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China Is the Key to Handling Nuclear North Korea
Will Marshall

Engagement with North Korea has been a bust -- at least in South Korea's eyes. In sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan, the regime in Pyongyang also torpedoed the South's 'sunshine policy' of humanitarian aid and economic investment in the North. Let's hope the incident also shatters some illusions in Washington.

Korean Tensions: Waiting for China
Sheila A. Smith

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, after a measured response to the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel two months ago, announced Seoul's own actions, including a freeze in trade with the North. Lee also said that should another such incident occur, South Korea would take all steps necessary for self defense

The Rise of Asia's Universities
Richard C. Levin

The rapid economic development of Asia since World War II has forever altered the global balance of power. These countries recognize the importance of an educated work force to economic growth, and they understand that investing in research makes their economies more innovative and competitive.

U.S. - North Korea Stalemate
Bernard Gwertzman

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is reportedly scheduled to visit China for a visit that would likely include China urging a return to the Six Party Talks on denuclearization, which have been at a standstill. It will be an impasse difficult to break, according to Scott Snyder, with the United States demanding denuclearization and North Korea demanding a peace treaty

Facing Realities on North Korea
Henry A. Kissinger

It is time to face realities. We are now in the 15th year during which America has sought to end North Korea's nuclear program through negotiations. These have been conducted in both two-party and six-party forums. The result was the same, whatever the framework

Changing North Korea
Andrei Lankov

When it comes to dealing with North Korea the United States and its allies have no efficient methods of coercion at their disposal; the regime is remarkably immune to outside pressure. Its leaders cannot afford change, so they make sure their state continues to be an international threat, using nuclear blackmail as a survival tactic while their unlucky subjects endure more poverty and terror. Since outside pressure is ineffective

Relief Over Freed U.S. Journalists Tempered by Long-Term Implications - Henry A. Kissinger
Freed Journalists
(c) M. Ryder

Relief Over Freed U.S. Journalists Tempered by Long-Term Implications
Henry A. Kissinger

Amidst the widespread relief that the two American journalists have avoided the brutal fate meted out to them by a North Korean court, it may seem captious to consider the long-term implications. The impulse to save two young women from 12 years of hard labor in a North Korean gulag is powerful. Yet now that this goal has been achieved, we need to balance the emotions of the moment against the precedent for the future.

'Never Again' in North Korea? Think Again
Jonah Goldberg

For decades now, we've known that what's going on in North Korea is too terrible to contemplate. Even so, what once haunted us as an ill-defined and foreboding suspicion has clarified into the secure knowledge of broad and systemic evil.

Today, North Korea; Tomorrow, Iran - Nuclear Weapons
By Paul Greenberg

North Korea has been playing around with nuclear weapons again, this time setting off an even bigger underground explosion. To which the five veto-wielding powers at the United Nations have responded much as they did the first couple of times the North Korean regime defied the UN by setting off nukes: with oh-so-serious, oh-so-official statements.

Time to Test North Korea - Nuclear Weapons
Global Viewpoint

John Bolton, a leading neo-conservative official during the Bush administration, is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In this interview Bolton provides his opinion on North Korea's nuclear weapons testing and what the United States and the World needs to do in response

North Korea's Nuclear Weapon Challenge
Henry A. Kissinger

The Obama administration has so far dealt publicly with the North Korean challenge in an understated, almost leisurely, manner. The challenge goes far beyond the regional security issue. For the United States, it involves relations with an emerging superpower (China); relations with a re-emerging Russia; relations with key U.S. allies (Japan and South Korea); and a major escalation in the threat of proliferation to non-state parties.

10th Seoul International Financial Forum Kicks Off

Campaigning Begins for By-elections

Large Retailers Adopt Carbon Emission Report Cards

College Entrance Exam Scores Reveal Regional Gap

Accident Insurance to Be Available for Bicycle Riders

S.Korea Ready to Launch Own Satellite

SK Telecom to Provide WiBro Service in Jordan

Korea-EU FTA an 'Opportunity to Beat Crisis'

Korean Economy Regaining Foreign Confidence

N.Korea to Be Discussed in S.Korea-Japan Meeting

Assistance Should Focus on Low-Income Earners

Feeling Guilty for Eating Rice

Unemployment Soars in March

Kim Ji-soo Promotes Ceramics Expo

Kosdaq Sees Record Trading Volume

Reduced Taxes for Apartment Buyers to Be Expanded

Fleet Sales Could Damage Hyundai in U.S.

