PPP interim leader Han Dong-hoon announced on Wednesday a campaign pledge to relocate the Assembly to Sejong, emphasizing the city’s status as an administrative hub with numerous ministries and public agencies. The move is positioned as a significant aspect of the party’s platform for the upcoming April 10 general elections.

He said while Sejong can be transformed into a political and administrative capital similar to Washington, D.C., redevelopment plans for Yeouido, which is the current location of the Assembly and is also the capital’s finance and investment banking hub, will be accelerated through eased regulations without the legislature, he added.

“We will fully relocate the National Assembly to Sejong, not partially, to make the city a political capital. The current parliamentary space will be repurposed into a hub for culture and finance, to be returned to the citizens,” Han said during a press conference.

Hours after Han’s announcement, the presidential office said President Yoon Suk Yeol had pledged to establish an Assembly branch in Sejong during his 2022 election campaign, indicating apparent support for the governing party’s relocation plan.

“In a meeting with reporters in the Daejeon and Chungcheong regions in July 2021, the president articulated his belief that the legislative body and administrative organization should be situated in close proximity to each other to enhance the parliamentary system and reinforce the effectiveness of the administrative structure,” the presidential office said in a statement.

It also announced plans to accelerate the establishment of a second presidential office in Sejong, aligning with one of Yoon’s campaign pledges.

The idea of moving the Assembly to Sejong is not new.

Following the passage of a revision bill to the National Assembly Act in December 2021, construction of a regional branch of the legislative body has kicked off in Sejong, aiming to accommodate several of the Assembly’s standing committees by 2030 for more efficiency in collaboration between the Assembly and ministries there.

Political commentator Park Sang-byeong viewed the introduction of an accelerated version of this project by the PPP as an attempt to bolster the party’s low approval ratings.

“The current election landscape is shifting unfavorably for the PPP, prompting the party to attempt to reverse the situation by introducing new agenda items to attract media attention,” Park said.

Wednesday’s press conference by Han was notified to reporters the night before with a vague agenda labeled as “general issues.” The abrupt arrangement and announcement seemed to be aimed at generating heightened media attention.

While the pledge may garner attention from voters in the Chungcheong region surrounding Sejong or from residents of Yeouido, it is unlikely to be a decisive factor in the elections, Park noted.

“Given the bumpy and lengthy history of previous government efforts to relocate central government organizations to Sejong, the public is well aware that moving the Assembly would be no simple task either. Plus, announcing such a pledge with only two weeks left until the elections could be perceived as lacking sincerity,” he said.

Choi Chang-ryul, a political commentator and professor at Yongin University, said that the party’s attention-grabbing pledge could help quell the public’s negative sentiment about the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.

“The PPP has undeniably sparked considerable buzz with this pledge, just days before the elections. This move could potentially overshadow the opposition parties’ campaign message, which emphasizes the upcoming elections as an opportunity to deliver a harsh verdict on the Yoon administration’s handling of state affairs,” he said.

The ruling bloc has seen a decline in support in recent weeks.

According to a poll released on Monday, Yoon’s job approval rating has kept falling from 41.9 percent at the end of February to 36.5 percent. The support rate for the PPP was 37.1 percent, down 0.8 percentage point. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) saw its support rate rise 2 percentage points to 42.8 percent. Real Meter surveyed 1,004 adults during March 21-22 at the request of Energy Economy News Daily with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission’s website.

Sejong City issued a statement welcoming the relocation plan, expressing hope for active discussions at the Assembly.

“It is clear that the relocation of the National Assembly will serve as a catalyst for balanced development of the nation, as well as the achievement of Sejong City’s long-standing pursuit of becoming the administrative capital,” the statement read.

The DPK maintained a cautious stance. While it agreed with the relocation plan itself, as the project had been advocated by previous liberal governments, it criticized the ruling party for coming up with the seemingly populist pledge to woo voters.

“Considering that the presidential campaign pledge to construct a second presidential office in Sejong remains unfulfilled, the Assembly relocation plan appears to be another election tactic to gain votes from the Chungcheong region,” the DPK’s Sejong branch said in a statement.

Back in 2003, the Assembly passed a special law to establish a new administrative capital in Sejong, following then-President Roh Moo-hyun’s campaign pledge for balanced development between the capital and non-capital areas. But in 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled that the law was unconstitutional. It said a country’s capital is where the presidential office, parliament and administrative organizations are gathered, and Seoul being the capital was an established fact according to the “customary Constitution.”

Following that ruling, the Roh administration decided to relocate only parts of government ministries, which now comprise the Sejong administrative town.

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Observers suggest that the detainee could be caught up in Russia’s hostage diplomacy tactics, and anticipate that the situation could drag on for months, if not years. Moreover, this incident could signal a shift in Russia’s stance toward North Korean defectors, particularly considering the detainee’s purported involvement in assisting North Korean workers in the far eastern region of Russia.

