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Quotes of the Day:
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
– Robert A. Heinlein
“Once the mind has been expanded by a big idea, it will never go back to its original state.”
–Thomas Carlyle
"If education doesn't teach you to resist injustice, it has failed."
– John Dewey
1. Deportation Blowback in South Korea
2. Freed From U.S. Detention, South Korean Workers Return Home to Tearful Cheers
3. If the US Retreats to the Western Hemisphere, What Happens to Asia?
4. Trump’s ‘War Department’ faces first big test in the Far East
5. Could a perfect storm of controversies reignite South Korean anti-Americanism?
6. Trump’s Hyundai Raid Drains U.S. Battery Brains
7. Explainer: Why South Korea wants the US to change its visa policies
8. Why US missions to infiltrate North Korea are high stakes but low return
9. UN says rights deteriorated in North Korea in last decade
10. Kim Jong Un orders North Koreans caught watching foreign films to be EXECUTED
11. KIM'S WAR ON WORDS Bizarre list of words North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has banned for being too Western revealed
12. North Korea’s Kim says country to present nuclear policy in upcoming party meeting
13. Kim Jong Un to unveil nuclear, conventional weapon advancement policy next year
14. U.S. detention of Koreans hits trust in alliance, underscores long-festering visa issue
15. Japan again makes no mention of Koreans' forced labor at Sado memorial event
16. Industry minister, U.S. commerce secretary meet in New York over trade deal
1. Deportation Blowback in South Korea
I hope Trump administration officials will heed this from the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
Here is a video that also provides some insight into this.
Why Hyundai Raids Test the U.S.–Korea Partnership
WSJ’s Tim Martin breaks down the U.S. immigration raids at Hyundai’s Georgia plant, why Korean workers were detained, and what happens next. Photo: EPA/Shutterstock
https://www.wsj.com/video/series/on-the-news/why-hyundai-raids-test-the-uskorea-partnership/F12CE601-666C-4E63-88E5-2375F4061080?mod
Here is a large part of the issue. Why do we not have a capable American workforce?
Excerpt:
Companies often bring in skilled workers to get factories up and running and to train local staff. “It’s not like these are long-term workers,” Mr. Lee continued. “When you build a facility or install equipment at a plant, you need technicians, but the U.S. doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work.”
Deportation Blowback in South Korea
More foreign investment will require more U.S. temporary visas, as there aren’t enough American workers.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/south-korea-deportation-georgia-hyundai-plant-lee-jae-myung-donald-trump-32818ea0
By The Editorial Board
Follow
Sept. 12, 2025 5:29 pm ET
A federal agent during a raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia on Sept. 4. Photo: u.s. immigration and customs enf/Reuters
Still think mass deportation has no economic or political consequences? The fallout from last week’s blunderbuss raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia continues to reverberate in South Korea, and it pays to listen to President Lee Jae Myung’s remarks this week.
More than 300 South Korean workers were sent back to South Korea on Thursday after being arrested in an immigration raid on a battery factory next to the Hyundai plant. “This could significantly impact future direct investment in the U.S.,” Mr. Lee said at a news conference. South Korean companies “can’t help hesitating a lot” about making new investments in the U.S. if their workers are liable to end up in detention facilities.
Companies often bring in skilled workers to get factories up and running and to train local staff. “It’s not like these are long-term workers,” Mr. Lee continued. “When you build a facility or install equipment at a plant, you need technicians, but the U.S. doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work.”
That may be hard for Americans to hear, but it’s true. The U.S. doesn’t have the workforce to do these jobs. The Georgia battery plant is a multibillion investment by LG Energy Solution and Hyundai. South Korea’s tariff rate was modified to 15% in July in exchange for the country’s pledge of $350 billion in investment in the U.S. The U.S. currently caps both H-1B specialty worker and H-2B temporary worker visas.
Mr. Lee’s comments are a reflection of his domestic political reality. U.S. allies have shown willingness to accommodate the Trump Administration on tariffs rather than risk even higher levies on their exports. But their flexibility eventually collides with the patience of their own voters. Immigration and Customs Enforcement videos of South Koreans in handcuffs and shackles doesn’t play well in Seoul or Busan.
The Trump Administration says some workers crossed the border illegally and others were working on expired visas. Whatever the case, raids like the one in Georgia are a deterrent to the foreign investment Donald Trump says he wants.
Appeared in the September 13, 2025, print edition as 'Deportation Blowback in South Korea'.
2. Freed From U.S. Detention, South Korean Workers Return Home to Tearful Cheers
Video at this link:
Plane With Detained Hyundai Workers Arrives in South Korea
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000010394452/south-korean-workers-return-home-to-tearful-cheers-after-detention-in-us.html
Freed From U.S. Detention, South Korean Workers Return Home to Tearful Cheers
The workers, whose detention in a workplace immigration sweep set off outrage in South Korea, expressed both relief and anger.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/world/asia/korean-workers-georgia-arrest.html
VideoPlane With Detained Hyundai Workers Arrives in South Korea
0:51
The plane carried about 300 South Koreans who had been detained during a large-scale U.S. immigration raid at a battery factory construction site.CreditCredit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Choe Sang-Hun and John Yoon
Reporting from Incheon, South Korea
Sept. 12, 2025
Hundreds of South Korean workers who had been detained in shackles in the United States landed in their home country on Friday, met by their family members who applauded and tearfully hugged them.
The chartered Korean Air passenger jet carrying 316 South Koreans and 14 other foreign workers landed at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Friday, after a 13-hour flight. One of the returnees was pregnant, according to the South Korean presidential office.
Dozens of TV and other journalists crowded the arrival lounge, reflecting the intense attention that the workers’ arrest has generated in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia. They were swept up last week in an immigration raid on a Georgia factory and taken away in handcuffs and shackles.
Hundreds of family members gathered in an airport parking tower, watching the landing of the plane on their smartphones. Some held up makeshift signs with the names of those they were waiting for. When the workers got off shuttle buses and walked into the tower, relatives rushed and hugged them in tears, while others clapped. Also awaiting them were officials from Hyundai and LG Energy Solution, which jointly own the Georgia factory, and their subcontractors.
Image
The plane carrying the workers landed at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, on Friday.Credit...Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Most of the returnees declined to talk to reporters as they were whisked away by their families. A handful answered questions, providing the first accounts of what had happened from the perspective of those who had been detained. Two of them described hearing about the raid before it happened. Some said they had gone to the United States on a visa waiver program or had traveled on a business visa, and expressed confusion about why they had been detained.
The day before the arrests, word spread at the facility that a raid was imminent, said two of the workers, who declined to be named out of concern for repercussions over speaking out. Many other employees did not report for work on the day of the raid, but most of the South Koreans did, expecting that they would not be a target of immigration raids, they said.
“I am angry because we would not have been arrested if we had been told not to come to work,” said Jeong Gwan-won, 32, an electrician for an LG subcontractor.
He said he had used the visa-waiver program, which allows travel to the United States for 90 days for tourism or business.
“Our employers told us that it was OK for us to come to work for them” in the United States, Mr. Jeong said. “They said it was the usual practice.”
Returning workers described the trauma of seeing armored vehicles and armed agents rolling in, and of being handcuffed and shackled at the ankles by the immigration officials.
“I will never visit the United States again,” Mr. Jeong said.
Cha Goo-chang reunited with his two young boys, whom he held in each of his arms. Like many others who came off the plane, he carried a small mesh bag with some clothes and other belongings.
“It feels good to be free,” he said, smoking a cigarette.
Image
Cha Goo-chang, a returnee, reuniting with his sons and another relative.Credit...Yonhap, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“We were each doing our assigned tasks at the facility when immigration suddenly showed up. I was shocked,” he said, speaking in Korean, like the other returnees. “I don’t speak English. I just followed where others went. My superiors were scattered, too. We got on a bus while handcuffed.”
He said the conditions at the detention center were poor.
“We drank tap water,” Mr. Cha said. “We were put in a room with 80 people, then moved for questioning and interviews. Processing took hours in a cramped space.”
One man, who said that he worked for a subcontractor for the Georgia project, said he had been at the construction site for only three days when the immigration officials descended on the factory. He was on a three-week trip on the visa-waiver program to give technical advice, and said he could not understand why he was detained.
Another returnee, who said that he was employed by another subcontractor, said he was working there on a B-1 short-term business visa, but he added that he believed that some of the workers had stayed longer than the 90 days allowed under the visa-waiver program. U.S. immigration officials appeared to bypass employees carrying long-term work visas and rounded up those carrying B-1 visas or traveling under the visa-waiver program, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The workers’ return ended a weeklong drama that began Thursday last week when armed U.S. immigration officials stormed a major electronic vehicle battery plant that Hyundai and LG are building in Ellabell, Ga.
The scenes of South Korean workers hauled away in handcuffs and ankle chains have outraged South Korea, raising tensions between the allies.
Image
Journalists crowded the Incheon airport arrival lounge, a sign of the intense attention the raid and the workers’ arrest have generated in South Korea.Credit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“This is a national humiliation,” Hong Jeong-sik, 75, shouted at the arrival lounge, holding a placard criticizing the treatment of workers from South Korea. “This is not the way you treat your ally.”
But the workers’ repatriation left much unresolved.
President Trump has demanded that allies like South Korea and Japan vastly expand their investments in the United States and build new plants to help rejuvenate its manufacturing industry and create jobs. But in the aftermath of the raid, South Korea complained that its companies have had a hard time finding skilled technicians in the United States needed to build factories or getting work visas to bring such workers from South Korea.
So companies like LG and its subcontractors brought workers from South Korea on B-1 short-term business visas or under a visa-waiver program.
Immigration officials said they had arrested people who were working illegally in the United States. They said their crackdown on the Georgia plant was their largest workplace raid under Mr. Trump’s escalating campaign to remove illegal immigrants and preserve jobs for American citizens.
On Thursday, President Lee Jae Myung of South Korea said that if Washington does not ease visa requirements for workers from his country, its businesses would hesitate to build new factories there.
