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Quotes of the Day:
“And so, thanks to Solzhenitsyn, human rights once again found their place in the vocabulary of our times. I don’t know a single politician who doesn’t mention 10 times a day ‘the fight for human rights’ or ‘violations of human rights’. But because people in the West are not threatened by concentration camps and are free to say and write what they want, the more the fight for human rights gains in popularity the more it loses any concrete content, becoming a kind of universal stance of everyone towards everything, a kind of energy that turns all human desires into rights. The world has become man’s right and everything in it has become a right: the desire for love the right to love, the desire for rest the right to rest, the desire for friendship the right to friendship, the desire to exceed the speed limit the right to exceed the speed limit, the desire for happiness the right to happiness, the desire to publish a book the right to publish a book, the desire to shout in the street in the middle of the night the right to shout in the street. The unemployed have the right to occupy an expensive food store, the women in fur coats have the right to buy caviar, Brigitte has the right to park on the pavement and everybody, the unemployed, the women in fur coats as well as Brigitte, belongs to the same army of fighters for human rights.”
- Andrew Clapham
"Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be master of their feelings and thoughts."
- Anton Chekov
"But the objects of our passions, being external to us, are completely beyond our control. Thus, the more we allow ourselves to be controlled by them, the more we allow ourselves to be controlled by them, the more we are subject to passions and the less active and free we are."
- Baruch Spinoza
1. Nat'l security adviser says will discuss timing of Yoon's visit to U.S.
2. North Korea says US causing international arms control collapse
3. North Korea's state media backs Russian call for probe into pipeline blast
4. S. Korea, U.S. to hold drills for N. Korean leadership removal and civilian support
5. US Is Maintaining Tensions With North Korea to Draw in Allies Against China
6. Famine in N. Korea
7. Kim Jong-un's wife and sister 'locked in power struggle'
8. Korea, Japan in 'final stages' of talks over forced labor: National security adviser
9. Japan, South Korea Near Deal on Forced Labor Dispute
10. They’re Exporting Billions in Arms. Just Not to Ukraine. (Hanwha Aerospace)
11. Does it pay off to become fluent in Korean?
1. Nat'l security adviser says will discuss timing of Yoon's visit to U.S.
We need to get President Yoon's visit right to demonstrate the strength of the ROK/US alliance.
Nat'l security adviser says will discuss timing of Yoon's visit to U.S. | Yonhap News Agency
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 5, 2023
SEOUL, March 5 (Yonhap) -- National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han said Sunday he plans to finalize the timing and level of President Yoon Suk Yeol's upcoming visit to Washington when he meets with officials in the U.S. capital this week.
Kim made the remark to reporters at Incheon International Airport before departing for Washington on a five-day trip that will include meetings with U.S. government officials and academics on issues related to North Korea and global and economic security.
"I plan to meet with my counterpart -- the White House national security adviser -- and U.S. foreign policy and security officials to discuss detailed ways to turn the South Korea-U.S. alliance into a stronger alliance in action," Kim said, noting that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the alliance.
On Yoon's expected visit to Washington in April, he said, "I plan to finalize the timing and level of the visit while I'm there."
Kim said his meetings in Washington will also address South Korean businesses' concerns about the U.S. Chips and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act.
When asked if the two sides will discuss South Korea-Japan negotiations on settling the issue of compensation for Korean wartime forced labor victims, Kim said the subject is not a matter of discussion between Seoul and Washington but could have implications for trilateral cooperation on security and other issues.
National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han (L) speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, west of Seoul, on March 5, 2023, ahead of his visit to Washington. (Yonhap)
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
en.yna.co.kr · by 이해아 · March 5, 2023
2. North Korea says US causing international arms control collapse
It appears the regime is trying to provide diplomatic and propaganda support to Russia and China.
North Korea says US causing international arms control collapse
Reuters · by Reuters
SEOUL, March 4 (Reuters) - North Korea on Saturday blamed the United States for what it said was the collapse of international arms control systems and said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons were a just response to ensure the balance of power in the region.
"The Korean peninsula is turning into the world's biggest powderkeg and war practice field due to a military expansion scheme led by the United States and its followers," its foreign ministry said in a commentary carried by state news agency KCNA.
Recent moves by South Korea and Japan showed that a military build-up by the United States and its followers was crossing the danger line and this could not be tolerated, it added.
The comments follow the United States and South Korea's announcement on Friday that they plan to conduct large-scale military exercises from March 13-23 to strengthen the allies' combined defensive posture, including focusing on what they called North Korean aggression.
North Korea says such joint military exercises are proof that the United States and its allies are hostile and bent on regime change in the North.
Reporting by Jihoon Lee, editing by Giles Elgood Editing by Mark Heinrich
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Reuters · by Reuters
3. North Korea's state media backs Russian call for probe into pipeline blast
More evidence of north Korean diplomatic and propaganda support to Russia. And this all supports the Kim family regime's political warfare strategy. I am sure Kim believes he is undermining the legitimacy of the US and that it will have at least indirect effects on South Korea's view of the US (in his mind).
North Korea's state media backs Russian call for probe into pipeline blast
Reuters · by Reuters
SEOUL, March 4 (Reuters) - North Korean state media weighed in on Saturday on allegations that Western nations were involved in blasts that damaged Russia's undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, in the latest move by Pyongyang to express support for Moscow.
Moscow has maintained, without providing evidence, that the West was behind the blasts that damaged the pipelines in September and has called for an international investigation. Western officials have denied those accusations.
In an article carried by North Korean state news agency KCNA, international affairs critic An Chol Hyok backed Russian calls for an impartial investigation, saying the world needs to be aware of the "vicious coerciveness, war and conspiracy maneuvers of the United States".
Investigators from Sweden and Denmark - in whose exclusive economic zones the explosions occurred - have said the ruptures were a result of sabotage, but have not said who they believe was responsible.
North Korea has publicly supported Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago and expressed support for Russia's proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine, which most countries have rejected.
The United States has accused North Korea of providing weapons to Russia as well. Both Pyongyang and Moscow have denied that.
The ruptured Nord Stream pipelines are set to be sealed up and mothballed as there are no immediate plans to repair or reactivate them, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters.
(This story has been refiled to correct the spelling of a North Korean name in paragraph 3)
Reporting by Josh Smith and Jihoon Lee Editing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Reuters · by Reuters
4. S. Korea, U.S. to hold drills for N. Korean leadership removal and civilian support
Yes, we have to realize that this can be a logical interpretation by the media in response to ROK and US leadership saying that if the north uses WMD the regime will cease to exist as well as the recent special operations exercises. I hope Kim thinks that Ghostrider (AC-130) will be tracking him down in any of his leadership villas throughout the north. To Kim Jong Un: You can run but you will only die tired.