New Iranian Proposal Aims to End Nuclear Dispute

Suicide Bomber Kills 10 in Iraq

Housing Market Sees Slight Recovery

Swiss Bank Cuts Jobs as Global Unemployment Soars

Thai Gov't Cancels Ex-Prime Minister's Passport

Survey Reveals Teens' Porn-Browsing Habits

N.Korea Celebrates Founder's Birth

Korea to Get First Domed Ballpark

U.S. Economy Shrinks a Bit More Slowly

N.Korea Expelling U.S. Monitors from Reactor Site

Will England Resort to IMF Assistance?

Asia's 'Leading Economic Indicator' in Economic Shock

To fry croquettes without breaking them

Obama Promotes Tax Policies, Thousands Protest

Rising Golf Star Danny Lee Turns Pro

U.S. Treasury Says China Not Manipulating Currency

Chewing Gum Relieves Stomach Pain

Clinton Announces U.S. Anti-Piracy Measures

White House Condemns N.Korea Over Nuclear Talks

Seoul Delays Decision on WMD Initiative

More Botox Uses 'Spell Bright Prospects for Manufacturer'

China Outpaces Its Rivals on Road to Recovery

Study: Illegal Immigrants Having More Children in U.S.

Somali Pirates Attack Another U.S. Ship

Lessons from the Roh Moo-hyun Investigation

Obamas Welcome New 'First Dog' to White House

Why Americans Respect Their Ex-Presidents

Crackdown on Neglected Cars Starts

Gyeonggi Gives Green Light to Express Train Lines

More Than 2 Million Visit Korea in Q1

Prices of Imported Raw Materials Lowest since July 2005

10 Major Industries Face Restructuring

Michelle Wie Pulls Out of Pro-Am Event

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Top U.S. officials go to South Korea to send message to the North
The United States is going all out this week to show support for its key Asian ally, South Korea, in the wake of one of its war ships being sunk, as President Barack Obama dispatched the secretaries of State and Defense to the Korean peninsula.

U.S., South Korea to hold major military drills
The United States and South Korea will conduct major joint military exercises starting Sunday just off the Korean peninsula, the U.S. military announced Tuesday.

12 killed as bus plunges off S. Korea's longest bridge
Twelve people were killed and another dozen wounded when a bus fell off South Korea's longest bridge Saturday while trying to avoid a collision with a truck, local media reported.

North Koreans jailed in assassination plot
A South Korean court sentenced two North Korean military officers Thursday to 10 years in prison for plotting to assassinate a high-profile defector who once worked for dictator Kim Jong-il, South Korea's news agency said.

Tensions ripple through Korean peninsula on 60th anniversary of war
North and South Korea marked the 60th anniversary of the Korean War with sober commemorations and sharp rhetoric as tensions continued to ripple between the two countries over the sinking in March of a South Korean warship.

Minister: South Korea rocket apparently blew up
A South Korean rocket apparently blew up just over two minutes after launch, a government minister said Thursday.

South Korea formally asks U.N. Security Council for action over ship
South Korea has formally asked the U.N. Security Council for action over what it says was North Korea's sinking of one of its warships in March, the Mexico U.N. mission said.

Helium balloons float propaganda into North Korea
Park Sang Hak and his family jammed 150,000 sheets of paper, dollar bills, DVDs and tiny AM/FM radios inside bags attached to giant inflatable helium balloons.

North Korea condemns South over warship claims
A North Korean official has questioned South Korea's credibility for its rhetoric and actions over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, state-run media in North Korea reported Saturday.

North Korea freezes relations with South Korea
Mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula reached a new level Tuesday as a North Korean agency announced that the communist nation is severing all ties with its neighbor to the south and will "abrogate the agreement on non-aggression."

Oil falls 2% in global sell-off
Oil futures slumped 2% Tuesday as political tension between North and South Korea -- and Europe's continued economic woes -- sparked a sell-off in global stock markets.