In a trade deal announced in late July, South Korea agreed to put together a $350 billion investment package in return for the United States lowering tariffs on its exports to 15 percent, from 25 percent. With both sides still haggling over the details of the deal, South Korean officials insisted that the United States resolve the visa issue before investments proceed.
Choe Sang-Hun is the lead reporter for The Times in Seoul, covering South and North Korea.
John Yoon is a Times reporter based in Seoul who covers breaking and trending news.
A version of this article appears in print on Sept. 13, 2025, Section A, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Freed From U.S. Detention, South Korean Workers Return to Cheers. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
3. If the US Retreats to the Western Hemisphere, What Happens to Asia?
A strategic mistake that could possibly be unrecoverable.
If the US Retreats to the Western Hemisphere, What Happens to Asia?
There are strong indications Washington is moving toward hemispheric retrenchment. The consequences for the Asia-Pacific could be dramatic.
https://thediplomat.com/2025/09/if-the-us-retreats-to-the-western-hemisphere-what-happens-to-asia/?utm
By Denny Roy
September 12, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump announces his sweeping reciprocal tariffs at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 2, 2025.
Credit: Official White House Photo
U.S. grand strategy under the new Trump administration remains unsettled. There are strong indications Washington is moving toward a nascent hemispheric retrenchment approach. It is not yet clear, however, whether that would include a withdrawal of US strategic influence from the Asia-Pacific region. If so, the consequences for the region will be dramatic.
According to media reports, the Trump administration’s soon-to-be-released National Security Strategy breaks with recent practice by prioritizing homeland security and threats within the Western Hemisphere over countering China. This follows months of other statements and actions suggesting a desire to consolidate the United States’ control over its own geographic region, including interest in annexing Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal; renaming the “Gulf of America”; and dispatching U.S. Navy vessels to waters near the coast of Venezuela to intimidate the Maduro government.
The White House has also backed away from the United States’ accustomed postwar leadership role in Europe by distancing itself from NATO and showing little willingness to meaningfully punish Russian aggression against Ukraine. The U.S. government has decided to stop funding programs for building Europe’s capacity to defend against a possible attack from Russia. The movement toward a permanent NATO-U.S. separation is not based solely on policy disagreements, but also stems from an ideological schism.
In the Middle East, the Trump administration’s approach involves mostly diplomacy and economic deals. Despite the air strikes he ordered against Iran, the Trump team favors reduced U.S. military commitments. Indeed, his MAGA base is highly sensitive to any apparent departure from the promise to avoid another “forever war” in the Middle East.
Much of this is consistent with an intention to hunker down in the U.S. home region, stop playing global cop, and leave the management of strategic affairs in other regions to local major powers. But what about Asia, where the “prioritizers” insist the United States should continue to compete for strategic pre-eminence even while shedding commitments elsewhere?
U.S. policy in Asia still displays much continuity with the recent past. Security cooperation with friends and allies continues, including efforts to build their capacity to contribute to a coalition to oppose territorial expansionism by China. New agreements with Japan, South Korea, and Australia will help offset weaknesses in the United States’ shrunken defense industrial base. Senior officials including Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby have said the U.S. must continue to block Chinese attempts to dominate Asia.
Weaknesses are visible, however, in the Trump administration’s willingness to enforce the U.S.-sponsored regional order in Asia. Allies and security partners in the Asia-Pacific are potentially valuable strategic assets in this project. Yet the Trump administration often treats them as economic or strategic liabilities. Trump frequently speaks of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan as defense freeriders, but he rarely if ever acknowledges them as contributors to U.S. security.
He has spoken of increasing South Korea’s host nation support payments tenfold, believes South Korea-U.S. military exercises are a waste of money, and reportedly wants to withdraw all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula. He seems anxious to remove any reason for North Korea to aim missiles at the United States.
Trump has also suggested that Taiwan is indefensible and that he would not send U.S. forces to intervene if China attempted to invade.
High tariffs against Asia-Pacific allies suggest a prioritization of economic interests over strategic considerations in U.S. grand strategy. Washington imposed a 10 percent base tariff rate on Australia despite a U.S. bilateral trade surplus, and rebuffed Canberra’s request for exemption from a 50 percent tariff on imported steel and aluminum. Japan and South Korea drew 15 percent tariffs, while Taiwan got 20 percent. All are countries Washington is pressuring to spend more money to strengthen their armed forces. Imports from the Philippines, which recently agreed to open four new military bases for U.S. use and to host two advanced U.S. missile systems, get charged a base 19 percent tariff. All of these U.S. tariff rates are much higher than the average rate of about 2 percent that prevailed immediately before Trump re-entered the White House.
Washington’s abrupt squabble with India trashed years of careful cultivation of a strategic partnership with a country that takes pride in its nonalignment but also sees China as a serious potential threat. For no apparent commensurate gain, the United States badly damaged the recently-revived Quad and literally drove Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the welcoming arms of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
The U.S. government announced in June that it is reviewing the AUKUS agreement, signed by the Biden administration, for fidelity to the “America First” agenda. Under the agreement, the United States will build nuclear-powered attack submarines for purchase by Australia. The Australian government has already delivered a non-refundable down-payment of $1.6 billion in investment in U.S. shipbuilding capacity. Colby is leading the review. He is on record as saying the United States builds so few submarines that it cannot spare any for Australia.
Most importantly, a withdrawal of U.S. strategic influence from the Asia-Pacific region is possible because of Trump’s desire to reach a blockbuster bilateral trade agreement with China, something he tried but failed to do with his “Phase One” deal in 2020. Dangling the possibility of ending U.S. practices such as “freedom of navigation” patrols in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, surveillance flights near the Chinese coast, and especially arms sales and other forms of support for Taiwan would give Trump huge leverage to demand concessions from China that he could sell to his domestic supporters as a major victory for the United States.
If the hemispheric retrenchment policy prevails over prioritizing China, some results are foreseeable.
The most likely and immediate result would be China annexing Taiwan within a few years, either by Taipei agreeing to Beijing’s demand for a negotiated unification or by Taiwan succumbing to Chinese military pressure, most likely a long and gradually escalating blockade. This outcome, a tragedy for Taiwan, would also accelerate other states in eastern Asia concluding that the era of U.S. leadership was over and that accommodating China was their best option.
The next most likely outcome would be the discontinuation of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, loss of confidence in the U.S. nuclear umbrella, and Seoul opting to develop and deploy its own nuclear weapons arsenal. A majority of the South Korean public already favors taking this step. South Korea would face significant barriers, including large financial costs, international criticism for proliferating, and a possible cutoff of the imported fuel for reactors that produce one-third of the country’s electricity. Nevertheless, existing under a permanent and unanswered nuclear threat from North Korea – which recently declared that it now considers South Korea a separate, enemy state and is no longer interested in reunification – would prove intolerable.
The decision by Seoul to acquire a nuclear arsenal would open a window of even higher tensions with North Korea. The circumstances would require Pyongyang to consider a preventive strike to set back or dissuade the South’s march toward a nuclear capability. With the U.S. nuclear umbrella gone, the North Korean government might conclude it could strike with impunity. The likelihood that South Korea getting nukes would compel Japan to follow suit would compound Pyongyang’s motivation to strike first.
Finally, regardless of the state of inter-Korean relations at the time, the withdrawal of a U.S. commitment to help defend Japan would almost certainly result in Japan going nuclear rather than accepting total Chinese escalation dominance.
Chinese Communist Party rhetoric maintains that Asia would be more peaceful after a withdrawal of U.S. military influence. There is a possibility of that proposition being tested in the near future. The aim of a grand strategy of hemispheric retrenchment would be to prevent the United States from paying for other countries’ security. Other regions would sort out which countries dominate and are dominated, while Americans would focus on commerce rather than using military power to shape the global strategic environment beyond the (expanded) homeland. The assumption is this approach would result in a world peaceful enough for unhindered trade and unlikely to threaten the U.S. homeland.
Given what happened last century, that gamble is problematic.
Authors
Guest Author
Denny Roy
Denny Roy is a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu who specializes in Asia-Pacific security issues.
4. Trump’s ‘War Department’ faces first big test in the Far East
Conclusion:
The wild card, as usual, is Trump. Priding himself as a man of peace, he’s talked about reducing the number of American troops in both Korea and Japan while bargaining for both countries to contribute more toward the costs of American defense. If renaming the Department of Defense is to mean anything, he may eventually have to demonstrate America’s vaunted military might in a region where conflict, once it begins, would be far bloodier than what are still “limited wars” confined to Gaza and Ukraine.
Trump’s ‘War Department’ faces first big test in the Far East
by Donald Kirk, opinion contributor - 09/12/25 3:00 PM ET
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/5501224-china-russia-north-korea-alliance/?utm
President Trump’s decision to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War seems to conflict with his boast to have resolved up to seven different wars in his campaign to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The name change actually changes nothing in the U.S. defense posture, but it does fortify the image that Trump would like to convey of an incredibly strong American military machine — so strong that no foreign leader would dare to challenge it. The stronger the United States appears militarily, the less likely any foreign power would doubt American supremacy. Peace, then, according to this logic, will prevail.
So far, however, the United States has not had to respond militarily to the worst threats to peace — not in eastern Europe, despite the war in Ukraine, and not in the Middle East, as Israel goes on obliterating Gaza.
The worst danger, however, is that of the three leaders who sat side by side at the great “Victory Day” parade in Beijing: the host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his top two guests, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. The fact that Xi placed Kim in such a place of honor showed China’s enduring support of the same regime that it rushed to defend in the Korean War.
The man who ruled China then, Mao Zedong, had just completed the takeover of the Chinese mainland by his Red Army. Xi, by far the strongest Chinese leader since the era of Maoist rule, is fully capable of supporting Kim in a second Korean War. Putin, the most enduring Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, would almost certainly ally with Xi, as did Mao and Stalin. Kim, having sent about 15,000 troops along with thousands of artillery shells and other weaponry to Russia to support its campaign in Ukraine, counts on Moscow to support him as in the first Korean War, after Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, installed by the Russians in 1945, decided to invade South Korea five years later.
