Topic
Korea had been a single political entity governing the Korean Peninsula up until the end of World War II, when the Soviet Union and United States each occupied the northern and southern halves respectively. The division led to the founding of today’s North Korea and South Korea. Tensions between the two countries remain high as both want to bring a unified peninsula under its own rule. A heavy military presence is still stationed at the border which runs along the 38th parallel.
- North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile, hours after Kim Jong-un’s sister blasted as ‘fiction’ accusations’ her nation was exporting weapons to Russia
- Friday’s missile launches come at the same time as a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Chinese northeastern city of Harbin
For the first time in nearly two years, the foreign ministers of China and South Korea have held talks in the shadow of closer Seoul-Washington ties.
Namhansanseong, a Unesco World Heritage site in South Korea, is an impressive yet little-known fortress built as an emergency capital city should Manchu forces invade Seoul.
Pyongyang on Monday warned the UK, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia to immediately stop their ‘blatant military intervention’ under the pretext of monitoring UN sanctions violations.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will travel to Beijing to meet Chinese counterpart Wang Yi just weeks before the East Asian neighbours are expected to join Japan at first three-way leaders’ summit since 2019.
Analysts see the move as part of a wider bid by ruler Kim Jong-un to consolidate power and to reduce a cult of personality around his father and grandfather.
Kim Ki-nam helped forge a cult of personality around the Kim dynasty, serving every one of the country’s three leaders since its founding. He has died at the age of 94.
Hopes were high that President Yoon Suk-yeol’s first-ever meeting with the opposition chief might bring some measure of stability, but the encounter only underscored the country’s political gridlock.
Analysts say the sudden two-tier rise of the warning despite no major events in progress for Seoul could signal precautions against a retaliation over a row on defected diplomats.
With wars raging in Ukraine, the Middle East, an emboldened North Korea, and the coming US presidential election, it is prudent Seoul not get involved in a potential Taiwan crisis, one expert said.
The move is in line with Pyongyang’s efforts to attract Iran to an alliance against the US and boost cooperation for mutual benefit, analyst notes.
Koo Jeong-a, who was photographed for Loewe’s autumn/winter 2023 campaign and is the artist behind South Korea’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale, talks about the process behind her ‘Odorama Cities’.
Events used to lionise Kim’s grandfather and father have been reduced, a move that could put the focus on Kim’s own achievements and policies instead.
He’s the first-ever South Korean president left to contend with a hostile parliament for his entire five-year term, but embattled conservative Yoon insists his administration is moving in the ‘right direction’.
Zhao is the most senior Chinese official to visit Pyongyang since the country reopened its borders last year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic
Kim inspected a military university, telling staff and students that ‘now is the time to be more thoroughly prepared for a war than ever before’.
Chinese foreign ministry says China does not compete with other nations in military power and ‘firmly pursues a defensive national defence policy’.
The Democratic Party’s Kim Jun-hyeok claims Ewha Womans University’s first president helped send ‘comfort women’ to Japan and forced students to provide sexual favours to US soldiers.
Read on for a closer look at the potential conflict scenarios, after two prominent analysts set North Korea watchers’ tongues wagging by warning Kim ‘has made a strategic decision to go to war’.
The launch was overseen by Kim Jong-un, who said the weapon showed the ‘absolute superiority’ of Pyongyang’s defence technology.
The unprecedented absence of first lady Kim Keon-hee, who has not appeared in public since December 15, is seen by analysts as a political decision to shield President Yoon’s party from any negative comment.
South Korea’s foreign ministry says it is investigating Ambassador Chung Jae-ho, who has denied allegations of both bullying and mistreating embassy staff.
Yoon risks being unable to carry out labour, pension, and education reforms if he were to lose next month’s parliamentary elections.
Conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol looks set to maintain a hardline stance on Beijing despite the expected victory of ‘submissive’ liberals in next month’s parliamentary elections.
Showing North Korean soldiers gazing across an icy river towards China and occasionally descending from looming watchtowers to prowl border paths, the photos present a unique look into life in one of the world’s most secretive communist states.