Jitters strike world markets
European and Asian shares dived Tuesday amid ongoing debt worries and concerns about tensions between North and South Korea.

U.S., South Korea to conduct joint military exercises
The U.S. military will conduct joint exercises with the South Korean military in response to that country's announcement that North Korea was behind the recent sinking of one of its warships, the Pentagon said Monday.

North Korea denies sinking warship; South Korea vows strong response
The president of South Korea has vowed "resolute" measures against North Korea for its alleged attack on a South Korean warship, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.

Will South Korea blame the North for sinking warship?
As South Korea awaits the results of a probe into the sinking of a warship, expected to be made public Thursday, debate is already underway over the policy options open to Seoul if the investigation holds North Korea responsible.

South Korea holds funeral for 46 sailors
The mood was somber in South Korea Thursday as the nation officially honored the sailors who were lost when their warship went down near disputed waters off North Korea last month.

Body found in sunken South Korea vessel
The body of a missing sailor was recovered in the wreckage of a South Korean ship that went down in the Yellow Sea in March, Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

South Korea: External explosion sank ship
A South Korean investigator said Friday that an "external explosion" was the most likely cause of the mysterious sinking of a naval ship in which 46 South Korean sailors were lost in tense waters off the North Korean coast.

South Korea raises sunken naval ship
South Korea raised a naval ship from the floor of the Yellow Sea that sank under mysterious circumstances last month, Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Thursday.

South Korea and Japan streets ahead in smart transport
Juwan Yoo was tired of calling up the old-school telephone hotline to find out when his bus would come -- and excited about the iPhone's arrival in South Korea.

Why Internet connections are fastest in South Korea
People in the United States basically invented the Internet. So U.S. connections must be the fastest and cheapest in the world, right?

Virtually addicted: Weaning Koreans off their wired world
While in high school, Cheong Beom-seok often slept through his classes and played online games seven or eight hours at night, sneaking in front of the computer while his parents were in bed.

Police: Couple nurtured virtual child while real baby starved
Police have arrested a South Korean couple whose toddler starved to death while they were raising a virtual child online, authorities said.

How's the environment doing? Ask the buildings
Imagine that you could double the size of your apartment as a reward for saving electricity, water and gas. It's an idea proposed by the Seoul-based design collective Randomwalks and architect Lee Min-soo for the green redevelopment of Incheon, outside the South Korean capital.

Weapons testing turns deadly in S. Korea
An explosion at a state-run weapons research lab north of Seoul killed one person and injured five on Thursday, South Korea's semiofficial Yonhap news agency reported.

Korean navies exchange fire
North and South Korea said their naval forces clashed Tuesday in disputed waters, and each blamed the other for what is the first such violent incident in seven years.

Eye on South Korea
CNN takes an in-depth look at South Korea, including how the nation is working to become a brand leader on an international scale and on how the nation is recovering from the global economic recession.

Beyond the barbed wire: the accidental paradise of the DMZ
While the world remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, one frontier of the Cold War remains intact; the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea.

U.S. broadband lags Asian nations
South Korea leads the world in providing broadband services, according to a study released on Thursday. The United States did not make the top 10.

Long-separated Korean families have reunion
Some families long separated by the Korean War saw their loved ones Saturday for the first time in years near the border between North and South Korea.

Border traffic normalized between two Koreas
Cross-border traffic between North and South Korea returned to normal Tuesday, ending eight months of restrictions imposed by the North, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

Koreas reach deal to reunite families
North and South Korea reached an agreement Friday on reunions for families separated for decades by the Korean War, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korean rocket fails to reach full orbit
South Korea's space program suffered a blow Tuesday after a satellite launched from its first space rocket failed to reach proper orbit, a science official said.

Two Koreas to discuss reunions for split families
North and South Korea will hold three days of talks on reunions for families torn apart by the Korean War and divisions between the two countries, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

S. Korean leader gets message from Kim Jong Il
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday met with a visiting North Korean delegation, and received a message from the North's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il, according South Korea's state media.

South Korea delays first rocket launch
South Korea's first rocket launch has been delayed because of a technical glitch, the country's official news agency reported.

