​Quotes of the Day:

"All propaganda directed against an opposing group has but one aim: to substitute diabolical abstractions for concrete persons. The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. By robbing them of their personality, he puts them outside the pale of moral obligation. Mere symbols can have no rights—particularly when that of which they are symbolical is, by definition, evil."

– Aldous Huxley

"If you are confronted with two evils, thus the argument runs, it is your duty to opt for the lesser one, whereas it is irresponsible to refuse to choose altogether. Those who denounce the moral fallacy of this argument are usually accused of a germ-proof moralism which is alien to political circumstances, of being unwilling to dirty their hands. The weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil."

~Hannah Arendt, "Personal Responsibility under Dictatorship" (1964 lecture, later published in Responsibility and Judgment) 

"Do not make the mistake of the ignorant who think that an individualist is a man who says"I'll do as I please at everybody else's expense." An individual is a man who recognizes the inalienable individual rights of man – his won and those of others."

Ayn Rand

1. Kim Jong Un Wants a Military That’s More Than Just Nukes—and Russia Can Help

2. Trump-North Korea Summit Without Nukes? Here’s the Price the U.S. Should Set

3. ‘America Is Not a Safe Place to Work’: Koreans Describe Georgia Raid

4. Kari Lake said she learned of Trump dismantling VOA the day of his order

5. Voice of America resumes broadcasts into North Korea after months of silence

6. Kim Jong Un says he lost control of top hospital project, leading to delays

7. FULL TEXT S. Korean President Lee Jae Myung's UN General Assembly address

8. Lee asks for U.N. support for new dialogue initiative on Korean Peninsula

9. Lee set to preside over UNSC open debate on AI

10. S. Korea, U.S. review wartime OPCON transfer plan in defense talks

11. S. Korea, U.S. concur 'significant' progress made in meeting conditions for wartime OPCON transfer

12. State Dept. confirms U.S. policy of 'complete' denuclearization of N. Korea

13. Korea-US tariff agreement possible by APEC summit, Seoul's top security adviser says

14. Lee's N. Korea dialogue initiative seeks mutually reinforcing approach: security adviser

15. Seoul’s top diplomat urges stop to NK-Russia military ties

16. 'Russian deployment heroes’ stained with youth's blood (1) Creating a ‘new hero’ myth through propaganda

17. Fwd: Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun

18. Fault Lines Daily Summary - September 24, 2025. (Korean News Plus)

1. Kim Jong Un Wants a Military That’s More Than Just Nukes—and Russia Can Help

This is because advanced military capabilities, beyond nuclear weapons, support his political warfare and blackmail diplomacy strategies.  

And more importantly, we need to recognize that he has a campaign plan to try to dominate the South and bring it under the rule of the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State to ensure regime survival.

Kim Jong Un Wants a Military That’s More Than Just Nukes—and Russia Can Help

North Korea’s leader, taking lessons from his troops’ fighting in the Ukraine war, faces tall task upgrading nation’s Soviet-era conventional weaponry

https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/kim-jong-un-wants-a-military-thats-more-than-just-nukesand-russia-can-help-9aa41cd8

A photo provided by the Kremlin shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing earlier this month. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Kremlin/AP

By Dasl Yoon

Follow

Sept. 23, 2025 6:00 pm ET

Quick Summary

• Kim Jong Un is shifting focus to modernize North Korea’s conventional arms with Russian assistance, alongside its nuclear arsenal.View more

SEOUL—Kim Jong Un, seizing on his closer ties with Russia, has recently begun signaling a major policy shift: beefing up North Korea’s outdated conventional arms alongside its nuclear arsenal.

The strategic pivot faces tall odds for the impoverished country, whose massive conventional military largely relies on Soviet-era equipment. But Kim sees a rare opportunity—and need—to upgrade his battle tanks, rifles, air-defense systems, battleships and more with Russian assistance.

Kim’s new policy proclamation was delivered during a recent inspection of a North Korean institute specializing in armored vehicles. He declared an intention to adopt a policy of “simultaneously pushing forward the building of nuclear forces and conventional armed forces” at the next major meeting of his Workers’ Party, expected early next year.

In a lengthy policy speech on Sunday, Kim emphasized the need to improve the combat performance of North Korea’s conventional military hardware and strengthen the country’s naval forces.

“These constitute a transformation of great significance,” Kim said.

The shift in priorities, South Korean officials said last week, may be influenced by the lessons Kim took from dispatching roughly 15,000 North Korean troops to Russia’s Kursk region to fight Ukraine. There, soldiers needed the sort of military hardware that North Korea has largely neglected over the decades as it has gone all-in on nuclear technology.

People respond to a Russian aerial attack on Kyiv. Pyongyang has aided Moscow in its war on Ukraine by sending troops and selling it weapons. Photo: Serhii Korovayny for WSJ

Being able to diversify North Korea’s military priorities speaks to a twin reality for Kim, the 41-year-old dictator. 

On one hand, the move demonstrates North Korea’s confidence that the country’s nuclear advances can’t be reversed—and the cash-strapped nation can focus on other things. On the other, Kim’s nuclear program has deterred a foreign attack, though should a conflict emerge, his nation’s conventional forces would be greatly outmatched against the U.S. and South Korea.

“North Korea made the judgment that nuclear forces alone have limitations as a deterrent,” said Hong Min, a senior North Korea researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, a state-affiliated think tank in Seoul. 

Closing the gap won’t be easy for Pyongyang. U.S. and South Korean forces occupy the first and fifth spots, respectively, in conventional military power, according to Global Firepower, a website publishing annual rankings of military strength across dozens of factors. 

North Korea ranks 34th. 

A dramatic transformation

Until now, Kim believed his nuclear forces—which he calls a “treasured sword” protecting the country—offered the ultimate protection. But wars involving nuclear powers such as Russia have likely shown him the first line of attack would be conventional forces.

North Korea’s limitations in funding its military in a war and its “overwhelmingly inferior” naval and air-force capabilities have been a weakness Kim hasn’t been able to address, said Jeon Kyung-joo, a security researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, or KIDA, a state-funded think tank.

But this is where Kim’s tightening bonds with Russian President Vladimir Putin can help. Without Russia, North Korea would be isolated, struggling to find key materials or parts; the country’s weapons factories would have far fewer reasons to churn around the clock. 

In April, KIDA estimated that the Kim regime generated economic benefits from dispatched troops and weapons exports to Russia equivalent to roughly $20 billion since the start of the Ukraine war—a sum that rivals North Korea’s annual gross domestic product. Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow has led to significant growth in manufacturing, construction and mining, officials in Seoul say.

North Korean troops take part in military exercises in a picture released by North Korea’s state news agency. Photo: KCNA/Associated Press

Kim visiting a missile production line, in an undated picture released by North Korea’s state news agency. Photo: kcna/Reuters

“North Korea’s conventional capabilities could transform dramatically depending on Russian assistance,” Jeon said. “The U.S. and South Korea could face an increasingly difficult and long fight in a war scenario.”

The Kim regime has one of the most militarized economies in the world, spending roughly a third of its gross national income on defense, according to South Korean estimates. 

Since last fall, North Korean troops have helped Russia push Ukrainian forces back in the Kursk region—with Kim repeatedly imploring his military to prepare for a “real war” over the past year. In addition, Pyongyang is supplying roughly half of the artillery munitions Russia is using against Ukraine, Kyiv intelligence officials said earlier this year. In return, North Korea has received cash, technology transfers, food and oil.

Russia’s need for munitions and troops in its war against Ukraine has opened the door for North Korea to receive technical capabilities and financial assistance that will revitalize Pyongyang’s defense industry, said Nicholas Eberstadt, a political economist at the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute who researches North Korea.

“With Russian help, North Korea is now more confident in its defense capabilities and sources of revenue,” Eberstadt said. 

New upgrades

A major push to improve tanks, rifles and air defenses is likely to be codified by early next year. During a prior party gathering in 2021, Kim outlined a five-year weapons plan that contained strikingly different priorities: intercontinental ballistic missiles that fly farther, miniaturized nuclear warheads and a nuclear-powered submarine, among other large-scale weaponry.

In April, North Korea unveiled its largest-ever warship as part of Kim’s attempts to modernize his decades-old navy. A second warship capsized in May during a risky “side launch” maneuver, but Kim said the restored ship would undergo testing next year. South Korean officials said the two warships were built in just a year, a rapid development to Pyongyang’s naval forces that was likely possible due to Russian help, analysts say.

A new North Korean naval destroyer was damaged during a failed launch ceremony in May. Photo: Maxar Technologies/AP

Observing the aerial attacks and drone warfare in the Ukraine war, Kim has accelerated efforts to produce drones and earlier this year inspected new reconnaissance and suicide drones. Last week, Kim oversaw a performance test of attack drones, stressing that AI capabilities should be a priority for his armed forces. Moscow is providing Pyongyang with drone technology, training its drone pilots and helping set up local production lines, Ukrainian intelligence officials have said.

The biggest vulnerability North Korea faces against the U.S. and South Korea is air defense, for which Russia has already provided equipment along with antiaircraft missiles, according to a May report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team. Last month, Kim oversaw the test-firing of new air-defense missiles, though it is unclear if they involved Russian technology.

To be sure, North Korea isn’t likely to halt or abandon its nuclear program either. Earlier this month, Pyongyang tested a new rocket engine for nuclear-capable weapons, which military experts see as an introductory step ahead of unveiling its yet-to-be-seen “Hwasong-20” ICBM.

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

Appeared in the September 24, 2025, print edition as 'Kim Jong Un Wants a Military That’s More Than Just Nukes—and Russia Can Help'.

2.  Trump-North Korea Summit Without Nukes? Here’s the Price the U.S. Should Set

​Artillery and human rights. Interesting but not sufficient.

I would like our POTUS to ambush Kim face to face by unveiling our new "One Korea Policy" and tell him that it is not his Korea that is the one.

Trump-North Korea Summit Without Nukes? Here’s the Price the U.S. Should Set

nationalsecurityjournal.org · Robert E. Kelly · September 23, 2025

North Korea Talk

Published

7 hours ago

President Donald Trump attends an event celebrating the 2025 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Champion Florida Gators, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has just expressed his willingness to meet United States President Donald Trump. Kim even says he has ‘fond memories’ of talking with Trump during his first presidency, smartly catering to Trump’s craving for attention and approval. This is notably more flexible than North Korea’s approach toward South Korea. Despite a progressive Southern president interested in détente, the North has brusquely rejected all outreach.

North Korea Won’t Talk Nukes—Make These Demands Instead

The North has also insisted that a Trump-Kim summit not discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons. But that, of course, is the one North Korean issue everyone cares about. We have only vague estimates of North Korea’s arsenal and doctrine for use, and there is widespread anxiety that North Korea would use a nuclear weapon in a second Korean conflict—if only to equalize the massive South Korean-American conventional advantage.

It is hard to imagine what issues Trump would raise in a summit if not this very issue. And Trump would face crushing domestic criticism if he passed over the world’s single most significant concern regarding North Korea. Still, Trump loves summits and proved, in his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, that he is willing to gamble on meetings with little advance work or a pre-set agenda.

So if Trump did meet Kim, here are areas where he could demand significant North Korean concessions to counter-balance giving Kim’s nukes a pass:

North Korean Conventional Power

Most of the discussion of North Korea’s threat to northeast Asia focuses on its unchecked nuclear and missile program. But the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) poses a major conventional threat to South Korea as well. South Korea’s capital, Seoul, is just twenty miles from the border with North Korea, and the KPA is positioned along that border to move quickly against Seoul in case of a war.

