South Korea

Thousands Of Samsung Workers Go On Indefinite Strike

July 11, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Resist! Samsung, South Korea, Strikes, Tech industry, Tech Workers, Worker Rights and Jobs

Thousands of workers in South Korea at Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, declared an “indefinite strike” against the company’s refusal to dialogue and listen to their demands on the last day of their three-day strike on Wednesday, July 10. In a statement, published on the website of the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) which is spearheading the strike, the union told its members “don’t get tired” and continue the strike until further instructions are given. The NSEU has around 30,000 members and represents 24% of all workers with Samsung Electronics. According to NSEU, over 6,540 workers have been participating in the different strike actions.

Threat Of War Looms Over NATO Summit In Washington

July 7, 2024 Friends of Socialist China. Educate! China, Iran, Japan, NATO, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, Western imperialism

On June 30, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) blasted the joint military exercises conducted by the U.S., Japan, and South Korea in the region, labeling them as “reckless and provocative.” The DPRK pointed out that the military “war games” disrupt peace on the Korean peninsula and the broader region. The hostile military drills expose the formation of an “Asian version of NATO” led by the U.S., declared a statement by the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 30. The three-day military operation known as “Freedom Edge” took place from June 26 to 29, involving South Korea, Japan, and the U.S.

US Veterans Denounce Prolonged Militarization, Ongoing War In Korea

June 24, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Military Exercises, South Korea, US military, Veterans, Wars and Militarism

Two members of Veterans for Peace participated in a recent delegation to South Korea to mark the anniversary of two young girls who were killed by a US tank during a military exercise. Clearing the FOG speaks with Ellen Barfield, a long time activist who was on delegation and who was serving in South Korea in 1980 when the massacre of students and leftists occurred in Gwangju, about the trip and the ongoing war in Korea. Barfield also discusses the RIMPAC military exercises that begin this week in the Pacific and the veteran-led Peace Walk that is headed to Washington, DC for the anti-NATO activities starting the weekend of July 6 and 7.

Korean Girls Killed By US Troops: The Price Of Military Tensions

June 17, 2024 Lee Jun-hee, Hankyoreh. Educate! History, Korea, North Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism

As military tensions continue to rise on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea recently marked the 22nd anniversary of the deaths of Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, two middle school girls who were killed in 2002 when a US Forces Korea convoy driving an armored vehicle struck and crushed them. On Thursday, 23 activist groups, including the Hyo-sun Mi-seon Peace Peace Park Project Committee, gathered at the park named after two girls in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, to hold a candlelight memorial vigil. Over 150 people, representing groups ranging from religious communities to youth groups, attended the memorial to pay their respects.

A South Korean Village’s Fight Against The US Military

March 12, 2024 Son So-Hee and Min, The Real News Network. Resistance Report South Korea, US Imperialism, US military, weapons

Soseong-ri, South Korea, was a sleepy farming village before the arrival of the US military’s Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense (THAAD) missile system. While the South Korean government and the US military claim that THAAD will protect South Korea from North Korean attacks, activists and experts have long countered that THAAD is incapable of blocking the kinds of short-range missiles North Korea would use against South Korean targets in a hypothetical war. Instead, they charge THAAD’s real purpose is to protect US military assets in nearby Okinawa and Guam.

Touring South Korea To Support Opposition To US Space Warfare Plans

February 19, 2024 Bruce K. Gagnon, Space For Peace. Educate! South Korea, Space, US military, Wars and Militarism, weapons

The US has pushed the right-wing Seoul government to massively expand their spending on military space tech. With the current US national debt now at $35 trillion, Washington can't afford to pay for its expensive and ambitious plans to 'control and dominate' space. Thus the #1 job of the Pentagon and State Department is to get the allies to help pay for the space warfare infrastructure. Currently the ROK government is building space R & D centers, satellite production facilities, new airfields likely to test hypersonic missiles and expanding 'missile defense' deployment sites. One key goal the US has is to use ROK satellite production and launch facilities to hoist mini-satellites into Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) to help fill up the already crowded orbits before China and Russia can get there.

Asian NATO Under A New Guise

February 8, 2024 Tim Beal, Friends of Socialist China. Educate! Asia, China, Japan, NATO, South Korea, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Over the past couple of years there has been a flurry of activity linking NATO, and some of its constituent countries with the states of American East Asia, principally Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has been a frequent visitor, and in December 2023, the US embassy in Seoul arranged for senior representatives from eight NATO countries to visit South Korea to “engage in discussions on the security situation in the Indo-Pacific region and other pertinent issues”. Meanwhile back in Washington Representative Mike Lawler has introduced a bill in Congress aimed at “establishing [a] task force for NATO-like Indo-Pacific Alliance”.

Korean Movements Demand: South Korea, Stop Arming Israel!

January 26, 2024 Greg Chung, People's Dispatch. Resist! Anti-War, Elbit Systems, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, South Korea, weapons, Weapons makers

On January 19, 150 people protested in front of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) office in the city of Daejeon, demanding the South Korean government stop arming Israel. While Palestine may seem like a distant conflict to South Koreans, the South Korean military-industrial complex is a key pillar in the Israeli war machine. According to Peace Momo, Hanwha, South Korea’s leading defense company, signed a major technology cooperation and export deal with Israeli weapons company, Elbit Systems, at the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) in 2021.

