictatorship came to view certain prisoners like Ahn as more than just captured footsoldiers. They were spies.

There were more than 100 such North Koreans—including some actual spies. Their crime, according to South Korean law at the time, was being a pro-communist “enemy of the state.” Ahn received a life sentence.

In prison, the North Koreans were beaten, sleep-deprived and threatened. South Korean police demanded they sign a “statement of conversion” abandoning communism in exchange for their freedom. Many did; Ahn felt proud holding out.

Ahn has clung to the hope of a unified Korea.

Each time he reopened his eyes after losing consciousness due to the physical beatings, a single thought ran through Ahn’s mind: “I haven’t surrendered.”

The Cold War era produced a contempt for communism across South Korea, which remained under military rule until the late 1980s. Schools taught children anticommunist slogans. University professors and pastors went to prisons to convince North Koreans like Ahn to abandon their ideology.

“The war never ended,” Ahn said. “The bullets may have stopped, but ideologies persist.” 

‘Commie’ slandering

Ideological holdouts such as Ahn have a descriptor in South Korea: “unconverted” long-term prisoners. He stayed behind bars until 1995, when then-President Kim Young-sam, the first elected leader without ties to the ousted military regime, issued a special pardon for the incarcerated North Koreans.

Ahn, by then in his mid-60s, still had relatives in South Korea. But his family shunned him, calling him a “commie” to his face.  

“I was slandered as a ‘commie’ all my life,” Ahn said. “But it never shook me.”

Five years after his release, in July 2000, Ahn married a South Korean woman. Inter-Korean ties had warmed. Weeks after Ahn’s wedding, Seoul agreed to repatriate dozens of “unconverted” North Koreans with Pyongyang’s blessing.

Ahn turned down the chance. He wanted to keep fighting in the South.

Anti-American artwork sits in a church near Ahn's home, close to framed photographs of him and other activists.

In the years that followed, Ahn headed numerous anti-American protests in Seoul and called for reunification. He clung to the hope of a unified Korea once more. 

South Korean welfare checks have helped Ahn pay the bills over the years. He lives in a Seoul suburb just outside the fortified DMZ—about as close to North Korea as a civilian can get.

His small residence sits next to a Christian church decorated with slogans such as “American colonialism” and a sculpture of an American gorilla pushing a pacifier-sucking South Korean aboard a tank. 

After Ahn went public with his repatriation plans earlier this month, five other elderly North Korean former POWs also stated a desire to return home.

Ahn argues under the Geneva Convention he should be returned as a former POW. But Ahn’s South Korean passport makes it unclear if the Kim regime would view him as a North Korean or not.

Song Byung-koo, second from left, with repatriated North Korean POWs in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 2002. Photo: Song Byung-koo

Pyongyang festooned the more than 60 returnees in 2000, hailing them as heroes and making postage stamps with their faces, according to Song Byung-koo, a South Korean pastor who met with four repatriated POWs in Pyongyang in 2002. The stamps read: “The incarnation of faith and will.”

Like those comrades, Ahn said he belongs in his homeland, with his days possibly limited. “I protested for as long as I could,” he said. “I’ve done everything I can.”

Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com

5. US seeks shipbuilding expertise from South Korea and Japan to counter China

Yes. We need a JAROKUS shipbuilding consortium.

US seeks shipbuilding expertise from South Korea and Japan to counter China

By  ALBEE ZHANG

Updated 9:17 PM GMT+9, August 17, 2025

AP · ALBEE ZHANG · August 17, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — American lawmakers are using a trip to South Korea and Japan to explore how the United States can tap those allies’ shipbuilding expertise and capacity to help boost its own capabilities, which are dwarfed by those of China.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Andy Kim, D-N.J., who are scheduled to land in Seoul on Sunday before traveling to Japan, plan to meet top shipbuilders from the world’s second- and third-largest shipbuilding countries. The senators want to examine the possibilities of forming joint ventures to construct and repair noncombatant vessels for the U.S. Navy in the Indo-Pacific and bring investments to American shipyards.

“We already have fewer capacity now than we did during Operation Iraqi Freedom” in 2003, Duckworth told The Associated Press. “We have to rebuild the capacity. At the same time, what capacity we have is aging and breaking down and taking longer and more expensive to fix.”

Their trip comes as President Donald Trump demands a plan to revive U.S. shipyards and engage foreign partners. The Pentagon is seeking $47 billion for shipbuilding in its annual budget. The urgency stems from the fact that Washington severely lags behind China in building naval ships, a situation raising alarms among policymakers who worry the maritime balance of power could shift to China, now the world’s No. 1 shipbuilder.

Duckworth, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she hopes the trip could lead to joint ventures among the U.S. military, American companies and foreign partners to build auxiliary vessels for the Navy and small boats for the Army.

◆ Stay up to date with similar stories by signing up to our WhatsApp channel.

Another possibility is repairing U.S. ships in the Indo-Pacific region.

“If we have to bring ships all the way back to the United States ... to wait two years to be fixed, that doesn’t help the situation,” Duckworth said.

The discussions, she said, will focus on auxiliary vessels, which are noncombatant ships such as fueling and cargo vessels that support naval and military operations. The Navy’s auxiliary fleet is aging and insufficient in numbers, she said.

The U.S. commercial shipbuilding accounted for 0.1% of global capacity in 2024, while China produced 53%, followed by South Korea and Japan, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A Navy review from April 2024 found that many of its major shipbuilding programs were one year to three years behind schedule.

During the trip, the senators are expected to meet representatives from major shipbuilders in the region.

South Korea and the U.S. are already making progress on shipbuilding cooperation. In March, Hanwha Ocean completed maintenance work for a 41,000-ton U.S. Navy dry cargo and ammunition ship in South Korea. The overhaul of USNS Wally Schirra was the Korean company’s first project after it secured a repair agreement with the U.S. Navy in July 2024.

