Corea del Sur (Continuación)

With the South Korean elections now concluded, it is time for the South Korean government to move forward on the tricky, unpopular matter on the agenda: its relationship with Japan. While the U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea alliances are thriving, U.S. security strategy in the region relies on effective coordination between all three countries, which continues to be hampered by tensions between Japan and South Korea. Though these two countries share so many traits and there is so much at stake, relations continue to be embroiled in the past. It is time for Japan and South Korea to begin thinking creatively about resolving these issues, starting with the stalled “comfort women” agreement.…  Seguir leyendo »

After many failed attempts, the success of North Korea's recent rocket test should be a clarifying moment for the United States and its allies in Asia. When combined with North Korea's recent underground nuclear weapons test, last month's missile launch underscores how the precarious state of affairs in Northeast Asia threatens American national security.

The reality is that while the Cold War may have ended in Europe 25 years ago, it persists in Asia today. In addition to the North Korean threat, America and its regional allies must also confront escalating territorial disputes and challenges to regional stability in the South China Sea.…  Seguir leyendo »

La región de Asia-Pacífico, especialmente en la última década, es objeto de atención internacional por su progreso y su creciente peso en la economía y el comercio internacional. Es una región muy dinámica en materia de inversiones, desarrollo industrial, tecnología y consumo a nivel global.

Durante mucho tiempo esta zona estuvo alejada de los principales ejes de interés de la política exterior española, dando lugar a un desequilibrio con respecto a otras regiones. Es muy conveniente, por tanto, reforzar la comunicación entre España y los países de Asia para incrementar las relaciones, especialmente económicas, con esa región y evitar que España quede descolgada de los avances que ésta viene realizando en los campos mencionados.…  Seguir leyendo »

China pushes back on THAAD

North Korea conducted a rocket launch on Feb. 7, a day before the beginning of the Feb. 8-25 time frame it had originally provided for the launch. With diplomats from around the world scrambling to come up with a unified response, South Korea and the United States have already decided on one bilateral move: formally beginning talks over the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. That, in turn, has reignited hand-wringing in China about the threat THAAD poses to Chinese national security.

In fact, official statements from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on THAAD deployment were more severe than its statements responding to the North Korean launch.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters rallied in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul after the comfort women agreement was announced in December. Credit Yang Ji-Woong/European Pressphoto Agency

On Dec. 28, the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan announced the “final, irreversible” resolution of the controversy over the sexual enslavement of Korean women by the Japanese military from the early 1930s until the end of World War II. They said neither government will raise the issue ever again.

While foreign media organizations praised the deal and a minority of South Koreans accepted it, there was a strong backlash here across the political spectrum. The main opposition Minjoo Party condemned “President Park Geun-hye’s complacent historical consciousness” for calling on the public to accept the agreement. One survivor, speaking to the left-leaning outlet OhmyNews, was blunt, “We need to replace the president — that pro-Japanese collaborator’s daughter, Park Geun-hye.”…  Seguir leyendo »

After 70 years, the Japanese and South Korean governments finally released a joint statement outlining a bilateral agreement to settle the issue of comfort women, a euphemism for girls and women forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers from the 1930s until the end of World War WII.

The agreement states the Japanese government will offer a one-time final apology and to pay 1 billion yen ($8.3m) to provide care for victims through a foundation.

While there are those who argue that this is a breakthrough for the comfort women movement, the longest running activist movement on sex slavery in modern history, this agreement only deals with one country -- the reconciliation between Japan and South Korea.…  Seguir leyendo »

South Korea’s Textbook Whitewash

Half my life was spent outside South Korea, but I still cannot forget certain history lessons from childhood in Seoul. Dokdo, rocky islets claimed by both South Korea and Japan, is an inalienable Korean territory. Hangul, the writing system credited to a 15th-century king and used by the two Koreas, is the most scientific on Earth. Even after I wrote a doctoral dissertation on modern Korea and taught Korean studies courses at universities, such nationalistic claims of varying persuasiveness whisper to me.