All that’s holding the Chinese, Russians and North Koreans back right now is the fear of a regional war in which they would risk heavy losses without much of a chance of winning. Trump, for all the big talk from him and “War Department” Secretary Pete Hegseth, has so far shown no sign of strengthening America’s defenses in the region. Rather, he has appeared inclined to weaken U.S. treaties with South Korea and Japan, talking of his “love” for Kim, with whom he believes he might be able to arrange yet another meeting in the near future.
But Kim does not “need” Trump as he did in 2018 and 2019 when he agreed to two summits. The first of the two, in Singapore, wound up with a vapid statement that clearly did nothing to advance the American demand for the North to give up its nuclear program, and the second, in Hanoi, ended disastrously when Trump cut off dialogue after Kim made clear he would keep his nukes and missiles. With Xi and Putin now totally on his side, Kim can afford to ignore Trump’s entreaties for a meaningless talkfest that almost certainly would produce no substantive results. Why should he bother?
The lines in east Asia, after the Beijing victory show featuring its military might, are now drawn more sharply than ever. Facing the two giant powers and their enthusiastic protectorate, the United States counts on Japan, a sleeping giant with a numerically small number of men and women under arms but a technologically advanced military establishment, and South Korea, a major arms exporter. Moving down the island chain, Taiwan and the Philippines also face China in separate standoffs in which unrelenting U.S. support is needed if they are to survive. South Korea, always fearful of upsetting China, its greatest trading partner, wants no part of the defense of either of them, but Japan sees their freedom and independence as vital to regional security.
The wild card, as usual, is Trump. Priding himself as a man of peace, he’s talked about reducing the number of American troops in both Korea and Japan while bargaining for both countries to contribute more toward the costs of American defense. If renaming the Department of Defense is to mean anything, he may eventually have to demonstrate America’s vaunted military might in a region where conflict, once it begins, would be far bloodier than what are still “limited wars” confined to Gaza and Ukraine.
Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea, and is the author of several books about Asian affairs.
5. Could a perfect storm of controversies reignite South Korean anti-Americanism?
If the new National Defense (War) Strategy unfolds the way it is being reported with a withdrawal from Asia to focus on the homeland, these emerging conditions will be used to justify turing over defense of Ais_info pacific to Korea, Japan, and Australia.
This short excerpt traces my entire experience with Korea since 1986.
This is the human domain. And how people react will drive politics and that will affect security. But we cannot rely on the importance of the ROK/US alliance to mutual national security to overcome these critical issues that could trump nationals security considerations
Excerpts:
Post-democratization in 1987, suppressed information about U.S. killings of civilians during the Korean War emerged. In 2002, mass anti-Americanism exploded into the mainstream.
After two schoolgirls were killed in a road accident with a U.S. vehicle and the GIs involved were found not guilty by U.S. military judges, huge demonstrations erupted, flags were burned, and U.S. personnel were assaulted.
Fury was assuaged by the election victory of a leftist president — and an offer from the U.S. defense secretary to withdraw GIs from Korea.
In 2008, demonstrations surged anew after Korean TV reports alleged American farmers were exporting beef infected with “mad cow” disease. The protests subsided after reports were exposed as fake news.
Since then, hardcore leftists, unionists and peace activists have protested U.S. bases, but the mainstream has remained calm.
Could that change? Experts think not.
Korea’s security reliance on the U.S. cannot be ignored, said John Lee, editor at specialist media Korea Pro.
“China is much more powerful and influential than in the past,” he said. “Due to changing external circumstances, South Korea is going to try to see this through, through diplomacy.”
But America may suffer long-term costs.
“Korea is more developed, more prosperous, and demographically older,” said Daniel Pinkston, an international relations expert with Troy University. “Now, it is the U.S. that is doing things that come with reputational costs.”
That could include Korean tourists, students and investors ignoring the U.S. in favor of other destinations.
“These are not things you can see — no Molotovs at the U.S. Embassy,” Mr. Pinkston said. “But these are costs that are real.”
Could a perfect storm of controversies reignite South Korean anti-Americanism?
Georgia humiliation, sex workers' lawsuit, auto tariffs converge
washingtontimes.com · Andrew Salmon
Premium
By - The Washington Times - Friday, September 12, 2025
SEOUL, South Korea — A combination of public shock at the treatment of South Korean workers in a Georgia immigration raid, legal measures taken by former sex workers for U.S. troops in Korea and uneven U.S. tariffs on Korean and Japanese autos is generating concern about a possible resurrection of mass anti-Americanism.
Similar sentiments roiled Korea in 2002 and 2008, but animosity for the U.S. seemed to be at a lull in the years since. A resurgence could shake relations at a delicate time: The future of the bilateral security alliance is under negotiation.
An academic who advised previous Seoul administrations said fertile ground for anti-Americanism exists.
“South Korea has been going through structural victimization by the U.S.: [The U.S.] uses its purchasing power as leverage, and its security umbrella as bargaining power,” he said. “Strong anti-American sentiment is breathing in South Korea, but I don’t know when it will erupt.”
Events in Georgia last week, where Korean workers at a Hyundai-LG construction site were shackled and perp-walked by armed U.S. immigration agents, were a triple whammy.
Many Koreans see their country’s relationship with the U.S. as ironclad, but the actions of American authorities appeared unnecessarily harsh in reaction to the workers’ visa violations.
Moreover, the workers were engaged in precisely the kind of project U.S. President Trump seeks to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing: establishing a Hyundai-LG battery plant for electric cars that will generate quality local jobs.
A Korean-American social media commentator likened the situation to U.S. immigration authorities and U.S. investment promoters “punching each other in the face.”
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The 316 workers returned home via chartered flight Friday, but their unpleasant experience is not the only matter testing ties.
This week, 117 former Korean sex workers patronized by American soldiers stationed in South Korea charged in a lawsuit that they were trafficked by Korean pimps and treated brutally by their GI customers.
They seek apologies and compensation from Seoul and Washington.
Regardless of legal outcome, hearings look likely to cast harsh light on the shabby treatment the “camptown women” or “patriotic prostitutes” underwent. In order to earn dollars, they worked in tawdry “villes” that spread outside U.S. bases in Korea from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Separately, Washington has granted preferential tariffs to autos exported to the U.S. by Japan: While Japanese cars suffer 15%, Korean cars are subject to 25%. This represents an “emergency” for Korean automakers, the Korean press reports.
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Korea is a direct competitor in vehicles, but is also a national competitor to Japan due to emotive historical issues.
A RealMeter poll found almost 60% of Koreans “disappointed” by U.S. actions.
A small demonstration of about 70 people has taken place outside the U.S. Embassy. Another protest, featuring an anti-Trump banner, greeted the construction workers arriving home Friday.
The timing of these tremors could hardly be worse.
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President Lee Jae-myung held a successful summit with Mr. Trump in August. However, details on how a $350 billion investment package will work, and the future of the bilateral security alliance, remain to be worked out.
Damaging actions
Mr. Lee — a former leftist who has made clear his strong attachment to the Seoul-Washington relationship — has spoken up. At a press conference Thursday, he said Korean companies could be “hesitant” to invest in the U.S., and those there are “in a state of confusion.”
He is not alone in his criticism.
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“The incident has severely undermined trust in South Korea’s efforts to contribute to the US economy through large-scale investments,” editorialized best-selling conservative daily The Chosun Ilbo. “Fundamental doubts emerge: What does the U.S. mean by ’alliance?’”
Lon Garwood, an American expatriate working for a Korean construction firm that flies in specialized teams around the world to establish plants, was scathing.
“The Korean workers weren’t there long-term or an immigration risk, they were there to do a specialized job, finish it, and return home,” he said. “Being shackled and held in a detention center for days was never part of their job description.”
U.S. bureaucracy must upgrade “visa issuance procedures — whether by securing a higher quota or creating a new category for short-term technical specialists,” he said. “Unless this is addressed, the U.S. risks undermining projects meant to create jobs and strengthen bilateral industrial ties.”
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Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, in a meeting with U.S. senators, urged visa reform.
Critics have also taken aim at the Korean conglomerates that own the Georgia plant for not obtaining appropriate visas for the workforce.
Tami Overby, a partner at Washington consultancy DGA Group who formerly headed the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, said ongoing developments “could potentially create a situation where anti-Americanism might erupt.”
“A lot depends on the action or inaction of the U.S. government,” added Chun In-bum, a retired general who champions the bilateral alliance. “I know the U.S. was following its laws, but if someone in authority said, “This was an unfortunate situation,’ or ’Sorry,’ that would go a long way to alleviate any future traction of anti-Americanism in Korea.”
“We must not take this lightly,” he warned.
Ms. Overby, who during her tenure at AMCHAM Korea suffered an office invasion and vandalism by student radicals in 2002, noted that Mr. Trump had attempted to calm roiled waters.
“I am heartened by the fact that President Trump seemed to recognize the Korean visa situation was a bit different than some other ICE raids,” she said. “He authorized that the Korean citizens could be transported without being handcuffed and shackled.”
Roots of anti-Americanism
Mass anti-Americanism has been dormant for 18 years.
Koreans know a withdrawal of U.S. troops would necessitate massively increased defense spending, and likely an extension of the unpopular draft.
Lesser known is the contribution of U.S. forces to South Korea’s global borrowing costs and inward investment: Their presence helps underwrite the country’s sovereign credit ratings.
Yet, there are multiple grounds for anti-U.S. feelings.
Such sentiment was dangerous in the 1940s and 1950s: Seoul massacred leftists both before and during the Korean War.
As Korea industrialized and enriched itself, Washington’s support for the authoritarian Seoul regimes of the 1970s and ’80s inflamed student demonstrators, with some student leaders later entering politics and government.
Post-democratization in 1987, suppressed information about U.S. killings of civilians during the Korean War emerged. In 2002, mass anti-Americanism exploded into the mainstream.
