Amid North Korean Threat, Free Trade Agreement Bedevils Moon Jae-in Presidency

Just before the National Assembly was set to vote, a middle-aged man stood at the podium, eyes closed in an apparent meditative state, his navy blue suit covered in fine off-white dust. The man was leftist lawmaker Kim Seon-dong, and a few moments earlier he had set off a tear gas canister in South Korea’s National Assembly, releasing eye-watering fumes in a last-ditch effort to prevent the ratification of a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.S. The theatrics illustrated the contenti