North Korea also stations thousands of artillery pieces near Seoul. This entrenchment undergirds North Korea’s long-standing threat to turn Seoul into a ‘sea of fire.’ Even if the KPA could not take the city in a conflict, it could devastate it.

One apparent concession Trump could demand is that Kim reduce the size of the KPA on the border and reduce its artillery threat to Seoul. This would not be as valuable as reducing the nuclear missile threat to South Korea, Japan, and the US. However, it would represent a significant improvement in South Korean security.

North Korean Human Rights

North Korea is notorious for its extreme human rights repression. The country is literally Orwellian. The United Nations conducted a wide-ranging survey of human rights in North Korea and found it akin to the Nazi concentration camp system, and then found, ten years later, that almost nothing had changed.

This reality is another obvious area where Trump could demand significant concessions if he must pass over the nuclear program. Much of what makes North Korea’s possession of nukes so frightening is the totalitarian manner of its governance. If North Korea were more normal, less extreme, and less brutal, its nuclear program might be more acceptable. Serious movement on human rights could signal that North Korea is willing to liberalize—at least a bit—to improve the acceptability of its nuclear program.

Trump Needs to Get Something—Or He Should Not Go

A meeting with the US President is a win in itself for dictators, especially of small rogue states like North Korea. Frequently, these states are viewed as illegitimate by many wealthier and more normal states. North Korea, for example, is widely considered to be the failed Korea; the ‘real Korea’ is the South. If Korea is one day reunified, it will likely be on terms favorable to the South, just as West Germany led the unification of Germany.

So for a failed, isolated state like North Korea, a meeting with the US president is a gain. A summit suggests that North Korea is not just a nuclear troublemaker, but an accepted member of the international system. This is especially valuable since the North wants no discussion of its nukes, which implies Trump’s and America’s acceptance of them.

This is quite controversial. It is still the allied position that North Korea must denuclearize. Thus, if Trump meets Kim without nukes on the agenda, he must demand serious counter-concessions. If those are not forthcoming, he should husband the symbolic capital of a summit until Kim is willing to deal.

About the Author: Dr. Robert Kelly, Pusan National University

Dr. Robert E. Kelly is a professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University in South Korea. His research interests focus on Security in Northeast Asia, U.S. foreign policy, and international financial institutions. He has written for outlets including Foreign Affairs, the European Journal of International Relations, and the Economist, and he has spoken on television news services including BBC and CCTV. His personal website/blog is here; his Twitter page is here.

In this article:

Written By Robert E. Kelly

Robert E. Kelly is a professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University.

nationalsecurityjournal.org · Robert E. Kelly · September 23, 2025

3. ‘America Is Not a Safe Place to Work’: Koreans Describe Georgia Raid

​Following our conference yesterday (Thirty-Ninth International Security Conference of the Council on Korea-U.S. Security Studies (COKUSS)), we had some interesting discussions with our Korean counterparts at the bar. They described to us the impact that the ICE raid debacle in Georgia is having on the twenty- and thirty-somethings in Korea. Our counterparts fear that the younger generation may permanently turn away from the ROK/US alliance. They are vulnerable to north Korean, Chinese, and extreme left wing propaganda and anti-American political rhetoric. And of course there is the ICE raid debacle as "concrete proof" to "prove" the propaganda. 

An interesting piece of information that is being withheld by both the US and ROK governments is how many of those arrested were wrongfully detained because they were here legally. We know there was at least one green card holder arrested (he is planning to sue the US government based on reports).

Excerpts:

Mr. Cho said he was checking his team’s balance sheets in his office when he saw helicopters and armored vehicles outside.

They were soon swept up in what U.S. officials called the largest-ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location. The workers were held in shackles. They were detained for a week in what they described as poor conditions, and accused the U.S. authorities of rights abuses.

The raid was a head-on collision of Mr. Trump’s immigration and trade policies. And it has deeply unsettled South Korea, a key U.S. ally. Its diplomats haggled with Washington for a week until the country was able to fly the workers home.

Days after ​their repatriation, six returnees interviewed by The New York Times said they were still struggling to process what had happened to them. Mr. Park said he is seeing a doctor because he is having trouble sleeping. ​

“My main takeaway is that America is not a safe place to work,” Mr. Park said. “I don’t think I would go there again to work.”

A U.S. Disconnect

The United States and South Korea have deep ties, rooted in a decades long military alliance. That made the raid all the more shocking to many Koreans.

​The returnees said their predicament was the outcome of a mismatch of American desires and actions.

For decades, South Korean companies such as Hyundai have built and operated factories in the United States. Recently, Washington has persuaded South Korea to commit hundreds of billions of dollars to build new factories, using the threat to increase tariffs on South Korean exports as leverage.

But there are not enough skilled workers in the United States to construct the factories at wages that are economically viable for the companies, industry insiders contend. Nor has Washington issued enough work visas for foreigners to do the job. Last week, Mr. Trump added another hurdle by imposing huge fees on new H-1B visa applicants.

To address that mismatch, many South Korean companies, like the ones hired by Hyundai and LG to build the battery factory, rotate workers in and out of construction sites. They enter the United States on short-term business or tourist visas, sometimes skirting the law.

U.S. and South Korean authorities have not disclosed the visa details for the 317 Koreans who were arrested on Sept. 4. But five of the six engineers The Times interviewed were on six-month B-1 visas, which allow consulting with business associates. One traveled on the 90-day visa-waiver program called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which allows travel for business or pleasure. They ​all said they were on business trips since they were being paid by their employers back in South Korea.

‘America Is Not a Safe Place to Work’: Koreans Describe Georgia Raid

Some of the workers arrested this month at a Hyundai-LG factory said that although they had entered the United States under murky circumstances, they had always planned to return home.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/world/asia/south-korea-georgia-hyundai-ice-raid.html

By Choe Sang-Hun

Reporting from Seoul, Suwon and Dongtan, South Korea

• Sept. 24, 2025
• Updated 12:20 a.m. ET

​They thought they were the kind of highly skilled engineers ​who could help fulfill President Trump’s goal of reviving American​ manufacturing.

Park Sun-kyu said he had ​built factories that make electric car batteries in Indonesia, Michigan and Ohio. Kim Min-su said he had built or worked in such facilities in Poland, Ohio and Tennessee. Nate Cho, an HVAC guru, said he had helped put up a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates and a Samsung semiconductor factory in Texas.

All three are South Korean citizens, and all of them had gone back to the United States this year. Along with hundreds of their compatriots, they were working at a sprawling 2,900-acre complex built by the South Korean company Hyundai in southeastern Georgia to make electric cars. They were finishing up a battery factory at the site, which the state’s governor has praised for bringing thousands of new jobs for Georgians.

On the morning of Sept. 4, Mr. Park said he was in an office teaching a colleague how to troubleshoot a computerized manufacturing system when a U.S. agent carrying a handgun barged in and shouted: “Everyone outside!”

Mr. Kim said he was supervising in a “dry room,” where the temperature and moisture were kept at precise levels for machines to produce sample batteries. A commotion broke out in the room as a security manager called to report a raid by armed officers. Outside, the agents moved swiftly, spreading out through the premises.

Image

Kim Min-su near his home in Seoul, on Tuesday. He was supervising in a “dry room” when U.S. agents descended on the factory in Georgia. Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Mr. Cho said he was checking his team’s balance sheets in his office when he saw helicopters and armored vehicles outside.

They were soon swept up in what U.S. officials called the largest-ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location. The workers were held in shackles. They were detained for a week in what they described as poor conditions, and accused the U.S. authorities of rights abuses.

The raid was a head-on collision of Mr. Trump’s immigration and trade policies. And it has deeply unsettled South Korea, a key U.S. ally. Its diplomats haggled with Washington for a week until the country was able to fly the workers home.

Days after ​their repatriation, six returnees interviewed by The New York Times said they were still struggling to process what had happened to them. Mr. Park said he is seeing a doctor because he is having trouble sleeping. ​

“My main takeaway is that America is not a safe place to work,” Mr. Park said. “I don’t think I would go there again to work.”

A U.S. Disconnect

The United States and South Korea have deep ties, rooted in a decades long military alliance. That made the raid all the more shocking to many Koreans.

​The returnees said their predicament was the outcome of a mismatch of American desires and actions.

For decades, South Korean companies such as Hyundai have built and operated factories in the United States. Recently, Washington has persuaded South Korea to commit hundreds of billions of dollars to build new factories, using the threat to increase tariffs on South Korean exports as leverage.

Image

The battery factory the Korean workers were helping build is part of a sprawling complex in Ellabell, Ga., built by Hyundai to make electric cars.Credit...Elijah Nouvelage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

But there are not enough skilled workers in the United States to construct the factories at wages that are economically viable for the companies, industry insiders contend. Nor has Washington issued enough work visas for foreigners to do the job. Last week, Mr. Trump added another hurdle by imposing huge fees on new H-1B visa applicants.

To address that mismatch, many South Korean companies, like the ones hired by Hyundai and LG to build the battery factory, rotate workers in and out of construction sites. They enter the United States on short-term business or tourist visas, sometimes skirting the law.

U.S. and South Korean authorities have not disclosed the visa details for the 317 Koreans who were arrested on Sept. 4. But five of the six engineers The Times interviewed were on six-month B-1 visas, which allow consulting with business associates. One traveled on the 90-day visa-waiver program called the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, which allows travel for business or pleasure. They ​all said they were on business trips since they were being paid by their employers back in South Korea.

Image

The workers landed in Incheon, South Korea, on Sept. 12.Credit...Yonhap, via Associated Press

“We knew that we were treading a gray zone between legal and illegal,” said Mr. Park, who avoided physical work involving tools to meet the terms of his B-1 visa. “Our plan was to finish our trip in two to three months and return home and make another trip ​to the U.S. after an interval of two to three months.”

The Raid

More than 400 U.S. agents descended on the Ellabell complex that Thursday.

They first sifted out U.S. citizens. From the noncitizens, they screened out people on ESTA, B-1 and B-2, a visa for tourists, ordering them to fill out worksheets that asked for personal information and questions such as whether they entered the United States legally. The form was only in English and Spanish, and workers said the officers did not bring any Korean translators, so English-speaking workers volunteered.

At least one person was forced to leave the country even though he was there legally, The Times reported earlier this month.

Mr. Kim, 34, said he didn’t worry at first, even when he and his colleagues were ordered to put their belongings in mesh bags. One agent even told him, “I will let you go home,” Mr. Kim said.

Image

A handout image taken from a video of the raid provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Credit...U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout, via Via Reuters

The mood shifted when people on ESTA and B-1 and B-2 visas were served arrest warrants, hauled into buses in handcuffs and chains and taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Folkston, Ga.

The Korean workers said they are still wondering why they were arrested on the basis of their visas and were not told what laws they were violating.

They wondered why they, who were creating jobs for the local community, were being held.

“We were not there to settle down as permanent workers,” said Mr. Cho, 55.

Mr. Kim said ​the goal of subcontractors like him was to complete​ their task and leave as fast as possible. “If you miss the target date, it means more cost for you because you are not paid for the extra months you work,” he said.

Accusations of Abuse

In the detention center, workers said they were divided into five “pods,” each holding as many as 80 people. For meals, they were given an apple and ham-and-cheese sandwiches or meat gruel with rice or baked beans. They drank from water fountains or containers. Along one wall, there were shower stalls, urinals and toilets. Only a low wall and low curtain separated those who were using the toilets from the common area.

Since their repatriation, a few dozen workers have started a chat group where they discuss their claims of human rights abuses. They said that the authorities never read them their rights or explained why they were being arrested. With their cellphones confiscated, they could not call their families, employers or lawyers. When they were allowed to use phones at the detention center, they could not make international calls.

