Tag: South Korea

China is using all manner of Chinese nationals in South Korea to spy on ROK military facilities:

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported 11 incidents of unauthorized filming of military facilities in Korea by Chinese nationals since June of last year, according to lawmakers Wednesday.

The revelation came during a closed-door meeting between the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee and the NIS, according to Rep. Lee Seong-kweun of the People Power Party and Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the Democratic Party of Korea.

On June 25, 2024, three Chinese nationals were caught flying a drone toward the Naval Operations Command in the southern port city of Busan, taking photos of an aircraft carrier docked at the base.

The NIS noted that these 11 cases of unauthorized filming were primarily carried out by temporary visitors, such as tourists and international students from China, including minors.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing to think it has been 16 years since South Korea conducted a nuclear power project. This really should be a growth industry for them considering their expertise, but domestic politics has held back this industry. Pushing for nuclear power projects is one good thing the impeached President Yoon did do while in office:

South Korea has won a multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic, its first overseas nuclear power plant project in 16 years, according to a news report and officials on Wednesday.

A South Korean consortium, led by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co. (KHNP), will sign a final agreement on the project with the Czech Republic’s Elektrarna Dukovany II (EDU II) next Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing the Czech government.

The South Korean government immediately welcomed the Czech government’s announcement. 

“The two countries are discussing the details of the planned contract signing ceremony,” the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release.

The deal, estimated to be worth 26 trillion won (US$18.2 billion), marks South Korea’s first overseas nuclear power plant project win since 2009, when the KHNP won the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant contract in the United Arab Emirates.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If these POWs do in fact defect to South Korea their families back in North Korea will likely face punishment by being sent to labor camps:

The government said Seoul has not changed its position regarding accepting to the nation, North Korean soldiers held captive by the Ukrainian military in the Russia-Ukraine war should they wish to defect to South Korea.

An official at Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the North Korean captives are considered prisoners of war, regardless of Pyongyang’s acknowledgement of their deployment.

The official added that in accordance with the 1949 Geneva Conventions, they must not be repatriated against their will to their home country, where they could face persecution.

KBS Global

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see if this trip to Korea by Trump Jr. will lead to any breakthroughs in trade negotiations with the U.S.:

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of US President Donald Trump, arrived in Seoul on Tuesday for a meeting with around 20 business leaders from South Korean conglomerates, industry sources said.

The two-day trip by Trump Jr., his first to South Korea since his father’s inauguration in January, comes at the invitation of Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin.

Per sources, Trump Jr. arrived at Gimpo International Airport, western Seoul, in his private jet at around 6:25 p.m. Tuesday. It had been scheduled to touch down at 4:45 p.m. but there had been a slight delay before the departure.

Wearing a black cap and a long-sleeve shirt, Trump Jr. left the airport without speaking to the dozens of waiting South Korean reporters.

South Korean business circles asked Chung to facilitate Trump Jr.’s visit as a way to establish contact with the Trump administration, according to the sources.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Not that there was ever any doubt, but Lee Mae-myung is the official Democratic Party candidate now for the Korean Presidential election scheduled for June 3rd:

Former Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, who has made economic recovery and talks with North Korea his top priority, won the party’s presidential nomination Sunday and solidified his stance as front-runner for the June 3 presidential election.

Lee, a human rights lawyer-turned-politician, won 89.77 percent of all votes cast in the party’s primary, becoming the party’s formal presidential candidate for the second time, after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over his failed martial law bid. 

This marks the highest figure ever recorded in a presidential primary among DP-affiliated candidates since South Korea achieved its full-fledged democracy in 1987.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

That would be pretty impressive if South Korea becomes one of the first countries to secure and trade deal with the Trump administration. With that said what will be interesting is if it stays in effect when a new President takes over Korea:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described high-level trade talks with South Korea in Washington on Thursday as “very successful,” noting that Seoul came with its “A-game” and anticipating that the allies will discuss “technical terms” as early as next week.