S. Korea, U.S. to hold drills for N. Korean leadership removal and civilian support
donga.com
Posted March. 04, 2023 08:05,
Updated March. 04, 2023 08:05
S. Korea, U.S. to hold drills for N. Korean leadership removal and civilian support. March. 04, 2023 08:05. by Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com.
South Korea and the United States have confirmed that they will skip the "repel and defend" phase of the Freedom Shield joint military exercises. The exercises, which are scheduled to take place from March 13 to 23, will start with the ROK-U.S. alliance's "counterattack and stabilization operations in North Korea." This 11-day drill will be the longest one ever held.
According to a military source on Friday, the purpose of the "Freedom Shield" military exercises is to assess the ROK-U.S. alliance's ability to counterattack in case of a full-scale war with North Korea, as well as tactical scenarios during the winter season, rather than reacting passively to North Korea's preemptive provocations. The exercises will focus on the ROK-U.S. alliance's operations after the counterattack, which include stabilizing and managing areas that have been reclaimed in North Korea and providing humanitarian assistance to North Korean residents. The source explained that stabilization operations in North Korea involve restoring administrative power, maintaining security, and supporting the residents of areas that the ROK-U.S. alliance has recaptured after successfully countering North Korean provocations at the start of the war. The ultimate aim of the exercises is to remove the North Korean leadership responsible for the full-scale provocations against South Korea.
The upcoming military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. clearly demonstrate their commitment to proactively confront North Korea's provocative behavior, while also signaling that their focus is on the North Korean leadership and regime responsible for nuclear and missile threats. In addition, the joint military exercise named "Teak Knife" has also been announced, which involves a decapitation operation against North Korea. It includes deploying the newest special warfare aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, the AC-130J (also known as Ghostrider) GunShip, to the Korean Peninsula.
한국어
donga.com
5. US Is Maintaining Tensions With North Korea to Draw in Allies Against China
Blame the U.S.
Excerpt:
Three important implications of this grand strategy, which places the Korean Peninsula at the pernicious center of intensified China-U.S. competition, merit attention: 1) the accelerated remilitarization of Japan; 2) the revitalization of extremist hardline North Korea policies in both Washington and Seoul; and 3) the intensification and expansion of belligerent wargames targeted at China and North Korea.
This is the CODEPINK strategic proposal:
Instead of narrowly focusing on the threat of China and exploiting the North Korean threat as a cover for a militaristic and volatile anti-China policy, the Biden administration should recognize that peace in the Korean Peninsula is not only obtainable, but can lay the groundwork for a broader and more stable regional order based on coexistence.
US Is Maintaining Tensions With North Korea to Draw in Allies Against China
truthout.org · by Simone Chun · March 3, 2023
The U.S. military encirclement of China threatens to escalate into an Asia-Pacific war, with the Korean Peninsula at the focal point of this dangerous path. Garrisoned with nearly 30,000 combat-ready U.S. forces manning the astonishing 73 U.S. military bases dotting its tiny landmass, South Korea is the most critical frontline component of U.S. military escalation in northeast Asia.
Since the Obama administration’s 2012 “pivot to Asia,” Washington has intensified tensions with Beijing, doubling down on a “full-scale multi-pronged new Cold War” through the Indo-Pacific Strategy pursued by both the Trump and Biden administrations. Sixty percent of U.S. naval capacity has been transferred to the Asia-Pacific region, and 400 out of 800 U.S. worldwide military bases and 130,000 troops are now circling China.
This is a reflection of Washington’s Asia-Pacific grand strategy, which views China as the U.S.’s top security challenge and prioritizes the maintenance of U.S. regional hegemony through military force by “defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
It promotes the vision of an empire with unipolar hegemonic ambitions, expanding the theater of war in northeast Asia and distributing the totality of threats facing China. Its goal is to force China’s hand by triggering and escalating a hybrid war on multiple fronts, including military, technology, economy, information and media.
This strategy is based on chaining together a regional “anti-hegemonic coalition” of U.S.-armed allies encircling China from South Korea and Japan in the north to Australia and Indonesia in the south. In spite of the significant state-level and public resistance in these nations toward U.S. pressure to choose between allegiance to Beijing and allegiance to Washington, this vision has been largely realized thanks to unrelenting U.S. coercion through successive administrations.
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Three important implications of this grand strategy, which places the Korean Peninsula at the pernicious center of intensified China-U.S. competition, merit attention: 1) the accelerated remilitarization of Japan; 2) the revitalization of extremist hardline North Korea policies in both Washington and Seoul; and 3) the intensification and expansion of belligerent wargames targeted at China and North Korea.
First, Washington’s military encirclement of China strategy bolsters Japan’s military build-up program. The U.S., despite having imposed a “pacifist” constitution on Japan in the wake of WWII, has for decades aggressively pushed for Japanese rearmament as a necessary adjunct of Washington’s efforts to dominate the Asia-Pacific. Labeling Japan a “failed peace state,” Gavan McCormack points out the ironic trajectory of its transformation into “one of the world’s great military powers” as a state actively girding for war under a so-called pacifist constitution. “With US encouragement, over time Japan built formidable land, sea, and air forces, evading the constitutional proscription by calling them ‘Self-Defence’ forces (rather than Army, Navy, and so on),” McCormack writes. “Other states with good reason to know and fear Japanese militarism (Australia included) also abandoned their commitment to the idea of its permanent demilitarisation…. [Its] constitution steadily sidelined, by early 21st century Japan was one of the world’s great military powers.”
Thus, Japan’s Security Policy echoes U.S. goals such as the complete denuclearization of North Korea, the stoking of tensions on Taiwan and the continued U.S. military presence in Okinawa. Home to more than 50,000 U.S. troops, Tokyo has steadily laid the groundwork for its own remilitarization program by characterizing North Korea as an existential threat, and designating Beijing’s regional activities as a danger to its homeland. According to the retired Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) Admiral Tomohisa Takei, China has been the main target for Japanese rearmament, “using North Korea’s threat as cover.”
At their most recent summit in January, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to work together to “transform Japan into a potent military power” to counterbalance China. Tokyo’s defense budget will grow 56 percent over the next five years, from $215 billion to $324 billion, raising its military spending to parity with that of NATO countries. Tokyo is also adopting a new policy of acquiring “counterstrike” capabilities against other nations as part of a recharacterized “self-defense” posture — an alarming development in a region still suffering from the historical legacy of Japan’s brutal imperial policy during WWII, and raising the fear that Japan may decide to carry out a unilateral attack against North Korea. Washington considers the remilitarization of Japan — which aspires to become the world’s third-largest military power after the U.S. and China — to be the linchpin of U.S. security interests in Asia.