The administration of President Park Geun-hye also knows that history is a powerful tool for molding young minds. That is why, after weeks of rancorous public debate, on Nov.…  Seguir leyendo »

For years, the South Korean government and private Korean organizations have objected to Japanese textbooks that convey a rather sunny version of Japan's imperial and colonial history. Now a textbook controversy is turning Koreans against Koreans, and exposing deep divisions in Korean life.

All sides acknowledge that young South Koreans need some understanding of what's going on in North Korea, but how should high schools portray life on the other side of the border? Should they depict their neighbors as enemies or victims? Is objectivity even possible?

The government's National Institute of Korean History, convinced it's the arbiter, plans to replace existing textbooks with an authorized "correct history textbook" by March 2017, leading some to accuse the government of spreading propaganda while trampling on freedom of expression and discussion.…  Seguir leyendo »

El mes pasado, Corea del Norte y Corea del Sur evitaron por poco una catastrófica confrontación militar. Tras 40 horas de agotadoras negociaciones, el Sur aceptó detener las transmisiones por altavoces hacia la zona desmilitarizada (DMZ) entre ambos países a cambio de que el Norte “lamentara” las muertes de soldados surcoreanos causadas por explosiones de minas terrestres tres semanas atrás.

Si bien en la crisis Corea del Norte exhibió su acostumbrada beligerancia y agresiva retórica, hubo también algunos cambios interesantes. Su correcta comprensión podría ayudar a generar el impulso suficiente para iniciar, tras más de siete años de confrontación, una genuina cooperación entre las dos Coreas y encaminar la península hacia un futuro más pacífico y seguro.…  Seguir leyendo »

The latest crisis involving North Korea appears to be ebbing. It started when Pyongyang's forces allegedly placed landmines on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ). Two South Korean soldiers were nearly killed by the mines earlier this month. American soldiers also patrol the DMZ and could have been the victims.

This week, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border and South Korea responded in kind. Now Pyongyang's officials are threatening war unless South Korea stops propaganda it is broadcasting across the DMZ on loudspeakers (something North Korea does itself.) Indeed, Kim Jong Un, the North's dictator, announced a "quasi-state of war" with his government's usual lack of subtlety.…  Seguir leyendo »

En el transcurso del pasado año, las relaciones entre las tres economías más exitosas del este de Asia -Japón, Corea del Sur y China- han estado mejorando, lenta pero sostenidamente. Es algo notable, ya que sus vínculos entre sí nunca han sido fáciles o tranquilos. La historia del siglo XX y sus rivalidades de más larga data dan cuenta de ello.

Este agosto, cuando el primer ministro japonés, Shinzo Abe, brinde un discurso importante en la celebración del 70 aniversario del fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, tiene la oportunidad de acelerar el acercamiento o bien de interrumpirlo. Considerando su pedigrí derechista y sus opiniones revisionistas sobre la historia en tiempos de guerra de Japón, la región se está preparando para un nuevo episodio de turbulencia diplomática en torno a su discurso.…  Seguir leyendo »

Most days over the last three weeks, South Koreans have woken up to troubling news about the spread of MERS. More infections, more school closures, more people quarantined. Authorities even isolated the entire village of Jangdeok, 150 miles south of Seoul, in a county known more for spicy red pepper paste than the infectious foreign agent authorities call Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

MERS was first detected in South Korea last month after a 68-year-old man returned with the virus from a trip to the Middle East. He went through four hospitals over nine days before being confirmed on May 20 as having the infection.…  Seguir leyendo »

The report that Korean People's Army General Hyon Yong-ch'ol, Minister of the People's Armed Forces, has been shot for insubordination – by an anti-aircraft gun and before a crowd of officials, no less – raises troubling questions about both halves of the divided Korean Peninsula.

While there still is no confirmation regarding the purge from Pyongyang, South Korean National Assemblyman Sin Kyong-min, a member of the Intelligence Committee, told reporters that Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS) has multiple sources for its claims.

The scepticism of many analysts is less about the reported execution than the timing and motivation behind its sudden revelation.…  Seguir leyendo »

South Koreans have had to deal with a series of affronts to their privacy recently, but one blow stings more than the rest: The country’s three main telecommunication companies — KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus — have been funneling subscriber information to law enforcement agencies whenever a request is made, without demanding a warrant or informing affected customers.