After two schoolgirls were killed in a road accident with a U.S. vehicle and the GIs involved were found not guilty by U.S. military judges, huge demonstrations erupted, flags were burned, and U.S. personnel were assaulted.
Fury was assuaged by the election victory of a leftist president — and an offer from the U.S. defense secretary to withdraw GIs from Korea.
In 2008, demonstrations surged anew after Korean TV reports alleged American farmers were exporting beef infected with “mad cow” disease. The protests subsided after reports were exposed as fake news.
Since then, hardcore leftists, unionists and peace activists have protested U.S. bases, but the mainstream has remained calm.
Could that change? Experts think not.
Korea’s security reliance on the U.S. cannot be ignored, said John Lee, editor at specialist media Korea Pro.
“China is much more powerful and influential than in the past,” he said. “Due to changing external circumstances, South Korea is going to try to see this through, through diplomacy.”
But America may suffer long-term costs.
“Korea is more developed, more prosperous, and demographically older,” said Daniel Pinkston, an international relations expert with Troy University. “Now, it is the U.S. that is doing things that come with reputational costs.”
That could include Korean tourists, students and investors ignoring the U.S. in favor of other destinations.
“These are not things you can see — no Molotovs at the U.S. Embassy,” Mr. Pinkston said. “But these are costs that are real.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
Copyright © 2025 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
washingtontimes.com · Andrew Salmon
6. Trump’s Hyundai Raid Drains U.S. Battery Brains
Excerpts:
The fallout from the raid may already be biting. South Korean officials said on Thursday that Trump offered to allow hundreds of those arrested workers to stay in the United States to train an American workforce. But only one Korean worker decided to stay, the officials said.
Many of the large foreign investors in the United States are likely “quite shocked,” Overby said. “It gives everyone a moment to take a breath and review their immigration compliance rules and regulations, not just for their employees but for contractors, subcontractors, everyone up and down the supply chain.”
After the raid, South Korean firms have halted work on at least 22 projects in the United States, and Hyundai’s chief told Bloomberg that the incident had resulted in a “minimum two to three months delay” on the battery plant.
“I look at it as a little bit of an own-goal,” Berry said. “We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face here in the United States.”
Trump’s Hyundai Raid Drains U.S. Battery Brains
The United States can’t build the powerful technologies on its own.
By Christina Lu, a staff writer at Foreign Policy.
Foreign Policy · Christina Lu
- Economics
- United States
- South Korea
- Christina Lu
September 12, 2025, 12:41 PM
For all of its efforts to drive a domestic manufacturing boom in key industries, the United States remains heavily reliant on Asian expertise to build batteries, the powerful technologies that underpin drones, electric vehicles, and much more.
It’s a reality that was laid bare last week when U.S. immigration officials raided an EV battery plant construction site in Georgia and detained around 475 workers, most of whom were South Korean nationals. The plant is co-owned by Hyundai, a South Korean carmaker. U.S. authorities said the raid was the biggest single-site enforcement operation in the Department of Homeland Security’s history.
The raid ignited a diplomatic firestorm with longtime U.S. ally South Korea and has cast a spotlight on the state of the U.S. battery sector. Batteries are essential to powering many of the world’s most cutting-edge defense and energy technologies, including military drones and submarines. Yet the U.S. industry remains deeply dependent on foreign know-how to grow its own sector, and experts warn that the Trump administration’s Hyundai crackdown risks further spooking investment.
“We are reliant on foreign help to build and scale this technology,” said Chris Berry, the president of House Mountain Partners, an independent metals analysis consultancy. “The United States labor force is not going to be able to build these types of extremely technically detailed plants without foreign help.”
It’s not unusual for foreign companies to first rely on their own talent when initially scaling up operations overseas and then train a local workforce, experts said.
“The number of Korean employees at the beginning, while they’re transferring the management technology, [is] higher—and then as quickly as they can, they transfer that knowledge, and then they go home, and it’s less expensive for the company,” said Tami Overby, an international business consultant who previously headed the U.S.-Korea Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung made a similar point on Thursday: “This isn’t long-term permanent employment but to establish facilities and equipment for factories; we need technicians to install machinery and equipment. The U.S. doesn’t have such personnel, and they won’t give visas for [our workers] to stay and work.” He warned Washington that South Korean businesses would “hesitate to make direct investments” in the United States if it failed to resolve visa issues quickly.
The Hyundai case has exposed the state of U.S. battery manufacturing expertise. Today, the world’s biggest battery powerhouse is China, which produces more than three-quarters of all batteries sold globally—and does so significantly more cheaply and efficiently than its global competitors—according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). China is the source of more than 70 percent of all EV batteries ever produced, driving ample manufacturing and production expertise.
After China, South Korea and Japan are global battery giants that have made hefty overseas investments. Korean firms in particular top the charts in overseas manufacturing capacity, and last year Korean producers filled more than 20 percent of global electric car battery demand.
“The Koreans, the Japanese, and the Chinese in particular all really understand the technology behind these batteries and the chemistries and the pros and the cons—but they also understand how to scale at speed,” Berry said.
To fuel a U.S. battery boom, the Biden administration harnessed its landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which used hefty tax incentives to encourage domestic manufacturing and drive new investment and interest in the sector. The IRA was “game changing legislation,” Manish Dua, an analyst with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, said in 2023. “Massive outlay of subsidies and tax credits has boosted private sector participation across the whole cleantech space.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has gone in another direction entirely, with an onslaught of moves meant to gut the U.S. clean energy sector, unwind many of the Biden tax credits, and unleash more fossil fuel production. The Trump administration’s targeting of EVs—a key market for batteries—has injected fresh uncertainty into the U.S. battery sector, as has its trade war with China, which dominates battery supply chains.
At the same time, the U.S. Energy Department has announced up to $500 million in funding opportunities to boost battery manufacturing and recycling, and U.S. automakers are eager to propel the United States to the forefront of the battery race.
Early this year, General Motors battery chief Kurt Kelty urged North America to “seize EV battery leadership from China.”
“By advancing battery technologies and driving innovation, strengthening our onshoring, and making our supply chain the most competitive in the world, we’re building not just better batteries but a stronger and more resilient U.S. industry for the future,” Kelty said.
U.S. firms have indeed made big strides in research and innovation for batteries, particularly with developing new battery chemistries. But that’s just one part of the battery equation, experts said.
“There is sometimes a gap between research and development and really scaling it up at an industrial and a commercial level,” said Bryan Bille, a policy expert at Benchmark. “That’s basically what China is really good at.”
Days after the Hyundai raid, Trump himself acknowledged that there was a gap in U.S. battery manufacturing that foreigners have helped plug. “You don’t have people in this country who know about batteries,” Trump said on Sunday. “Maybe we should help them along and let some people come in and train our people.”
“We do have to work something out where we bring in experts so our people can be trained so they can do it themselves,” Trump added.
Yet U.S. immigration rules and the Hyundai raid—which has sent shockwaves through other Korean and international firms—also risk deterring the very investment that Trump has been courting as part of his big plan to build up U.S. manufacturing might and push companies to bring production to the United States. The United States lacks a visa program for foreign companies that wish to bring in skilled workers for a short-term period for construction purposes, the Washington Post reported.
The fallout from the raid may already be biting. South Korean officials said on Thursday that Trump offered to allow hundreds of those arrested workers to stay in the United States to train an American workforce. But only one Korean worker decided to stay, the officials said.
Many of the large foreign investors in the United States are likely “quite shocked,” Overby said. “It gives everyone a moment to take a breath and review their immigration compliance rules and regulations, not just for their employees but for contractors, subcontractors, everyone up and down the supply chain.”
After the raid, South Korean firms have halted work on at least 22 projects in the United States, and Hyundai’s chief told Bloomberg that the incident had resulted in a “minimum two to three months delay” on the battery plant.
“I look at it as a little bit of an own-goal,” Berry said. “We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face here in the United States.”
Foreign Policy · Christina Lu
7. Explainer: Why South Korea wants the US to change its visa policies
Explainer: Why South Korea wants the US to change its visa policies
straitstimes.com · September 12, 2025
SEOUL - South Korea has ramped up calls for changes to the US visa system so that its workers can visit for longer periods after an
immigration raid at a battery plant in Georgia
led to the detainment of hundreds of its citizens.The two countries are looking at establishing a working group to consider a new type of visa for South Koreans, according to their country’s foreign minister, who visited Washington this week.
What has been the problem?
South Korean companies have become major investors in the US, building factories that often require highly technical skill sets that are not easy to find in the United States.
But unlike some countries such as Australia, Canada and Mexico, South Koreans do not have access to special treaty work visas.
“There’s really no mid-term business visa for Korean businessmen to work in the US for several months,” said Mr Kim Yong-sang, a Seoul-based lawyer specialising in international disputes at Yulchon LLC.
Instead, sources have said employees of South Korean companies commonly use either the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), a type of visa waiver that allows for stays of up to 90 days or B-1 visas – a temporary visa for some business-related activities.
Both of these visas limit what work can be done in the United States, which has meant that some South Korean workers have been relying on grey areas in US visa enforcement.
There’s also been a “lack of coordination between federal and state immigration policy”, said Ms Jihae Han, a US attorney at Maru Law Firm.
“Many US state and local officials are unaware of how complex and serious the visa bottleneck is.”
Is the US willing to change?
South Korea has pushed for years for a Bill that would create or expand visa categories to accommodate skilled South Korean nationals who need to visit the United States for longer periods.
That Bill has had difficulty getting through Congress because visas are linked to immigration, one of the most sensitive subjects in the United States, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.
US immigration officials initially trumpeted the raid at the Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution battery project site.
But US President Donald Trump’s administration has also signalled it recognises the importance of South Korean investment and the skills of the country’s workers needed to get plants operational.
Mr Trump earlier this week offered to allow the workers to stay in the United States to train Americans.
The workers may return to the US after resting at home, South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sept 11 that Hyundai should have called him to secure the right visas.