Second, Washington’s zero-sum stance against China obstructs its ability to craft a sensible North Korea policy. Thus far, despite Washington’s rhetoric of “seeking diplomacy and deterrence with North Korea,” and repeated claims of having “reached out to Pyongyang multiple times,” the Biden administration has not moved beyond its standing offer for talks with no preconditions. Moreover, the Biden administration’s recent appointment of a new special envoy for North Korean human rights issues shows that Washington intends to maintain its heavy handed policy of employing military threats and economic sanctions against Pyongyang. In other words, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated, the United States will “maintain pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang changes course,” i.e. surrenders to U.S. terms. Even moderate experts have warned against the Biden administration’s preference for relying on “ineffective [and] ill-suited tools” such as “isolation, pressure, and deterrence,” intensifying U.S.-South Korea military exercises, and redeploying U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula. The goal of Washington’s North Korea policy, however, is not to achieve rapprochement with Pyongyang or establish peace in the Korean Peninsula, but rather to nurture and even enhance the purported “North Korean threat” as a pretext to rally South Korea and Japan behind its goal of containing China.
Washington’s anti-China policy, which binds South Korea to the service of U.S. geopolitical strategic interests and keeps it in a subservient client-patron relationship with the U.S., also has the ancillary effect of empowering extremist far right factions in South Korea. These politicians exploit the North Korean threat as justification for domestic repression under South Korea’s National Security Laws — among the most draconian in the world — empowering them to leverage red-baiting and worse against any critics or perceived threats to their grip on power.
Case in point: South Korea’s far right president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who was elected by a razor-thin margin of 0.7 percent barely eight months ago, is already leaving his mark, having established a “republic of prosecution” that pursues the politics of fear and prosecution domestically on the one hand, and subordinates South Korea’s sovereignty to Washington’s interests on the other. The “most disliked leader in the world” garnered a disapproval rating of 70 percent in a recent Morning Consulting survey, and faces massive and sustained public demand for his immediate resignation. It is noteworthy that in spite of Washington’s stated foreign policy goal of promoting democracy, freedom and human rights, the U.S. remains silent on Yoon’s “atavistic reversion” of vitally democratic South Korea into a newly repressive national security state. According to K.J. Noh, “South Korea’s essential role as the closest and largest military force projection platform against China, its role in a ‘JAKUS’ (Japan-South Korea-U.S. military alliance), its cooperation with NATO, its stated plans to join a Quad-plus, and its assumption of a submissive position toward U.S. decoupling and economic enclosure against China make it far too valuable to criticize or undermine regardless of its excesses.”
Indeed, Yoon has tirelessly pressed ahead with dangerous hawkish foreign policies. Against the absolute majority of Korean public opinion (over 65 percent) who prefer neutrality and a “balanced policy,” Yoon has unwaveringly committed to stand with the U.S. in its hegemonic strategic rivalry with China. During the 2022 Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, Yoon unveiled Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which is effectively cribbed from Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy designed to contain China. Moreover, Yoon has repeatedly advocated not only the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, but has also declared his intention to arm South Korea with nuclear weapons, significantly raising the danger of a regional nuclear arms race.
Third, Washington’s stance against China fuels belligerent ongoing wargames targeted at China and North Korea on the Korean Peninsula. The U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises — the world’s largest bilateral peacetime military drills — involve live fire drills, carrier battle group and submarine maneuvers and strategic nuclear bombing raids by aircraft. They have also explicitly included the rehearsed attack and occupation of North Korea as well as the “decapitation” of its leadership: a “plan for regime collapse and occupation.”
Since the 2022 Biden-Yoon summit when Yoon agreed to the repositioning U.S. strategic nuclear-capable assets closer to the Korean Peninsula, South Korea has conducted near-monthly joint military exercises with U.S. forces. Under the GSOMIA (General Security of Military Information Agreement), which aims to create a “three eyes” intelligence-sharing grouping against China, these exercises also include joint maneuvers with the Japanese military. Coupled with the deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries in South Korea, these drills form a crucial aspect of regional U.S. war preparations. Leveraging South Korea and Japan to collect and share military intelligence as military subcontractors is a principal component of U.S.-led military action. In the case of South Korea, the reduction of sovereign military assets to virtual pawns in a U.S.-led conflict goes even further, with Washington explicitly accorded the authority to take full control of the South Korean military in the event of any war.
The frequency and intensity of regional U.S.-led joint exercises have increased exponentially in the past year, ramping up tensions. In June 2022, the U.S. and South Korean militaries, for the first time in more than four years, held a three-day joint naval exercise involving U.S. strategic nuclear assets with the stated purpose of “reinforcing allies” against “North Korea’s mounting weapons ambitions.” Two months later, South Korea and Japan participated in the U.S.-led RIMPAC — the “grandest of all war games” — with the nominal goal of countering “North Korea’s evolving missile threats.”
In spite of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s claim that Washington does not “seek a new Cold War, an Asian NATO, or a region split into hostile blocs,” the U.S. is promoting NATO’s Asia-Pacific expansion to close the military circle around China, as demonstrated by its drive to extend NATO’s influence to Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. South Korea is fast becoming an important part of NATO’s Asia-Pacific expansion, as attested by Yoon’s attendance at the 2022 NATO meeting in Spain, in which China was singled out as a state that “challenge[s] our interests, security, and values and seek[s] to undermine the rules-based international order.” South Korea also became the first Asian country to join NATO’s Cyber Defense Group, a move that critics argue is laying the groundwork for war in Asia.
Moreover, the scope and scale of U.S. regional military exercises will increase by a factor of 20 for the first six months of 2023 alone. The resumption of U.S.-South Korean joint live-fire exercises will be augmented by the addition of new and highly provocative “nuclear table-top drills,” which simulate region-wide nuclear conflict under the guise of deterring a North Korean nuclear attack. The proliferation of these U.S.-led military exercises in the Korean Peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region reveal Washington’s mounting resolve to drag South Korea into conflicts beyond the Korean Peninsula for the simple reason that South Korea, which has remained a U.S. garrison state since the Korean War, hosts the most lethal U.S. military footprint proximate to Beijing, including the world’s newest and largest U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek.
U.S. officials have been quite blunt about South Korea’s subordinate role in Washington’s imperial quest. Gen. Robert Abrams, U.S. Forces Korea commander from 2018 to 2021, stated in 2021 that in addition to “threats from North Korea,” South Korea must join the U.S. in developing “new operational war plans” to counter China’s military influence in the region. Accordingly, former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper predicted in 2022 that South Korea would inevitably “intervene with the United States in the Taiwan Strait should a conflict break out between Taiwan and China.” There is little doubt that under the far right Yoon administration, U.S. pressure on South Korea to serve in a vanguard role as a pawn against China will increase. Washington’s resolve to push its exorbitant imperial privilege by any means necessary is forcing South Korea down a risky and self-destructive path that promises little benefit for the Korean nation itself.