Image

The workers flew back on a chartered Korean Air plane.Credit...Kim Soo-Hyeon/Reuters

They have reported smelly drinking water, moldy mattresses, dusty blankets, freezing air conditioning and officials’ tardy response to requests for medical aid.

One worker in the chat accused guards of pulling their eyes sideways in a racist gesture against Asians. “The racial discrimination and sneering — and how the United States viewed us — will linger long in my heart,” the worker wrote.

South Korea’s foreign ministry has said it will investigate allegations of human rights abuse. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul did not respond to a request for comment.

The workers said that the U.S. officials who interviewed them individually at the detention center gave them a choice: Agree to voluntarily leave the United States because they violated their terms of admission or stay and fight their cases in court.

Mr. Kim said an American officer warned him that legal proceedings could take months. The South Korean government counseled the same. Eventually, all but one of the Koreans agreed to voluntary departure.

Image

The detention of the workers, who returned home earlier this month, has deeply unsettled South Korea, a key U.S. ally.Credit...Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press

Until the last minute, one detail remained unresolved. U.S. officials wanted the workers to be handcuffed for their four-hour bus ride to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, for their trip home. South Korean officials objected. But the workers had grown so sick of the detention center that some protested to visiting South Korean diplomats that they wanted to go home as soon as possible, whether in handcuffs or not.

The South Korean government eventually prevailed, and the workers were not handcuffed. It also said that Washington promised not to disadvantage the workers ​if they tried to re-enter the United States​ after the visa dispute was sorted out.​

Not all want to.

But Mr. Cho said he would ​have gone back to the factory site straight from the detention center had he been allowed to.

“My pride is not as important as finishing the work I have started,” he said.

The battery factory had been expected to be ready by the end of the year and create 400 new jobs. ​It is now delayed by at least a few months.

Ashley Ahn and Jin Yu Young contributed reporting.

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

4. Kari Lake said she learned of Trump dismantling VOA the day of his order

​Sigh...

I have not seen any new Korean programming but I will be looking hard for it today.

But we are missing the central point of this. This is not about VOA programing. It is simply about the fight over Article II authorities to support the unitary executive theory of government.

Excerpts:

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, has threatened to hold Lake in contempt of court if she can’t adequately explain how USAGM is following the International Broadcasting Act and congressional appropriations that govern the federal agency that oversees VOA.

In the deposition, Lake criticized Lamberth, saying he shows a “lack of respect” for the president’s powers under Article II of the Constitution and has made “very radical” decisions. But she said she does not “harbor hate” in her heart for him.

Lake, who remarked that she thinks all government-funded media is inherently “propaganda” during her testimony, said that when the agency ceased airing VOA programming in March, she was primarily concerned with what to substitute over the airwaves. She eventually had “a graphic made with music that had the VOA charter written on it so that that could play on a loop.” VOA later resumed some programming in Dari, Farsi, Mandarin and Pashto — and, more recently, Korean and Russian.

Kari Lake said she learned of Trump dismantling VOA the day of his order

The Trump official spent eight hours answering questions under oath as part of the contentious legal proceedings between Voice of America staffers and the government.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/23/kari-lake-deposition-voa/

September 23, 2025 at 2:06 p.m. EDTYesterday at 2:06 p.m. EDT

Kari Lake testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in June. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Shutterstock)

By Scott Nover

Kari Lake, the Trump official running America’s international broadcasting agency, said during a deposition earlier this month that she wasn’t aware of President Donald Trump’s March 14 executive order shrinking the agency until the day it was issued.

Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.

“I didn’t know about this executive order until the 14th, but I had seen that there were a lot of executive orders coming down,” Lake said. “I heard rumblings that there may be an executive order, but we didn’t know if our agency or what agency could be on it.”

The next day, Lake worked to carry out the president’s wishes, placing nearly all full-time and contract staffers at Voice of America and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), on paid administrative leave — many of whom are still collecting paychecks without working six months later. (Through a reduction in force, Lake plans to lay off most of the remaining full-time employees on Sept. 30.)

Lake later signed a June reduction-in-force order herself because then-acting CEO Victor Morales, whom she later placed on administrative leave, “refused to do his job” and sign it himself. (The RIF was rescinded because of a slew of errors and reissued in late August.) Lake is now USAGM’s acting CEO.

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Lake also claimed she was not aware that an Aug. 28 executive order from Trump canceling collective-bargaining agreements with various agencies on national security grounds would include USAGM until it came out.

Lake said she did not have prior knowledge of President Donald Trump's executive order dismantling the agency before the day it was announced. (Washington Post illustration; Transcripts obtained by The Post)

“I think I heard like 24 hours in advance, and I figured we wouldn’t be on it. We weren’t on the previous one,” Lake said. “And then it came out and we were on it.” Later in the deposition, she appeared to correct herself and said she had “a little bit of knowledge in advance” about that order because either the White House or the Office of Personnel Management notified her the day before it came out.

Unions representing agency employees have since sued the government over the order, alleging it is illegal.

Lake made those remarks on Sept. 9, after lawyers representing Voice of America journalists and its director, former Washington Post reporter Michael Abramowitz, got permission to depose her in a last-ditch effort to force an explanation of whether and how the agency is complying with federal law and a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, has threatened to hold Lake in contempt of court if she can’t adequately explain how USAGM is following the International Broadcasting Act and congressional appropriations that govern the federal agency that oversees VOA.

In the deposition, Lake criticized Lamberth, saying he shows a “lack of respect” for the president’s powers under Article II of the Constitution and has made “very radical” decisions. But she said she does not “harbor hate” in her heart for him.

Lake, who remarked that she thinks all government-funded media is inherently “propaganda” during her testimony, said that when the agency ceased airing VOA programming in March, she was primarily concerned with what to substitute over the airwaves. She eventually had “a graphic made with music that had the VOA charter written on it so that that could play on a loop.” VOA later resumed some programming in Dari, Farsi, Mandarin and Pashto — and, more recently, Korean and Russian.

Lake also targeted several media outlets, including The Washington Post and CNN. Lawyers asked Lake about a Washington Post op-ed that criticized her unsupported claims of Chinese infiltration at the agency.

Lake complained about stories in The Washington Post during an eight-hour deposition in a lawsuit brought by employees of Voice of America. (Washington Post illustration; Transcripts obtained by The Post)

“The Washington Post is the biggest piece of garbage in journalism in this country,” she said, “and so I know that whenever something happens in this — in this agency, immediately somebody — and I’m not sure who — runs out and reports to The Washington Post.” (The Washington Post’s newsroom and opinion pages are separated by a strict fire wall.)

As for CNN, she called the network “garbage, trash, the worst of the worst,” while saying the right-wing One America News — with which USAGM struck a deal to license in May but has not used — has a “common sense, pro-America perspective.”

In addition, Lake was asked by lawyers about her opinions on global media availability around the world. She could only identify China as lacking full press freedom in Asia and said that she had no opinion on whether there was press freedom in Mali, Sudan, Nicaragua and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She also said she didn’t have a view as to whether Africa is a “significant region of the world.”

“You may think it is. I may think it’s not. I’m not saying I don’t,” she said about Africa, where VOA ceased broadcasting in March. “I haven’t put out an opinion on that. I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”

When Lake was tapped by Trump to lead USAGM, she billed herself as a reformer. That changed with Trump’s March executive order to whittle the agency down to the “minimum presence and function required by law.” Lake then placed hundreds of VOA staffers on paid administrative leave, including Abramowitz and White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, both of whom sued Lake in federal court.

Lamberth has sharply criticized Lake for months and recently blocked her from firing Abramowitz after he refused a job running a broadcasting station in North Carolina. But the judge hasn’t been able to restore the agency to its full form. In May, a federal appeals court overturned part of his April injunction that would have sent VOA staffers back to work. A new three-judge panel reviewed Lamberth’s injunction in court on Monday but has yet to weigh in.

Lake also addressed her unsuccessful campaigns for Arizona governor in 2022 and U.S. Senate in 2024. When asked what the result of the elections were, Lake, who has made false claims of election fraud, said: “Well, I think the results were questionable, but the result is that I’m sitting here running U.S. Agency for Global Media.”

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By Scott Nover

Scott Nover is a media reporter for The Washington Post.follow on X@ScottNover

5. Voice of America resumes broadcasts into North Korea after months of silence

​I just did a quick search of VOA and I could not find any recent Korean programming. I will do some more in depth searching later.

Voice of America resumes broadcasts into North Korea after months of silence

In deposition, Kari Lake implies move to restart Korean broadcasts this month came in response to Seoul's policies

https://www.nknews.org/2025/09/voice-of-america-resumes-broadcasts-into-north-korea-after-months-of-silence/

Shreyas Reddy September 24, 2025

A North Korean using a radio and Kari Lake | Images: NK News (Sept. 2015) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, edited by NK News

Voice of America (VOA) has resumed broadcasts delivering news of the outside world to North Koreans after half a year of radio silence, with the head of the agency overseeing its agency’s operations suggesting this came in response to the Lee administration’s policies.

Kari Lake, head of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), told a U.S. court that the service is “currently doing some broadcasting” in North Korea, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.

She did not provide details about VOA’s current or future radio, TV and online broadcasts aimed at North Korea in her deposition before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month, beyond confirming they resumed in early September and are being presented in Korean.

But Lake implied that her agency moved to act after President Donald Trump openly questioned Seoul’s policies under the new administration of Lee Jae-myung.

Asked whether it is important for USAGM to continue broadcasts to North Korea, Lake responded that it is important “to effectuate the President’s executive order and make sure that what we’re putting out is honest, truthful reporting.”

Irrespective of the politics of the decision, the resumption of such services is still a positive in countries like the DPRK, according to Eric Foley of the Voice of the Martyrs Korea, a nonprofit that carries out radio broadcasts into North Korea.

“If North Koreans are risking their lives to listen to independent radio broadcasts, then the least that we broadcasters can do is to make sure there’s something on the radio that they can access,” he told NK News. 

He added that more broadcasts make it harder and more costly for the regime to jam them all, increasing the chances of external information reaching audiences inside the isolated country.

VOA’S UPS AND DOWNS

The acting USAGM chief’s deposition came almost six months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that drastically curtailed the agency’s operations, effectively blocking Washington’s main outlets spreading information to people living under authoritarian regimes.

Trump’s order followed months of speculation that his administration planned to shut down government-funded outlets like VOA, which he disparaged as “The Voice of Radical America.”

The order resulted in VOA staff being placed on indefinite administrative leave and getting locked out of all USAGM systems, while other U.S. government-funded outlets like Radio Free Asia (RFA) saw their funding terminated.

Court decisions temporarily blocking the shutdown raised hopes initially that these services would soon resume full services, but the monthslong wait led outlets like RFA Korean to suspend operations by July and left VOA reporters in limbo.

In August, Lake announced the dismissal of 532 USAGM employees, claiming the cost-saving move would help “provide the truth to people across the world who live under murderous Communist governments and other tyrannical regimes.”

Asked during her deposition whether the label applies to the DPRK, she focused primarily on China and to some extent Cuba and Venezuela as examples of communist states.

Lake notified the court on Aug. 28 that the agency planned to resume broadcasts to North Korea, later stating that the agency went ahead with it after a “critical” social media post from Trump “questioning what was happening with their leadership in that country.”

Her comments appear to refer to the U.S. president’s controversial post on Truth Social hours before a summit with ROK President Lee Jae-myung on Aug. 25, in which he accused the South Korean government of carrying out a “purge or revolution.”