“I called up the Koreans, I said, oh, give me a break. Get the right visa and if you’re having problems getting the right visa, call me,” American news website Axios quoted him as saying in an interview. REUTERS
straitstimes.com · September 12, 2025
8. Why US missions to infiltrate North Korea are high stakes but low return
Sigh... Yes, North Korea is a hard target. There should be no doubt about that.
Why US missions to infiltrate North Korea are high stakes but low return
Researcher Mark Sauter analyzes the reported 2019 Navy SEAL raid in light of past covert operations against the DPRK
https://www.nknews.org/2025/09/why-us-missions-to-infiltrate-north-korea-are-high-stakes-but-low-return/
Alannah Hill September 12, 2025
Image: NK News (Jan. 2017)
An explosive New York Times report this month claimed that a U.S. Navy SEAL team slipped onto a North Korean beach under cover of darkness in 2019 to install a listening device, only for the mission to unravel when they encountered civilian fishermen.
But while revelations about the operation have raised fresh questions about the risks Washington is willing to take to gather intel on one of the world’s most secretive regimes, the tactics themselves are far from new.
Beginning during the Korean War and continuing in the decades after, the U.S. and its allies carried out thousands of covert infiltration missions into North Korea. Most ended in failure, with staggering loss rates for the agents involved.
Mark Sauter, founder of the POW Investigative Project and author of “American Trophies,” spoke to NK News about this little-known history and what it reveals about the challenges of espionage against North Korea.
Drawing on his military experience along the Demilitarized Zone, he also reflected on goals of the reported 2019 operation and explains why the U.S. long ago decided that the costs of infiltrating North Korea far exceed the benefits.
The following interview has been adapted from Sauter’s appearance on the NK News podcast, which can be found here.
The following interview has been edited for length, readability and style.
NK News: What exactly matters most about the 2019 mission as reported by the New York Times?
Mark Sauter: So one question I have is, was the ultimate aim of the mission worth the risk? According to the New York Times, President Trump thought it was.
By definition, if you have been put into the type of mission these SEALs were put in, it is of highly consequential national interest.
But if you’re in a place like North Korea or the former Soviet Union, the second that you start trying to escape and evade and get out of there, the civilians are going to turn you in, and in those types of police states, the odds are that they may catch you.
So not only not only are you in a position where your mission has been interrupted, but you’re in a position where you may end up being captured.
NK News: As a former U.S. soldier, were there any other parts of the Times report that stood out to you?
Sauter: One was the claim that the SEALs were confused by the occupants of this North Korean boat — not knowing whether they were security, military or innocent civilians. And part of the problem was that they had wet suits on, which made it hard for the seals night vision gear to see them.
When I was operating in the DMZ, our intelligence indicated that the North Koreans wore wet suits on land in the DMZ and for a couple of reasons. One was to reduce our ability to see them with our thermal imaging devices.
It occurred to me that this might have been what’s called a tailored access operation, which is a program started at the National Security Agency, America’s largest security agency, which is generally in charge of signal intelligence, intercepting signals and also now cyber and interactive intelligence.
NK News: With modern signals-collection capabilities, does a shore insertion into North Korea still make sense to install or maintain a listening device?
Sauter: The U.S. military with our allies have had a network around the oceans that listens in for submarines. And so that technology still exists and there are I’m sure plenty of special uses of that technology on the Korean Peninsula.
But the North Koreans, they’re smart. They have a sense of our intelligence capabilities. Something like the underwater detection that you’re talking about is similar to intercepting radio communications. And so, if it’s in the air or under the water, it propagates and you can listen for it. The North Koreans are smart enough to know that for their most critical communication, they should probably do that through cables, through hard wiring.
NK News: In a post on your blog, you explain why maritime penetration operations in North Korea are extraordinarily difficult, pointing to the country’s surveillance state, layered coastal defenses and highly vigilant coastal communities. What’s changed from the 1950s to today that makes mission compromise so likely in North Korea?
Sauter: This operation raises history that goes back to 1950, when the Korean War started. It’s even tougher than it was in the 50s. Within weeks, a U.S. submarine, as I recall the USS Perch, started landing raiders on North Korean controlled territory. And those raids in general were successful. They involved the precursor to the SEALs, which are the underwater demolition teams, the UDTs.
So there were a lot of raids, but since 1950, and in the Korean War and going into the Vietnam War, there was a realization that in general penetration missions of communist countries were extraordinarily difficult and were often not worth the cost. And over time, because the communists are so good at internal security, it became more difficult for agents in Korea, and then in North Vietnam in some ways, than it was in World War II against the Nazis.
Let me read you a quote from a CIA document that’s been declassified that summarized the experience of infiltration of North Korea by land, sea and air with agents. “Numerous Koreans were sacrificed in what has proved to be a basically futile effort.”
So the CIA at the end of the Korean War basically said there is not a good return on investment. It’s really not worth it.
NK News: Can you tell us more about those South Koreans that were tasked with infiltrating the DPRK?
Sauter: Starting in the late 80s and leading up into recent years, there’s been a movement in South Korea of former South Korean agents that were put into North Korea. There are estimates from the Korean government that 10,000 agents were put in by the South Koreans, many, I believe, in cases involving U.S. missions as well.
Of 10,000 agents who were parachuted in, snuck in across the DMZ, were inserted by boat, almost 8,000 never came home.
Now, it doesn’t mean that none of these missions were worth it. Some of them I think were, but a lot of them were put in and the North Koreans just had such a security state that they were able to capture them.
One case that’s bothered me was at the very end of the Korean War. U.S. Army Intelligence Lieutenant Leonard Button was going to pick up a couple agents off the beach in North Korea. He didn’t realize that the agents had been captured and given up the information to North Korean security. And so when he showed up at the beach in his boat, they were ready for him and they captured him.
They took him directly to a North Korean prison, and he was sentenced and he was seen by multiple Korean agents who later got out alive. We’ve never found out what happened to this guy. Interestingly, the testimony of the agents who returned was corroborated in the 90s by the Russians who released a Russian intelligence document.
NK News: You cite historical measures like barriers of large fish hooks to thwart divers and beach raking to reveal any footprints on the sand. How credible are these counter-infiltration tactics today and what are their modern equivalents?
Sauter: They’re still credible. They’re still used. Raking sand on the beaches, I’ve seen that done in Korea and when I was commanding a U.S. guard post in in the DMZ. We raked the sand around our guard post because the North Koreans, and again, respect them for their tenacity and in many cases bravery … we had Claymore mines which are basically a big piece of plastic explosive with ball bearings on it, which you blow up if the enemy approaches.
Our guys, when they were on night watch, would have those with what’s called a clacker so they’d have the ability to blow up the mine if they saw someone. We had to rake around our guard posts because previously there were indications the North Koreans had snuck up and tried to turn those mines around back toward our lines. Even a primitive solution like raking the sand can be beneficial.
NK News: You mentioned earlier that of the 10,000 agents sent north, only about 2,000 came back. Do you have a sense of what patterns of compromise stand out? Is it that people were going in with the wrong accent, or that their ID cards didn’t look convincing?
Sauter: All of that. I have some relatively recently declassified U.S. government documents that trace the units that were inserting people during the war and after the war. So it went on for years. After that, it’s still classified.
But as an example, I read a report that said that the IDs that we had provided to our agents were not updated. The North Koreans would continuously change the IDs, so when that agent shows up he’s got an old ID, he gets arrested. They would be turned in.
There are five Americans we know for sure were alive at the end of the Korean War and not returned
NK News: What do we know about successful or unsuccessful infiltrations into North Korea after the armistice was signed?
Sauter: Some of these new documents that we’ve had declassified both at the National Archives and in a lawsuit that some family members of missing American POWs filed show that after the war ended, the U.S. infiltration operations dramatically declined.
In general, the U.S. always uses South Korean civilians, not Americans for most of these operations. This created some bizarre circumstances where the South Korean intelligence and police were trying to arrest the agents the U.S. was training, because they considered them draft dodgers working for the Americans and not going in the South Korean military.
Now, the declassified documents start to tail off in the mid-50s. We were putting agents in, including a special program trying to find out what happened to the POWs. But they had a lot of problems in the 50s. There are declassified documents that I believe concern CIA maritime operations against North Korea into the 60s.
We now have evidence from South Koreans who claim that they were part of these missions and got out. I saw an interesting story from a guy who claimed that he had been working with a U.S. infiltration program in 1964, so more than 10 years after the end of the war.
Edited by Bryan Betts
9. UN says rights deteriorated in North Korea in last decade
There are 25 million Koreans in the north suffering under the iron fisted rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State.
We need a human rights up front approach and we must help the KOrean people in the north to free themselves
De Oppresso Liber.
UN says rights deteriorated in North Korea in last decade
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/un-says-rights-deteriorated-in-north-korea-in-last-decade-5346176
Participants hold national flags during an evening gala held as part of celebrations on the occasion of the 77th founding anniversary of North Korea at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on Sep 8, 2025. (Photo: AFP/Kim Won Jin)
12 Sep 2025 04:14PM
(Updated: 12 Sep 2025 04:15PM)
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GENEVA: The human rights situation in North Korea has deteriorated, the UN warned on Friday (Sep 12) in a report describing a decade of "suffering, repression, and increased fear".
The UN first published a scathing report against North Korea in 2014 detailing a wide array of crimes against humanity, likened by the inquiry chairman to those of the Nazis, South African apartheid, and the Khmer Rouge.
Information gathered since then by the UN human rights commissioner's office shows that the situation has not improved and "in many instances has degraded," with increased government overreach.
"No other population is under such restrictions in today's world," concluded the report, which is based on hundreds of interviews.
North Korea, ruled with an iron fist for seven decades by the Kim dynasty, maintains very tight control over its population.
"If the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) continues on its current trajectory, the population will be subjected to more suffering, brutal repression and fear," warned UN rights chief Volker Türk in a statement.
Related:
Commentary: North Korea’s Kim may have just paraded his successor to the world in Beijing
North Korea leader firming up status of daughter as successor: Seoul spy agency
The report points to an increase in the use of the death penalty, major steps backward in freedom of expression and access to information, and the expansion of "mass surveillance" systems through technological advances.
