More conservative leaders in Seoul are joining the hitherto fringe club of politicians calling for South Korea to get its own nuclear weapons to counter growing North Korean and other security threats facing the country. The recurring debate, which used to take place on the peripheries of South Korean politics, is gaining traction this time in the wake of the high-profile meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In a summit in Pyongyang last month, Putin s

Politics July 4, 2024

Cybersecurity compliance should be made mandatory for constitutional institutions like governmental agencies in South Korea, lawmakers and experts said Wednesday. At a National Assembly forum held on the day, ruling People Power Party Rep. Park Choong-kwon said constitutional institutions should be required to observe security practices in light of the recent North Korean cyberattacks against South Korean courts. According to findings by the Korean National Police Agency in May, hackers for Nort

Politics July 3, 2024

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea on Tuesday motioned a set of bills to impeach a high-level Yoon Suk Yeol government official and four prosecutors who investigated cases affecting party figures, including former party Chair Rep. Lee Jae-myung. The Democratic Party, which holds the majority of seats in the Assembly, put the impeachment bills to the floor without the ruling People Power Party’s support. The series of impeachments pushed by the Democratic Party leads to impeachin

Politics July 2, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin signing a defense treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has South Korea rethinking its stance on arming Ukraine. Through nearly 2 1/2 years of Russia’s grinding war in Ukraine, Seoul has not strayed from its policy of “nonlethal aid only” to Kyiv over two administrations, both liberal and conservative. That may change now that Putin has committed to fight on Kim’s side in the event of an invasion under the new military pact signed du

Politics July 1, 2024

For the first time since the beginning of the Moon Jae-in administration in August 2017, South Korea’s Marine Corps on Wednesday conducted live-fire drills from islands south of the sea border with the North. The full-scale live-fire drills came after South Korea suspended the 2018 inter-Korean pact for reducing front-line tensions, which had been reached as part of Moon's North Korea appeasement policy. Following an attempted launch of another military reconnaissance satellite by Nor

Defense June 26, 2024

North Korea floated balloons filled with trash toward the South for the fifth time late Monday, on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the Korean War, which was June 25, 1950. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that as of Tuesday morning more than 350 trash balloons from North Korea had been identified, the majority of which fell in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital city. So far, this latest batch of balloons appeared to contain mostly waste paper that was de

Politics June 25, 2024

South Korea’s defense chief Shin Won-sik said Monday he will make efforts to secure orders for tanks, armored vehicles and air defense systems from Romania, which has decided to purchase the K-9 self-propelled howitzers. The minister of national defense, who returned from a trip to Romania and Poland, told reporters at the defense ministry building in Yongsan, central Seoul, that he would try to get South Korean companies to enter the Romanian defense market. He said Romania was in the pro

Defense June 24, 2024

Kang Jung-ai, South Korea’s minister of patriots and veterans affairs, says building a culture of remembering and honoring the people who fought for Koreans and their freedom is “what our country needs.” “Honoring veterans goes far beyond giving them compensation and benefits. Thanking and respecting the people who served our country should be a part of our national identity and treasured value,” she said in an interview with The Korea Herald on Friday. “Yes,

Politics June 24, 2024

GWANGJU, Gyeonggi Province -- Six commandos parachuted from a Black Hawk helicopter at around 1,500 meters, gliding toward the designated target on the ground for a demonstration of airborne infiltration techniques Thursday morning. The commandos of the South Korean Army’s 707th special mission group, dedicated to countering terrorist threats, showcased operations responding to simulated scenarios at the National Counterterrorism Training Center in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. In one demons

Defense June 23, 2024

North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line that divides the Koreas on Thursday, according to the South Korean military. The soldiers retreated to their side of the border after the South fired warning shots. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday that “several North Korean soldiers crossed the border into our side of the Demilitarized Zone” at around 11 a.m. Thursday. According to the JCS, the North Korean soldiers made it about 20 meters south of the

Defense June 21, 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appeared solemn in the early hours Wednesday as he stood solo on the red carpet laid out at the airport in Pyongyang for the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was making his first visit to the country in 24 years. Putin, who is in the habit of arriving fashionably late to meetings with world leaders, touched down in Pyongyang some three hours later than planned, at well past 2 a.m. After landing at the Pyongyang airport, the Russian president joined

Foreign Affairs June 19, 2024

North Korean soldiers have been injured and killed in landmine explosions on their side of the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean military said Tuesday. “The North Korean military is pushing ahead with the DMZ operations despite a series of fatal explosions of landmines,” an official at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters. The JCS said its closed-circuit TV captured smoke near the sites where the landmines are believed to have

Defense June 18, 2024

A research center dedicated to Israeli studies opened Tuesday under the Seoul National University, becoming the first such academic institution in South Korea. Amb. Akiva Tor, Israeli envoy to South Korea, said in an opening ceremony on this day that the center’s launch “marks an auspicious beginning.” Israel Education Research Center will be “the first academic center in Korean higher education dedicated to the study of Jewish civilization and Israeli society,” he

Politics June 18, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s impending trip to North Korea, which Seoul authorities say could happen any moment, reflects a mutual interest in building a closer bond for the two countries facing self-inflicted isolation from the West, experts say. The last time Putin was in Pyongyang in 2000, he was stopping by on his way to the summit of the Group of Eight or G8 in Japan, long before Russia was suspended indefinitely from the group of leading industrialized countries over the annexa

Politics June 16, 2024

Han Dong-hoon, who led the ruling People Power Party through the April election for the National Assembly, is rumored to be entering the race to be the next leader of the party, according to reports Thursday. Han, who was justice minister until December and was considered to be a close ally of President Yoon Suk Yeol, helmed the ruling party as an interim leader for the final three months of the Assembly election season. He stepped down to take responsibility for the ruling party’s crushin

Politics June 13, 2024