Earlier this week, the Russian state-owned media outlet TASS agency reported that a South Korean man named Baek Kwang-soon, aged 53, was apprehended in January on charges of espionage in Vladivostok. He was subsequently transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention facility in February, typically reserved for high-profile political detainees. The Lefortovsky Court has extended his detention until June 15.

This marks the first known case of a South Korean national being arrested on espionage charges in Russia, where such offenses carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison.

Baek is believed to be associated with a Seoul-based Protestant charity that provides humanitarian aid through missionary work. He served as the head of the organization’s Vladivostok branch, primarily involved in aiding North Korean workers in the region.

“The Russian Federal Security Service has long been skeptical about South Korean missionaries, not only because of their religious activities but also due to speculation that there may be government spies among them,” Jeong Jae-won, a professor of Eurasian studies at Kookmin University, told The Korea Times.

“While much remains unknown about the case or whether he really engaged in illegal activities, Russia’s decision to reveal this incident to the public suggests that it may leverage it to influence relations with South Korea,” he added.

The relationship between the two nations has been strained in recent years, mainly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and Seoul decided to support Kyiv by providing non-lethal, humanitarian aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that the return to a partnership level of cooperation between South Korea and Russia depends on Seoul, according to TASS.

The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is maintaining a low-key response, sharing little to no information about the case with the news media, while emphasizing close communication with Russian authorities.

However, critics say that the extensive coverage of Baek’s case by TASS could undermine the foreign ministry’s efforts to address the situation discreetly through diplomatic channels.

According to the media outlet, citing law enforcement officials, Baek is accused of masquerading as a writer to gather classified information and subsequently passing it on to undisclosed foreign intelligence agencies. The report also provided details about Baek’s family and his occupation as the owner of a tour company in Vladivostok.

“Every move by the Russian government is carefully calculated. I would be prudent about linking the case directly with the current tense bilateral relations, but the timing of the arrest is worrisome,” a former South Korean envoy to Russia said, requesting anonymity.

From another perspective, Baek’s arrest could signal a shift in Moscow’s stance toward North Korean defectors. Russia’s position toward North Korean refugees has been relatively lenient compared to China, which forcibly repatriates them to Pyongyang.

“South Korean missionaries in Russia provide North Korean escapees with shelter and assistance in filing their refugee applications with the U.N. refugee agency in Moscow. This practice has been common as the Russian government does not typically crack down on it,” said a former diplomat who served in Russia for over a decade.

However, as Moscow strengthens relations with Pyongyang while ties with Seoul are strained, Baek’s arrest seemingly demonstrates Russia’s toughened stance on North Korean defectors, he added.

“This case suggests that Russian authorities may be adopting a less tolerant stance towards South Korean missionaries who aid North Korean workers in escaping, as well as the perceived indirect involvement of the South Korean Embassy in facilitating their escape.”

National Security Adviser Chang Ho-jin said later on Thursday that crucial communication with Russia is continuing in order to offer consular assistance for Baek.

“There was communication between the authorities of South Korea and Russia before the case was made public,” Chang said in a radio interview. “We will continue to explore avenues for providing effective consular protection by closely monitoring the progress of Russia’s investigation.”

South Korean Ambassador to Moscow Lee Do-hoon met with Russia’s Vice Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, Wednesday, and requested active cooperation to ensure Baek’s safety and the protection of his rights.

Hours after their meeting, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing that the authorities are reviewing granting the detainee consular access.

While she remained tight-lipped about developments in the investigation, she commented that this case does not help improve strained bilateral ties.

“As for the impact on bilateral relations, unfortunately, we have recently seen a lot of things from Seoul that can indeed be qualified as actions that go against the interests of the peoples of the two countries, and to put it mildly, do not contribute to the development of bilateral relations,” Zakharova said.

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Amid the prolonged Russia-Ukraine war, Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hinted at providing support other than humanitarian aid to Kyiv, prompting Russian President Vladimir Putin to issue a rare warning that implied devastating consequences for their bilateral ties.

In addition, the Korean government, which joined the international community’s financial sanctions against Russia in 2022, made a decision last month to tighten export controls on Russia, a move provoking Russian threats of retaliation.

“If and when our Korean partners would be ready to once again enhance or enlarge the scope of our cooperation, I think that goodwill will most certainly be reciprocated by Russia,” the ambassador said during an interview with The Korea Times at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Seoul, Friday.

“Korea is one of the friendliest among so-called unfavorable nations. I do hope that the Republic of Korea would be among the first so-called unfavorable nations that become favorable.”

Zinoviev, a career diplomat who took office earlier this month, said that Korea is different from some Western powers which want Russia “defeated, humiliated or disintegrated,” which the ambassador said is not the goal of South Korea’s diplomacy and foreign policy.

“I do not think that that is kind of philosophy that is supported by our Korean partners,” he said.

On the contrary, the ambassador took Western countries to task for employing a deliberate strategy to accuse Russia of wrongdoings, which ultimately drove a wedge between Korea and Russia.

