Category: Korea-General Topics

This is some great advertising for Korea’s defense industry:

As Iranian forces launched retaliatory strikes across the Middle East following Saturday’s U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the United Arab Emirates turned to South Korea’s Cheongung-II surface-to-air missile system to help intercept incoming attacks, according to officials familiar with the matter. 

The system, sold to the UAE in recent years as part of Seoul’s expanding defense exports, has been integrated into the country’s broader air defense network. 

The interception marks the first combat use of a South Korean-made air defense weapon deployed overseas, underscoring the country’s expanding arms exports to the Middle East and offering a rare glimpse of the system’s performance in combat.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If you are looking to exchange dollars into Won now is the time to do it because the strengthening dollar may not last long once the war with Iran is over:

South Korean won briefly slid past the 1,500-per-dollar level on Tuesday, marking its first breach of the psychologically important level since 2009, as the greenback surged in value amid the ongoing U.S.-Israel military operations against Iran.

The won fell to nearly 1,506 won against the dollar at around 12:05 a.m. Wednesday (Seoul time), some 30 minutes after the New York Stock Exchange opened. It later recovered to trade back below the 1,500 mark.

The Korean currency hit 1,500 against the dollar for the first time since March 2009 when the world was reeling from the global financial crisis. 

In March 2009, the Korean won tumbled, approaching the 1,600-won-per-dollar level.

Analysts said that the won’s plunge this week was driven by the dollar’s rally amid fears that the U.S.-Israel operation could escalate into a broader regional war that could last longer than expected.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting Op-Ed in the Korea Times from a retired ROK Army general on what South Korea should learn from the Iran War:

(……..) There are clear parallels between Iran and North Korea. Both rely on missiles, coercive rhetoric and calibrated escalation to compensate for economic and conventional weakness. Both view nuclear capability as regime insurance. Both assume that external actors will ultimately avoid confrontation due to escalation risks.

The difference is that North Korea already possesses nuclear weapons. That reality does not guarantee safety. It merely raises the stakes.

The true stabilizing factor on the Korean Peninsula is not North Korea’s arsenal. It is the alliance structure anchored by South Korea, Japan and the United States. That structure imposes strategic restraint on all sides because any conflict would be immediate, catastrophic and alliance-driven.

But restraint depends on credibility.

Here is the uncomfortable point the Korean public must confront: the U.S.-ROK alliance is not indestructible. It is sustained by political will on both sides. If South Korea signals that the alliance is conditional, negotiable or politically expendable, Washington will not ignore that signal.

Great powers adjust. They always do.

Some in South Korea believe the alliance can be strategically “tested” — that Seoul can publicly distance itself from Washington, question joint exercises, dilute trilateral cooperation with Japan and still assume the American security guarantee remains unchanged. That is a dangerous illusion. (………)

If Washington perceives hesitation in Seoul, it will hedge. Hedging does not require abandonment. It requires adjustment — force posture changes, prioritization shifts, conditional commitments. And once strategic recalibration begins, it is rarely reversed quickly.

The first costs of miscalculation will not fall on Washington. They will fall on Seoul.

Progressives who advocate engagement with North Korea are not wrong to seek reduced tension. Dialogue is necessary. But dialogue that undermines deterrence credibility invites coercion. There is no historical example in which weakening alliance solidarity strengthened negotiating leverage with a nuclear-armed adversary.

Strategic autonomy is often invoked as justification for recalibrating ties with the United States. But autonomy without substitute capability is exposure. China will not defend South Korea against Northern aggression. Japan cannot replace American extended deterrence. An independent nuclear option would impose severe economic and diplomatic penalties on South Korea. (………)

Testing the alliance for domestic political leverage is not strategic sophistication. It is strategic gambling in an increasingly unforgiving environment.

Korea Times

You can read the whole thing at the link.

Once again North Korea is ignoring Lee’s call for talks because they don’t need anything from South Korea. Currently all their needs are being met by the Russians. Whenever the Ukraine war ends and the flow of money from Russia stops that is when you will see the Kim regime open to talks with South Korea in order to start a new revenue stream:

President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table with the United States and join efforts to shape what he called a “new future,” vowing to work with relevant countries to turn the Korean War armistice into a peace regime.

