Free Republic

SEOUL (Reuters) - Japan should refrain from flying the “Rising Sun” flag on a warship in a fleet review planned in South Korea next week, a North Korean propaganda website said on Friday, joining South Koreans in the latest spat over the countries’ colonial history. ...“The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations,” North Korea’s state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said. “Planning to enter flying the ‘Rising Sun’ flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people.”

China is the country presenting the biggest barrier to peace on the Korean peninsula, surpassing North Korea for the first time, according to a new poll of South Korean citizens. China “does not want inter-Korean reunification”, according to 91 per cent of respondents, compared with 90, 88 and 53 per cent for Japan, Russia and the United States respectively. In the survey, released on Tuesday by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies (IPUS) at Seoul National University, 46 per cent of respondents viewed China as “the most threatening country to peace on the Korean peninsula”, a dramatic increase from...

Troops from North and South Korea began removing some landmines along their heavily fortified border on Monday, the South’s defense ministry said, in a pact to reduce tension and build trust on the divided peninsula. Project details were agreed during last month’s summit in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. In a statement, the ministry said the two sides agreed to remove all landmines in the so-called Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom within the next 20 days, with military engineers performing the hazardous task on the South...

Troops from North and South Korea began removing some landmines along their heavily fortified border on Monday, the South’s defense ministry said, as part of a pact to reduce tension and build trust on the divided peninsula. Project details were agreed during last month’s summit in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. In a statement, the ministry said the two sides agreed to remove all landmines in the so-called Joint Security Area (JSA) in Panmunjom within the next 20 days, with military engineers performing the hazardous task on...

Last week Pyongyang sent two rare Pungsans, Korean hunting dogs, to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as a token of the growing friendship between the two countries. Named Songgang and Gomi, the dogs were transferred via the truce village at Panmunjom on the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the Koreas on September 27, along with three kilos (6.6 lb) of food to help them adapt to their new home. According to the Blue House, Kim and his wife, Ri Sol Ju, suggested the gift to Moon at a dinner in Pyongyang during the South Korean leader's historic trip to North Korea...

For those whose world is based in moral equivalence, there is no difference between liberal democracy and totalitarian dictatorship. Supposed micro-aggressions or past human rights sins are disqualifying factors to condemn an enemy’s contemporary embrace of slave labor and concentration camps. Welcome to the mindset of South Korea’s supposedly progressive leadership... According to Chosun Ilbo, a conservative paper which is among the largest circulated in South Korea, President Moon is seeking to change the textbooks used in South Korean schools beginning in 2020. Not only will the new books omit that the Republic of Korea (i.e., South Korea) is the...

The Swedish Prime Minister, Social Democrat Stefan Lofven, has been voted out. A no-confidence vote was held in the Swedish parliament today following the general election earlier this month. While Lofven is out, its not clear what kind of government will be formed in the place of his. Both the "Right" and "Left" factions are short of a majority, with the anti-European Union, anti-mass immigration Sweden Democrats holding the balance of power...... US Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh says: "I've never sexually assaulted anyone"..... Deputy US Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will meet President Trump at the White House..... President...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to visit Seoul in December, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted the chief of South Korean conglomerate CJ Group Sohn Kyung- shik as saying. Kyung-shik was a member of the South Korean delegation that accompanied President Moon Jae-in this week for his three-day trip to North Korea. He joined the delegation as the head of the Korea Employers Federation, a major business lobby. During a joint press conference after the third summit, Kim said he made a promise to visit Seoul “in the near future.” Moon later added that what Kim meant by the...

North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un wants to meet with President Trump again, says South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has just returned from Pyongyang. Moon also spoke directly to the North Korean public, describing a peaceful future to an audience of some 150,000 people. "We had lived together for five thousand years but apart for just 70 years," Moon said in his speech on Thursday, in which he repeatedly addressed the crowd as "Citizens of Pyongyang, fellow Koreans." Moon continued, "Here, at this place today, I propose we move forward toward the big picture of peace in which the...

There is Breaking News from Syria overnight with 15 Russian servicemen dead after their plane was shot down by Syrian air defenses during a sudden Israeli air attack. Russia's Defense Ministry says 4 Israeli F-16's used the larger Russian IL-20 plane as a decoy for their attack on the northern Syrian city of Latakia. Russia says it reserves the right to an "adequate response".... US UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is in a knot accusing Russia of "cheating" on North Korea sanctions. Haley spoke at the UN Security Council yesterday..... South Korea's President Moon Jae In arrived in North Korea today...