They gave away names, addresses, resident registration numbers and other customer information pertaining to more than six million phone numbers in the first half of 2014 alone. All of that data now sits with law enforcement authorities, with no prospect of disposal.…  Seguir leyendo »

There’s good news in South Korea: One of the country’s favorite actresses may return to the spotlight after a six-year absence. Unlike many entertainers who take time away for rehab or spiritual regeneration, Ok So-ri, a celebrated actress of the 1990s and the former host of the popular radio show “11 O’clock, I Am Ok So-ri,” left the country and abandoned her career to stay out of jail. In 2008 she was sentenced to eight months in prison after the actor Park Chul, who was then her husband, accused her of adultery. Now she is poised to come back home.

In February, South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the 62-year-old law that made adultery illegal.…  Seguir leyendo »

A los diplomáticos estadounidenses les gusta definir a los aliados de su país con elogios. Así, el mundo notará cuando este entusiasmo está ausente –como cuando la Subsecretaria de Estado de los Estados Unidos, Wendy Sherman, reprendió públicamente a Corea del Sur por sus agravios aparentemente interminables contra Japón durante una conferencia reciente sobre Seguridad en Asia, realizada en Washington, DC. De acuerdo con Sherman, la postura de Corea del sur –reflejada en su exigencia a Japón de presentar sus disculpas una vez más por obligar a mujeres coreanas a dar servicios sexuales al ejército imperial durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial –ha generado “parálisis, no avances”.…  Seguir leyendo »

The attack on Mark Lippert, the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, allegedly by a knife-wielding Korean progressive activist at a breakfast meeting in Seoul, was a rare and shocking reminder of the ongoing conflict that continues to divide the Korean Peninsula.

Despite the ever-present backdrop of inter-Korean tensions, security in downtown Seoul is typically quite relaxed. But on Thursday morning local time, the alleged assailant, who has been tied to Korean nationalist and anti-U.S. protests, reportedly shouted his opposition to annual U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises and called for Korean reunification as he cut the ambassador on the face and hand with a 10-inch knife.…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa está perdiendo el Norte. En el mundo 3.0 hemos dejado de alinear grandes empresas disruptivas. Mientras, los países emergentes están dejando el Sur: empezaron la gran migración hacia el nuevo siglo, descargando las killer apps de competitividad, apostando masivamente por la innovación y la tecnología, el Internet industrial y la economía ceativa. China, por ejemplo, ya no ambiciona ser sólo la gran factoría de bajo coste del mundo: en 2015 acaba de anunciar un megafondo de venture capital de tamaño descomunal, más de 5.700 millones de euros para invertir en startups tecnológicas, subir a marcha forzada en la cadena de valor.…  Seguir leyendo »

Hace ya mucho que las relaciones diplomáticas en Asia Oriental están supeditadas a la historia. Pero el “problema histórico” de la región se intensificó los últimos tiempos, cuando el creciente nacionalismo de importantes actores regionales como China, Japón y Corea del Sur alimentó disputas por temas muy variados, desde territoriales y por los recursos naturales hasta cuestiones de monumentos de guerra y libros de texto escolares. ¿Podrán los países de Asia Oriental superar su pasado de conflictos y forjar un futuro compartido que beneficie a todos?

Tomemos por ejemplo la relación entre los más estrechos aliados que tiene Estados Unidos en la región: Japón y Corea del Sur.…  Seguir leyendo »

North Koreans relish the element of surprise when they get to choose the stage and command the theatrics. The unexpected visit of three top North Korean leaders to the closing ceremony of the Asian Games in Incheon last week stole the show from the athletes.

The three visitors — Hwang Pyong-so, Vice Chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, and two other senior officials from the Workers’ Party of Korea, Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yang-gon — met with the South Korean prime minister, national security adviser to the president, and the head of the Ministry of Unification. It was a rather merry occasion, with leaders on both sides promising to meet again next month and offering abundant smiles and handshakes for the cameras.…  Seguir leyendo »