Former South Korean leader, Nobel winner on respirator
A former South Korea president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea has been placed on a respirator in a hospital, a news agency reported Thursday.

N. Korea gives S. Korea ultimatum over industrial complex
North Korea Friday unilaterally informed South Korea that all contracts relating to a jointly-run industrial complex along their border are null and void, according to South Korean officials.

North and South Korea talks last only 22 minutes
Details emerged Wednesday from the first government-to-government talks between the two Koreas in more than a year.

S. Korea reroutes flights, cites 'threat'
South Korean commercial airlines have rerouted their planes after North Korea said it could not guarantee the safety of flights near its airspace.

Clinton in South Korea as missile controversy brews
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in South Korea on Thursday on the third leg of her four-nation tour of Asia.

N. Korea preps for satellite launch amid 'space development' claim
Denying recent intelligence suggesting it is preparing to test a long-range missile, North Korea signaled Monday it is gearing up to launch a satellite, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

N. Korea ups ante in standoff with S. Korea
North Korea said Friday it has nullified all political and military agreements with South Korea, an extreme move that could raise tensions between the neighbors and lead to a military clash, South Korean state-run media reported.

S. Korea looks to buy North's nuclear fuel
South Korea has said it will send a delegation of nuclear experts to North Korea this week to survey its unused nuclear fuel rods and possibly buy them.

SKorea: Kim Jong Il's Health Has Improved
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il appears to have recovered enough from a stroke to run the country without difficulty, South Korea's spy chief told lawmakers Tuesday.

2 Koreas Hold Military Talks Amid Tension
Working-level military officers from North Korea and South Korea met Monday to discuss improving their lines of communication amid strained ties between the divided nations, officials said.

Six dead in South Korea fish knife frenzy
A financially strapped South Korean man went on an arson and stabbing rampage in Seoul on Monday, leaving six people dead and seven others wounded, police said.

South Korea Sees Nothing Unusual in North Korea
South Korea's government and private analysts questioned media reports Sunday that North Korea was poised to make an important announcement possibly concerning the health of its leader, Kim Jong Il

South Koreans Are Shaken by a Celebrity Suicide
The "Nation's Actress" is found dead in her apartment after being attacked by aggressive online rumors

Blind masseurs jump from bridge
Police in South Korea have arrested 26 blind masseurs who were threatening to jump from a bridge to protest a government decision they say will rob them of their livelihood.

Boarding house fire kills 6 in S. Korea
A fire at a boarding house early Friday killed five men and one woman, injuring 11 other people, South Korea's Yonhap news service reported.

US Allowed Korean Mass Executions
The American colonel tried to stall, but the declassified record shows he finally told his South Korean counterpart it "would be permitted" to machine-gun 3,500 political prisoners, to keep them from joining approaching enemy forces during the Korean War

Scores hurt in S. Korea beef protests
Thousands of protesters battled riot police in downtown Seoul early Sunday morning after a rally opposing South Korea's decision to import U.S. beef turned violent. More than 100 were wounded, the state news agency reported.

S. Korea to resume U.S. beef imports
South Korea's government said Wednesday it would resume imports of American beef this week, hoping to move on from a crisis that battered the pro-U.S. administration with weeks of anti-government protests over food safety.

S. Korea, US Agree on Beef Imports
All U.S. beef exported to South Korea will come from cattle less than 30 months old, officials said Saturday, in a deal made to placate South Korean protesters

S. Korean beef protests force government shake-up
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak plans to shake up his cabinet this week after massive protests, triggered by a deal his government reached to resume U.S. beef imports, the state news agency reported Monday.

South Korea backs off importing U.S. beef
No U.S. beef will exported to South Korea until the countries agree on limiting shipments to meat from cattle of a certain age, South Korea's agriculture minister said Tuesday.

South Korea to resume U.S. beef imports
South Korea will open its market to most U.S. beef, a senior government official said Thursday, according to state media.

S. Korea leader 'baffled' by mad cow fears
South Korea's president has apologized on national television for failing to take on board concerns in his country about mad cow disease.

North Korean officer defects to South Korea
A North Korean soldier defected across the demilitarized zone and sought asylum in South Korea on Sunday, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman.