Last weekend, Incheon, South Korea’s second-biggest port city, held its first-ever gay pride parade. Things took a violent turn, however, as more than 1,000 anti-gay protesters, including Christian groups, verbally and physically pushed back the 300 parade participants. The event was expected to last 20 minutes, but took hours due to the conflict. Since 2003, homosexuality has no longer been classified as “harmful and obscene” in South Korea, but discrimination against the community remains widespread. While the country’s national human rights commission act states that individuals cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation, members of the...

South Korean president Moon Jae In has raised government spending...and implemented a traditional left wing economic program. Yet Moon marries left-wing economics with the social conservatism that is still de rigueur in South Korea. During the country’s presidential campaign last year, he came out against gay soldiers and even went to so far as to state that he “ opposes” homosexuality in general. And unlike other left-wing leaders across the globe, Moon evinces hostility to immigration. For the past two months, the picturesque, subtropical South Korean island of Jeju has been home to a bizarre migration crisis. Jeju is a...

A man wearing make-up on the street may elicit unwelcome glares, questions about his masculinity and even his sexuality. But in South Korea, ideas about how to look good as a man are changing attitudes and influencing the world, as the BBC's Saira Asher reports. When the BBC posted a video about the make-up routine of a 16-year-old YouTuber in Seoul on Facebook, the reactions ranged from intrigued to downright vitriolic. Some assumed this meant he was gay, while others admonished him for his choice saying "real men don't wear make-up". There were, of course, those that argued for his...

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump over the phone, a day ahead of his special envoy’s visit to Pyongyang. Presidential Spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said that during the 50-minute conversation, the two leaders discussed ways to boost cooperation on North Korea's denuclearization and meeting at the UN General Assembly to discuss strategy and cooperation for Korean Peninsula-related issues. Moon explained that he was sending a delegation led by his special envoy to discuss ways to establish permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Moon told Trump that now is a pivotal time for establishing peace and stressed...

Kim Jong Un has clearly not made the decision to take advantage of the “one-time shot” Trump mentioned in early June, on the eve of the Singapore summit. And who can blame Kim? The Trump administration, with the exception of three minor sets of sanctions, has since the summit watched Beijing and Moscow with impunity violate U.N. rules and U.S. money-laundering laws. These Chinese and Russian actions have been so blatant that sanctions-busting has become contagious. After all, South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, now believes he can flout U.N. rules as well. Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in are now...

Tottenham fans are celebrating after their star forward Son Heung-min secured an exemption from military service by winning gold at the Asian Games - but we doubt their celebrations matched the joyous scenes among the South Korea players and staff. South Korea beat Japan 2-1 in an extra time thriller this Saturday meaning the entire team will not need to spend nearly two years in the military. After a goalless 90 minutes, three goals were scored in extra time. South Korea opened the scoring, before netting another goal. But Japan closed the gap with one of their own. South Korea...

oviet jet fighters intercept a Korean Airlines passenger flight in Russian airspace and shoot the plane down, killing 269 passengers and crewmembers. The incident dramatically increased tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States. On September 1, 1983, Korean Airlines (KAL) flight 007 was on the last leg of a flight from New York City to Seoul, with a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska. As it approached its final destination, the plane began to veer far off its normal course. In just a short time, the plane flew into Russian airspace and crossed over the Kamchatka Peninsula, where some top-secret...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday nominated the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as defense minister. Jeong Kyeong-doo, 58, a former fighter pilot, would take over the ministry as the government seeks to reduce tension and build trust with North Korea, and at a time of uncertainty over relations with main ally the United States. Jeong, who is set to replace incumbent Song Young-moo, does not need parliament’s approval but must attend a hearing and answer legislators’ questions. He would be South Korea’s first defense minister with an air force background in 24 years, media reported. The...

Days after cancelling a planned visit to North Korea by his top diplomat citing insufficient progress in denuclearisation talks, US President Donald Trump hailed his personal relationship North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday and said there was no reason to resume war games with South Korea. Trump's statement came a day after his defence secretary hinted that the drills, which North Korea denounces as rehearsals for invasion, could resume. Trump tweeted a White House statement in which he once again questioned China's role in helping to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons that threaten...

In a deadly display of defiance, 125 women in South Korea swallowed abortion drugs in protest of the country’s pro-life laws. Korea Bizwire reports the protest took place Sunday in front of the Bosingak Pavilion in Seoul, South Korea. According to the report, 30 additional women took vitamins so that authorities would not be able to tell which women took the illegal abortion drugs. Wearing black, they demanded that the government legalize the killing of unborn babies. The pro-abortion group claimed 125 women abort their unborn babies illegally every day in South Korea, according to the report. Here’s more from...