Trump later downplayed his comments as a “misunderstanding” about rumors of South Korean raids on churches, an apparent reference to prosecutors’ investigation into the leader of the Unification Church.

The USAGM chief’s comments highlight continuing concerns in the Trump administration about the Lee administration’s policies and signal an apparent effort to redirect resources like VOA in response.

Seoul has turned off propaganda loudspeakers on the border and stopped military radio transmissions into North Korea since Lee took office, though it’s unknown whether the resumption of VOA broadcasts seeks to offset these actions.

Given the agency’s mass layoffs of VOA’s Korean-speaking reporters last month, USAGM ended up hiring contractors after deciding to resume broadcasts, according to Lake. 

She said USAGM plans to use Korean-speaking contractors to continue operations and potentially boost capacity for major news events, but she specified these will be U.S. nationals and not South Koreans, casting doubt on VOA’s operations in Seoul.

Edited by Bryan Betts

6. Kim Jong Un says he lost control of top hospital project, leading to delays

​While it seems like KJU is accepting responsibility, notice how the blame is put on others.

Kim Jong Un says he lost control of top hospital project, leading to delays

Ahead of opening, DPRK leader says officials used Pyongyang General Hospital construction for personal gain and ‘fame'

https://www.nknews.org/2025/09/kim-jong-un-says-he-lost-control-of-top-hospital-project-leading-to-delays/

Colin Zwirko September 24, 2025

Kim Jong Un visits the Pyongyang General Hospital on Sept. 23 | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Sept. 24, 2025)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the soon-to-open Pyongyang General Hospital on Tuesday, according to state media, where he revealed that he lost control of the project to “fame-seeking” officials during the course of its five-year delay.

The Pyongyang General Hospital will open around the Oct. 10 party foundation day holiday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reaffirmed Wednesday, providing capital residents with the country’s first “modern” general hospital amid a “lagging” healthcare system.

Kim also confirmed that his delayed plans to build 20 medium and small-sized hospitals around the country annually over the next 10 years will go ahead next year, after three trial projects wrap up at the end of 2025.

LOST CONTROL

Kim reportedly stated that the “main reason” why the hospital’s construction was delayed was “disorder” in managing project finances and “the desire for fame sought by some leading officials,” while saying the pandemic also caused problems.

Various “fame-seeking individual officials who regarded their names as more important than the Party’s policy,” as well as officials who were “politically very immature,” carried out construction “at their own discretion without approval” of budgets while “neglecting the financial discipline of the state, and thus brought economic losses,” Kim said.

Interior and exterior shots of the Pyongyang General Hospital | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Sept. 24, 2025)

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He also referred to a kind of scam where officials set up an “aid panel and conducted a campaign of fund-raising and aid across the country,” leading “to a serious political problem of distorting the original intention of the Party, which initiated a glorious and worthwhile project for the people with sincerity.” He reportedly ordered all funds returned to donors back in Dec. 2024.

The DPRK leader said these “wrong practices and complications” led to a delay of only “one and a half years,” though construction started over five years ago in March 2020 and he initially ordered the project to be completed within just seven months.

Such rampant anti-socialist actions by the most trusted political elite is “still latent in the state,” Kim added, despite his efforts in recent years to finally make every person in the country obey his orders unquestioningly.

He didn’t specifically name those responsible, but said they included former Cabinet members and “senior officials of the Organizational Leadership Department [aka The Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), 조직지도부] of the Party Central Committee, who were politically responsible for the construction coordination commission.”

Kim did not offer an explanation for his own failure to complete the project on time while simultaneously spending millions on new mansions, prioritizing weapons development and demonstrating strong sanctions-busting transport networks with the import of dozens of new luxury cars.

He said at the March 2020 kickoff ceremony that building the hospital would be the country’s “most urgent” task and that he felt “miserably self-critical of the fact that there is no perfect and modern medical service establishment even in the capital city.”

State media largely stopped mentioning the project from early 2022 to 2024, after Kim pointed out budget problems just months after construction started and as Pyongyang encountered sanctions and funding-related problems importing specialized medical equipment to stock the giant facility.

Construction resumed in 2024, and Kim visited the site to revive the project in Feb. 2025, calling for its opening by this October.

FOREIGN EQUIPMENT

NK News analysis of photos published with Wednesday’s KCNA report shows North Korea imported a range of foreign medical equipment, including a German-made Siemens Axiom Iconos X-ray machine and ventilators and infusion pumps made by Chinese manufacturers Aeonmed and Wego.

Patient wards appeared full of Chinese-made hospital beds from Hefei Shendeng Medical Equipment Co. and other manufacturers, raising serious questions about the production capabilities or indeed the true purpose of facilities like the Myohyangsan Medical Appliances Factory, which is run by weapons specialists based in Huichon.

Kim touches a Siemens Axiom Iconos X-ray machine | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Sept. 24, 2025)

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Despite the problems along the way, the North Korean leader reportedly expressed “satisfaction” with efforts to conclude the project, complimenting the hospital’s architectural layout and interior design.

He gave special instructions on ensuring quality medical expertise of hospital staff, adding they must offer treatment “with warm human love as well as professional qualifications.”

Wednesday’s report did not suggest medical care at the Pyongyang General Hospital will be available to all citizens free of charge, only vaguely framing it as a gift from the ruling party “for the people.” 

Defectors have said the country’s nominally free health care system has not functioned reliably in recent decades, requiring patients to pay for treatment, and Kim Jong Un has yet to spell out whether and how it will become free again.

HEALTH CARE ‘REVOLUTION’

During his latest visit to the Pyongyang General Hospital, Kim revived talk of building over 200 new hospitals around the country over the next 10 years under his “20×10” rural development project, saying the large new capital facility serves as the “first substantial starting point of the public health rejuvenation.”

It will “play a key and leading role for sure in implementing the Party’s policy on health care revolution intended to rebuild and dramatically develop the country’s public health on an advanced basis,” KCNA reported.

Kim Jong Un visits the Pyongyang General Hospital on Sept. 23 | Image: Rodong Sinmun (Sept. 24, 2025)

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Kim said that “three modern city and county hospitals are to be inaugurated at the end of this year and the beginning of the next year and 20 regional hospitals will be built every year from next year.” 

The three now under construction are a large hospital in Kangdong near the capital, a medium-sized hospital in Kusong and a small one in Ryonggang. These emerged as “trial” projects earlier this year, signaling a quiet cancellation of Kim’s original order to start building 20 hospitals per year in 2025.

According to KCNA, Kim wants to “establish a nationwide public health and medical service infrastructure comprising central hospitals and provincial, city and county hospitals as well as individual families,” with an “efficient digital medical service network.”

He also called for setting up “emergency stations between city and county hospitals and ri (local) clinics … in the future,” possibly implying plans to construct yet more medical facilities in more remote areas but without offering details.

As part of the preparations for construction next year, Kim ordered officials to renew “some architectural styles in future hospital design,” after expressing anger at construction conditions at the Kusong project in June.

Edited by Alannah Hill

7. FULL TEXT S. Korean President Lee Jae Myung's UN General Assembly address

To me, "END" could be the basis of a political warfare strategy to "end" the division of the peninsula. But alas, that doesn't seem to be President Lee's vision.​

Wil "END" catch on as the new buzz phrase/acronym for Korean policy and strategy?

When we say peaceful coexistence on the Korean peninsula and respect for the north Korean system, we are saying that we are abandoning the 25 million Koreans in the north to sentence of continued suffering, torture, and death at the hands of the most despotic regime committing the most horrendous crimes against humanity since World War Ii.

I am sorry to say that anyone who touts peaceful co-existence with the north has the blood of 25 million Koreans in the north on their hands.

Excerpts:

Democratic Korea will begin a new journey toward peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula.

The first step will be to restore broken inter-Korean trust and shift to a stance of mutual respect.

The Government of the Republic of Korea clearly reaffirms that it respects the North’s current system, that it will not pursue any form of unification by absorption, and that it has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.

Based on these three principles, we intend to end the vicious cycle of unnecessary inter-Korean military tension and hostile acts.

This is the reason why we have proactively taken measures including halting the launch of leaflets and suspending broadcasts toward the North.

Going forward, the Government of the Republic of Korea will consistently seek a path to reduce military tensions and restore inter-Korean trust

The most certain peace is a state where there is no need to fight.

Through comprehensive dialogue centered on “Exchange,” “Normalization,” and “Denuclearization,” in other words, “END,” we must end the era of hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and usher in a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth.

FULL TEXT S. Korean President Lee Jae Myung's UN General Assembly address

 The Korea Times

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

Editor’s note

This is an unofficial government-provided translation of President Lee Jae Myung’s address at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (local time).

Address by His Excellency Lee Jae Myung

President of the Republic of Korea

General Debate, 80th Session of the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2025

I would like to express my respect and gratitude to all Members of the United Nations and staff of the UN Secretariat for their contribution to world peace and shared prosperity.

I extend my sincere congratulations to Her Excellency Annalena Baerbock on assuming the Presidency of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly. I also pay tribute to Secretary-General António Guterres for his unwavering dedication and hard work.

I hope the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly will achieve even more meaningful results under their outstanding leadership.

Madam President, Mr. Secretary-General, and distinguished delegates,

This year is a meaningful year marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

The past 80 years of the UN have been a valuable journey of protecting the dignity and values of humanity and seeking a path forward for future generations.

If someone asks what the UN has achieved, I would confidently reply, “Look at the 80-year history of the Republic of Korea.”

It is no exaggeration to say that the Republic of Korea’s history, dotted with challenges and responses, is the history of the United Nations, which has constantly confronted enormous challenges facing humanity.

Liberated from colonial rule the very year that the United Nations was founded, the Republic of Korea emerged from the scars of division and ashes of war through UN assistance, maintaining national identity while achieving industrialization and blooming into a democracy.

Therefore, the Republic of Korea, in itself, is a country that has proven the value of the UN’s existence.

Whenever the Republic of Korea revived the hopes of lives as precious as the weight of the universe amidst horrific wars and disasters, the UN flag fluttered at the center of that intense solidarity.

The United Nations has strived to provide equal rights and opportunities to everyone without discrimination and has provided education and vaccines to make children’s lives blossom.

This small country in the East, which rose with the support of the UN and the international community, has become a proud UN Member that is drawing the world’s attention. It is raising its role and responsibility as a member of the international community more rapidly than any other country.

There were times when democracy and peace were in crisis, but each time, the Republic of Korea rose with indomitable strength.

Even a self-coup could not break the people of the Republic of Korea’s strong will desiring democracy and peace.

“The Revolution of Light” that the people of the Republic of Korea achieved against the darkness of the insurrection last winter was a historic moment that demonstrated the brilliant achievement of the UN spirit.

The remarkable resilience and strength of democracy that the Republic of Korea has shown will be ours as well as that of the entire world.

“I need you to take my hand and guide me away from all this. Away to where the light shines through, to where the flowers bloom.”

As the novelist Han Kang, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote, the Republic of Korea will be a milestone of light for all who join the journey toward democracy.

Today, at the UN General Assembly, where world peace and humanity’s shared prosperity is discussed, I proudly announce that a new Republic of Korea, which will be a beacon of light for global citizens, has completely returned to the international community.

The Republic of Korea, which has grown thanks to the support and assistance of the UN, will not hesitate to take on the role of a leading nation, generously sharing its experience and history of restoring democracy.

Despite ceaseless efforts from all corners of the world, the international community’s determination and aspiration to maintain international peace and security 80 years ago still remains an unfinished task for everyone.