“One more goal would be to drag Korea further apart from Russia. By that kind of allegations and accusations, we already experience some turbulence in our bilateral relations,” he said.

“While I think in the best interest of Russia and Korea is to contain that damage to get our relations out of turbulent area, perhaps some other countries would like them to enter into not just the turbulence but into the thunderstorm.”

Direct export of arms to Ukraine

Against the backdrop of heightened global geopolitical tensions, the demand for weapons and ammunition has surged to unprecedented levels. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas confrontation have fueled this spike.

As the conflict in Ukraine intensifies, the international focus is shifting toward Korea as the international community is urging the nation to contribute to the supply of much-needed ammunition to bolster Ukraine’s defense efforts.

Zinoviev expressed deep concerns over Korea supplying arms exports directly to Ukraine, warning of potentially severe consequences to bilateral relations.

“We have expressed many times to our Korean partners that it would be very detrimental for bilateral ties if the Republic of Korea starts direct arms exports to the Ukrainian regime, and we do not want to see the ammunition killing Russian soldiers,” Zinoviev said.

He highlighted the gravity of such a scenario, suggesting that it could “deal a heavy blow” to the future prospects of their relations.

The ambassador acknowledged that this position has been communicated to Korean officials through diplomatic channels and public statements.

“We’ve seen several official statements by the Korean side that it is not going to and is not planning to have direct arms exports of weapons toward Ukraine and we take this position seriously,” he said.

Zinoviev expressed hope that Korea would continue to uphold this commitment for the sake of their future relations. He stressed the importance of considering not only the current situation but also anticipating the post-conflict era in Ukraine.

“The conflict on the Ukrainian territory will end and I have no doubts that it will end by Russia achieving its goals that it has set for the special military operation which is demilitarization of the Ukraine and making sure that the Ukraine does not pose a threat towards Russia’s security,” the ambassador said.

Russia welcomes return of Korean companies

The ambassador expressed optimism about the potential for Korean companies to regain their foothold in the Russian market, highlighting the historical success of Korean businesses in Russia and the favorable attitudes Russian consumers had toward Korean products.

“Well, Korean companies had a very strong and big share in Russian markets and it used to be very much respected and loved by Russian consumers,” he said. “One of the names of an international company that came to the mind of a Russian consumer, if you just ask him on the street, would be Samsung.”

However, he acknowledged that the current situation has changed, with a decrease in the market share of Korean companies in Russia, revealing that only one out of 50 cars sold in Russia last year came from Korea while before the war 20 percent of cars were Korean-made.

Last month, Hyundai Motor, Korea’s leading carmaker, decided to sell its Russian manufacturing plant. The St. Petersburg facility, launched in 2010, halted operations in March 2022, citing disruptions in component supplies attributed to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Despite this decline, he underlined the absence of artificial restrictions or barriers imposed by Russia and added that Korean companies will be welcomed if they return at their convenience.

“I would like to stress that unlike Western or Japanese companies, none of Korean companies publicly declared that they are leaving the Russian market due to political reasons. No one slammed the door,” Zinoviev said.

The ambassador expressed hope that Korean companies would consider returning to the Russian market, which he described as lucrative with numerous opportunities. He assured that Russia is open and welcoming to their return, stating, “We do hope that Korean companies have in mind the idea of returning to Russia as soon as possible, and we will be welcoming that.”

Cultural exchanges

Zinoviev underscored the significance of cultural exchanges as a means of strengthening ties between Russia and Korea. As part of that, Moscow’s state-owned Bolshoi Ballet is scheduled to perform in Seoul in April.

“The meaning of this visit is to have our Korean friends enjoy first-class world culture through cultural exchanges,” he said.

“We do hope that our Korean friends will continue to enjoy the first-class world culture brought to them by Russian artists, as Korean artists are very welcomed in Russia as well.”

Zinoviev emphasized the resilience of people-to-people connections and cultural ties, noting their resilience amid the current global turbulence affecting other areas.

He cited this as an example of a solid foundation that could help both nations return to normalcy and elevate their bilateral ties to a higher level.

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The police apprehended the 20-something suspect, only known by his surname Choi, just five minutes after receiving a report at around 5:59 p.m. that a man was stabbing people at the department store adjacent to the Seohyeon subway station.

The suspect is employed in the delivery industry, according to sources.

Nine people were stabbed by the attacker, with eight of them in critical condition, according to officials. Five others were hit by the car before the rampage, with two of them suffering serious injuries.

The victims’ ages ranged from 20s to 70s.

The suspect repeated incomprehensible statements to the police, including that “an unknown group” attempted to murder him with a hitman.

Choi tested negative in a rapid drug test and was found not to be under the influence of alcohol.

The police plan to send hair samples to the National Forensic Service to carry out detailed tests and check his mental health records.

According to witnesses at the scene, the suspect wore a black outfit and sunglasses, and brandished a knife estimated to be around 50 to 60 centimeters long. The suspect entered the department store after his car did not move, they added.

