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Kang Seung-woo

Korea Times Business Reporter

Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.

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Politics

New spymaster's appointment

President Moon Jae-in gives a flower bouquet to a grandchild of Park Jie-won, left, the new director of the National Intelligence Service, at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday, after giving Park a letter of appointment. Second from left is Park's daughter. The main opposition United Future Party claimed that Park, who led the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 between President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, signed an under-the-table agreement with North Korea to provide cash to the reclusive regime, but the presidential office said no such document exists in the government's records. / Yonhap

Jul 29, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
New spymaster's appointment
North Korea

Defector may be used in regime promotion

By Kang Seung-wooNorth Korea is highly expected to use a defector who recently returned to the North with alleged coronavirus symptoms to promote its regime's healthcare system, according to watchers of the reclusive state, Wednesday.This photo shows a culvert in the northern part of Ganghwa Island that may have been used by a North Korean defector to return home. The other side has been blurred for security purposes. / YonhapPyongyang's Korean Central News Agency broke the news, Sunday, saying the defector surnamed Kim who fled here in 2017 has returned to the North. In the wake of the abrupt border crossing, its leader Kim Jong-un adopted the “maximum emergency system” against COVID-19, placing the border city of Gaeseong under lockdown. Until then, the totalitarian state had claimed to have kept the number of infections at zero thanks to its early border closure. Since its first report, the North has not reported follow-up news regarding the “runaway,” raising speculation that he may be undergoing virus testing. After the North's report, the South Korean g

Jul 29, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Defector may be used in regime promotion
Foreign Affairs

Tensions between Korea, Japan loom over sales of assets

By Kang Seung-wooAlready-deteriorating relations between Korea and Japan are about to go further downhill as the deadline approaches for a court-ordered liquidation of Japanese firms' assets to provide compensation to wartime forced labor victims. While the Japanese government is mulling “retaliation” in the event of the sale of the assets, it is not expected that Seoul and Tokyo will compromise and reach an agreement anytime soon, with their leaders looking unlikely to budge.A major trigger for the diplomatic row was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's abrupt July 2019 decision to tighten its control on exports of three key industrial materials critical for Korea's chip and display industries in apparent retaliation over the Korean Supreme Court's ruling on forced labor in 2018.Although the court ordered Japanese steelmakers Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal to pay 100 million won ($83,000) in compensation to each of four Koreans for their forced labor, they ignored the order and as a result, the Pohang branch of Daegu District Court began the process of liquidating their

Jul 29, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Tensions between Korea, Japan loom over sales of assets
Defense

S. Korea can develop solid-fuel space rockets

Kim Hyun-chong, deputy national security adviser, gives a briefing on revised missile guidelines at Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday. / YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooKorea can now develop solid-propellant boosters for its space rockets after striking a deal on new missile guidelines with the United States, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Tuesday.Kim Hyun-chong, the second deputy director of the National Security Office (NSO), said Seoul and Washington agreed to lift a decades-long restriction on the former's use of solid fuels for its space launch vehicles. The new guidelines took effect immediately.“The new guidelines enable Korean companies, research institutes and technically even individuals to develop, produce and possess space rockets that use not only liquid fuel but also solid and hybrid ones without restrictions,” Kim said, adding that it would help advance the Korean military's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.He added said the accord enables Korea to launch low-earth orbit military spy satellites, flying at the altitude of 500 to 2,000 kilometers, anytime

Jul 28, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
S. Korea can develop solid-fuel space rockets
Politics

Justice minister emerges as opposition's target

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae speaks during a session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times fileBy Kang Seung-wooThe main opposition party is accusing Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae of “insolence” toward the National Assembly. Due to a series of clashes with them, opposition lawmakers say that Choo, a former five-term lawmaker, goes over the top whenever she addresses the Assembly.During Monday's session of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Choo clashed with lawmakers of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) over her son's alleged special treatment in the military.Rep. Yoon Han-hong of the UFP questioned Vice Justice Minister Koh Ki-young whether his abrupt appointment had to do with a prosecution investigation of Choo's son, who allegedly went AWOL in 2017 after not returning from official leave. However, her son was later granted extended leave for a knee problem after Choo, then-chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Korea, allegedly contacted military officials regarding her son's condition.Yoon's

Jul 28, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Justice minister emerges as opposition's target
North Korea