280 million people are still in a state of extreme hunger. Armed conflicts around the world, including in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as the climate crisis, which has already become a real problem, threaten the survival of humanity.

The answer lies in the wisdom of the pioneers who founded the United Nations, as well as the path that the people of the Republic of Korea demonstrated. There is only one way: “more democracy.”

“The People-Centered Government” of the Republic of Korea, through the power of collective intelligence, is ceaselessly attempting innovations seeking better alternatives in democracy.

The way to solve common challenges facing the international community is no different. When all the countries experiencing the same problems gather here at the United Nations and continue multilateral cooperation putting their heads together, we will all be able to move toward a bright future of peace and prosperity.

I look forward to the “UN80 Initiative,” presented by the Secretary-General, taking root as a vision that achieves UN’s evolution and advancement in line with the demands of our time.

I also hope the UN Security Council can increase the number of seats of non-permanent members, reflecting changes in the international environment, and enhance its effectiveness and representation.

As a member of the UN Security Council for the term 2024-2025, the Republic of Korea is making efforts so that the UN Security Council can respond proactively to threats to the international peace and security.

Madam President, Mr. Secretary-General, and distinguished delegates,

The Republic of Korea, having restored democracy, dreams of a better future.

The Republic of Korea will fulfill its responsibility as a responsible global power that steadfastly upholds the values of freedom, human rights, inclusiveness and solidarity championed by the United Nations.

We will further develop our institutions and culture so that everyone residing in the Republic of Korea, both nationals and foreigners, can be respected as an equal member of society in all fields of life.

The Republic of Korea will strengthen and lead cooperation with the international community while realizing the value of respect for human rights.

In a time of crisis where immediate survival is urgent, words like solidarity, coexistence and cooperation may feel somewhat distant.

However, humanity has always dreamed of hopes as high as its deep despair and has achieved the progress we see today through a passion for a “better tomorrow.”

The more difficult the times are, the more we must return to the basic spirit of the UN, which is trust in universal values of humankind.

Just as the determination to not pass down the devastation of wars led to the founding of the UN and has prevented conflicts and preserved peace, we, today, must cooperate more, trust more, and join hands more firmly in order to build a better world for future generations.

Democratic Korea will lead the way in multilateral cooperation toward a sustainable future.

Peace is a value that is more important than anything else. In the Republic of Korea as well as everywhere in the world, peace is the basic foundation for democracy and economic development.

The disputes and conflicts we are currently facing vividly show how easily the ideals of human dignity and sustainable development can crumble without peace.

Today, the Republic of Korea is fulfilling its responsibility as a key contributor to the United Nation’s peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities.

Our brave soldiers who have steadfastly defended the Republic of Korea, a divided nation, are helping to pave the way toward sustainable peace led by the UN.

Threats to peace are not only physical elements. In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) technology is critical to security capabilities and cyberattacks threaten national security, we must confront not only “visible enemies,” but also “invisible enemies.”

If we passively let ourselves be dragged along by the changes of the AI era, we will meet a dystopia of deepening polarization and inequality, unable to shake off the dark shadows of human rights abuses caused by the misuse of technology.

However, if we proactively respond to these changes, we can use the high productivity as a driving force to build a foundation for innovation and prosperity, and create a useful base for strengthening direct democracy.

I hope the Open Debate that I will preside over as UN Security Council President tomorrow will significantly contribute to the international community’s efforts to promote the responsible use of AI.

Furthermore, we intend to share our vision for the future of AI through the “APEC AI Initiative” at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, which will be held in Gyeongju, Korea, next month.

We will strive to ensure that the vision of “AI for all,” where advances in cutting-edge technology contribute to the universal values of humanity, becomes the “new normal” for the international community.

AI-driven technological innovations will be an important new tool for solving global challenges like the climate crisis.

Over the past 80 years, the United Nations has paved the way for sustainable development and spearheaded efforts to address climate crisis threatening the survival of humanity. Nations around the world must respond to these efforts.

The Republic of Korea is pursuing a “great energy transition,” leveraging science and technology and digital innovation to increase energy efficiency and expand the share of renewable energy.

We will submit a responsible nationally determined contribution within this year, joining the united will of the international community.

At the “4th UN Ocean Conference” that will be co-hosted by the Republic of Korea and Chile in 2028, we will also work to build substantive solidarity for the sustainable development of oceans.

Such efforts by the Republic of Korea to actively address global challenges are based on a firm commitment to fulfilling humanity’s shared promise of sustainable development.

Since the United Nations established Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 10 years ago, the international community has made much progress in eradicating poverty and reducing inequality.

However, the demand for development financing is continuously increasing, and the most vulnerable are still suffering.

Let us squarely face this grave reality and create new momentum for change. We must move toward structurally reforming global development governance while enhancing the quality of financial resources.

I trust that we will pull together in order to bring about more cases like the Republic of Korea, growing and developing from an aid recipient country to an aid donor country.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations as well as the 80th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula. New challenges as well as unresolved tasks await us.

Democratic Korea will begin a new journey toward peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula.

The first step will be to restore broken inter-Korean trust and shift to a stance of mutual respect.

The Government of the Republic of Korea clearly reaffirms that it respects the North’s current system, that it will not pursue any form of unification by absorption, and that it has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.

Based on these three principles, we intend to end the vicious cycle of unnecessary inter-Korean military tension and hostile acts.

This is the reason why we have proactively taken measures including halting the launch of leaflets and suspending broadcasts toward the North.

Going forward, the Government of the Republic of Korea will consistently seek a path to reduce military tensions and restore inter-Korean trust

The most certain peace is a state where there is no need to fight.

Through comprehensive dialogue centered on “Exchange,” “Normalization,” and “Denuclearization,” in other words, “END,” we must end the era of hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and usher in a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth.

The fact that exchanges and cooperation are a shortcut to peace is a timeless lesson demonstrated by the history of fraught inter-Korean relations.

By gradually expanding inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation, we will pave the way for sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula.

It is crucial for both the ROK and the DPRK, as well as the international community to work together to establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.

While striving to advance inter-Korean relations, we will provide our active support and cooperation for efforts to normalize relations with the international community including between the United States and the DPRK.

Denuclearization is undoubtedly a grave task, but it is time to seek realistic and rational solutions based on a cool-headed perception that denuclearization cannot be achieved in the short term.

The international community must gather its wisdom in a pragmatic and phased solution beginning with a “stop” in the sophistication of nuclear and missile capabilities, going through a “reduction” process and reaching “dismantlement.”

Realizing lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula would present new hope and possibility to humanity suffering from conflict.

The Republic of Korea will end the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula through the “E.N.D. Initiative” and fulfill its responsibility and role to contribute to world peace and prosperity.

A future where people from different nations cooperate and overcome global challenges together may sound like a rosy, dream-like vision.

However, this is by no means an impossible dream.

Peace is not merely the absence of armed conflict, but the realization of a community where differences are respected and people coexist.

As long as respect and aspiration for diversity is inside us, we can always unite and embrace one another.

K-culture is connecting people all over the world beyond borders, language and cultural differences.

The success and spread of K-culture prove that universal empathy is possible, transcending differences in all backgrounds.

Gathering the energy of solidarity, coexistence and consideration, the Republic of Korea, having ushered in a new democratic republic, is ready to move toward a sustainable future and a new page in human history.

Though a difficult journey is expected, humanity has been able to grow and come this far by not giving up on challenges even in the face of adversity.

As the people of the Republic of Korea raised colorful cheering sticks in the face of a crisis in democracy, I call on the international community and the United Nations to lift the lantern of hope that will light the future of humanity.

The Republic of Korea will boldly lead the way toward a new era of “peaceful coexistence and shared growth” on the Korean Peninsula, toward a “better future together.”

Thank you for your attention.

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

8. Lee asks for U.N. support for new dialogue initiative on Korean Peninsula

​"END: exchange, normalization, denuclearization."

The above could work if this was the philosophy: Unification first, then nuclearization; the path to unification is through information human rights.

Lee asks for U.N. support for new dialogue initiative on Korean Peninsula | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Eun-jung · September 24, 2025

By Kim Eun-jung

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and asked for the U.N.'s support for South Korea's vision to achieve North Korea's denuclearization through dialogue, the presidential office said.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly after Lee presented a dialogue initiative centered on "exchange," "normalization" and "denuclearization" to end confrontation and open a new era of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

"President Lee said that peace and security on the Korean Peninsula are directly linked to global peace and security, and requested the U.N.'s support in moving beyond conflict and confrontation toward dialogue and cooperation," the office said in a release.

Guterres praised the Lee administration's North Korea policy as a wise approach and pledged active U.N. support, while vowing to continue strengthening cooperation with Seoul, according to the office.

During the talks, Lee expressed support for Guterres' U.N. reform agenda and pledged South Korea will do its part to help the organization grow into a more effective and efficient body, the office said.

He also said South Korea, which transformed from an aid recipient into a donor nation with the support of the U.N., will take on an even greater role in addressing global challenges.

Guterres said South Korea is making important contributions by offering a wise and balanced voice at the U.N. and described the country as a "trusted partner" in humanitarian aid, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), human rights, and in responses to major issues such as Gaza and Ukraine, it noted.

Gallery Gallery画报写真ギャラリーألبوم الصورGaleríaPhóng sự ảnh

President Lee Jae Myung (L) shakes hands with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during their meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 23, 2025. (Yonhap)

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Eun-jung · September 24, 2025

9. Lee set to preside over UNSC open debate on AI

Lee set to preside over UNSC open debate on AI | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Eun-jung · September 24, 2025

By Kim Eun-jung

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung is set to preside over an open debate of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on artificial intelligence (AI) in New York on Tuesday, becoming the first South Korean president to lead such a session.

The UNSC gathering on AI comes as South Korea assumed the rotating presidency of the council this month as a non-permanent member for the 2024-2025 term.

During the debate on AI, Lee plans to deliver a message calling for the responsible use of AI to promote international peace and security.

In his U.N. General Assembly address on Tuesday, Lee warned that passively adapting to the AI era could lead to polarization, inequality and human rights abuses, while stressing that proactive responses could turn AI's productivity into a foundation for innovation, prosperity and stronger democracy.

As part of broader efforts to expand cooperation on AI, he said South Korea will announce an "AI Initiative" at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting set to take place in the southeastern city of Gyeongju from Oct. 31-Nov. 1.

Ahead of the session, Lee will hold back-to-back talks with the leaders of Italy, France and Poland to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation, according to his office.

President Lee Jae Myung delivers a keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly held at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 23, 2025. (Yonhap)

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

en.yna.co.kr · Kim Eun-jung · September 24, 2025

10.  S. Korea, U.S. review wartime OPCON transfer plan in defense talks

​I had a very disturbing conversation with a Korean friend and colleague at the bar last evening. He told me that the 2018 OPCON transition agreement signed by the ROK and US has two very different translations. His interpretation of the US English version says that the return of wartime OPCON applies only to ROK forces and that he believes that means that the US does not intend to allow US forces to be under the OPCON of a CFC and foreign commander (due to the mythical "Pershing rule"). I found that to be an incredible allegation. I asked him what would be the command relationships and how would we fight a combined fight to defend the ROK and defeat the nKPA. He could not provide me an answer but kept insisting that the US will never allow US forces to serve under a Korean general and that is how the US supposedly crafted the English language in the 2018 agreement.