Members of the police’s special operation unit enter the scene of a stabbing rampage at a department store adjacent to Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, on Aug. 3. Yonhap

While some witnesses claimed there was more than one offender, the police concluded that there were no accomplices.

South Korea’s police chief called the accident an “act of terror,” and vowed to increase patrols in crowded areas and strengthen surveillance through security cameras.

“There are concerns over copycat crimes due to a series of accidents, with people expressing fears of coming out onto the street,” National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun said during a meeting, calling for officers to strengthen visible police activities at crowded locations.

On July 21, a 33-year-old man named Cho Seon also fatally stabbed a complete stranger in his 20s near Seoul’s Sillim Station and then attacked three other men in a nearby alleyway.

Cho was formally arrested two days later on charges of murder and attempted murder.

In a separate event, the police also launched an investigation into an online post which threatened another stabbing rampage at Ori Station located in Seongnam on Friday afternoon. The police said it has dispatched officers to the area. (Yonhap)

A vehicle that the stabbing rampage suspect had driven near Seohyeon Station / Yonhap

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According to officials, Sunday, the two countries were still in talks over the size of the Korean inspection team and what they will be allowed to do at the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant among other issues, ahead of their four-day visit to the area next week.

The Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, say the release of the contaminated water into the sea will begin in the coming months ― possibly this July after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) releases its final report on the issue.

Before releasing the irradiated water, TEPCO says it will be filtered through a system designed to remove hazardous radionuclides. But the filtering process cannot separate tritium, a harmful radioactive isotope of hydrogen, which concerns many local residents as well as neighboring countries.

Suh Kune-yull, a professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Seoul National University, is among those who remain skeptical that the Korean inspectors will dispel safety and environmental concerns about the water.

“It’s too late to do anything meaningful to change the course,” Suh told The Korea Times. “Whatever the inspectors find or say, which I doubt they will, Japan will most likely follow its water-release schedule.”

His skepticism comes from the formation of the group, which is expected to exclude civilian experts, as well as the “questionable timing” following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this month.

“I think the inspection was motivated by politics rather than science,” he said. “We could’ve sent such a team earlier like Taiwan did last year … What concerns me is that there has been little PR effort by Japan after the Taiwan inspection team’s repeated visits to the Fukushima area. If it was confirmed to be safe, I think Japan would have promoted it.”

Members of liberal opposition parties and civic groups stage a rally against a planned visit by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the National Assembly in Seoul, May 4. AP-Yonhap

Speaking at a media conference, Friday, Park Ku-yeon, the first deputy chief of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said that Korea would be able to analyze the situation more thoroughly by taking advantage of all the data available as a member country of the IAEA ― unlike Taiwan ― through the international organization. Asked whether Korea’s safety confirmation of the water discharge plan would lead to the lifting of Korea’s ban on sea product imports from the region, Park vehemently dismissed the possibility, saying it “will never happen.”

But that cannot be guaranteed, Suh said. Japan could capitalize on the Korean government’s report to shore up its case if it decides to bring the issue to the World Trade Organization or other international bodies when it feels necessary, he noted.

However, some experts such as Shin Kak-soo, former Korean ambassador to Japan, say the government should focus rather on what it can earn through the inspection. Japan, they say, can and will release the contaminated water ― with or without Korea’s approval.

This issue may well be another big test of the government, which, under President Yoon, has been struggling to maintain public approval ratings while trying to improve ties with Tokyo after years of diplomatic disputes over many issues.

According to a poll released on Sunday, 51.6 percent of the respondents said they think sending an inspection team to Fukushima is a diplomatically wrong decision, with 41.3 percent approving it.

As part of the effort to ensure safety, Korea’s oceans ministry said it plans to conduct a rapid radiation test on ballast water from ships departing from 17 ports near Fukushima. If Japan begins to release some 1.25 million tons of wastewater as planned, the ministry said it will order all ships coming from the ports to refill their ballast water before entering Korean waters.

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A few stranded household objects indicate that the tattered house was indeed occupied at one point ― white garments hung on a clothesline far back, coal briquettes littered on one side and a handcart that was likely a source of income.

The obvious visual clash between the derelict shack and rows of identical high-rise apartments looming in the background would catch the eye of any passerby.

That was exactly the case for student photographer Kim Jung-il in 1982.

Inspired by Eugene Atget, an acclaimed French photographer who dedicated his craft to documenting the urban landscape of 19th-century Paris before its disappearance to modernization, Kim went on a self-assigned mission to record Seoul’s postwar terrain that had been transforming before his very eyes.

Sure enough, three years after his image was taken, the house and its surrounding barren land gave way to Hyundai’s flagship department store, reshaping today’s Apgujeong and the rest of the southern Gangnam District as the most affluent neighborhood in the country.

So, what was Seoul like on the cusp of modernization, early in its metamorphosis into a concrete jungle bursting with skyscrapers, high-tech subways and a population of almost 10 million?