Lee made the remarks in his first address marking the March 1 Independence Movement at the COEX exhibition center in southern Seoul as the nation commemorated the 107th anniversary of the nation’s 1919 independence movement, a watershed event during Japan’s 1910-45 brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

“Since North Korea is formulating and implementing a new five-year plan, I hope that it will swiftly return to the negotiating table and join us in shaping a new future,” Lee said, stressing that “hostility and confrontation serve neither side’s interests.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Noted professor of Korean affairs, Andrei Lankov was arrested in Latvia recently. I have read many of Lankov’s books and articles over the years on North Korea. He is very well informed and provides interesting insights on North Korea. However, it appears his Russian citizenship has some how caused him to get arrested in Latvia:

A Russian professor specializing in Korean studies and teaching at a South Korean university, Andrey Lankov, has been detained by police in Latvia, where he was giving a lecture on North Korea, Russian media has reported.

Professor Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul was detained in Latvia and was added to the Latvian authorities’ “blacklist,” Russian news outlet RBC reported Wednesday (Russian time), citing an interview with the professor.

“Andrey Nikolaevich is safe and awaiting the arrival of his lawyer. The Australian consul has been notified of the situation,” RBC quoted the lecture organizers as saying. The professor is reported to hold both Russian and Australian citizenship.

Citing a local Latvian report, the news outlet also said the professor was taken away by Latvian police officers during a lecture in Riga. The lecture, titled “North Korea: What the Leaders Want and Fear,” was supposed to focus on North Korea, it said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

From everything I have been reading the Japanese are actually happy about the reduction in Chinse tourists and the Koreans seem to be happy to have them, so a win-win for everyone:

Tang and his family were among the influx of Chinese tourists who visited Korea during the holiday period, which began on Feb. 15 and ended on Monday.

Beijing and Tokyo have been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute since November, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that Tokyo could respond militarily to a potential attack on Taiwan. In response, Beijing has advised citizens to avoid traveling to Japan.

Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism estimated that up to 190,000 Chinese tourists visited the country during the nine-day holiday period. The daily average was 44 percent higher than during last year’s holiday window, which ran from Jan. 24 to 29.

The fresh wave of Chinese tourists brought rare optimism to Korea’s retail and tourism sectors, which have been dampened by a consumption slowdown.

In the weeks leading up to the holiday, retailers and tourism operators rolled out intensive marketing campaigns tailored to Chinese tourists, including discounts and gift vouchers linked to Chinese payment platforms such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Chinese tourists have traditionally been big spenders, according to Korean tourism industry officials. The most recent government data shows that the average spending per Chinese visitor to Korea reached $1,622 in 2024, compared with the overall foreign visitor average of $1,372.

Even the Korean government has been pulling out all the stops to encourage more spending by Chinese group tourists. On Feb. 15, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Chae Hwi-young visited Myeong-dong, one of Seoul’s main shopping and tourism districts, to inspect facilities for foreign visitors, and called for efforts to foster a more welcoming atmosphere.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I can understand taxing someone someone owning multiple homes if they are not renting out the properties and letting it sit vacant waiting for the price to rise. If the property is rented out then the owner is not contributing to the housing issue:

President Lee Jae Myung said Monday that “unfair privileges” granted to owners of multiple homes should be scrapped and that greater burdens should be imposed on them, reaffirming his commitment to rein in the overheated real estate market.

Lee signaled a tougher stance on such homeowners in his latest social media message on housing, saying the negative effects of holding multiple homes outweigh the positives.

“The government should reclaim unfair privileges in taxation, finance and regulation granted to owners of multiple homes and make them bear a certain level of responsibility and burden in relation to social problems, as this is consistent with fairness and common sense,” Lee wrote on social media platform X.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Back in the day when I was growing up we called two friends living together roommates, not molecular families:

Last year, South Korea surpassed 8 million single-person households for the first time.

According to data released in December by the Ministry of Data and Statistics, 8.045 million households were made up of just one person, up from 7.166 million in 2021, bringing the share of solo households to 36.1 percent, the highest level on record. The proportion has climbed steadily, crossing 30 percent in 2019 and 35 percent in 2023, with Seoul posting the largest concentration of people living alone.

As the country’s single-person households reach record levels, “Two Women Living Together” arrives as both an intimate memoir and a subtle social argument about how people might live and care for one another outside the institution of marriage.

Co-written by Kim Ha-na and Hwang Sun-woo, two friends who decided in their 40s to buy a home together rather than marry, the book chronicles their decision to grow old together under one roof.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but this article truly demonstrates why South Korea has one of the world’s lowest birthrates.