Of course the fact is that currently and in the future neither ROK or US forces will be under the OPCON of either the ROK or the US. The CFC is not under the OPCON of the US now. It will not be under the OPCON of the ROK either in the future. And as currently exists and will in the future, neither country gives up command of their forces. CFC only has a US commander who answers to both countries equally through the Military Committee.But the US does not have OPCON of CFC and certainly does not have OPCON of ROK forces now and in the future the ROK will not have OPCON of US forces. Every US CINCCFC I have worked for and every other one since have always stated that as the CFC Commander they work for both Presidents. 

But this was a troubling assertion/allegation from a Korean military expert (academic).

(LEAD) S. Korea, U.S. review wartime OPCON transfer plan in defense talks | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr

Lee Minji

Defense 20:49 September 24, 2025

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; ADDS details throughout, photo, byline)

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States have reviewed progress in fulfilling conditions for a plan to transfer wartime operation command (OPCON) to Seoul from Washington in recent bilateral defense talks, a Seoul official said Wednesday.

The two sides discussed issues regarding their envisioned "conditions-based" OPCON transfer during the biannual Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) held in Seoul from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to officials.

It marked the first such meeting under the Lee Jae Myung government, which has vowed to reclaim OPCON under his five-year term and draw up a roadmap for the move. The previous meeting took place at the Pentagon in early May.

Following the review, both sides concurred that "significant" progress has been made in meeting the three key conditions set by the allies for the envisioned transfer.

They require Seoul to acquire the capabilities to lead combined Korea-U.S. forces, and strengthen strike and air defense capabilities amid a regional security environment conducive to the handover.

South Korea handed over operational control of its forces to the U.S.-led U.N. Command during the 1950-53 Korean War. It was then transferred to the allies' Combined Forces Command when it was launched in 1978. While wartime operational control has remained in U.S. hands, South Korea retook peacetime OPCON in 1994.

The transition has long been a pending issue between the allies, with previous administrations either seeking to realize or temporarily postpone the OPCON transfer amid shifts in the security environment, notably North Korea's military threats.

Acting Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Yoon Bong-hee (L) and John Noh, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of war for East Asia, shake hands during their defense talks in Seoul in this photo provided by South Korea's defense ministry on Sept. 24, 2025. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

In the latest meeting led by acting Deputy Defense Minister for Policy Yoon Bong-hee and John Noh, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of war for East Asia, the two sides also discussed a wide range of alliance issues.

"Both sides evaluated overall defense cooperation aimed at modernizing the South Korea-U.S. alliance in a reciprocal and forward-looking manner amid a changing regional security environment and held in-depth discussions over alliance issues," the defense ministry said in a statement.

Also discussed were policy coordination on North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile capabilities and maintaining a steadfast combined readiness posture to deter and respond to Pyongyang's threats, the Seoul official said.

In the meeting, South Korea underscored the need to expand arms industry cooperation, notably in the naval shipbuilding and the maintenance, repair and overhaul sectors, on which the U.S. also concurred, the official added.

The latest KIDD meeting came as the Pentagon has been working on its new National Defense Strategy and a global force posture review that could affect its defense policy toward South Korea and its management of around 28,500 American troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Launched in 2011, KIDD is a comprehensive senior-level defense meeting between the allies.

This undated file photo shows troops taking part in South Korea-U.S. combined drills. (Yonhap)

mlee@yna.co.kr

(END)

11. S. Korea, U.S. concur 'significant' progress made in meeting conditions for wartime OPCON transfer

​I think they have some explaining to do to the ROK and US publics.

S. Korea, U.S. concur 'significant' progress made in meeting conditions for wartime OPCON transfer

en.yna.co.kr

S. Korea, U.S. concur 'significant' progress made in meeting conditions for wartime OPCON transfer | Yonhap News Agency

Lee Minji

All News 18:27 September 24, 2025

SEOUL, Sept. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States have concurred that "significant" progress has been made in efforts to fulfill conditions for transferring wartime operational command (OPCON) to Seoul from Washington, officials said Wednesday.

The two sides shared the assessment during their senior-level regular defense talks held in Seoul from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the government confirmed the OPCON transfer as a key policy task for President Lee Jae Myung's five-year term and said it will draw up a roadmap for the "conditions-based" transition.

This undated file photo shows troops taking part in South Korea-U.S. combined drills. (Yonhap)

mlee@yna.co.kr

(END)

Keywords

#OPCON #defense talks

HOME All News

en.yna.co.kr

12. State Dept. confirms U.S. policy of 'complete' denuclearization of N. Korea

​State needs to confirm unification first, then denuclearization; the path to unification is through information and human rights.

(LEAD) State Dept. confirms U.S. policy of 'complete' denuclearization of N. Korea | Yonhap News Agency

en.yna.co.kr

(LEAD) State Dept. confirms U.S. policy of 'complete' denuclearization of N. Korea

Song Sang-ho

All News 11:04 September 24, 2025

(ATTN: ADDS more info in paras 3, 6)

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- A State Department spokesperson on Tuesday reaffirmed the United States' policy of pursuing the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea, days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un voiced openness to engaging with Washington if it drops its demand for the North's denuclearization.

"(We can) confirm the U.S. policy of the complete denuclearization of North Korea," the spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency.

The official's remark indicated that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration would continue its commitment to the denuclearization goal, though Pyongyang has repeatedly insisted that it would not bargain away its nuclear program.

During a speech to the North's parliament over the weekend, Kim indicated his openness to conditional dialogue with Washington, noting that he personally has a "good memory" of Trump -- a statement that raised expectations for a potential resumption of summitry between the two leaders.

This AFP file photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump (R) shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after signing a joint statement at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. (Yonhap)

Trump has also voiced hope to meet Kim this year, adding to speculation that he could seek to reengage with Kim during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit set to take place in South Korea's southeastern city of Gyeongju on Oct. 31-Nov. 1.

Some observers said that Trump's attention could pivot to North Korea in pursuit of a peace deal amid his perceived campaign to secure a Nobel Peace Prize. He has claimed that he has ended seven wars since taking office in January, including the conflicts between Israel and Iran and between India and Pakistan.

Trump's personal diplomacy during his first term led to three meetings between him and Kim -- in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi in February 2019 and at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom in June 2019.

sshluck@yna.co.kr

(END)

13. Korea-US tariff agreement possible by APEC summit, Seoul's top security adviser says

​I want to share Ambasador WI's optimism. I hope it happens. 

Korea-US tariff agreement possible by APEC summit, Seoul's top security adviser says - The Korea Times

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

NEW YORK — National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac raised the possibility on Tuesday that Seoul and Washington could make progress in resolving the deadlock over tariff talks around the time of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting late next month.

The tariff talks have stalled since the two nations reached a broad agreement to reduce the U.S.' planned levy on Korean goods from 25 percent to 15 percent, with the main point of contention being Korea’s planned $350 billion investment fund.

“Of course, the differences are significant, and adjusting positions is not easy, but I don’t think it’s impossible,” Wi told reporters in New York during President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to the U.S. for the 80th United Nations General Assembly.

“Korea's position is grounded in objective facts and reason, not in unreasonable demands. That’s why I believe we can reach a compromise, and it would be best to conclude negotiations as soon as possible.”

Wi added that a swift resolution is needed since the tariffs are already in place.

He added that a settlement must be reached to enable a stable and predictable business environment for companies. While declining to specify a timeline, he expressed hope that a breakthrough could be reached around the time of the upcoming APEC summit, which will be held in Korea from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to attend the event.

“It would be good if it happens around APEC, but there is no rule that an agreement must coincide with a summit,” he explained. “If we can find common ground earlier, we can strike a deal earlier. That’s the approach we’re taking."

On the tariff negotiations impasse, Lee conveyed Korea’s position during his meeting with members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Monday.

"We’ll have to wait and see, but for now, we are communicating through various channels to convey our position on tariff negotiations and overall trade talks. In that context, I believe the financial line could also be engaged. The diplomatic and security channels are delivering the same message. Through this process, we will work to find common ground, with the aim of showing progress by the time of the next summit," Wi emphasized.

National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac speaks during a briefing at the Korea Press Center in a hotel in New York, Tuesday. Yonhap

Meanwhile, Wi stressed that the president’s inter-Korean "END" initiative — focused on exchange, normalization and denuclearization — treats each element with equal priority, reflecting a balanced strategy.

In his keynote address at the U.N. General Assembly, Lee introduced the framework as his vision for improving inter-Korean relations. It involves resuming exchanges with North Korea, normalizing the relationship and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Wi elaborated that the components of "exchange, normalization and denuclearization" are intended to reinforce one another, rather than follow a set sequence or hierarchy.

“We aim to build a structure in which exchange, normalization and denuclearization advance together, through inter-Korean dialogue and talks with the United States,” he said.

The Korea Times · ListenListenText SizePrint

14. Lee's N. Korea dialogue initiative seeks mutually reinforcing approach: security adviser

​The question is, what does KJU view as a resolution to the Korean peninsula issue?

Excerpts:

Wi explained the vision Lee presented during his address to the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the day, describing it as an integrated approach to end confrontation and hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, amid Pyongyang's rejection of Seoul's peace overtures.

"Lee's goal is to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue through a comprehensive approach centered on these principles," Wi said, adding there is no element or sequence among the three elements.

Lee's N. Korea dialogue initiative seeks mutually reinforcing approach: security adviser

en.yna.co.kr

Lee's N. Korea dialogue initiative seeks mutually reinforcing approach: security adviser | Yonhap News Agency

Kim Eun-jung

All News 12:34 September 24, 2025

By Kim Eun-jung

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's "END" initiative on dialogue with North Korea -- exchange, normalization, and denuclearization -- will be pursued as a mutually reinforcing structure, with progress in one area helping to advance the others, National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said Tuesday.

Wi explained the vision Lee presented during his address to the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the day, describing it as an integrated approach to end confrontation and hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, amid Pyongyang's rejection of Seoul's peace overtures.

"Lee's goal is to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue through a comprehensive approach centered on these principles," Wi said, adding there is no element or sequence among the three elements.

National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac explains President Lee Jae Myung's attendance at the U.N. General Assembly in New York during a press briefing on Sept. 23, 2025. (Yonhap)

He noted the principles were also emphasized in past inter-Korean agreements and in the 2018 Singapore declaration adopted between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Wi's remarks came amid cautious hope for a possible resumption of talks between Trump and Kim, who met three times during Trump's first term.

Trump has expressed willingness to resume dialogue with North Korea, while Kim recently said he still has a "good memory" of Trump but urged Washington to drop its demand for denuclearization.

ejkim@yna.co.kr

(END)

Keywords

#Lee #N Korea

HOME All News

en.yna.co.kr

15.  Seoul’s top diplomat urges stop to NK-Russia military ties

Seoul’s top diplomat urges stop to NK-Russia military ties

koreaherald.com · Ji Da-gyum · September 24, 2025

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun presides over a UN Security Council meeting on the maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday. (South Korea’s Foreign Ministry)

South Korea's foreign minister urged Russia and North Korea to immediately cease all activities that violate UN Security Council resolutions, speaking at an official UNSC session attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian delegation.

Cho Hyun, serving as Council president, presided over official UN Security Council briefings on the Middle East and the war in Ukraine held at UN Headquarters on Tuesday, during UN General Assembly High-Level Week, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

“Taking note of the ongoing discussions among the US, Russia, Ukraine and European partners, we hope these efforts will contribute to the realization of a peaceful settlement,” Cho said during the UNSC meeting on the maintenance of peace and security in Ukraine, attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We remain gravely concerned about military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including transfers of ballistic missiles and arms, as well as troop deployments. These actions constitute clear violations of the UN Charter and relevant Security Council resolutions unanimously adopted by this body.”

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

Cho emphasized that such military cooperation weakens the global nonproliferation regime, fuels the war in Ukraine and heightens security risks on the Korean Peninsula.