What is happening now is the U.S. empire’s response to its most significant challenge to date, and represents an evolution of its militaristic posture in order to prevent its demise. As Tim Beal points out:
For American hegemony the struggle is existential, and without hegemony the United States will be much diminished and poorer; it will have to live within its means rather than drawing sustenance from its empire. Hegemonic power has various dimensions — political, military, ideational, economic and financial. The US is being challenged, indeed is faltering, in each of these in various ways and to differing degrees.
First and foremost, in intensifying its offensive against Beijing, Washington has shifted both risk and burden to allies that form its “vanguard against China,” enabling the U.S. to dictate decisions and procure imperial benefits while distributing the costs to vassal states. In order to justify its burgeoning military regional presence and intensified control over South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to bolster its posture against China, the U.S. needs to keep regional tension high. Despite the U.S. position that it is “open to talks” with North Korea, continued sanctions (including those targeting the civilian and medical sector), expansion of the U.S. military presence in the region, intensification of multinational military drills, and continued political rhetoric from Washington ensure that tensions with the north remain elevated. This benefits both Washington and the extremist regime in Seoul, and ensures South Korea’s perpetual relegation to the status of a U.S. neocolonial state.
The greatest threat to peace and stability in northeast Asia is the U.S. Indo-Pacific military encirclement of China, which by design serves to escalate tensions and create a dangerous cycle of provocation and response. Washington’s hegemonic quest — the highest manifestation of 21st-century imperialism — is the antithesis of peace in the Korean Peninsula, the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond. When one factors in the Pentagon’s openly aggressive National Defense Strategy, which sanctions the use of nuclear weapons against non-adversaries, the intensified U.S. focus on maintaining hegemony and regional dominance at all costs takes on an even more ominous character, suggesting that the Korean Peninsula has the potential to serve as the flashpoint for a conflict of much wider scale and scope.
Hawkish U.S. policies have consistently failed to garner public support in South Korea. According to a series of polls conducted in 2021, 61 percent of South Koreans support relaxing sanctions against the north and 79 percent support peace with Pyongyang, with an additional 71 percent supporting a formal end-of-war declaration between the two Koreas. These sentiments persist even among Yoon supporters, a majority of whom support an inter-Korean peace treaty, breaking with his rhetoric of a tougher stance toward North Korea. The South Korean Democratic and Progressive Parties, as well as major civil and labor organizations, support military deescalation with the North and maintenance of neutrality in the Washington-Beijing competition. Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung has repeatedly warned against South Korea becoming a “pawn in the plans of other states,” pledging his party to the principles of independence and sovereignty.
A few years from now, after the Biden and Yoon administrations have ended, North Korea will likely not have been denuclearized and South Korea may emerge as the nuclear front line in the U.S. rivalry with China and Russia, setting the stage for the Korean Peninsula to serve as the main battleground in a new Cold War. If Biden has a genuine interest in achieving lasting regional security, he should pursue a broader vision in which nations can coexist. According to the latest poll, a significant majority of Americans support tension-reducing policies with North Korea and China, and 7 in 10 Americans are supportive of a summit between Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Over half of those polled support a full-fledged peace agreement to finally end the 73-year-old Korean War — an unresolved conflict that has left nearly 5 million casualties and forcibly separated 10 million Korean families on either side of the 38th parallel, including more than 100,000 Korean Americans.
Instead of narrowly focusing on the threat of China and exploiting the North Korean threat as a cover for a militaristic and volatile anti-China policy, the Biden administration should recognize that peace in the Korean Peninsula is not only obtainable, but can lay the groundwork for a broader and more stable regional order based on coexistence.
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Simone Chun
Simone Chun is a researcher and activist focusing on inter-Korean relations and U.S. foreign policy in the Korean Peninsula. She has served as an assistant professor at Suffolk University, a lecturer at Northeast University and an associate in research at Harvard University’s Korea Institute. She is on the Korea Policy Institute Board of Directors, and serves on the advisory board for CODEPINK. She can be found on Twitter at @simonechun.
Truthout
truthout.org · by Simone Chun · March 3, 2023
6. Famine in N. Korea
Excellent OpEd from the Korea Times editorial board.
Very important assessment including the last sentence in this excerpt. We must be ready for the full range ofr contingencies from war to regime collapse and internal instability that can lead to implosion (effects remain inside the north) or explosion (effects spill out).
Excerpts:
However, the food shortage is also an artificial crisis for at least two reasons.
One is military. According to a unification ministry spokesperson, if North Korea had spent the money for all its missile launches last year on food imports, it would have been able to buy more than 1 million tons of grain to cover its annual food shortage.
The other is systemic. For unknown reasons, Kim recently tightened the state's grip on "free economic activities," banning private trading of grain and limiting its distribution to government shops. Some pundits say Kim's U-turn to complete control of the economy reflects his fear of the free market and capitalism.
The situation is unlikely to get any better this year, and may become far worse.
Famine in N. Korea
The Korea Times · March 5, 2023
Humanitarian aid needed to ease military tension
Well-fed people are rarely seen in photos and videos of North Korea.
One notable exception is its leader Kim Jong-un who is severely obese. Kim's second child, his daughter Ju-ae, who has been seen accompanying her father frequently at official events in recent months, also appears to be very well-fed.
According to Radio Free Asia, North Koreans were angered to watch the plump, well-clothed third grader, comparing her with their skinny children.
Food shortages have been a chronic problem in the isolated country. Nearly half of its residents are malnourished, with one-fifth of children having stunted growth problems. And the food crisis seems to have aggravated sharply in recent years.
Last Thursday, Kim called on state-managed farms to step up their grain production and meet their goals for this year "without fail," wrapping up a four-day plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea.
It was unusual for Pyongyang to hold the yearly or twice-yearly plenary session in little more than two months. At a similar meeting in December, the North identified grain production as the No. 1 task among 12 major economic priorities for 2023. Some watchers say the reclusive country could face the worst famine since the "Arduous March" of the late 1990s when 3 percent to 5 percent of its 20 million population starved to death.
Reasons vary. Some things are beyond the North's control, such as its mountainous terrain and increasingly frequent droughts and floods. Prolonged economic sanctions, though resulting from North Korea's violation of international rules, are also an external factor. The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns for nearly three years were critical blows to grain imports. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war sharply raised grain prices.
However, the food shortage is also an artificial crisis for at least two reasons.
One is military. According to a unification ministry spokesperson, if North Korea had spent the money for all its missile launches last year on food imports, it would have been able to buy more than 1 million tons of grain to cover its annual food shortage.
The situation is unlikely to get any better this year, and may become far worse.
The other is systemic. For unknown reasons, Kim recently tightened the state's grip on "free economic activities," banning private trading of grain and limiting its distribution to government shops. Some pundits say Kim's U-turn to complete control of the economy reflects his fear of the free market and capitalism.