Defector case may lead to virus aid to North Korea

This photo shows fields in North Korea's Kaepung County on the western front-line border with South Korea, Monday, seen from Ganghwa Island in the South. YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooNorth Korea watchers show mixed expectations on how inter-Korean relations will develop in the wake of a North Korean defector's return to the North, who, according to the reclusive country, showed symptoms of COVID-19 and could become the country's first officially confirmed case of the virus.Some say the North may belatedly accept South Korea's offer for inter-Korean cooperation in quarantine and healthcare to cope with the pandemic.According the North's Korean Central News Agency, Sunday, its leader Kim Jong-un adopted the maximum emergency system against coronavirus following a defector's return from the South with virus symptoms. Since earlier this year, President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly offered cross-border cooperation in a bid to resuscitate North-South ties, and since the coronavirus pandemic emerged, healthcare cooperation has been at the top of the agenda.“It is a possible scenario for inter

Jul 27, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Defector case may lead to virus aid to North Korea
  • Gov't, military hit for poor security, defector management
Foreign Affairs

Three leaders at a crossroads

Moon, Kim, Trump pursue peace talks for different reasonsBy Kang Seung-wooPresident Moon Jae-in, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump ― the three leaders who are the major players with regard to issues related to the Korean Peninsula ― are at a crossroads. Faced with multiple matters in the fields of politics and their countries' economies among others, they are undergoing respective crises, with their political fates on the linePresident Moon is currently seeing more people disapproving of his management of state affairs with his approval rating continuously plunging due to controversies over sexual harassment allegations involving high ranking members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea that included the late Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, as well as skyrocketing housing prices in Seoul and nearby cities. According to local pollster Realmeter, Monday, his support rate fell to the lowest in nine months at 44.8 percent, raising the specter of lame duck status in the final 22 months of his presidency. Moon's term ends in May 2022. To turn things around, many

Jul 24, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Three leaders at a crossroads
North Korea

Unification minister nominee pledges bold changes in inter-Korean cooperation

Unification Minister nominee Lee In-young speaks during his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. / YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooUnification Minister nominee Lee In-young has vowed to make bold changes in order to reactivate stalled inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation.He also said cross-border relations should move forward regardless of progress in denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States. “South and North Korea should sit face-to-face again. Reaffirming their mutual trust and making good on promises, they have to restart the stopped clock on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said at his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. The four-term lawmaker was nominated earlier this month as part of President Moon Jae-in's reshuffle of his national security team.“We will take the lead and push for bold changes to turn the focus from North-U.S. talks to South and North talks,” he added. “To this end, we have to approach the issue with creativity and imagination, while making drastic decisions if

Jul 23, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Unification minister nominee pledges bold changes in inter-Korean cooperation
Defense

ROK-US joint drills go adrift amid pandemic

Defense Minister Jeong Kyung-doo and his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper / Korea Times fileTop military chiefs do not discuss USFK reduction By Kang Seung-wooKorea and the United States have been struggling to decide when to start their joint military exercises out of concern that the mass participation of troops could further spread COVID-19.This hesitation is fueling speculation that the transition of wartime operational control (OPCON) of Korean troops from Washington to Seoul may be pushed back even further. The coronavirus pandemic caused the scrapping of annual drills that were to be held in the first half of the year due to a surge in infections here. While the allies had planned to hold a theater-level combined exercise in August, the virus situation in the U.S. is now getting serious, making it difficult for the two countries to decide on the number of participants and the scale of the training.According to the Ministry of National Defense, Minister Jeong Kyung-doo spoke by phone with his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper, Tuesday morning, during which they failed to reach a consensus

Jul 21, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
ROK-US joint drills go adrift amid pandemic
  • Esper says he has issued no orders to withdraw forces from S. Korea
Politics

Ruling bloc moving for constitutional revision

National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug delivers a speech at the Assembly in Seoul, Friday, celebrating the 72nd anniversary of Korea's Constitution promulgated in 1948. / YonhapBy Kang Seung-wooThe ruling camp has reignited a long-running discussion over rewriting the Constitution for the first time in 33 years, with former and current National Assembly speakers stressing that now is the most opportune time. The last constitutional revision was in 1987 when the nation started moving from a military-led government to democracy.“Considering the political calendar, the time is ripe to start discussing the constitutional amendment before next year,” National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug said in a congratulatory speech marking the 72nd Constitution Day, Friday. “After the country overcomes the COVID-19 crisis, I hope that relevant talks will begin in earnest. “The current system, revised in 1987 with the spirit of democratization, is focused mainly on putting an end to authoritarianism and expanding fundamental rights. However, there is a consensus that th

Jul 17, 2020By Kang Seung-woo
Ruling bloc moving for constitutional revision
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