Through the portraits of the city captured by documentarians like Kim and Lim Chung-Eui, its neighborhoods that were razed and disappeared into history over the last 40 years have gained new life.

In their photographs, Seoul still manages to present itself as a forest of organically formed villages and twisted alleys that reveal an old way of living before homogeneous rows of apartment complexes took over.

“When I was taking photos of the parts of Seoul that were about to disappear, I knew that they would undergo transformation but never imagined it to be so profound and life-altering. We couldn’t have possibly envisioned the cityscape and skyline we see today,” Kim said in a joint interview with Lim held at the Seoul National University Museum of Art (SNUMoA) in southern Seoul.

The two were among the four artists who were invited to showcase their treasured photographic collections capturing the bygone days of the metropolis at the museum’s recently wrapped-up group exhibition, “Myein, the Concave Lens in My Heart.”

‘Moon village,’ home to urban poor

Many of the places depicted in the two artists’ photographs come from different corners of “daldongnae” which once cluttered Seoul. Translated literally as “moon village,” these were communities that were built high up on mountainsides, thus allowing “a closer view” of the moon.

It’s a rather beguiling name given to the settlements formed as an inevitable byproduct of economic hardship.

The villages were largely home to urban poor and refugees who poured in from North Korea following the country’s division in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War as well as those from the countryside who flocked to the industrializing metropolis en masse since the 1960s in search of jobs.

For a while, the hillside communities in Sillim-dong, Bongcheon-dong, Sanggye-dong and Dogok-dong, among many others, were overlooked by the government with their hard-to-access lands cluttered with shanties and winding alleyways.

That is until advances in construction engineering and the building of new roads and bridges put these unregulated, high-altitude villages into the sights of redevelopers.

The establishment of the Urban Redevelopment Act in 1976 provided administrative gateways for Seoul to carry out the so-called “downtown renewal projects” throughout the 1970s and 1980s. This period also coincided with the country’s bid to host the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics, which called for rapid, large-scale beautification schemes to project to the world a new cultural image of Korea beyond its war-torn past.

“The accelerated state-led redevelopment marked the beginning of Korea’s widespread land speculation and the consequent wealth divide,” Kim noted. “In Seoul, the elements that were once considered to be part of nature or one’s organically established residence ― like the Han River, the hillsides overlooking the river and other plots of land occupied by the impoverished ― turned into objects of speculation with monetary value beyond the wildest imagination.”

Accordingly, most moon villages riddled with aging houses and tattered shacks were razed, giving way to high-rise apartment complexes, parking lots and public parks that make up the majority of Seoul we know today.

With the exception of a few still-standing communities like Guryong Village in Gangnam District, Gaemi Village in northwestern Seodaemun District and Baeksa Village in northeastern Nowon District, moon villages have become a thing of the past that now live only within the collective memory of older Seoulites.

Lim Chung-eui’s “Outer roads of Bongcheon 5-dong” (1985) / Courtesy of the artist, SNUMoA

Two documentarians’ journey to capture Seoul’s bygone days

In a way, Lim followed in the footsteps of his father Lim In-Sik (1920-98), a celebrated documentary photographer whose snapshot of nameless student soldiers with a determined look taken during the first year of the Korean War remains iconic to this day, but with a twist.

“My father was very much against the idea of me pursuing a career in photography since it was an occupation where making money was never guaranteed,” he said.

So, he decided to become the country’s first-generation architecture photographer, working alongside prominent architect Kim Swoo-Geun (1931-86) and taking up projects commissioned by government agencies and private firms. His images depicting Seoul’s newly constructed major infrastructure were delivered to the International Olympic Committee Session in Baden-Baden, West Germany, helping the city become the host of the 1988 Summer Olympics.

For his personal projects, however, his photographic subjects extended far beyond the city’s glitz and glamor and reached all the way to moon villages. Lim himself resided in a moon village tucked away in Seongdong District’s Geumho-dong for around a decade in the 1960s.

But looks of puzzlement would often follow Lim as a tall man wielding a tripod and a camera in the narrow alleyways of Sillim-dong, Bongcheon-dong and Geumho-dong. It sometimes got him into more trouble than he expected.

Some villagers would mistake him as an undercover employee sent by redevelopers preparing to evict them from their homes. He was even accused of being a North Korean spy by the police at one point for “deliberately photographing the dilapidated neighborhoods of Seoul, and not the city’s more affluent sites.”

Lim Chung-eui’s “A clothesline installed across an alleyway of Sillim 7-dong” (1985) / Courtesy of the artist, SNUMoA

“I was simply there to play my role as a witness to capture as plainly as possible the features of the village and people’s lifestyle within which still retained our traditional ways of living,” Lim said. “After all, that’s the fundamental role of photography ― a visual messenger. Despite all that trouble, it was meaningful to have been able to document the things I saw.”

An outstanding characteristic of his moon village photographs is the way the private and the communal are mingled seamlessly in terms of space.