Cho further explained that North Korea’s participation in the Ukraine war shows that the conflict's repercussions extend beyond Europe to other regions, including Northeast Asia, and pose a threat to international peace and security worldwide.

“We urge both Russia and the DPRK to immediately cease all activities that violate relevant Security Council resolutions,” Cho said.

“All members must uphold the credibility of this body by ensuring that violations of international law are not ignored. The international community cannot allow aggression to be legitimized or rewarded.”

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun presides over a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday. (South Korea’s Foreign Ministry)

During another official UNSC meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the question of Palestine, Cho called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, compliance with international humanitarian law and support for a two-state solution that recognizes Palestinian statehood.

“We believe that the two-state solution is the only viable pathway to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue and to build lasting peace,” Cho said.

Cho underlined that the South Korean government will continue to play its due role in the international community's growing efforts to build peace and stability in the region based on a two-state solution.

Cho added that South Korea “deeply understands the Palestinian people's aspiration to establish their own state.”

“Taking all considerations into account, Korea is committed to recognizing Palestinian statehood at a time when it would be genuinely conducive to realizing the two-state solution,” Cho further explained.

South Korea began its two-year tenure as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council at the start of 2024.

September marks the second time South Korea has assumed the presidency during its current tenure, following June 2024. The presidency of the council rotates in alphabetical order of the member states‘ names, with each holding the position for one month.

The UN Security Council — the sole authority empowered to render legally binding decisions on the 193 UN member states — plays a pivotal role in the global collective security system.

dagyumji@heraldcorp.com

koreaherald.com · Ji Da-gyum · September 24, 2025

16. 'Russian deployment heroes’ stained with youth's blood (1) Creating a ‘new hero’ myth through propaganda

'Russian deployment heroes’ stained with youth's blood (1) Creating a ‘new hero’ myth through propaganda

asiapress.org

1. Photo of North Korean soldiers that Ukrainian forces said they captured with drones in Russia's Kursk region and released in December 2024.

Since North Korean authorities first officially acknowledged the Russian deployment on April 28, 2025, an unprecedented "heroic drama" has been unfolding in Pyongyang.

Since April, North Korean state media has continuously broadcast award ceremonies for deployed soldiers, celebratory performances, and events consoling families of soldiers who died during deployment. While the authenticity of these events remains unclear, through this series of processes, North Korean authorities appear focused on creating "new heroes" for the Kim Jong-un era.

The world seems largely unaware of the dangers of the heroism spreading in North Korea. This series aims to specifically examine the purpose and dangers of the hero-making project currently pursued by the Kim Jong-un regime through the experiences and perspectives of a North Korean-born journalist and reports from internal reporting partners.

As the first installment, we examine how the "new heroes" created by the Kim Jong-un regime differ from the past and what narrative they are packaged in, focusing on related videos recently released by Korean Central Television. (JON Song-jun / KANG Ji-won)

◆The way making heroes has changed

North Korea has a lineage of heroes. Heroes from the anti-Japanese armed struggle period had a clear enemy in imperialist Japan and a distinct goal of "Korean liberation," while Korean War heroes had enemies in "American imperialism" and "South Korean puppets" and the goal of "national unification." What past heroes had in common was defending Korean land for the Korean people.

But "Russian deployment heroes" are different. The place they sacrificed their lives was not their homeland but a foreign country, and what they protected was not the "Korean people" but "Russia." In that sense, North Korean authorities have consciously created a kind of "mutation" called "Russian deployment heroes" that doesn't fit the grammar of past heroes.

North Korean authorities try to explain this mutation through the new justification of international solidarity. However, it's questionable how convincing the value of international solidarity will be to North Koreans who have been isolated from the outside world for more than 80 years while nationalism was promoted.

North Korean authorities know this well, which is why they are putting special effort into creating "heroes." For North Korea, which brainwashes its entire population with propaganda surpassing Nazi Germany, creating a single hero is not particularly difficult.

Looking at videos released by Korean Central Television, one can find sophisticated staging of North Korean propaganda for this purpose.

2. Kim Jong-un kneeling before a photo of what is claimed to be a fallen soldier and pinning a medal. Korean Central News Agency, August 21, 2025

◆Kim Jong-un's groundbreaking image staging

The most important aspect of staging to create new heroes is establishing the relationship between the leader and the heroes.

A celebratory performance held at Pyongyang's April 25 House of Culture on August 21 staged a groundbreaking scene in North Korean propaganda history. In the middle of the performance, cameras captured Kim Jong-un directly stroking the coffins of fallen soldiers (whether actual remains or relics are inside is unknown) with tears in his eyes. This was staging rarely seen in North Korean propaganda during the Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il eras.

From this journalist's experience living in North Korea, death was always handled abstractly in North Korea's official events and packaged in conceptual expressions like "the Great Leader is forever with us." But in this video, death is concretized through the reality of coffins, connected to the state through national flags and the national anthem covering them, and sanctified through Kim Jong-un's touch stroking them.

Particularly striking staging shows Kim Jong-un kneeling before photos of fallen soldiers (authenticity unclear) and pinning hero medals on them. The supreme leader kneeling itself represents a major change in North Korean political culture. This appears to be a strategy to secure the legitimacy of heroes through the image of a leader mourning while kneeling before heroes.

asiapress.org

​17. Fwd: Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun

Emil Kapaun is a great American and an inspiration to us all.​

I am not a fan of graphic novels. But I am a fan of history. I commend AUSA for presenting history in a form that appeals to a large audience and especially younger ones.

To read Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun online or download a free copy, please visit www.ausa.org/kapaun. 

Mr. Maxwell-

On Tuesday, September 23, the Association of the United States Army is proud to announce its latest entry in the Medal of Honor graphic novel series: Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun.

I invite you to share this complimentary digital graphic novel with your readership. Those interested can view the work or download a free copy at www.ausa.org/kapaun or www.ausa.org/moh.

Volume 7, Issue 4: Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun

Emil Kapaun is the most decorated chaplain in Army history. Known for his courage as much as his spiritual guidance, Kapaun stayed to treat the wounded when Chinese forces overwhelmed his unit during the Korean War. He was sent to a prisoner of war camp, where he gave his rations to fellow soldiers and defied his captors to lead prayer meetings. Kapaun was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013 and is under consideration for sainthood in the Catholic Church.

Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun was created by a team of professional comic book veterans:

Script: Chuck Dixon (Batman, The Punisher, The ’Nam) 

Artwork, Cover: Andrew Paquette (Avengers, Daredevil, Hellraiser)

Lettering: Troy Peteri (Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men)

***

American soldiers have always displayed heroism on the battlefield. But only a select few are recognized with the nation's highest military decoration: the Medal of Honor.

The Association of the United States Army celebrates their valor with the Medal of Honor graphic novel series. These full-color digital books are created by a talented team of professionals drawn from the comic book industry, and the details are vetted by professional historians. Each eight-page issue profiles a true American hero, bringing to life the daring deeds that distinguished themselves by gallantry in action “above and beyond the call of duty.”

The series started in October 2018 with the release of Medal of Honor: Alvin York to commemorate the centennial of York’s heroic actions in World War I. To date, 28 issues have been published, commemorating such heroes as Audie Murphy, Mary Walker, Daniel Inouye, Henry Johnson, and Roy Benavidez.

AUSA has produced four new issues in 2025, and will print a paperback collection for the AUSA Annual Meeting:

Medal of Honor: William Carney – for the soldier in the 54^th Massachusetts who saved the flag at Fort Wagner

Medal of Honor: Clint Romesha – to celebrate the soldier who rallied his comrades to keep Combat Outpost Keating out of Taliban hands

Medal of Honor: Van T. Barfoot – to recognize the WWII soldier who advanced through a minefield to take out enemy machine gun positions and a tank

Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun – for the chaplain in the Korean War known for his courage as much as his spiritual guidance

Information and links to all of the graphic novels are available on AUSA’s Medal of Honor series page at www.ausa.org/moh.

To read Medal of Honor: Emil Kapaun online or download a free copy, please visit www.ausa.org/kapaun. 

***

Please feel free to share this material; I do ask that you let me know about any posts or reviews.

18. Fault Lines Daily Summary - September 24, 2025. (Korean News Plus)

Fault Lines Daily Summary - September 24, 2025

Daily news and analysis tracking the cracks and shifts at the fault lines of global power — with Korea at the epicenter.

https://hutchinsong.substack.com/p/fault-lines-daily-summary-september-7a9?publication_id=6293978&post_id=174428650&isFreemail=true&r=7i07&triedRedirect=true

George Hutchinson

Sep 24, 2025

 Surface Scan

We enter the day with Seoul pushing its END (Exchange, Normalization, Denuclearization) initiative onto the world stage, projecting phased pragmatism at the UN as Washington left North Korea out of its own messaging in Trump’s speech—possibly to deliberately leave space for Lee’s message to stand on its own. At home, “sovereignty” themes are reinforced through OPCON transfer progress and calls for self-reliant defense, while the re-banning of leaflet launches is intended to align with Lee’s END messaging toward outreach with Pyongyang. Regionally, UN and G7 statements on denuclearization provide guardrails for Lee’s messaging, while trilateral concern over the Taiwan Strait and warnings against NK–Russia military ties expand Korea’s security obligations beyond the peninsula. On the economic flank, efforts to secure a tariff deal with Washington and coordinate critical-mineral supply chains with allies are being balanced by Seoul’s decision to keep dialogue open with Beijing. Globally, Trump’s sovereignty-first rhetoric and combative tone at the UN, coupled with shifting signals on Ukraine and Russia’s counter-narratives, reinforce both the volatility and the transactional style of U.S. engagement. The net picture is of a South Korea seeking to claim initiative while navigating within alliance structures in a shifting, increasingly transactional global order.

 Epicenter

Summary:

• Lee’s “END” Initiative at the UN. In his first UN address, President Lee Jae-myung proposed a phased pathway—exchange, normalization, denuclearization—to reduce tensions and open space for practical steps short of immediate disarmament. By sequencing incremental steps rather than demanding total compliance up front, Lee seeks to position Seoul as the initiator of a “realistic” peace roadmap that contrasts with past zero-sum frameworks. This framing seeks to set the stage for South Korea to claim diplomatic initiative while still leaving space for Washington to engage.

Source: Hankyoreh — Lee unveils plan to ‘END’ hostility on Korean Peninsula via exchange, normalization, denuclearization.

• UN Optics: Lee’s ‘END’ Approach vs. Trump Silence on DPRK. Yet the optics from New York underscored the challenge: while Lee highlighted a phased engagement plan, U.S. President Donald Trump—who once dominated DPRK diplomacy—made no mention of North Korea in his UN speech. His omission emphasized the current vacuum in U.S. rhetorical leadership on the issue. Seoul’s own security adviser was quick to stress that Lee’s initiative is “mutually reinforcing” with alliance goals, but the juxtaposition highlights the burden now falling on Seoul to keep the dialogue alive.

Sources: Korea JoongAng Daily — Trump makes no mention of North Korea while touting his peace efforts, rebuking UN; Yonhap — Lee’s N. Korea dialogue initiative seeks mutually reinforcing approach: security adviser.

• OPCON Progress and U.S. Denuclearization Stance. Against this backdrop, Seoul and Washington flagged “significant progress” toward transferring wartime operational control (OPCON) to South Korea—a “sovereignty” milestone long sought by progressives in Seoul. The move strengthens Lee’s argument that South Korea is not simply reliant on U.S. forces but is building capacity for independent command. At the same time, the U.S. State Department doubled down on the policy of complete denuclearization of North Korea, making clear that any tactical flexibility on Seoul’s part cannot soften the alliance’s baseline demand. This dual track—expanded sovereignty but rigid nuclear terms—frames the guardrails within which Lee’s END proposal must operate.

