“Government was rarely more than a choice between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

- Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam

“But in any society, leaders who aren’t willing to make sacrifices aren’t leaders, they’re opportunists, and opportunists rarely have the common good in mind. They’re easy to spot, though: opportunists lie reflexively, blame others for failures, and are unapologetic cowards.”

- Sebastian Junger, Freedom

“Men, be kind to your fellow men; This is your first duty, kind to every age and station, kind to all that is not foreign to humanity. What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”

- Jean Jacques Rousseau

• After a female detainee helped deliver the healthy half-Chinese baby of a fellow detainee, a guard grabbed the newborn by one leg and threw it in a large, plastic-lined box. The detainee later learned that, when the box was full of dead babies, it was taken outside and buried. Another witness who was a midwife described an instance in which she was forced to give a pregnant woman a labor-inducing injection. After the baby was delivered, it was suffocated with a wet towel in front of its mother because “no half-Han (Chinese) babies would be tolerated.” There also was evidence presented of a woman who delivered a baby in her cell before being forced to leave the baby outside in freezing temperatures to die.
• An expert testified that in cases when induced abortions resulted in a live birth, prison guards would cover the infant’s face with a torn plastic bag; the infant would then be wrapped tightly in a cloth blanket, after which it would suffocate and die. Bodies of dead infants were stored in a closet that was used for chlorine and maintenance tools. Later the bodies of the infants were buried. Mothers of the aborted infants were forced to resume manual labor the day after the abortion and without medicine or rest. Separately, a 20-year-old was five months pregnant when she was detained. After she refused to abort her own pregnancy as ordered, a prison guard kicked her in the stomach repeatedly until she was unconscious, and the fetus was aborted. The guard forced her sister to watch.
• Ben Rogers, an expert on the persecution of Christians in North Korea, testified that persecution against Christians in North Korea is the worst in the world, with Christians consistently subjected to more severe and protracted torture than non-Christians. Mr. Rogers testified about “documented incidents . . . includ[ing] being hung on a cross over a fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges, and trampled underfoot."
• Sexual slavery is practiced in North Korean detention centers. At the Hearing, a witness testified to being brutally beaten and raped by the general manager of a detention facility, who threatened to send the witness to a longer-term prison if she resisted. Said manager raped most of the young women detained in the facility. Separately, one witness reported that a correctional officer who sexually assaulted her said that “this did not constitute a sexual assault because you are dead here and a dead person cannot say she is assaulted."
• In addition to rampant, macabre acts of physical torture, psychological torture is commonplace. Witnesses testified that guards often forced detainees to mutilate or perform other barbaric acts on the corpses of detainees whose murder they were forced to bear witness to.
• Deliberate starvation is extremely common at detention centers. At the Hearing, a witness testified about a vicious cycle in which a detainee who failed to meet daily work quotas received reduced food rations. Detainees would then have even less energy to meet the work quota the following day, eventually resulting in death from starvation. He estimated that he had personally buried over 200 detainees who died in this fashion. In another case, a witness described seeing two detainees being beaten to death while carrying out forced labor because they had not reached their work target.
• One witness described a mass grave housing over 5,000 bodies and having “to dig holes for the dead that were so small and shallow that the bodies had to be bent to fit. On some occasions the deceased person’s knees stuck out of the ground."

As always, there is little we can do as North Korea marches toward more, better, and more varied weapons. We should negotiate, of course, where possible, although former President Donald Trump’s failed diplomacy with North Korea strongly suggests the North is unwilling to seriously denuclearize. Instead, South Korea needs to think more about decentralization – to provide fewer concentrated targets – and the US might start thinking about reducing the size of its South Korean bases, or at least their civilian component. 

When the population declines, businesses and jobs will disappear. Growth and income could come to a standstill. Due to reduced income, the young won’t get married or start families, feeding the vicious cycle of declining of population, growth and income. British scholar of population, Paul Willis, called the social impact from population reduction “age-quake” by likening it to a seismic shock.

The government and private sector have been less alarmed in addressing the issue. It may be because policy makers based in the capital do not feel the urgency from population decline. Since a future issue does not generate immediate results, it is pushed back in policy prioritization. Promises are made in the early stage, but forgotten as the administration’s term wears on.

Since starting a president committee on the low birth rate and aging society in 2005, the government spent over 220 trillion won ($171 billion) to tackle low birthrate. But the demographic problem has only worsened. At some point, the problem may become unfixable. Korea is like a frog in a slowly boiling pot. The new government has formed a task force on demographic challenges. It must not let resources go wasted this time. The clock is ticking for the country, which could vanish off the map.

From the global perspective, the Korean War was a signal for the beginning of the Cold War. The Ukrainian war forewarns the beginning of the next Cold War. “I am asking myself every day what I missed during my term in office,” said former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel who is under criticism for providing the causes for the Ukrainian war after having been praised during her time in office. What she missed must be a concern about this matter.

Are arms reduction and the expansion of mutually beneficial trade and economic dependence ways to build a more peaceful world? They may seem to create a more peaceful world right now. However, isn’t it a pathway to collectivize national interests and cause collective conflicts and world war? It is an eternal problem that the whole of humanity, not just Merkel, should resolve.

• South Korea joined the US-led Minerals Security Partnership earlier this month alongside the likes of Germany, France, Britain, Australia and Japan
• Australian Strategic Metals has also invested in South Korea to set up a joint venture to produce rare earth metals which will be turned into magnets for use by Hyundai

• The official said China currently poses security "risks" to South Korea but not a direct "threat." However, the official cited a potential incident in the Taiwan Strait as a scenario that could change that equation.
• Asked by Axios whether Seoul would want the U.S. to respond militarily to an invasion, the official said South Korea was "more comfortable" with the idea that the U.S. would respond — even though that would likely lead to a request for military support from the U.S. and Japan, a fellow U.S. ally.
• The official did not say whether South Korea would be willing to send its own troops.

• "We probably take for granted that if China attacks Taiwan, the U.S. will engage," the official added.

• Even as President Biden has said three times that the U.S. would defend Taiwan, the White House continues to insist there has been no change in its "strategic ambiguity" policy.
• China has objected forcefully to rhetoric and actions from the U.S. that it sees as overstepping the "One China Policy," under which the U.S. recognizes China's sovereignty but takes no position as to whether Taiwan is part of China.
• Under Xi Jinping, Beijing has taken increasingly bellicose positions about returning Taiwan to its control. However, South Korean officials are generally less inclined than some in Washington to believe a war over Taiwan is likely in the near-term.

• Seoul will continue to focus more on China over time — in part out of a sense of responsibility as a U.S. ally — but does not see any indication that China would consider attacking South Korea, the official said.

• Prospects for World Peace After South Korean President Yoon’s Acceptance of Biden’s New Cold War