Hanwha Group last year acquired Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, which builds large merchant mariners, part of the reserve auxiliary fleet.

Earlier this month, South Korea proposed to invest $150 billion in the U.S. shipbuilding industry to support Trump’s “Make American Shipbuilding Great Again” initiative as part of its tariffs talk with the White House.

Duckworth said she had earlier conversations with Hyundai Heavy Industries “about them actually buying into U.S. shipyards on U.S. soil”.

This month, China formed the world’s biggest shipbuilding company by merging two state-owned shipbuilders. The combined entity China State Shipbuilding Corporation produces Chinese navy’s combat vessels from aircraft carriers to nuclear submarines. It commands 21.5% of global shipbuilding market.

AP · ALBEE ZHANG · August 17, 2025

6. Kim Jong Un inspects warship, says US-ROK drills show ‘will to provoke war’

Perhaps this time it will tip over with him on it.

Kim Jong Un inspects warship, says US-ROK drills show ‘will to provoke war’

North Korean leader looks to naval nukes to oppose allies as large new destroyer readied for deployment

Colin Zwirko August 19, 2025

https://www.nknews.org/2025/08/kim-jong-un-inspects-warship-says-us-rok-drills-show-will-to-provoke-war/

Kim Jong Un inspects the No. 51 Choe Hyon-class warship at Nampho Shipyard on Aug. 18 | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Aug. 19, 2025)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the country’s largest new warship under development on the west coast and called this week’s U.S.-ROK military drills “the clearest expression of a will to provoke a war,” according to state media on Tuesday.

The allies’ annual Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) joint exercises “constitute a clearly stated position that unhesitatingly shows their intent to be most hostile and confrontational toward the DPRK,” Kim reportedly said at the Nampho Shipyard on Monday.

Kim accused the U.S. and South Korea of “recent attempts at military collusion that includes nuclear elements,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, adding that this “requires us to take counteraction with proactive and overwhelming changes” related to naval nuclear weapons capabilities.

“The major tasks for making the navy high-tech and nuclear-armed is progressing on a stage-by-stage basis as planned,” he said.

The UFS drills started on Monday and are scheduled to run until sometime in September due to heat-related delays of some exercises. The allies have rejected Pyongyang’s accusations that they are war preparations, maintaining that they are “defensive” and aimed at “deterring and maintaining peace.”

An ROK unification ministry official told reporters on Tuesday that the allies have “no intent to attack North Korea or escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”

Kim Jong Un sits with navy commander Pak Kwang Sop and top weapons development official Jo Chun Ryong inside senior living quarters aboard the No. 51 destroyer | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Aug. 19, 2025)

It is unclear what nuclear-related cooperation Kim is referring to. This month’s drills reportedly do not include simulations of nuclear strikes on North Korea, like the previous ROK administration supported.

The most recent visit to South Korea by a U.S. nuclear-powered asset and the last bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting both occurred earlier this year, prior to the change in ROK presidential administration. 

U.S. nuclear-capable B-52H bombers participated in joint drills with South Korea and Japan in international airspace framed as “deterring” DPRK nuclear “threats” after President Lee Jae-myung took office in July, but the aircraft didn’t land in the ROK.

Amid Kim Jong Un’s principal rejection of joint military exercises with foreign countries on the peninsula, North Korea has conducted unilateral large-scale artillery drills twice in the last month. 

State media has framed these and other special forces drills in the last year as being related to preparing to defend against and counterinvade South Korea, though they have also appeared related to deploying over 10,000 troops to conduct a joint war with Russia against Ukraine — a war analysts say is helping North Korea prepare to fight the South.

President Lee has called on Pyongyang to come back to the negotiating table in recent months, but the DPRK leader’s sister and spokesperson Kim Yo Jong has rejected such prospects, blaming former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s attempts to provoke a war last year.

She left the door open to “meeting” U.S. President Donald Trump again, however, if he first demonstrates a major policy change and officially recognizes the DPRK’s nuclear weapons status.

Earlier this month, DPRK defense minister No Kwang Chol No warned that the allies’ drills will “certainly have a boomerang effect of plunging the security of the U.S. and the ROK into a less safe situation.”

It has become standard for North Korea to declare intentions to continue to produce and improve nuclear weapons capabilities in response to U.S.-ROK military cooperation, while threatening vague consequences and sometimes test-launching long-range missiles.

State media heavily blurred control rooms aboard the ship during Kim’s inspection | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Aug. 19, 2025)

1

2

3

4

5

WARSHIP INSPECTION

Kim Jong Un made the remarks while inspecting the first Choe Hyon-class destroyer that launched at Nampho Shipyard in April. The ship remains at the shipyard, where it is undergoing operational and weapons testing and its interior is being fitted out.

Heavily blurred photos included with the report show Kim inside operation and control rooms on board the ship. Others showed him smoking a cigarette in sailor living quarters and checking out what looks like the captain’s office. 

Photos also showed navy commander Pak Kwang Sop, Nampho Shipyard manager Yun Chi Gol, and top military and weapons officials Pak Jong Chon, Jo Chun Ryong and Kim Yong Hwan at the inspection.

Kim called for “proceeding to the next stage of the ship’s performance and operational capability evaluation process by mid-October as planned after completing the work anticipated for August and September,” without specifying what each stage of work entails.

State media has not reported on any live-fire weapons tests involving the No. 51 ship since soon after its launch in April. It’s possible there have been more tests in recent months, but it’s unlikely they involved larger systems like ballistic missiles since South Korean military officials typically track and publicize such tests.

It’s scheduled to sail around South Korea to join the East Sea Fleet in “early” 2026, according to initial state media reporting on its launch.

The DPRK leader was also reportedly updated on construction of the third Choe Hyon-class destroyer, which started at Nampho in July. 