Activists Detail Frontline Struggles Against US Militarism In Asia

December 14, 2023 Alice Kim, People's Dispatch. Resist! Asia, China, Japan, Joe Biden, New Cold War, Okinawa, South Korea, US Imperialism

With the US President Joe Biden waging an all-out economic war against China and aggressively pursuing new forms of collective security alliances to reinforce the military encirclement of China, the Asia-Pacific region has once again become a hotspot in Washington’s new Cold War. From the expansion of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (US, Japan, India, and Australia) to include South Korea, New Zealand, and Vietnam in 2021, the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in May 2022, the participation of Asian heads of state in NATO meetings in 2022 and 2023, and the cementing of the Japan-Korea-US trilateral alliance at Camp David this August, Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy has been dead set on forging a new anti-China Cold War bloc across the region.

Trilateral Missile Defense System A Step Towards Asian NATO

November 30, 2023 Jeffrey Wagner and Dae-Han Song, People's Dispatch. Educate! Asia, China, Japan, NATO, New Cold War, South Korea, Taiwan, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, weapons

The United States, Japan, and South Korea will fully operationalize a missile warning system “by the end of December.” While justified as a means to counter North Korea’s missile launches, more worrisome, it escalates tensions in the region with China through the “NATOification” of all three countries, agreed upon in the “Spirit of Camp David” agreement. The agreement was hailed as a “new era of trilateral partnership” during the August 18 press conference following a meeting between the heads of state of all three countries. Western media echoed the sentiment, calling it “historic” and “unprecedented.” China, listed in the agreement as a regional concern, accused the United States of creating a “mini NATO in Asia.”

War Looks Just As War Looks: Dismal And Ugly

November 3, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! China, History, Japan, Massacre, New Cold War, South Korea, Taiwan

It is impossible to look away from what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Waves of Israeli aircraft pummel Gaza, destroying communications networks and thereby preventing families from reaching each other, journalists from reporting on the destruction, and Palestinian authorities and United Nations agencies from providing humanitarian assistance. This violence has spurred on protests across the world, with the planet’s billions outraged by the asymmetrical destruction of the Palestinian people. If the Israeli government claims that it is conducting a form of ‘politicide’ – excising organised Palestinian forces from Gaza – the world sees Israeli aircrafts and tanks as conducting nothing but a genocide, displacing and massacring Palestine refugees in Gaza, 81% of whose residents were expelled from, or are the descendants of those who were expelled from, what was declared Israel in 1948.

‘Asian NATO’: Brought To You By South Korean Repression

October 11, 2023 Ju-Hyun Park, The Real News Network. Educate! Asia, China, JAKUS, Japan, NATO, New Cold War, North Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism

While largely unnoticed by the US public, the trilateral summit between Japan, South Korea, and the US that took place at Camp David this August sent shockwaves throughout East Asia. US President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio punctuated the end of the three-day summit by releasing a joint declaration rife with the kinds of diplomatic ambiguities and appeals to vague principles typical of this sort of affair. The three leaders pledged their support for a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” for an international “rules-based order,” and for “peace and stability” around the world.

Imagining South Korea Without America

October 3, 2023 Ko Myoung-sub, Hankyoreh. Create! Book Review, Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Is the ROK-US alliance unconditionally good? A new book raises radical questions about the ROK-US alliance on the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ mutual defense treaty, which was signed on Oct. 1, 1953. The book is “The Naked ROK-US Alliance,” written by Daegu University professor Kim Sung-hae, who completed a master’s in international affairs at the University of Georgia and a doctorate in journalism at the University of Pennsylvania. As the book’s subtitle suggests, this book lists the “reasons for resolving to break up with America” while urging us to imagine what South Korea would be like without the US or their alliance.

Preparing For War Is The Beginning: Early Warning For Northeast Asia

September 15, 2023 Dae-Han Song, People's Dispatch. Educate! Anti-war Movement, Asia, China, Japan, NATO, North Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

July 27 marked the 70th anniversary of the 1953 ceasefire to the Korean War. In the three years leading up to the anniversary, South Korean peace movements organized the international Korea Peace Appeal campaign to replace the armistice agreement with a peace treaty to conclude the 70-plus-year Korean War. The anniversary has come and gone, but, instead of peace, the Joe Biden, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Fumio Kishida administrations are stoking tensions in the Korean Peninsula as a smokescreen to build a NATO-level US-Japan-South Korea trilateral alliance against China. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has played his supporting role well.

Biden’s Pointless Asian Summit

August 22, 2023 Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News. Educate! China, Japan, Joe Biden, New Cold War, South Korea, US Imperialism

My goodness. President Joe Biden and the press serving his regime pumped so much hot air into that three-sided Asian summit at Camp David last week it is a wonder the entire occasion didn’t float away like an overfilled balloon. Here’s the thing: It will. Biden brought together the South Korean president and the Japanese premier to forge some kind of new security pact that is intended to endure, as Biden bloviated, “not just this year, not just next year, forever.” You have to love it: Rarely do we get clownish hyperbole of such high quality. But we must remind ourselves from whom this silliness issues. Then we can make some minimal sense of nonsense, if you will suffer a paradox.

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