On December 16, 2022, Japan’s Cabinet approved amendments to three key national security and defense documents. First, an increase in the military budget is envisaged. The Japanese government has previously announced plans to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2027 (it is currently 1% of GDP). If Japan does so, its defense spending…
The scenario that President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk-yeol suggested would further destabilize Northeast Asia by setting into motion what might possibly become a regional nuclear arms race, hence why his country mustn’t obtain nuclear weapons no matter what. President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Yoon Suk-yeol flirted with obtaining nuclear weapons…
Generally, when it comes to cybercrime, the author writes about North Korean hackers, but an overview of what the issue of hackers in the ROK in general looks like is also noteworthy. First, some general statistics on hacker attacks in the ROK. Back in 2021, following the attempted hacking of the Korea Atomic Energy Research…
Korea faces the same democratic deficits as other countries–polarized opinion, rising populism, pervasive fake news–just when it needs responsive democracy the most. The German government recently arrested 25 members of a conspiratorial right-wing group plotting to overthrow the government. One of those arrested was a member of a defunct German royal family that the group…
Over the past few days, the author has come across several fake news reports on Korean arms supplies to Ukraine. Both from the North and the South. On the one hand, there is ongoing speculation in the West that the DPRK is allegedly supplying or intends to supply Russia with munitions for use in Ukraine,…
Do you recall the summer story about the truckers’ strike in South Korea? It is now reoccurring and, in the author’s view, is not so much part of the workers’ struggle for their rights as an instance of the political confrontation between conservatives and democrats. On November 22, 2022, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions…