The second destroyer was launched in June in Rason on the east coast, just weeks after it partially capsized during a botched first launch attempt at the Chongjin Shipyard. Satellite imagery shows that it remained at Rason over the weekend as it is undergoing similar fitting out.

State media has yet to announce any weapons tests conducted from the east coast ship or the start of construction on the planned fourth destroyer at Chongjin.

Edited by Kristen Talman

Updated on Aug. 19 at 11:04 a.m. KST with additional background and details from state media and at 4:01 p.m. KST with unification ministry response

7.  KHNP denied access to power plant projects in N. America, Europe under Westinghouse deal: sources

Not so good for the alliance perhaps.

(LEAD) KHNP denied access to power plant projects in N. America, Europe under Westinghouse deal: sources | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Na-young · August 19, 2025

(ATTN: RECASTS headline; ADDS more info throughout)

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- The state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP) has been prohibited from bidding for new power plant projects in North America and the European Union (EU), excluding the Czech Republic, and other countries under its agreement with U.S. energy firm Westinghouse over an intellectual property (IP) dispute, industry sources said Tuesday.

Under the agreement signed in January, the KHNP is only allowed to sign fresh deals in the Philippines, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and South Africa, according to the sources.

But the Korean company is banned from bidding for new nuclear power plant deals in North America and Britain, Japan, Ukraine and EU nations, except for the Czech Republic.

The KHNP and Westinghouse signed the settlement deal in January this year after the latter accused the Korean firm of infringing on its IP, claiming the KHNP's APR 1000 and APR1400 plant designs utilize its licensed technology.

The deal removed a major hurdle for the KHNP-led Korean consortium to sign a final contract in June, with an estimated value of 26 trillion won (US$18.7 billion), to build two nuclear power units in the Czech Republic.

The Czech deal, which marked South Korea's first overseas nuclear power plant contract since 2009, was initially expected to open new doors for Korean firms seeking business opportunities in Europe.

This file photo taken Oct. 14, 2024, shows Whang Joo-ho, president of the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., answering lawmakers' questions during a parliamentary audit. (Yonhap)

Earlier in the day, KHNP President Whang Joo-ho confirmed his company has closed operations in Poland amid speculations that its deal with Westinghouse influenced the decision.

Poland is the fourth European country where the KHNP confirmed its business closure, following Sweden, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

"After the new Polish administration took office ... the country decided to drop the state-owned enterprise projects (in the nuclear power sector) ... and that is why we withdrew our business there," Whang said during a meeting with the parliamentary industry committee.

It also reportedly includes a condition requiring Korean companies to pass the latter's technology independence verification when independently developing and exporting next-generation nuclear reactors.

The 50-year deal is also said to include provisions requiring the KHNP to sign a goods and services purchase contract worth about $650 million with Westinghouse per export of a single nuclear reactor, and to pay $175 million per reactor in technology licensing fees.

Asked whether the KHNP believes the deal with Westinghouse was fair, Whang said, "As the party accepting the terms, I cannot say it was fair," but added, "I believe it is something we can endure and still make a profit from."

Whang refused to confirm the details of the deal, citing a nondisclosure agreement.

Earlier in the day, the presidential office said it has ordered the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to review whether the deal was signed under due process.

This undated file photo provided by the state-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. shows the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

nyway@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Na-young · August 19, 2025

8. Chinese man given 8 yr prison term in U.S. for exporting firearms, ammunition to N. Korea

Chinese man given 8 yr prison term in U.S. for exporting firearms, ammunition to N. Korea | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Song Sang-ho · August 20, 2025

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. judge has sentenced a Chinese national to eight years in prison for acting at North Korea's direction to illegally export firearms, ammunition and other military items to the North, according to a U.S. attorney's office on Tuesday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said that Shenghua Wen, 42, was given the prison term on Monday for exporting those items to the North by concealing them inside shipping containers and for carrying out the crime at the direction of North Korean officials who wired him about US$2 million for the efforts.

Wen pleaded guilty to the charges in June. Wen, listed as an illegal alien in the United States, has been in custody since December 2024.

The attorney's office said that Wen met North Korean officials at a North Korean embassy in China before he entered the U.S. in 2012, and that the officials directed Wen to procure goods on behalf of North Korea.

In 2022, two North Korean officials contacted Wen through an online messaging platform and instructed him to buy and smuggle firearms and other goods, including sensitive technology, from the U.S. to North Korea via China, according to the office.

The following year, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms out of the Port of Long Beach to China en route to North Korea, it said.

It noted that one of Wen's weapons shipments -- falsely reported as containing a refrigerator -- left the Port of Long Beach and arrived in Hong Kong in January 2014, before being transported to North Korea's western coastal city of Nampo.

It also said that last September, Wen bought about 60,000 rounds of 9-mm ammunition to be shipped to the North.

In addition, the office said that Wen obtained sensitive technology for North Korea, including a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver that detects known, unknown, illegal, disruptive or interfering transmissions.

He also acquired or offered to acquire a civilian airplane engine and a thermal imaging system that could be used for reconnaissance and target identification, it said.

This file photo, released by the Associated Press, shows the logo of the U.S. Justice Department. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · Song Sang-ho · August 20, 2025

9. (URGENT) N. Korean leader's sister says President Lee Jae Myung unfit to change course of history

Breaking news. Nothing yet on the KCNA english web site. This will be an article we will surely read tomorrow. Kim is rebuffing Lee at every turn.

(URGENT) N. Korean leader's sister says President Lee Jae Myung unfit to change course of history | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Park Boram · August 20, 2025

Park Boram

All News 06:17 August 20, 2025

10. Kim vows 'rapid' nuclear buildup, rebuffs Seoul’s outreach

Some of that "rebuffing" of President Lee here.

