https://www.scmp.com/rss/9255/feed Shim Jae Hoon is a journalist based in Seoul. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com North Korea’s midnight test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach California and beyond places Washington under threat. The test provoked US President Donald Trump to castigate China and pushed South Korea into a tighter embrace with the United States. South Korea under new President Moon Jae-in had been holding back on deployment of the American THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) anti-missile system and calling for talks with Pyongyang, but... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105071/what-next-us-and-south-korea-china-stands-nuclear-armed-kim?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105071/what-next-us-and-south-korea-china-stands-nuclear-armed-kim?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Aug 2017 05:07:43 +0000 Repeating the past, North Korea's young ruler Kim Jong-un has threatened the US and South Korea with dire consequences for opposition to the nation's missile adventurism. In a break from the past, Kim issued thinly disguised criticism of North Korea's principal benefactors - China and Russia. The latest turn in North Korea's brinkmanship will test China's newly installed party general secretary Xi Jinping . In strident responses to the UN Security Council's resolution this month stiffening... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1139456/north-korea-may-yet-push-china-finally-act-nuclear-threat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1139456/north-korea-may-yet-push-china-finally-act-nuclear-threat?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It is high time South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun reconsidered his North Korean policy. At a time of growing international alarm over the North's nuclear arms programme, he needs to forge a broader domestic consensus. There is no room for partisan bickering. Mr Roh can start by sketching a new policy outline based on a more realistic perception of the North's nuclear threat. North Korea's jarring declaration that it would boycott further negotiations to resolve the crisis over its... https://www.scmp.com/article/426713/mr-roh-get-real?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/426713/mr-roh-get-real?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Sep 2003 16:00:00 +0000 The long-festering problem of North Korean refugees in China is threatening to get out of hand, despite Chinese authorities' efforts to control their inflow in border cities like Yanji, Tumen and Hunchun. The problem is not so much that of China failing to stem the tide - it has largely succeeded in reducing the number. Rather, it is the growing desperation of those already in China trying to escape to South Korea or any other third country by whatever means possible. The recent incident in... https://www.scmp.com/article/405448/china-must-work-south-korea-solve-refugee-issue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/405448/china-must-work-south-korea-solve-refugee-issue?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Feb 2003 16:00:00 +0000 Relations between the government and business in South Korea have seldom been peaceful. But as Roh Moo-hyun prepares to assume the presidency on February 25, a new battle is brewing between his liberal policy team and the country's conservative, family-based industrial conglomerates, or chaebol. At the centre is the longstanding issue of business reform. The groups emerged bruised but little changed from the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. While President Kim Dae-jung has done much to define... https://www.scmp.com/article/404766/roh-moo-hyun-takes-aim-conglomerates?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/404766/roh-moo-hyun-takes-aim-conglomerates?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jan 2003 16:00:00 +0000 North Korea is sending strong signals to Washington that it is prepared to reopen talks with the US on its controversial nuclear arms programme, but refuses to say if it will give up its nuclear ambitions as a price for normalising relations with the United States. The North Korean Foreign Ministry yesterday, in a policy statement rejecting the US call for dismantling its nuclear arms programme, demanded a non-aggression pact and a guarantee for its economic and political survival, before... https://www.scmp.com/article/395576/north-korea-sets-conditions-nuclear-compliance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/395576/north-korea-sets-conditions-nuclear-compliance?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 TWO WEEKS AFTER shocking the Bush administration by admitting it was running a secret nuclear arms development programme in violation of the 1994 accord with the United States, Pyongyang may be feeling the ground beneath it shaking. Not only has its nuclear blackmail failed to cower Washington, the North's defiance is triggering a series of international responses that could deepen its isolation from the world community, resulting in dwindling amounts of aid to the impoverished... https://www.scmp.com/article/395262/wrong-way-close-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/395262/wrong-way-close-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 How close has North Korea come to producing a nuclear device if not a finished weapon? Much closer than its technology allowed in 1994 when the first crisis erupted, according to US and South Korean intelligence estimates. The escalating tension over the North's refusal to open up its suspect facilities for international inspection at that time nearly triggered a US air strike ordered by then-US president Bill Clinton. A last-minute intervention by former president Jimmy Carter helped clear... https://www.scmp.com/article/394893/weapon-scientists-have-had-time-their-side?