The UN also reports a rise in forced labour. Last year, it indicated that, in some cases, this could amount to slavery - a crime against humanity.
The 2014 report had already documented forced labour among other widespread human rights abuses in North Korea, including executions, rapes, torture, deliberate starvation, and the detention of between 80,000 and 120,000 people in prison camps.
"The fate of the hundreds of thousands of disappeared persons, including abducted foreign nationals, remains unknown," the report adds.
Information about prison camps is limited, but UN rights monitoring and satellite imagery suggest there are at least four such camps.
Source: AFP/ec
10. Kim Jong Un orders North Koreans caught watching foreign films to be EXECUTED
Kim Jong un fears the Korean people more than the combined ROK and US militaries. They are a threat to his existence and more so when they are armed with information.
Information is key to change.
This is why we need a new approach:
"Unification first, then denuclearization, the path to unification is through information and human rights.
We may not be able to infiltrate special operations forces easily into the north, but like the bomber, information will always get through. We just have to do it. - The "Nike approach" - Information operations - "just do it."
We need a comprehensive and holistic information campaign – focused on the three target audiences: regime elite, 2d tier leadership, and the Korean people in the north.
- The five principles of information: (1) massive quantities of information from news to entertainment; (2) practical information from market activity to organization for collective action; (3) facts and the truth about north Korea and the outside world; (4) understanding of the universal human rights for all people; (5) Voices from the north Korean diaspora to tell their stories of success
- Major theme: Kim’s strategy has failed to achieve his objectives.
- To counter nK propaganda we must recognize the Kim family regime’s strategy(s), understand the strategy(s), EXPOSE the strategy(s) to inoculate the Korean and American publics and the international community, and attack the strategy(s) with a superior form of political warfare (led by information).
We also need an aggressive military PSYOP campaign focused on the nKPA with three messages:
- Do not attack the south
- Do not launch nuclear weapons
- DO not attack the Korean people in the north when they resist the regime.
Kim Jong Un orders North Koreans caught watching foreign films to be EXECUTED
By JAMES CLARK REYNOLDS, SENIOR FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER
Published: 09:28 EDT, 12 September 2025 | Updated: 09:28 EDT, 12 September 2025
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15091923/north-korea-kim-jong-executions.html
Repression in North Korea has largely worsened over the last decade, with the state increasingly cracking down on citizens trying to access foreign media with harsh punishments, including public executions, a major new U.N. report has found.
The review, covering developments in the country since 2014, found North Korea has tightened its grip on imports of foreign media in recent years, orchestrating public executions to 'instil fear' in the public.
Since 2015, the government has introduced laws criminalising accessing and sharing information from 'hostile' nations and the use of 'linguistic expressions' not in line with prescribed socialist ideology and culture.
Watching foreign films, listening to music or sharing TV dramas from overseas may warrant harsh penalties, including the death penalty, under new laws established over the last decade.
Crackdowns against foreign information in particular were said to have intensified from 2018 and became harsher still from 2020, resulting in several public executions, the report says.
'Enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information have significantly regressed' in recent years, the report assessed. It said a government task force had increasingly been employed to raid houses in search of 'anti-socialist' materials.
During the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions, some North Koreans found they could bribe authorities to avoid punishments for consuming banned media. Defectors who escaped before the pandemic reported that people arrested for consuming foreign media were released after receiving 'revolutionary' education.
But a renewed focus on controlling imports has seen the state organise public trials and public executions 'to instil fear in the population', it said.
Reports suggest that the population continues to consume prohibited information despite the risks.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arriving to attend a national flag-raising and oath-taking ceremony at the Mansudae Assembly Hall to mark the 77th anniversary of the country's founding in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 9 2025
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A firing contest among artillery units of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in North Korea, 23 July 2025
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The sweeping U.N. review comes over a decade after a landmark U.N. report found that North Korea had committed crimes against humanity.
The new report, covering developments since 2014, is based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who fled the country and reported a further erosion of freedoms.
Surveillance has grown more pervasive with the help of new technologies, the report found as part of a wider trend curbing freedom of expression.
Every person is required to participate in weekly self-criticism sessions, primarily aimed at collective surveillance and indoctrination,' the report says.
'Under laws, policies and practices introduced since 2015, citizens have been subjected to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life.
'No other population is under such restrictions in today's world.'
North Korea's Geneva diplomatic mission and its London embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The DPRK said in response to U.N. rights investigators that it rejected a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution which authorised the latest report.
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People pay their respects before the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at Mansu Hill on August 15, 2025
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People visiting the bronze statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on Mansudae Hill in Pyongyang, September 9, 2025
The report also found some limited improvements, such as reduced use of violence by guards in detention facilities, and new laws that appear to strengthen fair trial guarantees.
But in 2025, the hermit kingdom remains more closed than at almost any other time in its history, the U.N. said.
'The human rights landscape cannot be divorced from the broader isolation that the State is currently pursuing.'
From the interviews, the authors concluded that North Korea was increasingly using forced labour in many forms, including so-called 'shock brigades' often deployed to take on physically demanding and dangerous sectors like mining and construction.
These workers often come from poorer families. The government has used thousands of orphans and street children to work long hours in coal mines and other hazardous sites, the report concluded.
'They're often children from the lower level of society, because they're the ones who can't bribe their way out of it, and these shock brigades are engaged in often very hazardous and dangerous work,' said James Heenan, head of the U.N. human rights office for North Korea.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin as they attend a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in Beijing, China, in this picture released by the Korean Central News Agency on September 4, 2025
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing
Defectors were said to have held hope for the country when Kim Jong Un became Head of State in December 2011. The Supreme Leader said citizens would not have to 'tighten their belts' and set out a plan for economic revival.
By mid-2013, the report establishes, purges in the government and military began, reportedly resulting in executions, among other punishments. By the time of the Coronavirus pandemic, state control extended across 'all aspects' of citizens' lives.
North Korea has also become increasingly isolated, pressed by the imposition of international sanctions. The most recent were adopted in 2017. A reinforced border with China also curbed the number of defectors fleeing the country at great peril towards the end of the decade.
Women fleeing the country are still often vulnerable to trafficking for forced marriage, forced labour and sexual exploitation, the report found.
Those without legal status rarely seek help if abused out of fear of repatriation.
Officially, the government of North Korea has committed to protecting freedom of opinion and expression. But criticism of the state and behaviour not conforming to government ideology are 'considered political acts or threats to national security and result in serious repercussions'.
Laws introduced over the last decade provide for severe punishments for protected speech.
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FILE - A soldier stands at a North Korean military guard post flying a national flag, seen from Paju, South Korea, June 26, 2024
A government task force has increasingly been employed to inspect computers, radios and televisions in house searches without prior notice or warrants. The raids are aimed at finding 'anti-socialist' materials, the government justifying its measures as necessary to curb 'anti-socialist' behaviour, the report says.
Today, between 50 and 80 per cent of the population owns a mobile phone. While the state controls what can be seen by authorising all apps available for download, it is believed some citizens still find ways to access proscribed media.
The report assessed that North Koreans can use their phones for communication, market activities, digital payments, weather reports and gaming. The Internet is almost entirely banned, however. Research institutions and officials may have access to a 'tightly controlled' national intranet.
North Korean media is controlled entirely by the state, and publishing any independent news or opinion writing contrary to the state's official position is a punishable offence.
11. KIM'S WAR ON WORDS Bizarre list of words North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has banned for being too Western revealed
KJU is afraid of words.
KIM'S WAR ON WORDS Bizarre list of words North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has banned for being too Western revealed
Some 20 to 30 guides are enrolled on a rigorous training programme run by officials from the Workers’ Party of Korea
https://www.the-sun.com/news/15177061/north-korea-kim-jong-un-banned-western-words/?utm
-
Stephen Moyes, Associate News Editor
- Published: 16:44 ET, Sep 12 2025Updated: 18:27 ET, Sep 12 2025
DESPOT Kim Jong Un has banned the word “hamburger” for being too Western.
“Karaoke” and “ice cream” are also on the North Korean dictator’s list of outlawed words.
Tour guides welcoming Russian and Chinese visitors to his country’s showpiece Wonsan resort have been told to avoid Anglicised words popular in the West and neighbouring South Korea.
Some 20 to 30 guides are enrolled on a rigorous training programme run by officials from the Workers’ Party of Korea’s Cadre Department in Kangwon province.
News outlet Daily NK said: “Trainees receive detailed instruction on handling and entertaining tourists, and must memorise slogans and phrases.
“The goal is to teach tourism professionals to consciously use North Korean vocabulary while avoiding South Korean expressions and foreign loanwords.
“Trainees must say dajin-gogi gyeopppang (double bread with ground beef) for hamburger and eseukimo (eskimo) for ice cream.
“And karaoke machines, widespread in South Korea, should be called “on-screen accompaniment machines”.
After completing the course, trainees will take an exam.
A source said: “Only those who are fully prepared will remain in the programme.”
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Kim Jong Un has banned the word 'hamburger' for being too WesternCredit: AFP
12. North Korea’s Kim says country to present nuclear policy in upcoming party meeting
Any bets on what the policy says? We will likely see the most hostile policy ever.
North Korea’s Kim says country to present nuclear policy in upcoming party meeting
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/north-koreas-kim-says-country-to-present-nuclear-policy-in-upcoming-party-meeting
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The flurry of domestic activity by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un follows his Beijing visit earlier in September for his biggest international multilateral event.
PHOTO: AFP
Published Sep 13, 2025, 06:55 AMUpdated Sep 13, 2025, 02:29 PM
SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will present a policy of jointly advancing nuclear arms and conventional military might during an upcoming key meeting of its ruling party, state media KCNA reported on Sept 13.
While inspecting weapons research centres on Sept 11 and Sept 12, Mr Kim said “the 9th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea would put forward the policy of simultaneously pushing forward the building of nuclear forces and conventional armed forces in the field of building up national defence”, KCNA said.