The shared alleys became “privatized” by everyone in different yet harmonious ways. Some would carefully lay out a group of their “jangdokdae” ― traditional Korean crocks for sauces and condiments ― in the alley. Others would hang laundry on clotheslines installed temporarily across the passageway on a sunny day. There was even an entrance to someone’s bathroom located right in the middle of the pathway.

And for children, the alleys became an ideal playground to call up their neighbors to play hide and seek and other popular outdoor games.

“This was what life was once like in Seoul. It may look dismal or inconvenient in the eyes of present-day viewers, but the villagers, who didn’t have a yard of their own, were able to make the best use of the available space and created a harmonious living area,” the photographer noted.

Kim’s photographic representation of moon villages is fascinating in its own right.

As a student photographer attending Chung-Ang University, he chose some 40 sites to shoot that were designated as redevelopment districts in 1982 based on an article he read.

So, with his camera and a checklist in hand, he went on a personal artistic mission.

Taking cues from Atget whose documentary photos of Paris were taken mostly at dawn and therefore showed no signs of life, Kim also decided to omit people from most of his images ― but for a different reason.

“I thought it would be impudent of me to feature those residing in moon villages as mere props in my photos. I wanted to be careful when including them in the scene and avoid any semblance of so-called ‘poverty porn,'” the 67-year-old told The Korea Times.

His purpose of producing the series he later named “Landscape of Memory” (direct translation) had a few layers: objective yet aesthetic documentation of history that can serve as a concrete reminder of the moon villages’ existence.

Accordingly, whether the subject is a shanty, public toilet, church, or an abandoned plot of land, the documentarian captured everything as if shooting a frontal portrait, transforming it into the protagonist of a new unstated narrative.

Kim Jungil’s “Bongcheon-dong” (1982) / Courtesy of the artist, SNUMoA

Modern Korea has been great at “eliminating ‘outdated’ infrastructure without leaving a trace but has failed to document it properly,” according to Lim. That’s why, he continued, the surviving photographic records that offer a glimpse into the country’s major transformation in the 20th century should be preserved for future generations.

“Frankly speaking, such materials need to be purchased by and maintained in state-level archives,” the 79-year-old said. “After all, these records are more than just a part of the photographer’s personal project; they have immortalized a portion of the nation’s understudied history.”

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In an effort to create something meaningful after the fruitless 2019 summit between Washington and Pyongyang in Hanoi, the Ministry of Unification will begin various projects this year with the authorities in Vietnam, such as building up an archive of how the Southeast Asian nation became an economic success story through its radical reforms.

According to a written plan Unification Minister Kwon Young-se submitted to President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday, the ministry also seeks to set up a joint advisory group with Vietnam and strengthen ties with experts and scholars in that country.

Speaking to reporters the previous day, a high-ranking official at the ministry said authorities in Vietnam agreed to cooperate for the noteworthy cause and meet their South Korean counterparts to discuss possible joint projects.

“As we have learned lessons from German reunification over the past 30 years, North Korea took their lessons from Vietnam’s example. We need to study what they study to learn what the North has learned so as to better comprehend its views,” the official said.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se speaks during a press conference at the government complex in Seoul, Friday, following his presentation to President Yoon Suk Yeol. Yonhap

Citing Vietnam’s decision to introduce “Doi Moi,” the economic reforms initiated in 1986 to create a “socialist-oriented market economy,” the official also mentioned the possibility that North Korea might consider emulating the same path eventually.

In fact, Vietnam has much know-how to share with North Korea. It fought a war with the U.S. for 20 years before its reunification in 1975 and suffered from harsh economic sanctions (for occupying Cambodia) by many countries afterward. However, since adopting a strategy of integrating itself into the world’s free-market economic system, Vietnam has become richer and more stable. In the process, it also restored relations with the U.S. while maintaining friendly ties with North Korea and a one-party system.

There were signs that North Korea was willing to learn from its “communist comrade” state. In 2018, North Korea’s then-Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho visited Vietnam to study its reforms. It was also reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s delegation informed Vietnam’s government that he was interested in visiting a Samsung factory in the country ahead of his summit with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

Yoon asked the ministry to stay optimistic and be prepared for the possibility of Korea’s unification, which many now believe is improbable.

“The opportunity for unification could come suddenly and it would be achievable only if we were prepared,” Yoon said.

A man reads a copy of the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea’s official newspaper, on a bus in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this Jan. 11, 2021, file photo. The Ministry of Unification plans to give the public better access to North Korean media. AFP-Yonhap

South Korean public to get better access to one of North Korea’s official newspapers

In another major project for 2023, the unification ministry said it plans to give the public better access to North Korean media.

The ministry will launch a pilot project to make Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of Pyongyang’s Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, more accessible to people here.

Reading the papers or watching TV content from the North is legally permissible ― but only in government-designated places. Few know where they are located and it is difficult to get up-to-date information. Therefore, most of those interested in understanding North Korea get such content from overseas-based websites or by using a VPN, which could be considered unlawful under the National Security Law.

