Articles by Kim Arin
Kim Arin
arin@heraldcorp.com-
North Korea may ramp up provocations after monthlong break
North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Monday morning, just over two hours ahead of an international summit held in Seoul that invited the US secretary of state, and three weeks ahead of South Korea’s National Assembly general election. The firings come more than a month after the launch of a cruise missile in mid-February. According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, several SRBMs were fired at around 7
Politics March 18, 2024
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Uproar as ex-spy chief, accused of negligence in North Korea killing, is named to run as lawmaker
The Democratic Party of Korea’s decision to nominate the former National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won to run in the upcoming general election has provoked uproar from the bereaved family of the South Korean fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, who was killed by North Korean soldiers in September 2020. As the chief of the NIS at the time, Park is a key defendant in the ongoing trial over South Korean authorities’ alleged negligence during the time between Lee’s capture by
Politics March 15, 2024
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North Korean defectors eye Assembly bids with Seoul’s conservative party
At least three North Korean defectors are seeking to debut in Seoul’s political scene with the People Power Party, the ruling conservative party in South Korea. According to the People Power Party, three North Korean defectors in their 30s are running for a National Assembly seat through proportional representation in the upcoming general election slated for April 10. One of them is Kim Gum-hyok, 32, who says as a young millennial from North Korea, he wishes to represent “the younger
Politics March 14, 2024
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Cho Kuk’s new party most popular third party, so far
Among the several new third parties that have emerged out of the Democratic Party of Korea, the new party founded and headed by Cho Kuk, former justice minister under President Moon Jae-in, has so far seen the highest ratings, according to the latest polls. In a March 5-7 Gallup Korea poll of 1,000 voters aged 18 and above, 6 percent said they would vote for Cho's Rebuilding Korea Party. By contrast, 3 percent said they supported the New Reform Party headed by Lee Jun-seok, who was ousted a
Politics March 12, 2024
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[Election 2024] Will ruling party maintain winning momentum in run-up to election?
Come April 10, South Koreans will head to the polls to choose the next batch of National Assembly members. With about a month left until election day, the latest polls find the ruling People Power Party’s leading while its rival, the Democratic Party of Korea, has been bogged down by infighting. According to a March 5-7 Gallup Korea survey of 1,000 voters aged 18 and up, 37 percent said they would vote for the People Power Party as opposed to 31 percent who said they would cast their ballo
Politics March 11, 2024
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Protests at airport as ex-defense chief departs for Australia as envoy
Lee Jong-sup, the former minister of national defense who was recently appointed as ambassador to Australia, faced protests by opposition parties as he arrived at the airport on Sunday to depart for Brisbane. Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo, the Democratic Party of Korea floor leader, held a protest at the Incheon Airport terminal for international flights and said that Lee being sent abroad as an ambassador was a demonstration of “what is wrong with the administration in power.” “Exactly ab
Politics March 10, 2024
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Descendant from US missionary family to run for Assembly
Ihn Yohan, who is from the fourth generation of a US missionary family that helped build churches and schools in Korea during Japanese colonial rule, is running for office in the April 10 general election as a ruling People Power Party candidate. The People Power Party committee for nominating candidates for the general election asked In, whose American name is John Linton, to run, and he has accepted, according to those familiar with the matter. Ihn, director of the Severance Hospital Internati
Politics March 10, 2024
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Yoon urged to retract appointment of ex-defense chief as envoy to Australia
South Korea’s main opposition party on Thursday asked President Yoon Suk Yeol to walk back the appointment of his former Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup as ambassador to Australia. According to the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee has been banned from leaving the country by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials since the beginning of this year over an investigation into the death of a Marine. The Marine died during a search and rescue operation in July last
Politics March 7, 2024
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North Korea sends political prisoners to nuclear facilities: defector
North Korea is forcing political prisoners to work at some of its high-risk nuclear facilities, a North Korean defector was quoted as telling South Korean authorities. A former Pyongyang resident in her 40s who defected in 2019 said in an in-depth interview with authorities in Seoul that North Korea was sending its political prisoners to labor camps close to nuclear sites, according to a recent report by the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification. “The levels of radiation
Politics March 6, 2024
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South Korea-US military drills ‘war exercises’: Pyongyang
The annual military drills conducted by South Korea and the US were “frantic war exercises,” North Korea said Tuesday, warning of consequences. “The US and the Republic of Korea have once again launched provocative, large-scale joint military exercises that amplify the unpredictability of the situation in the Korean Peninsula,” North Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement carried by the official state media, the Korean Central News Agency, referring to Sout
Defense March 5, 2024
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NIS warns of rise in North Korean hacking threats against South Korean chipmakers
South Korea’s spy agency on Monday warned of a recent uptick in North Korean hacking threats against South Korean semiconductor firms. The National Intelligence Service said North Korean hackers have been ramping up hacking efforts targeting South Korean semiconductor equipment makers since the latter half of 2023. The NIS said the North Korean hackers mainly focused on companies whose servers are connected to the Internet and who had their vulnerabilities exposed. The North Korean hackers
Politics March 4, 2024
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Why Jongno is known as Seoul’s center of politics
The race to win the Assembly seat for Jongno, long known as the center of politics in Seoul, officially kicked off Monday as the Democratic Party of Korea candidate, Kwak Sang-eon, set to work after a contentious primary. Kwak is the son-in-law of the late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun. The party decided to hand him the nomination for the symbolic Seoul district over other competitive figures such as Jeon Hyun-hee, who served as the head of the anti-corruption watchdog under President Moon Jae-
Politics March 4, 2024
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Vote on bill to probe first lady lays bare Democratic Party of Korea split
The bill to launch a special counsel investigation into allegations surrounding First Lady Kim Keon-hee was struck down in a National Assembly vote late Thursday, amid a loud protest from the Democratic Party of Korea’s primary losers challenging the results of the nominations for the April general election. The ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party convened a plenary session to vote on the special counsel bill, which was sent back to the Assembly for a re-vote
Politics March 1, 2024
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[KH Explains] Inside main opposition Democratic Party of Korea’s bitter faction war
The Democratic Party of Korea’s primary race for the April 10 legislative election is being tainted by a furious faction fight. As the party begins to select candidates to run for the upcoming election, nearly a dozen have left the main opposition party. Among them are long-time loyalists who have stuck with the party through thick and thin for several decades. The faction to suffer the biggest blow was a group of lawmakers who were collectively deemed as the “pro-Moon faction”
Politics Feb. 29, 2024
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Russia sending North Korea food in return for arms: Seoul defense chief
North Korea has provided Russia with 6,700 shipping containers’ worth of artillery shells over the past six months, according to Seoul’s defense chief Shin Won-sik. In return, the North is believed to have received from Russia enough food and other essentials to fill about 10,000 shipping containers over the same period, Shin said. In a press conference on Monday, Shin noted that the North Korean military factories for producing arms for Russia were operating at full capacity. &ldquo
Defense Feb. 27, 2024
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