Kim vows 'rapid' nuclear buildup, rebuffs Seoul’s outreach

koreaherald.com · Ji Da-gyum · August 19, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits the country's first 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer, named the Choe Hyon, at a dockyard in the western coastal city of Nampo on Monday, to check the integrated operation test of the destroyer's weapons system and the training and lives of its sailors, in this photo released by North Korea s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday called for a “rapid expansion of nuclearization" and denounced regular military exercises by South Korea and the US as a clear display of “most hostile and confrontational” intent toward Pyongyang.

This was notably Kim’s first public message since South Korean President Lee Jae Myung extended an overture for inter-Korean reconciliation and pledged to pursue a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula in his Aug. 15 speech marking the 80th National Liberation Day.

North Korean state media on Tuesday reported Kim's on-site visit to the regime’s brand-new destroyer Choe Hyon docked at the Nampo Shipyard on the west coast of North Korea.

Kim's inspection coincided with the first day of Ulchi Freedom Shield — an annual combined military exercise conducted by South Korea and the US from Monday through Aug. 25.

“Comrade Kim Jong-un affirmed that the US–Korea combined military exercises, once again carried out from today, constitute a clear expression of position that openly shows their intent to be most hostile and confrontational toward the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, said in a front-page Korean-language report. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Kim also claimed that “the gravity (of the combined exercises) has further increased as the two attempt military collusion that includes nuclear elements,” and underscored that “this evolving situation demands that we respond with proactive and overwhelming change,” according to the report.

“Comrade Kim Jong-un, while reiterating his earlier emphasis, stated that the security environment facing our state is becoming more serious with each passing day, and that the situation requires us to undertake a decisive and rapid change in existing military theory and practice, as well as a radical expansion of nuclearization,” North Korea’s main newspaper reported.

Kim also signaled North Korea’s intransigence in pressing ahead with its nuclear program.

“Comrade Kim Jong-un declared that important measures for the accelerated growth of national defense capabilities will certainly continue to be taken, and that our firm will and capability to defend the sovereignty and security of the country will be expressed through practical action,” the Rodong Sinmun reported.

In response, South Korea’s Unification Ministry reiterated Tuesday that the "Korea–US combined military exercises are of a defensive nature aimed at protecting the lives and safety of the people."

“We once again make clear that there is no intent to attack North Korea or to heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula,” a senior Unification Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “With regard to Chairman Kim Jong-un’s remark about strengthening nuclear capabilities, our position is contained in our celebratory address."

In his Aug. 15 speech, President Lee underscored his goal of establishing a peaceful, “nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” while admitting that “denuclearization is a complex and very challenging task that cannot be resolved in the short term.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (right) visits the country's first 5,000-ton multipurpose destroyer, named the Choe Hyon, at a dockyard in the western coastal city of Nampo on Monday, to check the integrated operation test of the destroyer's weapons system and the training and lives of its sailors, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (Yonhap)

Choi Il, a retired South Korean navy captain and now head of South Korea’s Submarine Research Institute, pointed out that “Kim Jong-un’s visit to the destroyer Choe Hyon on Aug. 18 — when the vessel was docked and no special event was taking place — clearly reflected a political intention.”

Choi underscored the significance of “Kim referring to the exercises and stressing nuclear armament aboard the destroyer Choe Hyon on the first day of the Korea–US combined UFS exercises."

Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification, explained North Korean media coverage of Kim’s on-site visit was mainly a "low-key response" to the ROK–US combined exercises.

“This response can be considered low-key in form and is difficult to view as a direct provocation or stimulus, since it did not involve an actual missile launch or a comparable action,” Hong said. “Yet in substance, it conveys a strong message, as it was a visit demonstrating the (North Korean) navy’s nuclear armament and signaling the intent for future force deployment.”

Hong further explained that the other major goal is to "demonstrate the non-acceptance of denuclearization and the irreversible will for the advancement of nuclear weapons" before the first summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump on Aug. 25.

Pyongyang's response appears intended as a preemptive move ahead of the Lee-Trump summit, where North Korea’s denuclearization and the allies' approach are expected to be discussed and announced in a joint statement.

“Rather than direct provocation, the focus appears to have been on sending a message that strongly highlights the rejection of the principle of denuclearization by showcasing mid- to long-term prospects for naval nuclear armament and the expansion of nuclear weapon launch platforms,” Hong explained.

dagyumji@heraldcorp.com

koreaherald.com · Ji Da-gyum · August 19, 2025

11. Wartime OPCON transfer seen as key leverage for S. Korea at Lee-Trump summit

​This could be a perfect storm for a negative impact on the alliance. Both sides could come to an agreement on OPCON transition for different reasons. And the ROK fears of abandonment could come true.

Wartime OPCON transfer seen as key leverage for S. Korea at Lee-Trump summit - The Korea Times

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump / Yonhap, EPA

By Lee Hyo-jin

• Published Aug 19, 2025 4:37 pm KST

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrintBy Lee Hyo-jin

Published Aug 19, 2025 4:37 pm KST

Seoul may push to revise nuclear energy agreement in response to Trump’s defense demands

The transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of the military from Washington to Seoul could become a key bargaining chip for President Lee Jae Myung during his upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, diplomatic observers say.

Their advice comes as the two leaders are scheduled to hold their first meeting in Washington next Monday (local time), a summit that could reshape the security architecture of the decades-old alliance.

Seoul has been under pressure from the Trump administration to shoulder a larger share of the defense burden, which could mean boosting its defense spending in addition to increasing its financial contributions for the stationing of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The role of these American troops, particularly if their mission will be expanded to countering China, is also expected to be near the top of the agenda.

As Korea considers how to counter Trump's costly demands and decide what leverage it can bring to the table, experts said that accelerating the OPCON transfer is a potentially useful approach for Lee, who has pledged to complete the OPCON transfer before the end of his term.