Speaking to The Korea Times, a ministry official said the government ultimately aims to give the public online access to Rodong Sinmun and other North Korean media content. But doing so would take longer than a year, given many legal issues and concerns.

However, he said, lifting the decades-old ban on public access to such content would lead to a positive change in North Korea, as the informed and educated readers of the South could pressure North Korean reporters when they make or report illogical or foolish “facts.”

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Crippled by international sanctions, the Kim Jong-un regime, which has refused to abandon its nuclear ambitions, has turned to digital crimes, or stealing cryptocurrencies ― an act feared to help fund the development of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

“The threat posed by North Korea’s cyber activities, especially its cryptocurrency thefts, is very real and very serious. The money North Korea has stolen, which is now in the billions of dollars, is a pure revenue stream that can finance North Korea’s most destabilizing activities,” said Nick Carlsen, a blockchain analyst at TRM Labs and a former FBI analyst.

“Their nuclear, missile and even intelligence operations now benefit from the resources these crimes generate for them.”

Alex O’Neill, the co-founder of the Belfer Center’s North Korea Cyber Working Group, also said North Korea boasts significant capabilities in cyberspace, especially for generating illicit revenue.

“North Korean threat actors are not as sophisticated as some other state actors, but the resources they devote to cybercrime and the experience they’ve amassed over the last decade have helped them develop into an increasingly formidable threat,” he said.

From left are Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow of the Asan Institute for 
Policy Studies, Nick Carlsen, a blockchain analyst at TRM Labs, and 
Alex O'Neill, co-founder of the Belfer Center's North Korea Cyber Working Group.

“Aside from the breaches and financial losses themselves, the international community is concerned that North Korean cybercrime blunts the effects of the sanctions regime and provides a major new cash stream for Pyongyang. It is particularly alarming that some of the proceeds seem to support North Korea’s WMD programs.”

According to blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis, North Korea stole $1.75 billion (2.2 trillion won) worth of cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2020 and chalked up some 800 billion won last year alone, including a single operation in which it stole $620 million in bitcoin, according to the South Korean National Intelligence Service. The amount represents a staggering haul, compared with the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) of $27.4 billion in 2020. In 2021, its economy also retreated 0.1 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

However, Go Myong-Hyun, a senior fellow of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, believes that Pyongyang’s cyber capabilities are not as sophisticated as before, adding that a shift in cyber-raid targets has led its cyber capabilities astray.

“Until 2016, North Korean hacking groups had launched cyberattacks against high-security governments or defense companies, raising speculation the country’s cyber capabilities may have reached a significant level. However, since then, it has hacked cryptocurrency exchanges or banks to gain financial profits (in not-so-advanced ways),” Go said.

Before a group of North Korean hackers known as Lazarus carried out an $81-million cyber heist of the Bangladesh central bank in 2016, they sent spear phishing emails to employees of the bank and gained access to the bank’s network before using the SWIFT message network to try to withdraw up to $1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York ― a method seen as an old-fashioned trick in the digital age, according to Go.

“Taking a closer look, its modus operandi is not a highly developed technology, but a phishing campaign,” Go said, adding that as two hot keywords ― North Korea and cryptocurrency ― are involved, the issue is drawing more attention.

Despite admitting the gravity of North Korea’s increasing cryptocurrency heists, experts were skeptical whether the North Korean regime is walking away with a large chunk of money taken from the illicit activities.

“North Korean actors have inflicted billions of dollars of losses on victims around the world, but only a fraction of each heist actually reaches the Kim regime’s coffers. The high transaction costs of converting stolen cryptocurrency into fiat money, not to mention declining asset prices, mean the ultimate recipients end up with only a portion of the amount initially taken from victims,” O’Neill said, adding that driving up those transaction costs is “key to countering North Korea’s cybercriminal statecraft.”

Carlsen echoed O’Neill’s view. “There is no doubt North Korea is behind a large proportion of crypto thefts. The only questions remaining are the exact amounts stolen, and how much of the stolen crypto North Korea is able to be converted into usable traditional currencies,” he said.

“If anything, the scale of these thefts and their importance to the North Korean regime are hard to overstate. Cybercrime generally, and crypto thefts, in particular, are now a key element in the North Korean government’s economic strategy.”

In that respect, North Korea may find itself in a dilemma over transactions, according to Go.

“To ultimately convert digital currency into funds that can be readily used is another requirement for North Korea, but it would not be easy because some exchanges with abundant liquidity may be under tight surveillance,” Go said.

“In addition, cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a blockchain, so crypto hacks can be traced, meaning that it cannot be a risk-free asset for (cash-strapped) North Korea.”

For those reasons, Go said that it is excessive to believe that the entirety of North Korea’s crypto loot went into its weapons programs amid last year’s sharply increased missile tests.

