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The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

Opinion

Columnists

Park Jung-won

2023: South Korea's awakening

In 2023, Northeast Asia's path toward a new Cold War paradigm will become increasingly clear. China and Russia will refuse to impose sanctions on North Korea for any of its illegal activities that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Xi Jinping's consolidation of near-absolute power in China will signify the disappearance of a “friendly” check on North Korea's aggressive behavior.

2023-01-05 16:53

South Korea needs its own nuclear deterrent

On Nov. 18, North Korea succeeded in test-firing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Hwasong-17. If shot at a normal angle, the entire United States mainland would be within range. South Korea and the U.S. issued a limited response. With little possibility of deterring North Korea from its recent aggressive moves, the U.S. and South Korea conducted joint aerial drills and announced a strengthening of their joint defense posture.

2022-12-01 16:59

Putin's path to self-destruction

With each day's passing, it becomes increasingly obvious that Russia can never win its war with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin has caused the death or injury of over 100,000 young Russians and has spent nearly $70 billion in the execution of this unjust war. The notion that Russia held tight control over global energy and grain markets has also proved to be a fiction. Much of the world is ever more united in condemning Russia, and even China is quietly trying to distance itself from the mire Russia has created.

2022-10-06 15:44

The intractable Taiwan problem

The current heightened security tensions between the United States and China sparked by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan suggests that the Taiwan issue has entered a critical phase. One of the detonators in this regard is the new Taiwan Policy Act, a bipartisan bill submitted before the U.S. Congress in June.

2022-09-01 16:10

What went wrong with forced repatriations of North Korean fishermen?

When news emerged in November 2019 that two North Korean fishermen, who had been detained by South Korea after crossing repeatedly into South Korean waters and had confessed to murdering their fellow crewmembers, were forcibly repatriated by the Moon Jae-in administration after five days, a number of scholars, media and international human rights experts raised the alarm about the case's legality.

2022-08-04 16:41

Yoon's strategic and tactical dilemmas

At the heart of the North Atlantic Treaty is Article 5, which stipulates that if one member state is invaded, all other member states should automatically intervene for its protection. It is this clause that led some Eastern European countries to join NATO, having felt threatened by Russia's military revival under President Vladimir Putin, a leader obsessed with nostalgia for the former Soviet Union.

2022-06-27 16:45

South Korea's time for choosing

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States drew the so-called Acheson line, a line of defense against communist expansion in the western Pacific, which notably excluded South Korea. North Korea, which invaded South Korea in 1950 with the Soviet Union's backing, conducted the war for three years, with the eventual help of communist China.

2022-05-23 16:55

Time for brinkmanship

On April 16, North Korea test-fired two new short-range missiles capable of being armed with tactical nuclear weapons into the East Sea. Many North Korea watchers, particularly progressive-oriented elements in South Korean society, had been skeptical of the possibility that the North could fire a nuclear weapon at South Korea.

2022-05-05 16:50

Putin's recklessness and changed international order

Does history repeat itself? Witnessing the scenes of war taking place in Ukraine caused by Russia's paranoid leader, Vladimir Putin, the world is asking this question as if haunted by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. Only hours before the invasion, Putin said he wanted peace and had no intention of invading Ukraine, despite having massed tanks near its border.

2022-03-29 16:45

Putin and possible risks

The current confrontation between Russia and the West is causing the most dangerous European security crisis since the Cold War era. However, the root causes of this conflict are the distorted perception of history and domestic political calculations of Russian President Vladimir Putin. At first glance, those who are unaware of the complex nature of this conflict might think that Russia is the innocent victim of serious security threats coming from the West triggered by greedy geopolitical ambitions.

2022-02-03 16:46

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