ROK and Inter-Korean relations
February 2020
Return to Asian Geopolitics indexpage
Return to ROK and Inter-Korean relations page
-
S.Korea Boosts Defenses Around Seoul
February 20, 2020 12:49
South Korea has boosted the defenses of the capital area.
The Chosun Ilbo on Wednesday captured photos of four Patriot missile launchers on Mt. Bukak near Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul.
Patriot missile launchers are seen on Mt. Bukak at the back of Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, in this photo taken on Wednesday.
The military has also recently deployed an artillery unit on the mountain as part of efforts to protect major facilities in the capital against the North Korean ballistic missile threat.
[Patriot] [Raytheon] [Arms sales] [US Dominance]
-
Filmmaker makes documentary about Vietnam War civilian massacres
Posted on : Feb.18,2020 18:13 KST Modified on : Feb.18,2020 18:13 KST
Lee-Kil Bo-ra traveled through Vietnam to focus on victims’ accounts
Filmmaker Lee-Kil Bo-ra, director of the documentary “A War of Memories,” which deals with civilian massacres during the Vietnam War. (Kim Hye-yun, staff photographer)
She was a model student, ranked first in her class with multiple plaques and commendations -- yet after her first year of high school, she abruptly dropped out. She wanted to see a bigger world, one that wasn’t taught about in schools. Scraping up her own travel funds, she spent eight months traveling to eight different Asian countries, including India, Nepal, Tibet, and Vietnam. Upon her return, she captured the experience in the short documentary “Roadschooler” (2008) and the book “The Road Is School” (2009).
She told her grandfather that she’d been to Vietnam. Her grandfather, a Vietnam veteran who takes pride in his medal, asked her where she had gone. “I went to Da Nang,” she replied. But the conversation stopped there. The grandfather went silent, as though recalling something. A few years later, he passed away from cancer caused by complications from defoliant exposure in the Vietnam War.
After studying film at the Korean National University of Arts, she made an autobiographical documentary. Born a hearing child to hearing-impaired parents, she had learned sign language before she learned to speak.
[Vietnam war] [Massacres]
-
Korean pilgrims confer at WCC on a 1,000-day pilgrimage for peace on Korean Peninsula
30 January 2020
On day 847 of a 1,000-day pilgrimage for peace on the Korean Peninsula, the Bargn Nuri Community stopped at the World Council of Churches (WCC) for a Life and Peace Conference.
“To open the door to a new civilization of life and peace, it is necessary to resolve the wounds and sorrows caused by the age of violence,” said Chelho Choi, founder of the Bargn Nuri Community from South Korea in a speech.
The conference was titled “A New Era for Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and Beyond” and was organized by the WCC and the Bargn Nuri (Bright World) community to discuss peace, Korean unity and a nuclear-free life.
[WCC]
-
Park Chung-hee Assassination Film Proves Box Office Gold
english.chosun.com
January 28, 2020 13:05
Actor Lee Byung-hun's latest film "The Man Standing Next" has attracted more than 3 million moviegoers.
According to the Korean Film Council, the film topped the box office over the Lunar New Year holiday with some 621,397 people watching the film on Monday alone.
The film is based on the assassination of strongman Park Chung-hee by his own intelligence chief after a heavy drinking session in 1979.
It imagines a 40-day power struggle among spy agency chiefs to suggest the mysterious motives behind the killing.
Ticket sales were given a boost by boy band Bangtan Boys, also known as BTS, who watched a special screening of the film in Los Angeles, where they were attending the Grammy Awards.
[Park Chung-hee] [Assassination]
-
Inter-Korean Liaison Office Closes Amid Coronavirus Fears
By Kim Myong-song
January 31, 2020 12:38
The inter-Korean liaison office in the border city of Kaesong was closed at North Korea's request on Thursday amid coronavirus fears. The North earlier closed its border with China because it lacks any other way of dealing with a potential coronavirus outbreak.
The closure shuts the sole remaining window of communication between the two Koreas, though in reality no meetings had taken place since the second U.S.-North Korea summit broke down in Hanoi in February last year while staff from the two sides twiddled their thumbs.
The liaison office opened in September 2018.
Vehicles carrying South Korean staff and office equipment from the inter-Korean liaison office pass through the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province on Thursday. /Yonhap
Unification Ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min said that the two sides agreed to suspend operations until coronavirus fears have been completely dispelled. But he claimed they agreed "to maintain liaison through separate telephone and fax lines between Seoul and Pyongyang."
The entire South Korean staff of 17 ranking officials and 41 support personnel hastily packed up and left for Seoul on Thursday afternoon.
The North is forgoing vital earnings from tourism and trade for fear of the virus getting into the country. This will deal a hard blow to an economy that is almost completely dependent on China, which takes up more than 90 percent of its foreign trade.
Cho Han-bum at the Korea Institute for National Unification sad the regime is afraid that "it would be impossible to prevent unrest if the epidemic spreads."
A doctor gives instructions for preventing the spread of coronavirus in Pyongyang, in this grab from [North] Korean Central Television on Thursday.
The regime's dilemma is that a deteriorating economy could be just as bad or worse for morale if it keeps its borders closed for any length of time.
Some officials believe there could be renewed contact between the two Koreas if coronavirus reaches the North because it could need Seoul's help. But so far there has been no request to assist with quarantine efforts, and North Korea rebuffed earlier offers from South Korea to help contain a swine fever outbreak.
[Kaesong] [Coronavirus]
-
1,047 North Korean defectors arrive in South Korea last year, lowest in 18 years
Posted : 2020-01-27 10:34
Updated : 2020-01-27 16:07
In this Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, claps with his wife Ri Sol-ju, third from right, and his aunt Kim Kyong-hui, second from right, as they attend a concert celebrating Lunar New Year's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea. AP
In this Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, claps with his wife Ri Sol-ju, third from right, and his aunt Kim Kyong-hui, second from right, as they attend a concert celebrating Lunar New Year's Day in Pyongyang, North Korea. AP
A total of 1,047 North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea last year, the lowest number in 18 years, according to data from the unification ministry on Monday.
The total includes 202 males and 845 females. By quarter, 229 arrived in the first three months of the year, 320 in the second quarter, 226 in the third and the remaining 272 in the fourth, according to the data.
The number of defectors arriving in the South rose after 2000 before peaking in 2009 at 2,914 people. Since current leader Kim Jong-un took power following the death of his father in late 2001, between 1,100 and 1,500 defectors have arrived in the South annually. (Yonhap)
[Refugee] [Defector]
Return to ROK and Inter-Korean relations page