Author: GIKorea

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine opinions from experts in Germany I find to be very suspect:

Angela Kane, vice president of the International Institute for Peace (IIP) in Vienna and former U.N. under-secretary-general for management and high representative for disarmament, presented a view about the evolving geopolitical landscape in East Asia that is very different from others. 

Refuting the popular belief that a new Cold War-like confrontation between two sides ― South Korea, the United States and Japan on one side and China, Russia and North Korea on the other ― has been in the making after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, Kane claims China won’t be tempted to make an enemy of the United States or any other countries. 

Like other countries, she said, China is driven by trade interests and will refrain from doing anything that may hurt its economic gains in foreign markets. 

The German expert visited Korea to join the 2022 DMZ Forum held last Friday in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Moon Chung-in, chairman of Sejong Institute think tank, moderated the session in which Kane participated. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the economic ties that Russia had with Germany and the rest of Europe did not stop it from invading Ukraine. Likewise economic ties are not going to stop China from invading Taiwan once they have the ability to military do so and feel the diplomatic and economic consequences of an invasion can be effectively endured.

The ties to the Unification Church to the Japanese LDP political party has really struck a negative chord with the Japanese people and this is just another example of it:

A man set himself on fire near the Japanese prime minister’s office in Tokyo on Wednesday in an apparent protest against the state funeral planned next week for former leader Shinzo Abe, officials and media reports said.

The man, believed to be in his 70s, sustained burns on large parts of his body but was conscious and told police that he set himself on fire after pouring oil over himself, Kyodo News agency reported.

A note was found with him that said, “Personally, I am absolutely against” Abe’s funeral, Kyodo reported. (……..)

The planned state funeral for Abe has become increasingly unpopular among Japanese as more details emerge about the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s and Abe’s links to the Unification Church, which built close ties with party lawmakers over their shared interests in conservative causes.

The suspect in Abe’s assassination reportedly believed his mother’s large donations to the church ruined his family. The LDP has said nearly half its lawmakers have ties to the church, but party officials have denied ties between the party as an organization and the church.

NPR

You can read more at the link.

I am not sure what rights Korean residents are deprived of in the U.S., but President Yoon says he is concerned about this:

 President Yoon Suk-yeol met with Korean residents in New York on Tuesday and promised to ask the U.S. government to ensure their rights and safety.

The banquet, which was held as part of Yoon’s visit to the city to attend the U.N. General Assembly, brought together some 170 Korean residents, including the head of the Korean American Association of Greater New York and business owners.

Yoon said he is proud of their achievements and grateful for their love for their fatherland.

“Our government will do our best so that overseas Koreans can enjoy their proper rights in U.S. society and develop further,” he said during the dinner, where he was joined by first lady Kim Keon-hee.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This might end up being an interesting documentary to check out:

The upcoming documentary film “The 2nd Repatriation,” directed by Kim Dong-won, focuses on the voices of the 46 people who have demanded the Seoul government let them return to their communist homeland for more than 20 years.

The film is a follow-up to the director’s 2004 documentary “Repatriation” about the 63 “unconverted” North Koreans who went back home in 2000.

“The 2nd Repatriation” revolves around Kim Young-shik, one of the remaining North Korean communists living in South Korea. He was sent to the South in 1962, arrested soon afterward and served 27 years in prison. The 90-year-old claimed he was physically and psychologically tortured to convert his ideology and subsequently excluded from the 2000 repatriation. 

It took nearly 20 years to complete the film, as Seoul-Pyongyang relations have experienced ups and downs over the cited period, while Kim Young-shik and other former North Korean spies have still not been permitted to go back home. 

“After I made the 2004 film, I thought the second repatriation would come soon. So I started filming their stories,” the director said Tuesday in a press conference after a media screening of the 156-minute film. “But their return has been delayed for about 20 years, and I’ve been working on it for the longer-than-expected period.”

Out of the 46 people still seeking to be repatriated, nine people remain alive, and they are 91 years old on average. So far, only one of them was sent to the North after dying of an illness in Seoul in 2005.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If this communication was about re-starting talks about denuclearization the Kim regime has made it pretty clear they have no interest in such talks:

The United States made yet another dialogue offer to North Korea this summer through a communication channel in New York, but the North has not responded, Washington’s top nuclear envoy said Tuesday.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said that the overture was made through the so-called New York channel, involving the North’s diplomatic mission at the U.N., in July, as he highlighted the Joe Biden administration’s continued commitment to reengage with Pyongyang.

“I believe our last communication with the DPRK was during the summer. We sent the message reiterating our interest in re-engagement and also re-offering our assistance in COVID-related items,” Kim said in a meeting with reporters in Seoul, referring to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But I say ‘no interest’ (from the North) in the sense that they have not responded to any of our messages.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the THAAD issue between China and South Korea:

China’s top legislator made an unprecedented visit to Seoul last week, where they confirmed their differences on South Korea’s deployment of the US-made missile defense system that Beijing opposes.

Li Zhanshu, Beijing’s third-highest-ranking official and chief of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, made an unprecedented two-day trip to Seoul from Thursday, as South Korea has embarked on work to normalize operations of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system.

Paying a courtesy visit to South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and also meeting with top officials including his Korean counterpart Kim Jin-pyo, the National Assembly speaker, Li discussed a range of topics, including the operation of THAAD.

When Li visited on Friday, Yoon told Li that South Korea and China must “closely communicate” so that THAAD does not become a “hurdle” to bilateral relations.

Li also agreed on the need for improvement in communication to address the “sensitive” issue, implicitly referring to the THAAD issue. (…….)

Over Li’s visit to Seoul and his meeting with Yoon, China’s state-operated English news outlet Global Times cited analysts to report that Seoul appears to have “received and better understood Beijing’s position on some sensitive issues, and that following the US is not completely in South Korea’s national interests.”

In the meeting with Li, Yoon also delivered his invitation for Chinese President Xi Jinping to Seoul, saying that Xi’s visit would be an “important sign” that opens the door to the next 30 years of their bilateral relationship.

South Korea and China celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations this year.

With the ongoing THAAD issue, however, it is highly unlikely for Xi to visit Korea anytime soon, unless there is a clear benefit for China to gain, Kang Jun-young, a Chinese studies professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, told The Korea Herald.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the Chinese hypocrisy over THAAD continues to be so obvious. They continue to be against the THAAD system in the ROK because they claim it is against Chinese security interests while completely ignoring ROK security interests.  If it wasn’t for the Chinese backing of their client state North Korea that has allowed them to pursue missiles and nuclear weapons to threaten the ROK, the deployment of THAAD to South Korea would not be necessary in the first place.