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/394893/weapon-scientists-have-had-time-their-side?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 Not for the first time, American and South Korean officials are trying to get inside the head of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il after he revealed his country's nuclear ambitions. According to sources in Seoul, North Korean officials who talked to the assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, James Kelly, on October 3-5 in Pyongyang were really looking for a breakthrough in their negotiations with the US when they came clean on their country's controversial nuclear... https://www.scmp.com/article/394895/pyongyang-move-leaves-allies-puzzled?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/394895/pyongyang-move-leaves-allies-puzzled?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 North Korea's admission that it is operating a clandestine nuclear arms development programme in violation of a 1994 agreement has stunned the United States and South Korea. The admission has delivered a staggering blow to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's 'sunshine policy' of reconciliation with the North, prompting opposition critics to review the policy just eight weeks before the South Korean presidential election, to be held on December 19. It also has complicated the Bush... https://www.scmp.com/article/394754/nuclear-confession-stuns-us-seoul?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/394754/nuclear-confession-stuns-us-seoul?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 It has been a long, frustrating wait for South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and his policy of engagement with North Korea. For the first time since the inauguration of US President George W. Bush's administration 18 months ago, Washington is sending a team of senior officials to Pyongyang to see if North Korea is serious about ending its state of isolation. The talks will cover a host of sensitive issues such as nuclear inspection and halting missile exports to rogue nations. An eight-member... https://www.scmp.com/article/393196/testing-times-korean-thaw?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/393196/testing-times-korean-thaw?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Oct 2002 16:00:00 +0000 Staggering under the load of bad policy decisions over decades, North Korea finally seems ready to take the plunge and make major changes in its archaic economic policy. In doing so, it is jettisoning one of its most cherished state doctrines - juche, or self-reliance. The readiness to accept foreign investment in a special economic zone, announced on Friday, signifies a substantial policy transformation in favour of opening, analysts say. According to the official Central News Agency report... https://www.scmp.com/article/392106/pyongyang-set-take-economic-plunge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/392106/pyongyang-set-take-economic-plunge?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Sep 2002 16:00:00 +0000 NORTH KOREA, a country with an unchanging landscape of repression and hunger, has produced what could be a piece of good news - Pyongyang is apparently ready to fix its moribund economy. The multi-billion-dollar, and potentially life-saving, question is whether it is a short-term fix or a fundamental reform such as that which seems to have freed China from threats of massive political and economic upheaval. The paradox facing the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, remains that he has done so little... https://www.scmp.com/article/389903/inspiration-or-desperation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/389903/inspiration-or-desperation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Aug 2002 16:00:00 +0000 Is North Korea coming out after five decades of self-imposed isolation? The answer would be yes, if you read the recent headlines. Recently it has agreed to reopen talks with the United States, whose leader in January labelled it part of an 'axis of evil' - along with Iran and Iran - and accused them of developing and selling weapons of mass destruction. Then on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, making a rare international appearance, shook hands with his Japanese counterpart Yoriko... https://www.scmp.com/article/387194/us-forcing-north-korea-open-door?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/387194/us-forcing-north-korea-open-door?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Aug 2002 16:00:00 +0000 IN THE LEAFY, tranquil diplomatic section of Sanlitun district in Beijing, the South Korean Consulate is so heavily fortified that it looks like a fortress under siege. Barbed wire protects the walls of the building, which is located separately from the embassy, while at the main gate hawk-eyed police keep a constant look out for North Koreans attempting to seek political asylum. It is an amazing testimony to their courage and resourcefulness that despite these tight measures, dozens of North... https://www.scmp.com/article/386472/tough-stand-refugees-fuels-anger-seoul?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/386472/tough-stand-refugees-fuels-anger-seoul?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Jul 2002 16:00:00 +0000