Sean King, a U.S. expert on Asia and senior vice president of the New York-based consulting firm Park Strategies, said Trump may welcome Seoul's request for a faster OPCON transfer.

"Trump could see eventual OPCON transfer as a way to lessen what he sadly sees as the U.S.' defense burden in Korea," King said.

Currently, Korea commands its forces in peacetime, but wartime authority lies with the U.S.-led Combined Forces Command, headed by an American general.

Past administrations have held multiple discussions on the matter, yet the transfer has been delayed repeatedly.

Apache helicopters are seen at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, the day Korea and the United States kicked off the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. Yonhap

Apache helicopters are seen at U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Monday, the day Korea and the United States kicked off the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise. Yonhap

"I think that South Korea is in a good position to negotiate a faster wartime OPCON transfer, particularly if it commits to increasing its defense budget, including buying U.S. weapons, at the upcoming summit," said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, KF-VUB Korea chair at the Brussels School of Governance.

Some analysts view the upgrade of the Korea-U.S. nuclear energy agreement, last revised in 2015, as another piece of key leverage for Seoul. The agreement prohibits Seoul from enriching and reprocessing nuclear fuels — a measure intended to prevent the materials from being used for military purposes.

During a National Assembly meeting on Monday, Foreign Minister Cho Hyun pointed to issues around nuclear energy, such as enrichment and reprocessing, as examples of what Korea may achieve in the upcoming summit.

Cho, however, cautioned against linking these discussions to Korea developing its own nuclear weapons, saying that such a narrative would not help advance ongoing negotiations.

Henry Haggard, a former U.S. diplomat and senior adviser at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, said, "Civil nuclear energy cooperation could serve as one of the areas to highlight the two nations' future cooperation."

He noted that the existing Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) offers a forum for the two countries to determine the best way forward on nuclear weapons.

Haggard also viewed it as likely that Trump would make explicit requests for Korea to increase its defense budget at the upcoming summit, but added that "it is up to the Korean government to determine its best way forward."

According to a recent Washington Post report, during recent trade negotiations, the U.S. pressed Korea to raise its defense budget to 3.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), up from 2.6 percent in 2024.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspects the 5,000-ton Choe Hyon destroyer, Monday, in this photo carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency the next day. Yonhap

North Korea is also expected to be a central topic at the Lee-Trump summit.

"Lee is sure to look favorably upon Trump trying to again talk to Kim Jong-un, as did Lee's predecessor, Moon Jae-in," King said.

Analysts say the meeting could give Seoul an opportunity to position itself as a mediator in any future talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump has hinted at reengagement with the North, while the Lee administration has also made conciliatory gestures, the latest being the president's order on Monday for government agencies to implement existing inter-Korean agreements.

South Korean and U.S. officials are reportedly planning to include denuclearization in the joint statement to be announced after the summit, with speculation rising that the document may make reference to the legacy of the June 2018 Singapore summit between Trump and Kim.

During the historic summit, Kim committed to working toward the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula, while both sides agreed to work together to build new U.S.-North Korea relations and foster a lasting peace on the peninsula.

Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to share the details of the planned joint statement, only saying that the two leaders are expected to discuss various measures for building peace on the Korean Peninsula and advancing denuclearization goal.

I cover South Korea's foreign policy, defense and security issues on the Korean Peninsula. Before that, I reported on immigration policies and human rights — topics I continue to follow closely. I strive to gain an accurate understanding of the issues I cover and am particularly interested in stories that amplify often overlooked voices. Tips and story ideas via email are always welcome.

lhj@koreatimes.co.kr

12. Presidential office calls NK leader's criticism of S. Korea-US drills 'repetitive response'

Presidential office calls NK leader's criticism of S. Korea-US drills 'repetitive response' - The Korea Times

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung speaks during a press briefing at the presidential office in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Yonhap

• Published Aug 19, 2025 4:47 pm KST

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

By Yonhap

Published Aug 19, 2025 4:47 pm KST

The presidential office said Tuesday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's criticism of annual joint drills between South Korea and the United States was a "repetitive response," while reiterating the drills are defensive in nature.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung made the remarks, in response to remarks by Kim that denounced the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise as demonstrating "the most hostile and confrontational" stance by South Korea and the U.S. toward North Korea.

"We always maintain the stance that the Ulchi exercise is a defensive drill," Kang told reporters.

Pyongyang has long denounced the allies' joint exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion against it.

13. Eroding public support for Lee

​Oh say it ain't so.  Two months into the Presidency and his support is eroding? The Korean peopel in the South are fickle.

If he was a bold and creative leader he would have pardoned former President Yoon and the former first lady. That could take the wind out of the sails of the opposition.

Eroding public support for Lee - The Korea Times

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts in central Seoul, Aug. 15. Yonhap

• Published Aug 19, 2025 12:16 pm KST
• Updated Aug 19, 2025 12:18 pm KST

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

Published Aug 19, 2025 12:16 pm KST

Updated Aug 19, 2025 12:18 pm KST

President should look beyond loyal supporters, seek consensus

The latest public opinion poll has sounded the alarm over President Lee Jae Myung’s job performance. His approval ratings have continued to slide, hitting their lowest level since he took office in June.

Poll numbers rise and fall depending on methodology, timing and the agencies conducting them. But this time, the message is too clear to ignore. The presidential office and the ruling party must face the trend squarely and analyze what has gone wrong with the Lee administration.

In a democracy, public support is essential — it sustains political leadership. Without it, elected leaders find it extremely difficult to push their policy agenda. This makes it imperative for Lee to regain public trust if he wants to remain in control of state affairs.

A Realmeter poll of 2,300 respondents conducted between Aug. 11 and 14 found Lee’s approval rating at 51.1 percent, down 5.4 points from the previous week. Even more alarming, the result represents a 12.2-point plunge compared to the same agency’s findings just two weeks earlier.