The U.S. and South Korea will conduct joint military drills at a greater scale and frequency. North Korea vows to respond in kind, depleting its already-scarce financial resources. Both sides will blame each other for escalating tensions, as they have been doing for decades. Kim and his cronies deserve international condemnation for failing to feed people under the pretext of defending their country, a socialist regime or a modern-day dynasty. But Washington and Seoul are not entirely free from criticism if their strategy risks another humanitarian disaster.
The allies have expressed their intention to provide help ― on condition that the North returns to the dialogue table. Pyongyang has also reportedly requested aid from the U.N. World Food Programme unofficially. If past experiences are any guide, however, the sides will spend months arguing over terms and preconditions ― and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of North Korean children will die in the process.
Now is the time for Seoul to take a more positive stance. Upon his inauguration in May last year, President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed "unsparing support" to help North fight against COVID-19. Yoon should make a similar offer of food aid "without preconditions."
Yoon's North Korean "audacious initiative" policy also begins with inter-Korean exchanges between the North's mineral resources and the South's daily necessities, including food.
The U.S. should also realize that further pressuring North Korea will only drive Pyongyang closer to its archrival, China. All peace-loving people will love to see humanitarian exchanges on the inter-Korean border replacing hostile tirades and war games this year.
The Korea Times · March 5, 2023
7. Kim Jong-un's wife and sister 'locked in power struggle'
More speculation. We cannot know what is really happening in the palaces in Pyongyang. But all we can do is speculate.
Kim Jong-un's wife and sister 'locked in power struggle'
MetroUK · by Josh Milton · March 4, 2023
Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, and his sister, Kim Yo-jong, are reportedly toe-to-toe over who will follow in the tyrant’s footsteps (Picture: AP / Reuters)
Kim Jong-un’s wife and sister are quietly locked in a ‘power struggle’ to succeed the North Korean Supreme Leader, analysts have claimed.
The tyrant has ruled for 11 years now – and both his predecessors, his father and grandfather, ruled until they died.
Kim Yo-jong, the dictator’s younger sibling, has had a public presence since 2014, prompting speculation that she could be poised to take the reins.
While for a time, she didn’t exist – let alone have a name other than ‘most beloved daughter’ – but Kim Ju-ae was revealed to the world last November.
North Korean Supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Jue-ae, is poised to take over, analysts say (Picture: PA)
Ri Sol-Ju (L) is a top official in North Korea’s well-oiled propaganda machine (Picture: Reuters)
Jong-un’s daughter making her first public appearance and many more since has sparked speculation she instead could succeed her father, rather than his sister.
Yo-yong, a top official at the Propaganda and Agitation Department, was even cropped out of footage of Jong-Un and his daughter at a recent football match.
Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute said Kim’s daughter suggests a ‘power struggle’ between the leader’s sister and the First Lady, Ri Sol-ju.
Writing in the South Korean magazine Sisa Journal, he said it was like ‘Ri Sol-ju warning Kim Yo-jong, “the succession of power does not go to you, but to our children, so never look at it”.’
Cheong added that this was ‘overly speculative’, however.
But North Korea expert Michael Madden said: ‘It is not as outlandish as previous rumours about North Korea’s core elite.’
He said: ‘The regime has ideological slogans about “single-hearted unity” and we see these people attend public events together like the recent parade.
Jue-ae, believed to be aged between nine and 11, only made her first public appearance in November (Picture: AFP)
Introducing their daughter to the world was a ‘warning’ to Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, that she won’t succeed him (Picture: AP)
‘But it does not necessarily mean they like each other or that they are even cordial in their interactions.
‘Fraught relationships and tension can thrive among a self-selected and isolated group.’
North Korea is not a monarchy – its leaders are voted by the ruling Workers’ Party congress. At least, that’s how it’s meant to go.
Yet the Kims have been running the show since World War Two.
‘One reason that we might be seeing Kim Ju-ae is because her mother feels it necessary to raise the succession claim of one of her children now,’ Madden said.
‘Both Madame Ri and Kim Yo-jong have children who can claim the Paektusan revolutionary lineage of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.’
Jong-un was allegedly picked to be his father’s successor when he was only eight years old.
‘So it would not be premature’ for him to have already picked his daughter, believed to be aged between nine and 11, to follow him, Madden said.
‘As we have seen with the Windsors,’ he added, ‘it will be kept in the family.’
MetroUK · by Josh Milton · March 4, 2023
8. Korea, Japan in 'final stages' of talks over forced labor: National security adviser
Sunday
March 5, 2023
dictionary + A - A
Korea, Japan in 'final stages' of talks over forced labor: National security adviser
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/03/05/national/diplomacy/Korea-Japan-forced-labor/20230305164024477.html
National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han, left, speaks to reporters at Incheon International Airport on Sunday, ahead of a five-day visit to Washington. [YONHAP]
National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han said Sunday that Seoul and Tokyo are in the final stages of negotiations on compensation for forced labor victims, stressing the importance of the future generation in paving a "new era" of bilateral relations.
"I am aware that the negotiations between the diplomatic authorities of Korea and Japan are now in their final stages," Kim told reporters at Incheon International Airport before departing for Washington for a five-day trip. "An official announcement will be made at an appropriate time if such an important measure to open a new era in Korea-Japan relations is established."
His remarks comes amid expectations that Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs will announce the details of an agreement reached between the two countries to settle the issue of compensation for Korean victims of forced labor during World War II.
"The future generation will be most important for Korea-Japan relations to enter a new era," said Kim. "Discussions are under way between our two countries' business circles and various sectors on what role they can play in helping youths and the future generations of Korea and Japan open a new era in bilateral relations and building their potential."
However, he didn't directly respond to a reporter's question on the creation of a joint fund.
The two countries have reportedly come to a tentative agreement to create a so-called "future youth fund" to provide scholarships for students as part of the larger comprehensive agreement to resolve the forced labor issue. The fund is expected to be jointly formed by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), according to several government sources.
In two landmark rulings in 2018, the Korean Supreme Court ordered two Japanese companies — Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — to individually compensate Korean victims of forced labor during World War II. The Japanese companies refused to comply.
Japan's export restrictions on the Korean chip and display industry, starting in July 2019, were widely seen as retaliation against the Supreme Court rulings, contributing to a further deterioration of bilateral ties that are often rocky over historical disputes stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over Korea.
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has been making overtures to mend frayed bilateral ties since taking office in May last year.
The Korean government initially proposed compensating the victims through a government foundation using donations from Korean businesses alongside voluntary contributions from Japanese companies.
However, Japan reportedly refused any compensation, maintaining that that all matters of compensation were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties. Thus, Korean companies like steelmaker Posco that benefited from the 1965 claims settlement agreement between Korea and Japan are expected to contribute to a fund for the compensation of the victims.
It appears that the two sides agreed to a third-party reimbursement method instead through establishing the future youth fund. The two companies are expected to indirectly contribute to the new youth fund through Keidanren membership fees and donations.
In turn, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida could state his government's intent to uphold a joint declaration adopted by President Kim Dae-jung and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi in 1998, according to Japanese media.
