As the readers recall, Yoon Suk-yeol, the new President of the Republic of Korea, advocated right from the start for enhancing ties with Japan and shifting attention from the issues of the bygone past to building a better tomorrow. His speech on March 1, 2023 and his visit to Japan on April 16-17, during which, according to critics, Yoon made a number of unilateral concessions, fit into this agenda. In addition, the two leaders agreed to resume shuttle diplomacy, or regular visits to each other’s countries. During a speech at Harvard in April 2023, Yoon also defended his commitment to improving relations with Japan, saying that South Korea must overcome the belief that they cannot take a single step further until the historical issues are resolved. “I know there could be a lot of emotional…

On May 1, 2023, 50-year-old Yang Hoe-dong doused himself with a flammable liquid and set himself on fire around 9:35 a.m. in front of the district courthouse in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, 163 kilometers east of Seoul. Yang suffered serious burns and was taken first to a nearby hospital and then airlifted to a specialized hospital for burn treatment in Seoul, but the next day died. The deceased was a high-ranking official of the local branch of the national construction…

The United States continues to strengthen Japan’s position as its main political and military “viceroy” in Northeast Asia. Is a war with China imminent by the hands of the people of Japan and the Republic of Korea? How do the citizens of these countries feel about it? Until recently, the escalating 2018 conflict between Japan and the Republic of Korea over several historical issues, including disagreements over compensation for South Korean victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor, was a significant…

The context in which Russia was mentioned deserves its own section because, prior to the visit and following Yoon Suk-yeol’s interview with Reuters, many people anticipated or feared that, as a holiday present, the ROK president would solemnly cross the red line and declare that South Korea would change its position on the Ukraine issue and begin providing Kyiv with weapons…

Yoon and Biden’s opening monologue was theatrical, just like the Washington Declaration. “The United States and the ROK are constructing an Alliance that will provide future generations with a firm foundation upon which to build prosperity and security.” The first part of the statement positioned the US-ROK alliance as a “Global Comprehensive Strategic Alliance” that “has grown far beyond the Korean Peninsula, reflecting the vital role of our two countries as global leaders in advancing democracy…

Having described the course of the visit, let’s move on to a more in-depth analysis of the main statements, which include the joint statement of the two presidents on the results of the summit, speech by Yoon Suk-yeol in Congress, and partly his speech at Harvard, where he developed some of the theses expressed earlier. The main document of the summit is the so-called Washington Declaration, which we start with. The 70-year defense alliance between…

On April 19, 2023 President Yoon Seok-yeol gave an interview to Reuters in which he said, among other things, that “If there is a situation the international community cannot condone, such as any large-scale attack on civilians, massacre or serious violation of the laws of war, it might be difficult for us to insist only on humanitarian or financial support.” Yoon noted that his government is exploring how to help protect and rebuild Ukraine, just as South Korea received international aid during the 1950-53 Korean War. “I believe there won’t be limitations to the extent of the support to defend and restore a country…

Several Pentagon and CIA documents relating to the Ukraine crisis surfaced on the Internet in early April. If the contents of the revealed documents are accurate, we are currently seeing the biggest leak of private American records since Edward Snowden’s 2013 exposures. We are, however, interested in the Korean aspect of the controversy because…

While we concentrated on the March 23 shooting in last week’s Chronicle of Moving to the Dangerous Line, the Korean Central News Agency broke news on March 24 that merits separate thought as Pyongyang laid another set of trump cards on the table. The recent “confrontational hysteria of the U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppet…

National Security Advisor of the Republic of Korea (to put it bluntly, a key advisor on foreign and national security affairs of South Korea) said that he was stepping down on March 29, 2023, less than a month before President Yoon Suk-yeol’s state visit to the United States. Kim stated in a press release, “When I was offered the position by the president a year ago, I told him I would establish a foundation for restoring…

Yoon Suk-yeol, the current president of South Korea, has consistently expressed a desire to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan, in contrast to his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. Yoon has said that both nations should abide by the spirit of the Japan–South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998 issued by Japanese Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung…

The United States, South Korea, and Japan continue to conduct bilateral and trilateral exercises designed to combat North Korea. This activity has climaxed in Freedom Shield military exercises between the United States and South Korea, which are being held on a grand scale this year after a lengthy break.  North Korea, for its part, sees this as an invasion threat and actively bares its teeth through…