South Korea to Resume U.S. Beef Imports
South Korea agreed to resume U.S. beef imports that had been halted over mad cow disease, clearing a key hurdle to a broader trade deal with Washington

Report: S. Korea, U.S. reach beef deal
Hours before a U.S.-South Korean summit, the two nations have reached an agreement that could clear the way for South Korea to resume imports of U.S. beef, a South Korean news agency reported Friday.

North Korea: South Korea driving relationship to 'catastrophe'
North Korea cut off dialogue with South Korea on Thursday, claiming the peninsula was on the brink of another war.

What is telematics?
In South Korea, telematics is big business. If it sounds like a buzzword to advertise the latest purveyor of high-tech must-have gadgets, its etymology is no less firmly rooted: "tele" means remote; "matics" means information. Cruising right alongside wireless broadband and DMB (Digital Media Broadcast) cell phones, telematics refers more specifically to automobiles receiving remote information from commercial service providers. These services could include Global Positioning System (GPS), on-demand entertainment, Internet and Web access, or weather and traffic conditions.

'Wired' South Korea is underexposed
South Korean Chang Won-kim was always a writer and a tech-head, so he quite naturally entered the blogosphere in 2005. His English-language, technology-themed, Seoul-based blog Web 2.0 Asia was inspired by both the need and the personal ambition to convey the evolving state of South Korea's all-too-domestic online industry to the rest of the world.

Can South Korea's President Deliver?
While he was mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung Bak was known for thinking big. He'll need his ambition more than ever as President

Question of the Week: Energy sources
With oil peaking at $100 a barrel, the world energy crisis continues to push countries to develop alternatives to handle depleting fossil fuel sources.

Warehouse blaze claims 40 lives
A massive fire swept through a newly constructed warehouse in Icheon, South Korea Monday, burning for several hours and setting off a series of explosions that killed 40 workers inside, fire officials have told CNN.

Internet groups forging a community of charity
South Korea has long enjoyed some of the fastest and most widely available broadband Internet access on the planet. Top online gamers are bona-fide TV celebrities, and long before MySpace, there was South Korea's Cyworld, a social networking site launched back in 1999.

Report: 14 sailors missing
Fourteen seamen were missing Tuesday after a ship carrying nitric acid sank off the coast of South Korea in rough seas, maritime police said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

South Korea straddles the politics of change
South Korea's last presidential election, in December, 2002, took place against a backdrop of escalating tension on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's nuclear program and the Bush administration's refusal to negotiate with Pyongyang.

A Win for South Korea's 'Bulldozer'
Lee Myung Bak sweeps to victory in South Korea's presidential election on promises to revitalize the economy

Koreans Struggle to Clean Oil Spill
Thousands of people used shovels and buckets in a massive operation Sunday to clean up the South Korea's largest oil spill, which blackened beaches along the country's western coast.

South Korea's Cloudy Campaign
The front-runner in the country's presidential race is cleared of fraud allegations, thus averting a setback that could have cost him the upcoming election

South Korean cinema struggles with High Definition
As South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival -- widely recognized as Asia's most important film showcase and market -- wraps up its 12th year, one thing has become apparent, at least for the domestic industry: High Definition filmmaking hasn't quite reached the omnipresent proportions many believed it would have by now.

Eye on South Korea: Your e-mails
South Korea is reputed to be the most wired country in the world. CNN has asked readers to weigh in on the topic. How is technology affecting daily life in South Korea, and influencing the rest of the world? Below is a selection of responses, some of which have been edited for length and clarity:

South Korea: CNN video coverage
South Korea is reputed to be the most wired country in the world -- broadband Internet in almost every household and every primary, junior and high school; free television broadcasts on cell phones; professional online gamers with rock-star status; humanoids replacing hosts, clerks, nannies and sentries; 17 million members on Cyworld; and a robot in every home by 2020.

Future tech and puppy love in South Korea
With its anonymous skyline and mind-numbing traffic, Seoul may not seem like a sci-fi city. And yet it's blazing one very high-tech trail.

S. Korea scandalized by fake degrees
South Korea's top universities said this week they will set up a system to detect academic fraud after a disc jockey, a revered Buddhist monk and an aging actress were swept up in a fake-degree scandal.