The landmark Kim-Obuchi declaration acknowledged the "tremendous damage and suffering to the people of the Republic of Korea through its colonial rule" and expressed his "deep remorse and heartfelt apology."
This could pave way for Yoon to make his first visit to Japan for a summit with Kishida as early as late March.
According to Japanese media reports, the two governments are working toward the lifting of export restrictions on Korea's semiconductor materials and withdrawing of Korea's World Trade Organization (WTO) complaints in line with efforts to resolve the forced labor compensation issue.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday that the Japanese government is planning to lift export restrictions on key materials if the Korean government withdraws its complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the ongoing trade dispute.
"If pending issues are resolved well, this will open the way for a more comprehensive relationship between the two sides," said security chief Kim on Sunday, which in turn will provide opportunities for the development of trilateral cooperation between Korea, Japan and the United States.
Kim also plans to finalize the timing and details of President Yoon Suk Yeol's upcoming visit to Washington during his U.S. trip. This comes amid reports that Yoon could make a state visit to the Washington for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden as early as April, as the two countries mark the 70th anniversary of the Korea-U.S. alliance this year.
"We plan to conclude discussions on the timing and level of the visit during this trip," said Kim.
He said he plans to discuss with his White House counterpart, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and other U.S. foreign and security officials on "how to make the Korea-U.S. alliance a more powerful alliance."
This will also be an opportunity for him to discuss with U.S. officials economic security issues, including the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Chips Act, to seek ways to minimize damage on Korean businesses, and to coordinate over North Korea's nuclear threat.
When asked if he will be discussing the forced labor issue during his Washington trip, Kim replied that it is a bilateral matter between Seoul and Tokyo, but added, "The U.S. side is closely watching the improvement of Korea-Japan relations."
BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
9. Japan, South Korea Near Deal on Forced Labor Dispute
Some good news. I hope there is a deal.
Japan, South Korea Near Deal on Forced Labor Dispute
The U.S. hopes to create a more united front against China and North Korea
https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-south-korea-near-deal-on-forced-labor-dispute-945f2876?page=1
By Alastair GaleFollow
in Tokyo and Dasl YoonFollow
in Seoul
Updated March 5, 2023 7:19 am ET
Japan and South Korea are near an agreement to compensate Koreans forced to work in Japan during World War II, officials said, boosting U.S. efforts to foster cooperation between its allies to counter China and North Korea.
Seoul is set to release a plan as early as Monday for a South Korean fund to pay plaintiffs who have won court cases against Japanese companies over forced labor, the officials said. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol may later visit Tokyo, they said, although they cautioned that the talks aren’t finished and may still break down.
Tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over legacies of Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 have for decades hampered U.S. efforts to create a united front against military and economic challenges from Beijing and Pyongyang.
Washington hopes to bring its allies closer in areas such as sharing military intelligence and protecting intellectual property.
Court cases in South Korea in recent years that threatened to result in the liquidation of assets of Japanese companies involved in the forced-labor cases have exacerbated friction between Seoul and Tokyo.
In January, the South Korean Foreign Ministry proposed a plan to compensate former forced laborers through a foundation funded by South Korean businesses that benefited from a 1965 treaty normalizing diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
As a part of the 1965 agreement, Tokyo paid hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and loans to the South Korean government to resolve compensation-related issues from the colonial period. Most of the money was funneled into national economic projects rather than given to individual Koreans who suffered under the occupation.
The January draft proposal, which was released at a public hearing, met with fierce opposition from some of the victims and their families. They said compensation to resolve the ongoing court cases should come directly from Japan rather than from a South Korea-based foundation, making it uncertain whether the South Korean government’s plan would resolve the issue.
Groups supporting victims held a rally in Seoul on Jan. 31, condemning the South Korean government’s approach. Yang Geum-deok, a 93-year-old woman who worked at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. aircraft factory as a 13-year-old in 1944, attended the rally and called on the Japanese companies to compensate the victims.
“I went to Japan and suffered there, and I should rightly receive the money from Japan,” Ms. Yang said.
While Japan has been firm that its companies won’t directly pay the plaintiffs, talks over a resolution have included discussions of possible contributions by Japanese businesses to South Korean causes, although the nature of those contributions remains under discussion, the officials said.
South Korea’s foreign minister, Park Jin, met the families of victims last week to discuss the compensation issue. During the meeting, some family members criticized the government’s plan. Others refused to meet the minister.
The South Korean and Japanese Foreign Ministries didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Since taking office last year, Mr. Yoon has sought to improve relations with Tokyo and move on from historical disputes. In a speech last week to mark the anniversary of a Korean uprising against Japanese colonial rule in 1919, he struck an unusually conciliatory tone.
“Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us,” Mr. Yoon said.
The speech won praise in Washington and Tokyo but was criticized in South Korea by some civic groups and members of the opposition for not taking on Japan more directly.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea agreed that Tokyo would contribute to a fund to pay Korean women who were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during the colonial period. That deal fell apart a few years later when a new South Korean president said he would close the fund, citing objections from some of the women to the agreement.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has responded to Mr. Yoon’s overtures by resuming talks on the sidelines of international meetings and highlighting the importance of cooperation with Seoul to tackle the threat of North Korean missiles.
Japanese media have speculated the two leaders may attend a game between Japan and South Korea at the World Baseball Classic tournament on March 10 in Tokyo. A South Korean diplomat said scheduling for Mr. Yoon to visit Tokyo was being worked on.
In another sign of a thaw in relations, a South Korean court recently ruled in favor of Japan in a dispute over a Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple and taken to Korea.
Write to Alastair Gale at alastair.gale@wsj.com and Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com
10. They’re Exporting Billions in Arms. Just Not to Ukraine. (Hanwha Aerospace)
Maybe not directly.
South Korea is joining the Arsenal of democracy (I know I sound like a broken record)
Excerpts:
Unlike American allies in Europe that scaled down their militaries and arms production capacities at the end of the Cold War, South Korea has kept a robust domestic defense supply chain to meet demand from its own armed forces and to guard against North Korea.
Since the Russian invasion, arms suppliers like the United States have faced major production shortages for rocket launchers and other arms. Germany and other nations have also struggled to secure enough tanks to send to Ukraine.
Buyers began looking elsewhere.
As countries in Eastern Europe raced to re-equip and upgrade their militaries after sending their Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine, South Korea became an enticing option.
The contracts for Poland’s tanks and howitzers were signed in late August with South Korea’s top defense contractors. It took little more than three months for the first shipment to arrive. Warsaw appreciated the speed.
...
For decades, the country struggled to make its own weapons by reverse-engineering American military hardware. Hanwha, formerly known as Korea Explosives, was making dynamite when the government designated it as a defense contractor in the 1970s to make grenades, land mines and signal flares.
