It looks like President Lee has the Japanese leadership bought into his fantasy of denuclearizing North Korea:
President Lee Jae Myung held summit talks Tuesday with outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the southeastern city of Busan, where the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to cooperate amid a shifting global trade order.
The meeting came about a month after Lee’s visit to Tokyo, marking the first visit in 21 years by a Japanese leader to a location other than Seoul.
In their third meeting, Lee said Seoul and Tokyo should face history while pursuing “future-oriented” cooperation to address shared challenges, such as low birth rates and an aging population.
You can read more at the link, but at this point I can’t believe any of these world leaders are stupid enough to actually think Kim Jong-un would give up his nukes. Denuclearization seems more like a talking point than an actual diplomatic strategy at this point.
Here is another front of the purge the Lee administration is trying to do across the South Korean government:
Chief Justice Jo Hee-de denied Wednesday that he had colluded with ex-Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to render President Lee Jae Myung ineligible to run for president, with a guilty verdict that nearly stripped him of his candidacy to run for president in the June election.
The statement, delivered through the Supreme Court, was the first released by the judicial branch since the liberal ruling bloc ramped up pressure for Jo’s resignation.
“The political circles have raised speculations that Jo had met with former Prime Minister Han and discussed ways to handle (Lee’s) case concerning his (violation) of the Public Official Election Act,” read the statement. “But the chief justice has never discussed anything with anyone outside (the court) regarding the criminal case.”
This came amid political pressure urging that Jo resign from the post, labeling the Supreme Court’s 10-2 ruling in May to find Lee, who was then the presidential front-runner, guilty of making false claims with the intention to win the 2022 presidential election. The case was sent back to the high court, but court proceedings were halted after Lee won the June presidential election and was inaugurated.
You can read more at the link.
First of all, North Korea has no reason to begin talks with the South when their financial and military needs are currently being fullfiled by the Russians. Secondly the ROK is asking the Chinese to participate in a fantasy. There is no deal the ROK could make that would convince the Kim regime to give up their nuclear weapons. This is all just political theater:
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Wednesday asked China to play its part to bring North Korea back to dialogue, stressing that South Korea seeks progress toward the North’s denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Cho made the remarks during his first one-on-one talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, as South Korea seeks to restore inter-Korean relations and resume dialogue with Pyongyang, despite the North’s repeated rejection of Seoul’s overtures amid its close alignment with Russia.
You can read more at the link.
It looks like the purge of Korean conservatives is continuing:
Prosecutors on Monday requested prison sentences for nearly a dozen lawmakers affiliated with the predecessor of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) over their alleged involvement in a physical altercation at the National Assembly in 2019.
The Seoul Southern District Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Nov. 20, more than six years after the incident took place.
Prosecutors requested a two-year sentence for Rep. Na Kyung-won of the PPP, who served as the then main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP)’s floor leader at the time.
A 10-month prison term and a fine of 2 million won ($1,440) were sought for Rep. Song Eon-seog, the current PPP floor leader.
Prosecutors also sought a 1 1/2-year prison term for Hwang Kyo-ahn, former leader of the LKP.
In April 2019, the then ruling Democratic Party, in cooperation with minor opposition blocs, including the center-right Bareunmirae Party, sought to fast-track a package of reform bills. Among the key bills was legislation aimed at establishing an independent agency to investigate corruption involving high-ranking government officials.
Members of the LKP fiercely resisted the move, physically attempting to block the legislative process. The conflict escalated when Rep. Chae Yi-bae of the Bareunmirae Party was confined in his office for five hours by LKP members.
Following the incident, rival parties filed a total of 18 complaints against each other, involving charges such as assault, obstruction of business and defamation.
You can read more at the link.
The Lee administration is still playing the victim card over the detainment of the South Korean illegal immmigrants and the State Department is playing right into this narrative:
A senior U.S. state department official on Sunday expressed regrets over the recent mass detention of South Korean workers in America and vowed to prevent similar occurrences.
Christopher Landau, deputy secretary of state, visited Seoul for a meeting with South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo.
According to Seoul’s foreign ministry, Landau conveyed his deep regrets over the detention of hundreds of South Korean workers in an immigration crackdown earlier this month at an electric vehicle battery plant construction site for a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution in Bryan County, Georgia. A total of 316 South Korean workers returned home Friday, after being held in a detention center for a week.
Landau also said U.S. President Donald Trump has a keen interest in the matter and ensured that those who have returned home will not face any disadvantages when reentering the United States. The state department official said Washington would try to ensure there would be no further incidents of a similar nature in the future.
Landau proposed working-level talks on issuing proper visas for South Korean workers in the U.S., citing a need to provide institutional support for South Korean corporations’ investments that contribute to the American economy and manufacturing.
In response, Park touched upon inconveniences that South Korean workers faced while in detention and said the general public in South Korea, in addition to the workers themselves, felt deeply shocked by the crackdown.
According to the ministry, Park also strongly urged the U.S. to take practical steps and implement systematic improvements to ease South Korean people’s concerns.
You can read more at the link, but the message Landau should have matched what U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick recently said that the U.S. wants Korean business, just come in on a proper visa. If you are having problems let us know and we will resolve it. Instead this “regret” wording just feeds into the victim narrative the Lee administration is promoting.