Lee, sworn in on June 4 after winning a snap presidential election held on June 3 triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, is still a new leader. In ordinary circumstances, a 51 percent approval rating might not be disastrous for a president if he has been in office for more than a year. But for one who has served just two months, that number — combined with a clear downward spiral — can only be read as negative.

Now is the time for Lee, his aides and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea to reflect seriously on what has gone wrong with the administration. If they can identify the causes and agree on remedies, they may still be able to reverse the tide.

Korea's recent history offers a sobering lesson: presidents who ignore plunging public sentiment pay heavy prices. Two of Lee’s predecessors, Yoon and Park Geun-hye, were impeached after dismissing public anger.

If the Lee administration remains idle in the face of today’s warning signs, there is no guarantee that it won’t face a similar fate.

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has blamed Lee’s controversial pardoning of two disgraced politicians — former lawmakers Cho Kuk and Yoon Mee-hyang — as a key reason behind the president’s falling approval ratings.

“President Lee’s controversial pardoning of Cho Kuk and Yoon Mee-hyang has dragged his ratings down further. President Lee, this is the public opinion,” Ahn wrote on social media.

The PPP lawmaker went further, calling Lee’s pardon of Yoon “as toxic as selling the nation.” He reminded the public that Yoon was convicted of embezzling funds meant to support victims of Japan’s wartime sex slavery, underscoring his claim that Lee’s decision was indefensible.

Ahn’s criticism has found partial backing in public opinion data. A Gallup Korea poll released Friday suggested Lee’s special pardons indeed hurt his ratings. According to the survey, his approval fell 5 percentage points from the previous week. When asked why they disapproved of Lee’s job performance, 15 percent of respondents cited the pardoning of Cho and Yoon as a decisive factor. Other cited reasons included excessive use of prepaid vouchers (11 percent), mishandling of foreign policy (10 percent) and alleged ethical lapses (7 percent). The full results of the public opinion surveys are available on the National Election Commission’s website.

Lee’s success matters not only for his administration but for the entire nation. If he fails, the country risks reliving the kind of turmoil that followed former President Yoon’s disastrous martial law decree. To succeed, Lee must look beyond his inner circle and learn to work with opponents as well as allies.

Lee must also work to regain the public’s trust. Broadly, there are two ways leaders can attempt this. One is through populist measures, such as indiscriminate use of prepaid vouchers to buy public support. But such policies are toxic and unsustainable, ultimately damaging the economy’s financial health. The latest Gallup poll shows that the public, well aware of these consequences, remains skeptical of heavy spending policies.

The other, more responsible way is to build consensus on key policy initiatives. This is the path a democratically elected leader should follow. Had Lee listened to negative public opinion and removed controversial figures from his pardon list, he would likely have avoided the backlash he now faces.

​14. North Korean defector-turned-restaurateur paints bitter portrait of 1990s famines

​What terrible suffering took place during the Arduous March of 1994-1996.

North Korean defector-turned-restaurateur paints bitter portrait of 1990s famines

washingtontimes.com · Andrew Salmon

Premium

By - The Washington Times - Thursday, August 14, 2025

A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.

SEOUL, South Korea — Few Koreans would turn down freshwater eel: Deboned, dipped in flour and deep fried, it is a special treat. Lee Ae-ran, however, won’t touch the dish. “When I see it, my heart grows heavy,” she says.

It reminds her too much of the fateful autumn evening in 1974 when a loud rap on her family’s apartment door in Pyongyang, North Korea, interrupted them as they sat down to a dinner of eel. It was an officer of the feared State Security Bureau.

He gruffly told the family that Ms. Lee’s father, a bureaucrat, was needed for a “great socialist construction project” in remote, rugged Ryanggang province in the north. Several men barged in and began roughly packing the family’s possessions.

That evening marked the beginning of years of exile, impoverishment and eventually escape to the south. Today, Ms. Lee runs a restaurant on a quiet hillside perched just minutes from Seoul’s downtown. In May, she published her memoir, “One Meal, One Memory: The Taste of Survival in North Korean Cuisine.”

Only much later would Ms. Lee learn why her family had been uprooted.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, authorities began investigating people whose documents had been lost amid the 1950-1953 Korean War. They discovered that Ms. Lee’s paternal grandparents had escaped to the South.

That thrust the Lees out of the comfortable “loyal” class and into the despised “hostile” class.

Banished from the relative comforts of Pyongyang into rural exile in an austere mountain hamlet, the Lees would suffer the deadly famines of the 1990s, euphemistically known in today’s North Korea as “The Arduous March.”

Advertisement

She remembers washing mold off rice crackers, meals of potato skin scraps, rice soaked in kerosene and bean stalks “that even cattle would not eat.”

For Ms. Lee, culinary phrasing takes on new meanings. Complaints lead to people’s disappearances “like evaporating steam.”

Beyond food, she recalls conditions inside the world’s most insulated state.

People with “greasy hands,” the party elite, abused their privileges, including through bribery demands and sexual assault. Victims who resisted suffered crippling imprisonment — some were forced to kneel in cells, year after year — under pretenses.

An “Assault Corps” was not a military unit but a forced labor mobilization. Tasks included “bracken battles” to gather ferns and “production battles” to build a rail line.

Advertisement

Childhood was no defense against the state.

Lessons were canceled, and schoolchildren were driven into the mountains to gather ingredients for bibimbap on overgrown trails infested with snakes.

A group of runaways, imprisoned in a crowded, underground cell, were thrashed with leather belts until their skin split. Only bribes from family members could secure release.

Ms. Lee was humiliated in front of her class by her teacher when she expressed hopes of attending college. She was told her parents’ “lowly life” made her ineligible, a realization that drove her to attempt suicide.