It now makes radar systems, aircraft engines, bomb-disposal robots, unmanned combat vehicles and antiaircraft guns. It also partners with South Korea’s space program.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, Hanwha has set its sights firmly on the global market, with the full support of the South Korean government and military. Mr. Yoon met his Polish counterpart in June to help seal the weapons deals last year. In January, his office announced it had opened a new task force to promote arms exports.
They’re Exporting Billions in Arms. Just Not to Ukraine.
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · March 5, 2023
As traditional weapons suppliers like the U.S. face wartime production shortages, South Korea has stepped in to fill the gap, while trying not to provoke Moscow.
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A K9 howitzer at a test site for Hanwha Aerospace, South Korea’s largest defense contractor.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York Times
By
March 5, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET
CHANGWON, South Korea — A year after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war has spurred a global effort to produce more missiles, tanks, artillery shells and other munitions. And few countries have moved as quickly as South Korea to increase output.
Last year, South Korea’s arms exports rose 140 percent to a record $17.3 billion, including deals worth $12.4 billion to sell tanks, howitzers, fighter jets and multiple rocket launchers to Poland, one of Ukraine’s closest allies.
But as South Korea expands weapons sales globally, it has refused to send lethal assistance to Ukraine itself. Instead, it has focused on filling the world’s rearmament gap while resisting any direct role in arming Ukraine, imposing strict export control rules on all its sales.
South Korea’s wariness stems in part from its reluctance to openly antagonize Moscow, from which it hopes for cooperation in imposing new sanctions against an increasingly belligerent North Korea. Countries throughout Latin America, Israel and others have also declined to send weapons directly to Ukraine.
Yet few nations’ defense industries have boomed as a result of the Russian invasion as much as South Korea’s has. And despite appeals from Kyiv and NATO to send weapons into Ukraine, Seoul has continued to walk a tightrope, balancing between its steadfast alliance with Washington and its own national and economic interests.
President Andrzej Duda of Poland, left, speaking during the acceptance of the first South Korean K2 battle tanks and South Korean K9 howitzers for Poland in December.
Unlike American allies in Europe that scaled down their militaries and arms production capacities at the end of the Cold War, South Korea has kept a robust domestic defense supply chain to meet demand from its own armed forces and to guard against North Korea.
Since the Russian invasion, arms suppliers like the United States have faced major production shortages for rocket launchers and other arms. Germany and other nations have also struggled to secure enough tanks to send to Ukraine.
Buyers began looking elsewhere.
As countries in Eastern Europe raced to re-equip and upgrade their militaries after sending their Soviet-era weapons to Ukraine, South Korea became an enticing option.
The contracts for Poland’s tanks and howitzers were signed in late August with South Korea’s top defense contractors. It took little more than three months for the first shipment to arrive. Warsaw appreciated the speed.
The State of the War
“When a shipment is received, it is said that we have been waiting for this day for a long time,” President Andrzej Duda of Poland said, welcoming the shipment’s arrival at the seaport. “With great satisfaction, I want to emphasize that we did not wait long for this day.”
Workers assembling an armored vehicle at Hanwha Aerospace’s factory in Changwon, South Korea.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York Times
The orders from Poland were a boon to the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who has vowed to make his country the fourth-largest weapons exporter by 2027, after the United States, Russia and France.
From 2017 to 2021, South Korea was the fastest-growing among the world’s top 25 arms exporters, ranking No. 8 with a 2.8 percent share of the global market, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That was before it landed contracts with Poland, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates last year.
Hanwha Aerospace, South Korea’s largest defense contractor, is busier than ever, planning to scale up its production capacity three times by next year.
On a recent afternoon in Changwon, an industrial town on South Korea’s south coast, the country’s best-selling weapon, the K9 self-propelled howitzer, was taking shape amid white-hot sparks and robotic drilling inside a Hanwha plant the size of six football fields.
“We need to add two more assembly lines to meet a growing demand,” said Hanwha engineer Park Sangkyu, referring to orders of K9s from Poland and other nations, as he pointed to empty corners where the new facilities will go. The layout of the giant factory is being adjusted to accommodate them.
Hanhwa Aerospace engineers look on as a support vehicle unloads a multiple-rocket container during a test run at the factory in Changwon.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York Times
Seoul denounced the invasion of Ukraine, and Mr. Yoon has vowed to protect values like “freedom” and the “rules-based” international order. But South Korea’s eagerness to increase arms exports amid the war has also highlighted its difficulties with that balancing act.
President Vladimir Putin has warned South Korea against aiding Ukraine militarily, saying that doing so would ruin relations between Moscow and Seoul and could prompt Russia to deepen military ties with North Korea. The war in Ukraine has already moved North Korea closer to Russia; it openly supported the invasion, and Washington has accused it of shipping artillery shells, rockets and other munitions to Russia.
When Seoul agreed to sell artillery shells to help the United States replenish its stockpiles, it insisted on an explicit export-control condition that the “end user” would be the United States, a rule that it has had in place for all its global arms deals — including its contracts with Poland — for decades.
Nonetheless, some South Korean weapons technology has already made its way to Ukraine: The Polish Krab howitzers that were sent to Ukraine use the chassis from South Korean K9s. (South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration refused to comment on whether the transfer violated export controls.)
“It’s possible for South Korean weapons to end up in Ukraine through other countries,” said Yang Uk, a weapons expert at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “There is doubt how vigorously South Korea would enforce its export controls in such cases.”
When Mr. Yoon and President Biden met in Seoul in May, they agreed to cooperate on the defense industry supply chain. And although South Korea does not make the Soviet-era weapons Ukraine needs most, many of its arms systems are compatible with the NATO weaponry heading to Ukraine.
Son Je Il, president of Hanwha Aerospace, at Hanwha’s office in Seoul. The white stickers on the map indicate the countries to which Hanwha has successfully exported arms.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York Times
Hanwha hopes to share its technologies in artillery and armored vehicles with the United States and help arm NATO with weapons the Americans no longer make or are unable to supply fast enough. “The United States cannot make every weapon,” said Son Je Il, president of Hanwha Aerospace.
“Geopolitics has made it our destiny to nurture a defense industry,” Ms. Son said recently in Hanwha’s Seoul office.
While the United States made high-end weaponry like aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and state-of-the-art aircraft in the rivalry with Russia and China, South Korea has focused on “midlevel weapons like artillery, armored vehicles and tanks, and accumulated competitive technologies there,” he added.
Hanwha has supplied the South Korean military with almost 1,200 K9 howitzers since the late 1990s, as well as hundreds more for India, Turkey, Estonia, Finland and Norway. Hanwha’s K9s accounted for 55 percent of the world’s self-propelled howitzer export market from 2000 to 2021, according to South Korean analysts.
Poland’s huge order will increase that economy of scale. Romania is another NATO nation negotiating to buy South Korean K9s.