Mr Kim also on Sept 12 oversaw a shooting drill by the North Korean military and inspected a hospital construction site, KCNA said.
The flurry of domestic activity by Mr Kim follows his Beijing visit earlier in September for
his biggest international multilateral event
, and meetings with leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that raised his international profile.Meanwhile, a KCNA commentary on Sept 13 slammed a tabletop military exercise jointly planned next week by the US and South Korea, calling the exercise a “nuclear war drill” and saying it justifies the furthering of North Korea’s nuclear posture. REUTERS
13. Kim Jong Un to unveil nuclear, conventional weapon advancement policy next year
Perhaps we are going to see conventional nuclear integration. Is he going to try to imitate our doctrine? If so he must think it is practical and he likely fears it. We should keep that in mind.
Kim Jong Un to unveil nuclear, conventional weapon advancement policy next year
Kim inspects new tank defenses and electronic warfare systems, while also overseeing a sniper shooting contest
Joon Ha Park September 13, 2025
https://www.nknews.org/2025/09/kim-jong-un-to-unveil-nuclear-conventional-weapon-advancement-policy-next-year/
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a live-fire test of a new active protection system at the Armored Defensive Weapons Institute | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2025)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he will unveil a policy to advance both nuclear and conventional weapons at the ruling party’s Ninth Party Congress expected in 2026, according to state media.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday that Kim made the announcement during inspections of the Academy of Defense Science’s Armored Defense Weapon Research Institute and the Electronic Weapons Research Institute from Sept. 11 to 12.
Kim received a briefing on “major core technologies” jointly developed by the Armored Defensive Weapons Institute and the Tank Designing Bureau, which included advancements in special composite armor and an “intelligent active protection system” undergoing final testing before deployment. He also examined design concepts aimed at countering top-attack weapons.
Kim praised the progress, saying that the combat capabilities of North Korea’s armored forces had been “remarkably bolstered” by the development and introduction of new infrared and electronic jamming equipment, as well as both active and passive defensive systems.
During the visit, researchers also conducted a live-fire test of a new active protection system, testing its ability to counter anti-tank missiles launched from a “frontal, lateral and upper attack.”
KCNA said the system’s detection sensors and rotating interceptor launchers showed “very high reactivity” and that the trial confirmed the technology’s superiority.
State media carried photos of Kim inspecting the test from a nearby inspection site, showing explosions from the live-fire trial.
Kim also toured the Electronic Weapons Institute, “learned about and guided important work,” and expressed confidence that the Academy of Defence Sciences “would continue to stand in the vanguard in the work for modernizing the conventional armed forces true to the Party’s line of building a powerful army.”
Kim linked the work to broader defense policy, declaring that “the Ninth Party Congress will present a line of simultaneously pushing forward nuclear forces and conventional forces.”
At the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021, North Korean state media released a comprehensive report on the accomplishments and future plans of the Workers’ Party’s Seventh Central Committee.
During the congress, Kim Jong Un laid out a five-year military development blueprint, pledging to expand the country’s arsenal with advanced weapons, including new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, multiple and improved warheads, tactical nuclear weapons, a military reconnaissance satellite, unmanned aerial systems with ranges of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), an intercontinental missile capable of reaching 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles), and a hypersonic gliding warhead.
NK Pro previously analyzed that Pyongyang is likely to stage major weapons tests as Kim Jong Un’s five-year military plan nears its deadline this year, with unfinished projects due by year’s end.
The most pressing goals include “super-large” nuclear warheads, multiple-warhead ICBMs and submarine-launched ICBMs, which could see tests in the coming months.
With the party expected to convene its ninth congress by early 2026, North Korea has about four months to showcase progress, possibly at an October military parade, before setting its next five-year agenda.
Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), told NK News that Kim Jong Un’s visits to the two institutes signals a clear effort to modernize its conventional forces alongside its nuclear program.
He explained that the Armored Defensive Weapon Research Institute, appears focused on improving the survivability of tanks and armored vehicles.
Hong analyzed that the work likely includes “special composite armor” that multilayers tank armor to counter enemy fire, “active protection systems (APS)” combining sensors and interceptor munitions to shoot down incoming anti-tank missiles, and “upper attack defense structures” such as wire cages and reactive panels to protect turrets.
Hong noted that the institute’s upgrades seem to reflect lessons from the Ukraine war, incorporating measures to respond to modern anti-tank missile threats.
Regarding the Electronic Weapons Research Institute, Hong said that while the reports were less detailed, the facility is believed to be researching “electronic warfare (EW) and soft-kill defense,” advanced sensors, jamming devices, and command-and-control electronics.
The KINU expert suggested that key developments likely involve “directional infrared jammers” to disrupt heat-seeking missiles, radar jamming systems, early-warning detection equipment and APS integration for electronic management of active defenses.
Hong emphasized that the two institutes together signal an effort to combine “physical defense (hard-kill/passive)” with “electronic defense (soft-kill/detection)” to create a comprehensive armored protection system.
He added that the displays of these upgrades suggest that North Korea is not only pursuing nuclear deterrence but also “modernizing conventional forces” to enhance battlefield survivability and operational capability.
He noted that these moves are consistent with preparations for the Ninth Party Congress, signaling a dual-track strategy where “nuclear capabilities equals deterrence and conventional forces equals warfighting ability,” reflecting a broader global trend toward integrating nuclear and conventional capabilities for multi-domain operations.
Saturday’s report also marks Kim’s second high-profile inspection of tank development sites this year.
In May, the North Korean leader called for the mass production of new main battle tanks (MBTs) and showed off tactical nuclear missile launch vehicles during a visit to a tank factory located in Kusong in the DPRK’s northwest — one of the most important cities in the country when it comes to weapons development.
At the time, he said replacing outdated tanks and armored vehicles was “the most important issue” in army modernization.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees a sniper shooting contest on Sept. 12 | Image: KCNA (Sept. 13, 2025)
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SHOOTING CONTEST
Kim also visited the “No. 38” training base near Pyongyang on Friday to watch a shooting competition between sniper detachments from the DPRK’s Metropolitan Garrison Command and the special mobile force of the central security organ.
KCNA reported on the same day that Kim instructed the chief of the General Staff to outline plans for expanding sniper training and organizing sniper units across the armed forces.
The shooting competition involved 10 snipers from each team firing at circular targets set at distances of 1,000 meters and 1,500 meters, with scores combined to determine overall performance.
He stressed that “to train all snipers as skilled ‘hunters’ capable of hitting their targets with every shot, it is important to establish comprehensive training bases where they can experience extreme combat situations and master them.”
He also called for “diverse training methods and innovative education and training systems” suited to modern warfare, and emphasized the need to systematically develop professional sniper units and expand their operational role within the military, according to the KCNA report.
The “No. 38” training base resembled Kim’s “Jindallae Guesthouse” missile test area, a site where NK Pro previously analyzed that construction has been ramping up since May.
Kim Jong Un has previously inspected training sites for those units, stressing the modernization of conventional arms, realistic drills and strengthened combat readiness, since dispatching troops to Ukraine in Oct. 2024.
On Aug. 27, Kim oversaw special forces drills and ordered the military to equip units with new sniper rifles and camouflage uniforms, just days after Pyongyang acknowledged deaths of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine.
Kim said a “new-generation” sniper rifle was already being supplied to special forces units and instructed that new camouflage uniforms suited to a variety of environments be distributed “starting this year.”
NK Pro reported in April that the rifle appears to be either a rebranded or closely copied version of a model produced by Austrian firearms manufacturer Steyr Arms.
Although North Korea has deployed snipers to Russia’s war in Ukraine, NK News’ analysis of new battlefield footage released by Pyongyang suggested they were using a variant of the Russian-made Kalashnikov Chukavin rifle, rather than the new model promoted in August.
Updated at 10:05 a.m. KST with additional expert comments.
Colin Zwirko contributed analysis to this article. Edited by Kristen Talman
14. U.S. detention of Koreans hits trust in alliance, underscores long-festering visa issue
"own goal."
(News Focus) U.S. detention of Koreans hits trust in alliance, underscores long-festering visa issue | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · Song Sang-ho · September 12, 2025
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Yonhap) -- After the release of the South Korean workers detained in a U.S. immigration raid, the bilateral alliance faces a set of tricky undertakings, including shoring up Korea's confidence in America as a reliable partner and tackling a long-festering visa issue for skilled professionals, analysts said Thursday.
The Sept. 4 raid at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Georgia -- a prime example of Korea's investment efforts -- caused shock and consternation among Koreans at a time of growing doubts about U.S. credibility.
The unsettling scene of the workers being handcuffed and shackled has also brought to the fore the visa issue that has gotten into the way of Korean tech firms' endeavors to set up and run factories in the United States despite Washington's repeated calls for new investments.
A total of 316 Korean nationals were released from a detention center in Folkston, Georgia, early Thursday. The Koreans, along with 14 foreigners, boarded a chartered plane in Atlanta to return home in a coda to a bitter chapter in what both Seoul and Washington have touted as the "ironclad" alliance.
A chartered Korean Air plane is landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on Sept. 10, 2025. (Yonhap)
"The raid by ICE in a very public manner to maximize visibility did much to damage U.S. credibility as an honest alliance partner," Andrew Yeo, the SK-Korea Foundation chair at the Brookings Institution's Center for East Asia Policy Studies, said. ICE is short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"The timing was also unfortunate especially so soon after the Trump-Lee summit and Korean companies pledging to invest billions more in the U.S. economy," he added.
The raid at the Korean plant site came just 10 days after Presidents Lee Jae Myung and Donald Trump sought to build personal rapport and discussed the two countries' trade deal, including Korea's commitment to investing US$350 billion in the U.S., at the White House.
During Lee's trip to the U.S. capital, an association of South Korean business leaders also announced their plan to invest $150 billion in the U.S. to "usher in a new era of the "manufacturing renaissance."
