Politics

From progressives to conservatives, everything about South Korean politics

Se-Woong Koo
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End of 2019, End of Candlelight Revolution's Hope

As 2020 begins, the optimism that permeated South Korea in late 2016 and early 2017 seems but a distant memory. Three years ago, hundreds of thousands were holding peaceful weekly demonstrations—popularly dubbed the “Candlelight Revolution” for the candle-carrying participants—against corruption on the part of then-president Park Geun-hye and

Seohoi Stephanie Park
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Revisiting: My Political Coming of Age

Almost every Saturday for the last twenty weeks or so, my friends and I took a stroll down to Gwanghwamun Plaza in downtown Seoul to join the protesters. We were young, awkward, and clueless. It didn’t take us long to realize that it was the first time, too, for

Ho Kyeong Jang
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Mooncare: South Korea's Proposed Health Insurance Reform in Full

I woke up with a mild hearing problem this morning. It wasn’t debilitating in any way, but I was worried it might get worse and interfere with work. Had I still been in the U.S., I would have powered through because my condition wouldn’t have justified the

Ho Kyeong Jang
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Druking Scandal Shadows Moon Jae-in's 'Super Spring'

Moon Jae-in’s popularity has spiked after the inter-Korean summit meeting on Apr. 27, with different surveys quoting approval ratings from the 70s to the high 80s. The South Korean president may be having a ‘super spring,’ decked with summits (including one with Trump in May)

Haeryun Kang
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One April Morning

Moon Jae-in wore a blue tie for the occasion, the color of the Korean Peninsula on the unification flag. Kim Jong-un stepped over the thin strip of concrete dividing North and South Korea inside the demilitarized zone. Sand on the North Korean side, pebbles in South Korea. He stepped onto

Gyoon Heo
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Why I Decline 'North Korean Defector' Interview Requests

Over the past few years, journalists from all sorts of global media have contacted me to get my ‘defector point of view’ on all things North Korean. And the current inter-Korean drama has been yet another occasion. A famous European TV station crew, flying to South Korea for the Apr.

KOREA EXPOSÉ
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No More Rocket Man?

Kim Jong-un is stepping onto South Korean soil tomorrow morning, the first ever for a North Korean leader. Moon Jae-in and Kim will most likely talk about some form of peace…but what will come afterwards?

Haeryun Kang
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North Korea Summit and the Elephant in the Room

Just two days remain before the two Korean heads of state meet by the inter-Korean border. North Korea’s Kim Jong-un recently announced that Pyongyang would “discontinue nuclear testing” and that no ICBMs would be tested after Apr. 21, 2018. Telephone lines were established between Kim and

Se-Woong Koo
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A Small Scandal, A Big Blow to Moon Jae-in's Credibility

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is usually not the most visible part of the South Korean government. As the country’s main inspector of financial institutions, it appears in the news usually for two reasons: Either the market is in serious trouble, or the office itself is suspected of corruption

Se-Woong Koo
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Watching North Koreans Watch South Koreans

I still remember the death of the previous North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in December 2011, for the simple reason that media outlets played ad nauseum footage, procured from North Korea’s state news agency KCNA, of Pyongyang citizens weeping with abandon. It seemed as though North Koreans were so

KOREA EXPOSÉ
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North Korea Summit 101

For those of you who haven’t been following the news, Kim Jong-un has been coming out of the Peninsula. Recently he met China’s Xi Jinping. Next on his platter are the presidents of South Korea and the U.S. Here is our introduction about the basics

Se-Woong Koo
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Foreign Media in South Korea: Arbiters of Truth, and Players in Their Own Right

On the evening of Mar. 18 the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker sent out a tweet that reverberated through South Korean cyberspace. Dear Korean press, please translate my articles fairly. My piece on the political gamble of talks with North Korea does not say President Moon is