President Biden with Mr. Yoon visiting the Air Operations Center at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, in 2022.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
South Korea sweetens its arms export deals by offering to transfer technology and facilitate local production, enhancing the domestic defense industries of its buyers.
Turkey built its main battle tank, Altay, and its T-155 howitzers based on South Korean models. Hanwha is building a factory in Australia to assemble K9s with local suppliers. Most of the South Korean howitzers Poland is buying will be produced in Poland with local partners.
South Korea knows firsthand how powerful such incentives can be.
For decades, the country struggled to make its own weapons by reverse-engineering American military hardware. Hanwha, formerly known as Korea Explosives, was making dynamite when the government designated it as a defense contractor in the 1970s to make grenades, land mines and signal flares.
It now makes radar systems, aircraft engines, bomb-disposal robots, unmanned combat vehicles and antiaircraft guns. It also partners with South Korea’s space program.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, Hanwha has set its sights firmly on the global market, with the full support of the South Korean government and military. Mr. Yoon met his Polish counterpart in June to help seal the weapons deals last year. In January, his office announced it had opened a new task force to promote arms exports.
The New York Times · by Choe Sang-Hun · March 5, 2023
11. Does it pay off to become fluent in Korean?
[Hello Hangeul] Does it pay off to become fluent in Korean?
koreaherald.com · by Jung Min-kyung · March 5, 2023
Mastering a foreign language requires a long-term commitment that can take years. Without the promise of it becoming a valuable asset to your professional or personal life, it can be difficult to stay committed.
What are the rewards for attaining fluency in Korean? Will the time and energy learners put into learning the language pay off in some way other than being able to watch K-dramas without subtitles?
To explore the benefits of learning Korean further, The Korea Herald spoke to four non-Koreans who command a high level of proficiency in the language and who have built a life around it.
For Cao Thi Huong, 30, Korean language skills have been a major plus in terms of job opportunities in her native Vietnam.
“As a newscaster in Vietnam, I started to cover a lot of events hosted by the Korean Culture Center there around 2016. It was becoming difficult for me to attend the events without knowing Korean, which is why I started to learn the language,” Huong told The Korea Herald.
She had to balance her work as a newscaster and her studies, which was grueling at first. But her efforts eventually paid off as it began to pave the way for her career.
“It took me years to become fluent in both writing and speaking. I began to win awards with my Korean skills at Korea-related contests, which helped me win scholarships to study at a university in Korea.”
She is now doubling as a university student in Korea and a corporate interpreter.
“It is extremely easy to get a high paying job in Vietnam if you’re fluent in Korean. On top of it, it’s also a way to do multiple jobs,” she said.
Fluency in Korean also helped UK-born Paul Carver land a job as a public servant under the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2016. As a former head of the Seoul Global Center, Carver was Korea's highest ranking foreign public servant until he quit it in 2021.
"I started off with Hangeul with two semesters at King Sejong Institute Foundation 20 years ago," Carver said via email.
"After that I just learnt by living in Korea. Korean is quite a dynamic language with new words appearing all the time so I expect I'll always be learning."
Carver said even if he was fluent enough to be hired by the city government, it was necessary for him to learn new words and jargon to work there.
"I had to learn new Korean words to be able to answer questions at the city council, communicate with employees and suppliers and write budget reports," he explained.
Mariya, an office worker in Russia, works at a Korean company in Moscow in a position that requires her to use her language skills daily.
“My interest in the Korean language began with my love for Korean dramas,” she said.
“After I visited Korea in 2015, I began to search for ways to learn the language more efficiently. I soon flew to Korea after I found about Sogang University Korean Language Education Center and attended the program for two years.”
She had to return to Russia in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but her freshly acquired skill in Korean kept her busy. A branch of a Korean company in Moscow hired her as a manager and an interpreter.
“I feel great about learning Korean whenever I translate between Russian and Korean. I feel like I’m bringing down the language barrier and keep the business running.”
For Ali Abbot from Britain, the biggest benefit was her having been able to settle down in in Korea without many difficulties.
“Studying Korean has opened so many doors for me. It means that I can live here without too many barriers and function normally and comfortably in everyday life,” she said.
“I have never had trouble living here because learning Korean removed all barriers for me, from ordering food or taking a taxi, to going through visa processes and dealing with government documents. … Because I speak the language, I can communicate with (my husband’s) family easily and really become close with them.”
TOPIK is a must
What Huong, Carver, Mariya and Abbot have in common is their high scores on the state-managed Test of Proficiency in Korean, which measures ability to understand Korean grammar, reading, listening and writing for non-native speakers. Speaking will be added to the test from 2023.
Huong and Mariya both scored the second-highest level -- Level 5 -- on the test, while Abbot clinched the highest Level 6.
Carver said that it was mandatory for foreign applicants to score at least Level 4 on the test to be hired as a public servant by the Seoul government.
Although there is criticism that TOPIK is not a reliable gauge on one’s actual Korean skills, as there are not many alternatives to it, it is strongly advised that learners take the exam and get a high score, particularly if they want to find a job in Korea or Korea-related businesses overseas.
“It’s a solid proof that you can handle the work in Korean,” Mariya explained.
Huong’s new goal is to score Level 6 on the test, as it would “open so many more doors to her career.”
Carver said that the test is a "good way of judging someone's ability, but doesn't think it should be mandatory" if there are more efficient ways of assessing the learners' fluency.
The number of applicants for TOPIK, launched in 1997, has been steadily increasing by an annual 15 percent, the Ministry of Education recently said. It jumped from 290,600 in 2017 to 330,012 in 2021, government data showed.
Native-level fluency is daunting
Because the writing system is pretty easy to pick up for beginners, one may get an impression that Korean is an easy language to learn. But it is quite the opposite, the four interviewees said.
That is also what many linguists say. While there are only 24 letters in the alphabet, its connectors and honorifics give its sentences many variations.
Also, when learners delve deeper for a professional level of Korean, the expansive lexicon composed of Chinese characters often poses a major hurdle for them.
“The hardest part (in learning Korean) for me was structuring what I learned through conversation into formal reading and writing. Because I learnt most of my Korean through casual conversations with friends, I could talk fluently but my writing was still very basic,” said Abbot.
She recommended taking a formal Korean language class, which would help translate the knowledge into a formal, written medium.
The fact that many Korean words had many homonyms was also a major hurdle in becoming an advanced speaker for Huong.
“It’s not an easy language to breach the barrier to become an advanced writer and speaker from a beginner. I was confused with so many homonyms at first,” she said.
“But once you enter the next level, everything is different in terms of the opportunities you get.”
By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)
koreaherald.com · by Jung Min-kyung · March 5, 2023
De Oppresso Liber,
David Maxwell
Vice President, Center for Asia Pacific Strategy
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation
Editor, Small Wars Journal
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
Phone: 202-573-8647
email: david.maxwell161@gmail.com
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