U.S., South Korea pledge relief to North
North Korea's neighbors and international aid agencies sought Thursday to help the impoverished country cope with floods that have decimated large swaths of farmland, endangering citizens already struggling with food shortages.

S. Korea-U.S. summit comes at critical moment
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun sits down for a summit meeting with President George W. Bush on Thursday at a time when the security alliance between the two countries that has helped maintain stability in Northeast Asia for more than half a century faces unprecedented challenges.

S. Korea to pull troops from Iraq
South Korea -- a major supporter of President Bush's Iraq policy -- has announced plans to pull a third of its troops out of Iraq in 2006, a National Security Council spokesman said Thursday.

8 troops die in S. Korea rampage
A South Korean soldier stationed along the Korean demilitarized zone has gone on a shooting rampage, killing 8 of his colleagues, the nation's defense ministry has reported.

N. Korean ship docks near Seoul
For the first time in over two decades, a North Korean ship docked in a South Korean port Sunday, the start of a series of voyages to pick up fertilizer donated to North Korea by the South Korean government.

Cloning success hailed, feared
A breakthrough in human embryonic stem cell research by scientists in South Korea has been hailed as ground-breaking, with the potential to fight a host of ailments, but some people have raised ethical concerns.

S. Korea asks North to return boat
South Korea's military will ask North Korea to return a small boat that ignored warning shots and crossed into Northern waters.

Superstar gamers hot property
It's a cold Tuesday night in South Korea and tens of thousands of people are staying indoors to watch online gaming matches on television.

Dialing up to do business
Big money is changing hands every day in South Korea, and a large percentage of it is happening at the touch of a cellphone button.

Buck the falling dollar
In late February when South Korea's central bank said that it was planning to shift some assets out of U.S. Treasuries and into other currencies, the disclosure set off a day of panic selling in th...

U.S. helicopter down in S. Korea
A U.S. soldier died and a second was wounded when a military helicopter crashed on Saturday while conducting a training exercise in South Korea, officials said.

Dollar tumbles, bonds slide
News that a number of central banks indicated they would diversify their reserves out of Treasuries and into other investments such as the euro sent the dollar tumbling Tuesday, and pressured bonds as well.

S. Korea selects new capital site
South Korea has confirmed it will move its future seat of government to a rural site south of its capital Seoul.

Mystery as more defectors land
A second wave of defectors believed to be North Koreans has arrived in the South in a secretive mass defection that has seen the refugees flown in from an unidentified Southeast Asian nation.

S. Korea: No changes to troop plan
South Korea says it will go ahead with its plan to deploy thousands of troops to Iraq despite a televised threat from militants to kill a South Korean hostage.

S. Korea outlines Iraq dispatch
South Korea will begin deploying more than 3,600 troops to the Erbil region of northern Iraq in August.

Koreas agree to military hotline
North and South Korea have agreed to set up a military hotline in a step towards easing tensions along their heavily fortified border.

U.S. confirms S. Korea troop cut
The United States has notified South Korea and Japan it plans to move about 3,600 troops from South Korea to Iraq, senior Pentagon officials confirmed to CNN.

S. Korea eyes political stability
South Korea's government has pledged economic and political stability Friday, a day after parliamentary elections which saw the pro-government Uri Party win a slim majority.

S. Korea backs pro-president party
South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party conceded defeat in the country's parliamentary election Thursday to the pro-government Uri Party, which is allied with impeached President Roh Moo-hyun.

Koreas cancel economic talks
The impeachment of South Korea's president has prompted the cancellation of economic talks planned Monday, after South Korea refused a request by North Korea to hold them in Pyongyang.

South Korea: News & Videos about South Korea - CNN.com
Find stories, videos, and photos about South Korea from CNN.com.

Dangerous Waters in Korea
The military maneuvers in the Korean Peninsula only increase the risk of war.

U.S. and South Korea Begin War Drills
North Korean officials threatened to respond to the show of force, which involved one of the largest American nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

North Korea Issues a New Warning
North Korea vowed to respond with “powerful nuclear deterrence” to joint American and South Korean military exercises set to begin this weekend.

Welcome Back, I.M.F.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn made it plain that it was essential for the I.M.F. to reflect the Eastward shift in global economic gravity.