Sources: Reuters — South Korea, US see progress on military control transfer as Pyongyang tensions simmer; Yonhap — S. Korea, U.S. concur ‘significant’ progress made in meeting conditions for wartime OPCON transfer; Korea Herald — State Dept. confirms US policy of ‘complete’ denuclearization of N. Korea.

• Self-Reliant Defense Signal from the PM. Reinforcing this theme of sovereignty, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok used his Veterans Day address to call for a “self-reliant national defense.” His remarks echo the administration’s broader messaging that South Korea must enhance indigenous capabilities even as it benefits from alliance support. By placing this call alongside OPCON progress, Seoul is crafting a narrative that its military modernization is not optional but essential to sustain credibility at home and within the trilateral framework.

Source: Chosun Ilbo (EN) — Prime Minister Kim Calls for Self-Reliant Defense at Veterans Day.

• Domestic Leverage on North Korea Messaging. That emphasis on self-reliance also extends into domestic politics, where the Democratic Party pushed through an amendment to re-ban anti-North Korean leaflet launches. The measure is meant to reduce provocations that could escalate tensions and derail Seoul’s dialogue overtures. It reflects how the government is seeking to control the home front narrative, limiting symbolic actions that antagonize Pyongyang while bolstering the credibility of Lee’s END initiative abroad.

Source: Chosun Ilbo (EN) — Exclusive: Democratic Party Passes Anti-North Korea Leaflet Ban Amendment.

• Tariff Track: “APEC-timed” Progress Hopes. Parallel to the security narrative, Seoul is racing to resolve U.S. tariff disputes ahead of the APEC summit. Both the industry ministry and a top presidential adviser suggested a compromise could be struck within weeks, anchoring markets and creating space for broader bilateral cooperation. This economic dimension is crucial, as Lee’s END proposal cannot succeed if Seoul is simultaneously vulnerable to trade shocks. Tariff stability is being treated as both a domestic economic imperative and a diplomatic prerequisite.

Sources: Korea Herald — S. Korea eyes progress in US tariff talks ahead of APEC summit; Chosun Ilbo (EN) — Adviser Sees South Korea-U.S. Tariff Deal Possible Before APEC.

• IMF Gives Macro Cover for Easing. The international backdrop is also offering Seoul breathing room. The IMF said South Korea has scope to continue easing monetary policy to support growth, given that inflation expectations remain anchored. This endorsement provides Lee’s administration with valuable cover as it tries to cushion households and firms against external shocks from tariffs, energy, and FX volatility. In effect, the IMF’s green light allows the government to argue that its diplomacy is reinforced by sound economic stewardship.

Source: Reuters — Monetary policy easing should help South Korea’s economic growth, IMF says.

Impact:

South Korea is attempting to seize diplomatic initiative through President Lee’s END framework, but the lack of rhetorical reinforcement from Washington—underscored by Trump’s silence on North Korea at the UN—forces Seoul to shoulder more of the burden in sustaining dialogue. At the same time, that silence may have been intentional, leaving room for Lee’s initiative to stand on its own rather than competing with a U.S. message. The parallel emphasis on OPCON progress and the prime minister’s call for self-reliant defense give Lee political cover to argue that sovereignty and deterrence are advancing in tandem, while Washington’s insistence on complete denuclearization provides the floor and guardrails for any future negotiations. On the domestic front, the re-banning of anti-North Korean leaflet launches aligns with Lee’s END messaging toward outreach with Pyongyang. Meanwhile, Seoul is racing to stabilize its economic flank—seeking to lock in a tariff deal with Washington before APEC while benefiting from the IMF’s endorsement of monetary easing. These combined moves suggest that Lee is trying to align diplomatic, security, and economic tracks so that his END initiative is not undercut by external shocks or domestic vulnerability. The result is a strategy that projects independence and pragmatism, but one that advances within the structure of alliance commitments while remaining sensitive to the shifting signals of U.S. engagement.

Shifting Plates

Summary:

• Trilateral Discipline at the UN. U.S., Japan, and South Korea’s foreign ministers reaffirmed their commitment to complete denuclearization and expanded coordination on defense and economic security in New York. This unity projects continuity amid Seoul’s push for phased engagement through Lee’s END initiative, underscoring that allied messaging remains firmly aligned even as diplomatic tactics diverge.

Source: U.S. State Department — Joint Statement from the Trilateral Meeting of the United States of America, Japan, and the Republic of Korea in New York City.

• G7 Ministers Echo Denuclearization Demand. The G7 foreign ministers issued a joint statement reiterating their demand for the complete denuclearization of North Korea. Their message underscores that allied pressure on Pyongyang is not confined to Northeast Asia but embedded in a wider coalition of advanced economies, linking Seoul’s position to a broader consensus among global partners.

Source: Chosun Ilbo (EN) — G7 Foreign Ministers Reaffirm North Korea Denuclearization Commitment.

• Taiwan Strait Concern from Trilateral Diplomats. Building on their unity in New York, the same U.S., South Korean, and Japanese ministers voiced concern over rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait, framing its stability as vital to Indo-Pacific peace. For Seoul, this extends its security aperture beyond the peninsula, linking its own deterrence posture with broader regional flashpoints that could directly affect alliance planning and supply-chain stability.

Source: Asahi Shimbun — Top diplomats from U.S., South Korea, Japan voice concern on Taiwan Strait.

• Seoul Pushes Back on NK–Russia Military Ties. Against this backdrop, South Korea’s foreign minister urged Pyongyang and Moscow to halt military cooperation that violates UN sanctions, warning that arms flows and technology exchanges could undermine deterrence and deepen instability. The statement reinforces Seoul’s alignment with both trilateral allies and G7 positions, signaling its determination to uphold sanctions integrity even as Russia and North Korea grow closer.

Source: Korea Herald — Seoul’s top diplomat urges stop to NK-Russia military ties.

• Critical-Minerals & Supply-Chain Early-Warning. At the economic-security level, the three ministers pledged to deepen cooperation on critical minerals, agreeing to an early-warning system spanning Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. For South Korea, this is an insurance policy for EV and battery supply chains, guarding against coercion or disruptions in industries central to its export competitiveness.

Source: Inside U.S. Trade — U.S., Japan, Korea agree to enhance collaboration on critical minerals.

• ROK–China Vice Ministers to Talk Supply Chains. In parallel, Seoul and Beijing agreed to convene vice minister-level talks on supply-chain cooperation. This engagement underscores South Korea’s hedging strategy: keeping economic lines open with China while simultaneously deepening frameworks with the U.S., Japan, and the G7 to bolster resilience against external shocks.

Source: Korea Herald — Vice industry ministers of S. Korea, China to discuss supply chain cooperation.

Impact:

The UN and G7 statements reinforce allied unity on denuclearization, providing a backdrop that supports Seoul’s diplomatic messaging and ensures its initiatives are framed within a wider consensus. Trilateral concern over the Taiwan Strait broadens the scope of Seoul’s regional obligations, linking Korean security to Indo-Pacific stability beyond the peninsula. Seoul’s call for an end to NK–Russia military cooperation underscores its role in defending sanctions integrity, aligning it closely with allies as Pyongyang and Moscow deepen ties. Meanwhile, on the economic-security front, cooperation on critical minerals with the U.S. and Japan balances cooperation with allies against bilateral supply-chain talks with China, reflecting a dual-track strategy of resilience with partners and pragmatism with Beijing. Taken together, these developments strengthen Seoul’s standing but also widen its responsibilities in both security and economic arenas.

Global Ripples

Summary:

• Trump Champions Sovereignty at the UN. In his UN address, President Trump cast sovereignty as the central principle of international order, rejecting globalism and multilateral institutions as constraints on U.S. freedom of action. For South Korea, this underscores the transactional frame within which alliance negotiations will continue, signaling that bilateral give-and-take, rather than global consensus, will shape Washington’s approach to security and trade.

Source: White House — At UN, President Trump Champions Sovereignty, Rejects Globalism.

• A Combative Tone Toward World Leaders. Trump sharpened his message with blunt warnings, telling world leaders their countries were “going to hell” unless they embraced his sovereignty-first vision. The confrontational tone reflects a U.S. posture less invested in multilateral diplomacy, raising questions for Seoul about how best to position itself in settings like the UN and G7 where consensus matters.

Source: Reuters — Trump tells world leaders their countries are ‘going to hell’ in combative UN speech.

• Shift on Ukraine War Prospects. In a notable pivot, Trump said he now believes Ukraine can reclaim all territory seized by Russia—a major departure from his earlier skepticism about Kyiv’s chances. This shift injects uncertainty into U.S. policy direction, but also signals continued American engagement in European security, an outcome Seoul quietly welcomes given its reliance on transatlantic unity to maintain global sanctions pressure and deter authoritarian revisionism.

Source: NBC News — Trump says he now thinks Ukraine can win back all territory taken by Russia.

• Russia Pushes Back. Moscow brushed off Trump’s remarks as calling its military a “paper tiger,” while insisting its economy remains stable despite sanctions. Yet the Kremlin simultaneously emphasized its openness to Trump’s “peace efforts,” illustrating how adversaries exploit mixed signals in U.S. messaging. For Seoul, the exchange is a reminder that great-power contests remain fluid, and that global volatility around Russia’s war continues to ripple into energy markets, sanctions enforcement, and wider alliance diplomacy.

Source: Reuters — Russia says it’s advancing in Ukraine and its economy is stable, after Trump calls it ‘paper tiger’.

Impact:

Trump’s sovereignty-first message at the UN reinforces a transactional style of U.S. engagement that will shape how Seoul navigates alliance negotiations, particularly on defense and trade. His combative tone toward other leaders underscores the diminished role of multilateral institutions, creating space where South Korea must weigh its investment in forums like the UN and G7 against the realities of bilateral bargaining with Washington. The shift in Trump’s stance on Ukraine suggests continued American engagement in European security, which Seoul values as essential for sustaining global sanctions coordination and deterring authoritarian pushback. Russia’s quick dismissal of Trump’s “paper tiger” remark—while still welcoming his peace rhetoric—highlights the fluidity of great-power signaling, where mixed messages can be leveraged by adversaries. For South Korea, these dynamics reinforce both the opportunities and risks of a volatile global order: reliance on U.S. commitments remains central, but so too does the need to hedge against uncertainty in Washington’s tone and direction.

Convergence

South Korea’s END initiative is unfolding in an international environment that both enables and constrains its strategy. At home, Lee pairs “sovereignty” themes with steps to ease inter-Korean friction, carefully honing a message that points toward outreach with Pyongyang. Abroad, allied statements at the UN and G7 provide guardrails for denuclearization diplomacy, while concerns over Taiwan broaden Seoul’s security responsibilities and NK–Russia military ties intensify the regional risks it must navigate. Economically, Seoul’s pursuit of a tariff deal with Washington and critical-minerals cooperation with allies is balanced by supply-chain engagement with Beijing, reflecting a deliberate hedging strategy. Globally, Trump’s sovereignty-first rhetoric and shifting signals on Ukraine underscore the shifting and unpredictable currents of U.S. leadership, reminding Seoul that its initiatives must advance within alliance structures where predictability is never assured. Together, these dynamics show how Seoul must carefully shape its strategy to fit within alliance and multilateral structures that provide both legitimacy and practical support.

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Daily news and analysis tracking the cracks and shifts at the fault lines of global power — with Korea at the epicenter.

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