Advertisement

Resilience was desperate but creative.

Tobacco resin and match heads were used to disinfect wounds. Poppy seeds boiled in water became opiate anesthetics. Raw starch was used to stem diarrhea.

Rural banishment was tough enough. The situation became dramatically worse in the 1990s.

After the Soviet Union imploded, North Korea lost privileged trade and suffered failed harvests and floods. Resultant famines may have killed more than 10% of the populace.

Advertisement

Ms. Lee’s memories are harrowing.

Feral orphans massed outside rail stations. She watched a group fighting over a boiled rat — valuable nutrition — and observed people trying to feed a starving boy. He died in front of her.

A desperate old woman offered her an 18-month-old baby, and she witnessed a malnourished family eating fruit rinds thrown into the Yalu River. She learned that the bodies of the starved were trucked out of towns and dumped, without funerals, in the mountains.

She relates the story of a starving, hallucinating man who killed, butchered and stewed his 9-year-old son, thinking he was a piglet.

Advertisement

He was executed.

These horrors, Ms. Lee recalls, took place as dictator Kim Jong-il was constructing a massive, ornate mausoleum for his deceased father, Kim Il-sung, while TV broadcasts hailed a “socialist paradise.”

As black markets, selling goods such as smuggled Chinese food and firewood, took over from the collapsed state distribution system, a new phrase was intoned: “To preserve socialism, we must practice capitalism.”

Street snacks that conveniently combined protein and carbohydrates — chunks of fried tofu stuffed with rice — were invented.

Even in showpiece capital Pyongyang, apartment elevators and plumbing failed. Unwilling to use the basement toilets, exhausted residents of upper floors defecated into paper and dropped the waste off balconies onto the streets.

Ms. Lee recalls a 19-year-old who did not know what an egg was and laments that famine wiped classic dishes off menus.

“In the past, beef dishes like bulgogi were really famous in the North,” she said. “Now, most people have not even smelled it.”

She defected to the South in 1997.

There, she was stunned by the amount of food served and by the culinary diversity. In Pyongyang, the only non-native eateries were Chinese, one Russian and one “Western” restaurant.

In Seoul, she could not eat her first steak. “It was rare and bloody, and I was not used to beef,” she said.

She leveraged her experiences — her mother had been a chef in Pyongyang, and in her “Assault Corps,” she had cooked for the laborers — to open her restaurant Nong Rae Bab Sang, named after a willowed island in Pyongyang’s Daedong River.

Diners have included former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Her book, published this year, aimed from the outset to differ from other defector accounts.

“They write about political prisons and defections, which is hard for ordinary South Koreans to accept,” she said. “I thought food was a more natural way to talk about human rights.”

In addition to her culinary career, her activities have included being the first defector to run for political office, unsuccessfully, and berating North Korean cheerleaders who attended the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. (They ignored her.)

It is widely believed that North Korean food security has improved since the 1990s. The United Nations estimates that 10.7 million of North Korea’s 25.9 million people are malnourished and 18% of children are stunted, but it does not mention starvation.

As of this year, Moscow has been exporting food to Pyongyang.

Ms. Lee, the first North Korean woman to earn a doctorate in food and nutrition from a South Korean university, Ewha Womans University, is unconvinced.

“They don’t have the food resources to improve,” she said, referring to North Korea’s geographical unsuitability for agriculture.

• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.

Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

washingtontimes.com · Andrew Salmon

15. Ambassadors stress solidarity, diplomacy in face of North Korea’s role in Ukraine conflict

Ambassadors stress solidarity, diplomacy in face of North Korea’s role in Ukraine conflict

flip.it · David Choi · August 19, 2025

The U.N. Command Honor Guard takes part in a ceremony on the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone, Aug. 18, 2025. (Brendan Trembath/U.N. Command)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — U.N. Command member states must continue to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with South Korea as battle lines drawn in Russia’s war against Ukraine stretch to include North Korea, the French ambassador to South Korea said Tuesday.

The collective security of Europe “is clearly more and more intertwined” with South Korea’s, as evidenced by Pyongyang’s assistance to Moscow in its 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine, Ambassador Philippe Bertoux told Stars and Stripes at U.N. Command headquarters on Humphreys.

Bertoux and ambassadors from 17 other U.N. Command member states visited the base on Tuesday for a briefing on Ulchi Freedom Shield, the 11-day U.S.-South Korean military exercise that kicked off Monday.

“Sadly, we can see it also from the European perspective because of the war … waged by Russia and [North Korea] against Ukraine,” he said. “Therefore, we believe it’s extremely important for members of alliances, such as the [U.N. Command], to stand shoulder to shoulder and defend the key principles that are so important for us.”

Since October, North Korea has deployed approximately 15,000 troops to Russia, according to the South Korean and Ukrainian militaries. The two militaries and the U.S. have also accused North Korea of shipping to Russia thousands of containers filled with artillery shells, ammunition and ballistic missile parts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by phone on Aug. 13 for his country’s assistance, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Kim reaffirmed Pyongyang’s commitment to Moscow’s security, as outlined in the two leaders’ mutual defense treaty signed in June 2024, KCNA reported.

U.N. Command was established July 24, 1950, after Soviet-backed North Korean troops invaded the South. Led by the United States, 15 other nations contributed combat troops to the command during the three-year war.

France in July 1950 dispatched a transport frigate and an infantry battalion of 3,421 soldiers. Of those, 287 were killed, more than 1,000 were wounded and seven are missing in action, according to the command.

Around 15 French troops remained in South Korea until the 1960s; a contingent of four French troops are still assigned to the organization, according to the command.

U.N. Command is a unique “experiment” that likely cannot be replicated elsewhere; however, it could serve as the blueprint to unite nations during a conflict, Bertoux told Stars and Stripes.