Aircraft Carrier Washington Visits South Korea
The Nimitz-class carrier and three American destroyers will arrive as the United States and South Korea prepare for joint military exercises.

North Korean Poster Depicts a Ship Suffering an Eerily Evocative Attack
A poster recently smuggled out of the country depicts a red fist smashing an enemy warship.

U.S. Wary of South Korea’s Plan to Reuse Nuclear Fuel
The United States will soon begin renegotiating a treaty on whether and how South Korea will reprocess its spent nuclear fuel.

North Korea Postpones Meeting on Warship Sinking
The North Korean move comes after the U.N. Security Council adopted a statement last weekend condemning the attack that sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors.

Teaching Machine Sticks to Script in South Korea
The country, known for its enthusiasm for technology, is “hiring” hundreds of robots as teacher aides and, and is experimenting with robots that would teach English.

Korean War Panel Finds U.S. Attacks on Civilians
But the commission decided not to seek compensation or criminal charges in most of the cases, possibly reflecting the government’s desire to avoid antagonizing the United States.

South Korea Raises Interest Rates
Projecting growth of 5.8 percent and with an eye on inflation, Korea became the latest country in the Asia-Pacific region to raise the cost of borrowing.

A Capitalist Enclave in North Korea Survives
At the Kaesong Industrial Complex, 121 mostly South Korean companies to employ 44,000 North Koreans despite rising political tensions.

In Sliver of Open Space, Uruguay Finds a Route Past South Korea
Luis Suárez curled in a spectacular shot in the 80th minute to help Uruguay advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1970.

Cheers in Far-Off Places Come at Europe’s Expense
Watching the first round, one gets the feeling that the global game is experiencing a swing away from Europe.

The Men I Lost
A violation of a prime law of combat — avoid predictability — led to an ambush by the Chinese.

NYT > South Korea
Updated: May 25, 2010

By Su-Hyun Lee and Sang-Hun Choe

Korea's old name, Chosun, means "the land of morning calm." But the nation has had a turbulent modern history. After 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, it was liberated by the Allied forces at the end of World War II - only to be divided into the Communist North and the pro-Western South. The two sides, the North aided by the Chinese and the South by the Americans, fought the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The war ended in a cease-fire, not with a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula technically still in a state of war.

An international crisis was sparked by the sinking in March 2010 of a South Korean warship following an explosion that killed 46 sailors. In May, the South Korean government presented forensic evidence that a North Korean torpedo had struck the 1,200-ton corvette, the Cheonan, near a disputed sea border with the North.

Relations between North and South deteriorated to their worst point in many years on May 2010, as the South Korean president recast North Korea as its "principal enemy" - a designation dropped during inter-Korean detente in 2004 - and the North retaliated by severing its few remaining ties with the South.

The crisis unfolded against a backdrop of long-simmering frustration with the North. The inter-Korean border remains the world's most heavily fortified frontier, guarded on both sides by nearly two million battle-ready troops. To the north, North Koreans live under a totalitarian dictatorship that keeps its people in isolation and hunger. To the south, people live in the freedom of one of the world's largest economies - although the country's once fast-growing export economy has been hammered by the global downturn.

Read More...

The Post-Korean War Era

Unlike many other dictators in the third world, the military leaders of South Korea, ruling over a country devastated by the war, had a vision for economic development. They marshaled the country into rapid industrialization. But people wanted more. When people rose up in the southern city of Kwangju in 1980 to demand democracy, the junta dispatched paratroops and tanks to kill hundreds. Student and labor movements rocked campuses and factories throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. In 1993, military generals relinquished power to Kim Young Sam, the nation's first civilian leader in three decades. One thing that didn't change was a prevalent anti-communist sentiment.

South Koreans were shocked and humiliated when their country had to beg a $45 billion international bailout amid the region-wide financial meltdown in the late 1990s. They elected Kim Dae-jung, a long-time opposition leader, as president in 1998. He flung the door open for foreign investors, who bought distressed South Korean firms at fire-sale prices, restructured them and exited, often with staggering profits. Many of the people who had rolled out the red carpet for foreign capital felt bitter.