The raid left Korean policymakers and businesspeople scratching their heads to figure out what went wrong as they had no idea that the mass detention would occur at a time when the allies seek to capitalize on the forward momentum for cooperation on security, technology and supply chain resiliency to name a few.
According to a survey by Korean pollster Realmeter this week, nearly 60 percent of the respondents said they were disappointed by the crackdown on the Korean plant site.
"The Korean public's confidence in the alliance and overall partnership continues to wane, fueled this week by the Hyundai/LG raids in Georgia and scenes of hundreds of Korean nationals being perp walked in shackles," Rob Rapson, former acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said.
A U.S. official shackles a worker with a metal chain during an immigration raid at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture of Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County near Savannah on Sept. 4, 2025, in this photo captured from video footage posted on the website of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
Patrick Cronin, the chair for Asia-Pacific security at the Hudson Institute, pointed out that the fact that a diplomatic solution was negotiated to settle the detention case suggests "the entire issue could have been avoided."
"The administration should have approached the factory owners with news that visa laws would be strictly enforced from here on out," he said. "A longer term fix requires an agreed plan on how to manage the workforce, from training more Americans to allowing more legal workers from Korea."
Tom Ramage, an economic policy analyst at the Korea Economic Institute of America, noted that the raid would have "knock-on" effects on other countries.
"The immigration raid occurring at a work site certainly outlines the U.S. as being impartial in enforcing its immigration policies," he said.
"However, this could ultimately have knock-on effects for how other countries weigh their decision to sign on to investments in the U.S. How will their workers be treated? Will they be unfairly targeted? Will there be shared agreement about the status and role of the workers and visiting specialists?"
The raid was the latest in a series of events that observers said might have chipped away at Korea's confidence in the U.S.
Trump's aggressive tariff policy has left a Korea-U.S. free trade agreement in tatters. His administration's recent announcement on a decision to strip South Korean tech firms Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. of "validated end-user" status heightened uncertainty for their business activities.
His administration's focus on increasing allies' security "burden sharing," bolstering homeland security and deterring China in the midst of an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry has also fueled doubts over America's commitment to deterring North Korea.
The detention saga could have a silver lining, observers noted, as South Korea has proposed instituting a working group with the U.S. to discuss creating a new visa category for Korean workers as part of a joint effort to prevent a repeat of such a detention.
The proposal came after Trump signaled his willingness to explore legal ways to help foreign companies bring their technical staff to help hire and train American workers.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while signing executive orders at the White House in Washington on Sept. 5, 2025, in this photo released by AFP. (Yonhap)
"Going forward, both sides need to coordinate more closely and develop legal pathways for Korean companies to deploy essential technical staff to the U.S. to expedite and facilitate both the construction and operations of these and other massive Korean investment projects, which ultimately will employ thousands of Americans," Rapson said.
"It's in both sides interests to do so."
Most of the Koreans arrested in the raid were known to have entered the U.S. on an ESTA visa waiver program or a B-1 short-term business visitor visa -- in what has long been a practice for Korean businesses due to difficulty in securing an H-1B visa, a nonimmigrant visa for skilled foreign workers.
Both the ESTA visa waiver program and a B-1 short-term business visitor visa do not allow one to receive a salary from a U.S.-based source, among other restrictions.
Those with an H-1B visa can work in the U.S. on a relatively stable footing, but that program is subject to an annual worldwide cap of 85,000 visas. Koreans in information technology, engineering and other "specialty occupations" usually apply for the program, but it takes much time to get the visa.
The detention of the Korean workers has added to growing calls for South Korea to request the creation of a new E-4 work visa for them.
In July, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) and Rep. Sydney Kamlager‑Dove (D-CA) re-introduced the bill, titled "Partner with Korea Act," that seeks to create an allotment of 15,000 E-4 visas for Korean nationals with specialized education or expertise.
"Processing H-1B or B-1 visas more quickly and/or providing a guaranteed quota allowing the necessary number of Korean workers to help set-up and manage factories in the U.S. would help," Yeo said.
"The Trump administration should also reinstitute some version of the CHIPS Act to invest in education and workforce training. Conversely, Korean companies can reassure Americans that they will help train American workers and find local talent," he said.
This photo, taken on Sept. 11, 2025, shows Korean workers poised to leave a detention center in Folkston, Georgia. (Yonhap)
Ramage highlighted the need for Washington's help in ensuring that Korean firms can proceed smoothly with their investment commitments.
"For these (Korean) investments to continue, it will be imperative for the Trump administration to give substantial assurances to Korean companies on the continued operability of their investments under U.S. labor laws and to foster mutual understanding on the valid status of the Korean workers and technical specialists helping to bring these investments online," he said.
He also said that given the technical expertise and specialized experience South Korea takes to launch Korean greenfield investment abroad, the pending issue could be the start of a broader conversation about how to potentially expand visa categories for countries that are partnering with the U.S. on investment deals.
"Creating country-specific visa channels or expanding the scope of specialty occupation lists could aid in getting the labor the United States needs to get projects like these up and running where specialized experience is needed," he said.
The visa issue would be just part of the daunting tasks facing the bilateral alliance, Rapson said, noting the "challenging" days and weeks ahead for the Seoul-Washington relationship.
"That in turn is just a subset of the larger trade and investment challenges on the immediate horizon," he said.
"The 15 percent U.S. tariff rate on Korea has yet to be implemented and details for Korea's $350 billion investment pledge have yet to be agreed to. If the recent U.S.-Japan investment memorandum of understanding is any guide (and it probably is), it suggests big problems ahead for Seoul in coming to an accommodation with the Trump administration.
South Korean diplomats stand in front of the Folkston Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Folkston, Georgia, on Sept. 8, 2025, following their meetings with Korean workers detained during a recent immigration crackdown. (Yonhap)
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · Song Sang-ho · September 12, 2025
15. Japan again makes no mention of Koreans' forced labor at Sado memorial event
One step forward two steps back?
(2nd LD) Japan again makes no mention of Koreans' forced labor at Sado memorial event | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · Kim Seung-yeon · September 13, 2025
(ATTN: ADDS comments from presidential office in paras 6-7, photo)
TOKYO, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) -- Japan again made no mention of Koreans' forced labor during a ceremony Saturday commemorating victims of a World War II mine complex in the country.
The annual ceremony began last year as a fulfillment of Japan's pledge when the Sado mine in Niigata Prefecture, off the west coast, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2024.
"Among the mine workers were many people who had come from the Korean Peninsula," Yukiko Okano, director-general for cultural affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, said in her capacity as a government representative.
"The workers from the Korean Peninsula, though under the unique circumstances of war, carried out difficult work in the mines' dangerous and harsh conditions in a faraway land while thinking of their loving families," she said, adding some died in Japan before they were able to return home.
Yukiko Okano, director-general for cultural affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, delivers remarks at a memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of a World War II mine complex in Sado, Japan, on Sept. 13, 2025. (Yonhap)
Like last year, South Korea boycotted the event, saying no agreement was reached with Japan on Seoul's demands to include in the ceremony an acknowledgement that the workers were mobilized against their will.
A presidential official said the ceremony must be conducted "in a manner consistent with its purpose and nature, and carried out in full," adding that the government will continue talks with Tokyo in that regard.
"Although we didn't reach a satisfactory conclusion this year, we believe that, based on our stance of facing the past while moving toward the future, building mutual trust and understanding, and fostering the right conditions will help further enhance the quality of cooperation, including on historical issues," the official said.
South Korea plans to hold its own ceremony with the victims' family members in the fall, with the exact date yet to be decided.
For the previous ceremony last November, Japan sent a parliamentary vice minister as the government representative, a higher level official than a director general.
Seoul announced earlier this month it will not attend this year's memorial event, citing a gap in views over how to honor the victims, including describing the nature of coercion of Japan's forced mobilization.
In a press conference Thursday, President Lee Jae Myung reaffirmed maintaining a pragmatic approach of separating historical issues from the pursuit of future-oriented relations with Japan.
The Sado mines, once famous as a gold mine in the 17th and 19th centuries, was mainly used to produce war supplies for the Japanese imperial army during World War II. More than 1,500 Koreans are reported to have been forced into labor at the mines from 1940-45.
This photo taken Sept. 13, 2025, shows Japanese officials holding a memorial ceremony commemorating the workers from the Sado mine complex during World War II, on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, off Japan's west coast. (Yonhap)
hague@yna.co.kr
elly@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · Kim Seung-yeon · September 13, 2025
16. Industry minister, U.S. commerce secretary meet in New York over trade deal
This about this statement:
Kim has been in the United States this week to iron out differences over the details of the trade agreement under which South Korea will invest US$350 billion in the U.S. in return for Washington's lowering of "reciprocal" tariffs on South Korea from 25 percent to 15 percent.
Industry minister, U.S. commerce secretary meet in New York over trade deal | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · Lee Haye-ah · September 13, 2025
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met in New York on Friday (local time) to hold follow-up talks on the two countries' trade deal reached in July, multiple sources said.
Kim has been in the United States this week to iron out differences over the details of the trade agreement under which South Korea will invest US$350 billion in the U.S. in return for Washington's lowering of "reciprocal" tariffs on South Korea from 25 percent to 15 percent.
According to the diplomatic sources, Kim and Lutnick held talks at an undisclosed location in New York.
"I don't believe we are at a stage to announce an outcome," one source said of the discussions.
The trade agreement was reached in July and affirmed in broad terms during last month's Washington summit between President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The details of the investment plan remain undecided, however, with South Korea's presidential chief of staff for policy, Kim Yong-bum, recently saying the two sides are at an "impasse."
Lutnick said in a CNBC interview Thursday that Seoul should either accept the bilateral framework trade deal from July or pay 25 percent tariffs.
South Korea's presidential office said the next day that national interest will remain the top priority.
"As President Lee Jae Myung said ... (we) will not take part in negotiations that veer from rationality and fairness," a presidential official said.
Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan (L) and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick meet in Washington on Aug. 25, 2025, in this file photo provided by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · Lee Haye-ah · September 13, 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
| 