“I think the spirit of [U.N. Command’s] alliance is something that is very inspirational for perhaps other crisis,” he said. “And we really treasure it.”

U.N. Command is now tasked with enforcing the armistice terms signed on July 27, 1953, and providing security at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.

Military preparedness in South Korea is important, but diplomacy cannot be neglected in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, Australian Ambassador to South Korea Jeff Robinson told reporters at U.N. Command headquarters on Tuesday.

“If conflict ever breaks out, we all lose,” he said. “Diplomacy is one element of national power and influence that plays a role in that objective.”

David Choi

David Choi

David Choi is based in South Korea and reports on the U.S. military and foreign policy. He served in the U.S. Army and California Army National Guard. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles.

flip.it · David Choi · August 19, 2025

​16. The Key To Ukraine Peace? A Korean-Style Buffer Zone

​This is why I am a student of the Korean security challenge. So many of our late 20th and now 21st century national security issues have been influenced by the Korean War and the subsequent security dilemmas. People easily toss out things like a "Korean like DMZ." The Taiwan problem continues to exist today because the Korean War thwarted Mao from taking it by force in 1950 as he planned to do. And so much more.

The Key To Ukraine Peace? A Korean-Style Buffer Zone

Washington is pushing for a security corridor protected by international and EU forces, with a certain degree of U.S. military, logistical and technological backing to deter Russia. It recalls the practical if imperfect decades-long status quo on the Korean Peninsula

by Fabrizio Goria

worldcrunch.com · Gabriele MAGRO · August 19, 2025

-Analysis-

TURIN — The negotiations on Ukraine are no longer focused solely on how to stop the war but on how to keep it from breaking out again. That is why the United States is pushing for solid, not symbolic, security guarantees that could deter Moscow from new incursions. The idea of a Korean-style “buffer zone,” with borders secured by an international military presence, has returned to the heart of talks among U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Washington, according to EU sources.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

This is not just a theoretical scenario, as London and Paris have already expressed willingness to send troops to western Ukraine. But without U.S. backing, direct or indirect, such an arrangement would lack any real credibility.

The underlying issue has not changed. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and therefore cannot rely on the automatic protection guaranteed by Article 5. This has given rise to the idea of a multilateral agreement offering an equivalent level of protection, but with a more flexible structure that is less provocative in the Kremlin’s eyes. Within this framework, Washington’s role would be twofold.

Predictive surveillance

On the military and logistical side, it would supply strategic transport, aircraft ready for takeoff outside Ukrainian territory, and air defense systems that could be used by European allies. On the technological side, it would open access to tools that have already been crucial to Kyiv’s resistance. This is where Palantir comes in.

This American company, led by Alexander Karp and founded by Peter Thiel (who is close to Trump), specializes in data analytics and artificial intelligence. Its systems combine satellite imagery, drone surveillance and intelligence reports to predict enemy movements, streamline supply chains, and coordinate troop deployment in real time. Washington has been using them for some time to aid the Ukrainians, and now they could also be made available to European forces, if the conditions are right.

An armed truce has been in place on the Korean Peninsula for more than 70 years.

In this way, the buffer zone would not only be a militarily guarded space but also an area that is continuously monitored digitally — and even with predictive methods, as Palantir’s software provides the kind of computational analysis that ensures full superiority on the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy listens during a briefing on the frontlines of the Sumy region on August 6, 2025, in Sumy, Ukraine. Credit: Pool /Ukrainian Presidentia/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire

As diplomatic sources familiar with the matter point out, a comparison with the Korean Peninsula helps to understand the scope of the project, which is still at an early stage. An armed truce has been in place there for more than 70 years, backed by permanent international presence. Replicating that model would mean establishing a security corridor hundreds of kilometers long in Eastern Europe, with multinational observation posts and rules of engagement hammered out at the negotiating table. Yet the differences are significant.

There would be no permanent American bases, but rather a hybrid arrangement, with European troops on the ground and U.S. technology in support. Such a solution would at least partly ease Russian objections to yet another formal NATO expansion, and it would reduce the number of personnel required on the ground.

A turning point

The debate within the European Union remains intense, despite NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte calling Trump’s willingness to back Ukraine’s border security a “turning point.” Germany and Italy are pressing for clarity on the chain of command, the specific tasks and the time frame of the potential mission, fearing the risk of an open-ended commitment.

Others, like France, the United Kingdom and the Baltic states, are pushing for quick and decisive steps. Without a visible deterrent, they argue, any deal risks being fragile. More than one Nordic and Baltic diplomat has echoed this concern.

A visitor observes the Korean border at an observatory inside the demilitarized zone at Paju, South Korea. Credit: Jasmine Leung/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire

The U.S. approach is more pragmatic: A limited direct commitment, but one that could multiply the effectiveness of the allies thanks to technologies no European country truly possesses. As U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff explained, the guarantees would not come from NATO or from individual governments, but from a multilateral agreement that combines European troops, U.S. deterrence and an advanced digital framework.

For Kyiv, such a solution might mean real protection.

This issue may come up again during the debriefing requested by European Council President Antonio Costa, who was not present in Washington, with the Coalition of the Willing. At the same time, barring surprises, there may also be an extraordinary meeting of Coreper, the permanent ambassadors, along with the cabinet of EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas. Coordination will be crucial, as will unity.

For Kyiv, such a solution might mean real protection. For Washington, it would mean the ability to defend the European order without creating lasting divisions. For Europe, it would offer a chance to prove both political unity and military capacity, supported by tools that reduce risks and uncertainty.

Negotiations remain open, but one point is already evident: No peace can last long on the continent’s most fragile border without solid guarantees, without an integrated system that unites people, resources and data, and without an agreement with Moscow.

worldcrunch.com · Gabriele MAGRO · August 19, 2025

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