Mr. Kim's election brought long-persecuted liberal forces into power. They focused on engaging North Korea - an approach that resulted in the first-ever summit meeting between the two Koreas in 2000. In its wake, two million South Koreans visited a North Korean mountain resort. And in a scene televised worldwide, aging Koreans separated by the war a half century ago tearfully hugged one another in temporary family reunions.

The Presidency of Roh Moo Hyun

Mr. Kim tried to reshape South Korea's alliance with the United States. Friction with Washington over how to deal with North Korea - with sticks or with carrots - increased under Mr. Roh Moo-hyun, who came to power in 2003, vowing not to "kowtow to the Americans" - an election-year slogan hugely popular among the postwar generations of nationalistic and often anti-American South Koreans. But in the second half of his term, Mr. Roh also took major steps toward expanding the Korea-U.S. alliance by completing a free trade agreement with the United States; he also dispatched non-combat troops to Iraq as a partner in the American-led coalition forces.

After a decade of liberal rule, however, South Koreans grew concerned about what many perceived as a growing rift between Seoul and Washington. They also felt "sandwiched" between high-tech Japan and low-cost China. They worried about rising housing prices and unemployment among the young. They thought Mr. Roh was bungling the economy.

Lee Myung Bak in Power

The sentiments translated into a landslide victory for Lee Myung-bak in the presidential election in 2007. His election put conservatives back in power. He promised to strengthen ties with Washington and run the country like an efficient business. A former construction C.E.O., Mr. Lee is South Korea's first president with a business background.

Mr. Roh jumped off a cliff on May 23, 2009, as prosecutors were aggressively pursuing allegations of corruption against him and his family. He had long insisted that in a country where all the recent presidents were touched by scandal, his government was clean. His death set off a weeklong period of grief and mourning unrivaled in recent South Korean history.

A Changing Society

Korean society is changing rapidly. Learning English is a national obsession. South Koreans supply the third largest group of foreign students in the United States after the Indians and the Chinese. They were immensely proud when their former foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, became the secretary general of the United Nations in 2006.

Dynamic, emotionally rich and descriptive of modernized yet deeply Asian ways, South Korean pop culture - or "K-pop" - has proved widely popular in the rest of Asia. From Japan to Myanmar, people tune into South Korea drama shows and movies. Thanks partly to the "Korean wave," foreign brides from poorer Asian countries like Vietnam flock to marry Korean men in the countryside, where there is a shortage of young women of marriageable age. Asian migrant workers toil in farms and factories in South Korea, doing the menial work many South Koreans shun. Only a few years ago, school textbooks used to declare proudly that Korea is a "homogeneous nation." No more. The country is rapidly turning into a multiethnic society.

Korea Today

South Korea is suffering its worst rate of unemployment since the 1997 Asian currency crisis. According to the National Statistical Office, the unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent as of July 2009 - low by American standards, but high for this Asian economic powerhouse. (Since then, economic difficulties have eased somewhat.)

Today, former white-collar workers, for instance, have been forced to go into more physically demanding work or traditional kinds of manual labor that are relatively well paid in South Korea - from farming and fishing to the professional back-scrubbers who clean patrons at the nation's numerous public bathhouses.

Nonetheless, in South Korea, most households are fitted with high-speed Internet. Players at the "e-sport" professional leagues - dragon slayers in cyber space - have a bigger fan club than traditional pop stars. Cell phone text- and image-messaging has replaced voice calls and e-mails as the primacy tool of communication among the nation's youngsters.

Continuing North-South Tensions

The government of Mr. Lee has upended many of the policies of his immediate predecessor, Mr. Roh, a liberal who had focused on developing ties with North Korea and sent it significant amounts of aid. Mr. Lee has taken a much tougher stance toward the North, pushing hard for it to give up its nuclear program. Many South Koreans had expressed frustration with the North even before its latest nuclear test, on May 25, 2009, the missile tests that followed, and the sinking of the Cheonan.

After the death in August 2009 of former president Kim Dae-jung, whose "Sunshine Policy" had led to the two Koreas breaching their border to connect roads and railways, ties had seemed to improve slightly. But the warship's sinking in March 2010 may have ended the "Sunshine Policy" altogether.

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