Bessent made the remarks in an interview with CNN, after he and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer met with Seoul’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun for their “two-plus-two” trade consultations at the Department of the Treasury.

“We had a very successful bilateral meeting with the Republic of Korea today. We may be moving faster than I thought,” Bessent said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

“We will be talking (about) technical terms as early as next week as we reach that agreement on understanding as soon as next week. So the South Koreans came early. They came with their A game, and we will see if they follow through on that,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

From the U.S. perspective it makes sense to have the flexibility to redeploy troops from Korea to assist with a Taiwan contingency. However, this Op-Ed in the Korea Times is against because of some hypothetical possibility of Japanese troops on Korea soil:

Japan’s recent articulation of a “One Theater” doctrine — encompassing the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula — marks a troubling shift in strategic thinking that risks destabilizing Northeast Asia. Proposed by Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and seemingly welcomed by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, this doctrine is being presented as a pragmatic response to a volatile regional security environment. In reality, it threatens to undermine national sovereignty, disrupt the delicate geopolitical balance of the Indo-Pacific and draw democratic allies into conflicts not of their choosing.

At its core, the “one battlefield” concept posits that regional flashpoints — such as Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula and the East China Sea — are so interconnected that they must be treated as a unified operational theater. While this might serve military planning purposes, it dangerously flattens political nuance in favor of operational efficiency. It treats sovereign nations not as independent actors with unique security needs, but as interchangeable assets within a broader strategic front defined by Japan and, potentially, the United States.

Of particular concern is the implication that, under this doctrine, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) could be redeployed from the Korean Peninsula to support operations in the event of a Taiwan contingency. Such a move would not only risk undermining deterrence on the peninsula — where a fragile armistice holds between South and North Korea — but also compromise South Korea’s core defense posture. The Korean Peninsula is not a backwater theater; it is a primary front involving a nuclear-armed adversary. To subordinate Korean security to cross-strait dynamics is both strategically unsound and politically inflammatory.

Historical memory further complicates this issue. Any framework that implicitly or explicitly involves Japanese military activity on or near the Korean Peninsula is politically incendiary. The legacy of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea continues to cast a long shadow over bilateral relations. For many South Koreans across the political spectrum, the idea of Japanese boots on or near Korean soil — however hypothetical — remains an emotional and constitutional red line. Even under the banner of collective defense, such a scenario would provoke fierce domestic backlash and could fracture regional unity.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but it almost sounds like this author rather have North Korean and Chinese Soldiers on ROK territory instead of Japanese. With that said I cannot think of a scenario where Japanese troops would be needed on Korean soil. Japan’s geography makes it an important location to deploy U.S. aircraft, ships, and supplies from for either a Taiwan or North Korea contingency. They Japanese military will not be needed to deploy troops to Korea.

This author is really using the deployment of Japanese troops to Korea as a red herring to obscure the author’s real concern which is the flexibility of the U.S. to deploy troops from Korea for a Taiwan contingency.

I wonder how long it will be before the Chinese claim the entire Yellow Sea as their territory like they have done with the South China Sea?:

South Korea is considering setting up a necessary facility in the overlapping waters with China in the Yellow Sea as a countermeasure to the latter’s recent installation of a steel structure in the area, Seoul’s oceans minister said Monday.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is discussing the matter with the financial authorities, Oceans Minister Kang Do-hyung said in a press briefing, noting the government first has to decide “what kind of facility is necessary at which level.”

“Regarding the proportional measure, we are taking this matter very seriously from the perspective of protecting our maritime territory,” he said. 

In February, the two countries faced a two-hour standoff as Chinese authorities blocked Seoul’s attempt to investigate Beijing’s construction of a steel structure in the Provisional Maritime Zone (PMZ) near Ieo Island, off South Korea’s southwest coast.

The PMZ is an area where the Exclusive Economic Zones of South Korea and China overlap. The two sides can only operate fishing vessels there and jointly manage marine resources, as any activities beyond navigation and fishing are prohibited in the area.

Despite the agreement, China has installed several large steel structures in the zone in recent years, saying they are for aqua farming.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.