Actually, Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security adviser, said last August that about a third of stolen cryptocurrencies were used to fund North Korea’s missile program.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversees a military drill carried out to check and 
assess the war deterrent and nuclear counterattack capability of the country, 
in this undated photo released Oct. 10 by the North's official Korean 
Central News Agency. EPA-Yonhap

Currently, the rapid drop in crypto’s value, compounded by the bankruptcies of crypto exchanges, including the world’s second-largest crypto exchange FTX, may deal a blow to North Korea, which is believed to have lost millions of dollars to the crypto crash, the experts noted.

“The ‘crypto winter’ is certainly bad news for North Korea. As firms like Chainalysis and TRM Labs have reported, some of North Korea’s stolen virtual assets have shed more than two-thirds of their value over the last few months,” O’Neill said.

Carlsen added, “Declining crypto prices have probably caused quite a few headaches in Pyongyang. What was worth hundreds of millions earlier this year, for example, the proceeds of the Axie/Ronin Bridge hack, are now worth quite a bit less. On paper, this might look bad for North Korea’s hacking teams and their bottom lines.”

North Korea stole more than $620 million in cryptocurrency from the online video game Axie Infinity’s Ronin network last March.

“Instability in the crypto industry is also causing North Koreans other headaches. For example, RenBTC ― perhaps North Korea’s favorite ERC-20 token ― was destroyed in the aftermath of the FTX collapse,” Carlsen said.

However, the pundits did not expect the general downturn in the crypto market to decrease Pyongyang’s appetite for obtaining cryptocurrency seriously.

“Even at depressed prices, crypto is still extraordinarily lucrative for North Korea. A few dozen skilled hackers can earn as much as tens of thousands of construction laborers in Russia, or coal miners inside North Korea and their brokers in China. North Korea may reassign some crypto theft specialists to other forms of cybercrime, but crypto theft will continue to be a key focus for North Korea,” Carlsen said.

With North Korea’s unprecedented cyberspace successes at generating revenue for its nuclear ambitions, South Korea, the United States and the international community are scrambling to find ways to stop it.

“As South Korea has the incentive to stop North Korea’s digital crimes from helping the development of its WMD and solid cyber capabilities, it is South Korea that would be the most like-minded country to the U.S. in dealing together with the North Korean cybercrime issue,” Go said.

“In addition, the South Korean government is also required to closely monitor local crypto exchanges that were robbed by North Korean hackers,” he said.

O’Neill said both countries should proactively target the online services and over-the-counter (OTC) brokers that facilitate North Korea’s cybercrimes, based on U.S. authorities’ actions last year against cryptocurrency mixers.

“As the U.S. and South Korea deepen their cooperation on this issue in bilateral and multilateral settings, one priority should be developing a more robust approach to regulating the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which remains far too hospitable to fraudsters and criminals. Another priority should be building other countries’ capacities to fight North Korean cybercrime and improving the flow of information between law enforcement agencies worldwide,” he said.

O’Neill also said the international community should also be concerned about the transferability of North Korea’s cybercrime statecraft.

“The model North Korea has pioneered, in which state-sponsored cyber actors generate illicit funds to support the regime’s malign activities, undoubtedly appeals to other rogue states and has the potential to undermine conventional sanctions. The United States, South Korea and like-minded states should develop plans for mitigating other countries’ likely embrace of state-directed cybercrime,” he said.

Noting that crypto-related crimes happen fast and traditional investigative response times are inadequate, Carlsen said, “Perhaps more important is the deepening cooperation between industry, and especially cryptocurrency exchanges, with law enforcement investigators.”

He added, “Exchanges are where the crypto rubber meets the real financial world’s roads ― exchanges are where crypto is exchanged for real-world currencies. Even though many exchanges are not required by law to help the governments investigating and trying to intercept the crypto stolen by North Korea, many are voluntarily cooperating proactively. This is wise. These exchanges are not only doing the right thing, they are also protecting themselves. They are all targets for the North Koreans too, after all.”

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President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the South Korea-ASEAN Summit at a hotel 
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 11. Courtesy of presidential office

Based on those action plans, the reports explained how South Korea will “expand our diplomatic horizon beyond the Korean Peninsula” in regions of the North Pacific, Southeast Asia and ASEAN, South Asia, Oceania, the African coast and the Indian Ocean, Europe and Latin America.

“As a global pivotal state, the Republic of Korea seeks to expand the geographical scope and breadth of cooperation,” the English-version report reads. “As we deepen bilateral partnerships grounded in common interests, our approach will be multi-layered and comprehensive as we pursue partnerships with multilateral groupings that are aligned with our principles of cooperation, as well as regional and international organizations.”

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Choi Seong-beom, chief of Seoul’s Yongsan fire department, said the death toll could grow as emergency workers were continuing to transport the injured to hospitals across Seoul following the stampede in the leisure district of Itaewon Saturday night.

He said 13 of the dead have been sent to hospitals while the bodies of the remaining 46 were still on the streets.

Choi also said more than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from around the nation, including all available personnel in Seoul, were deployed to the streets to treat the injured.

It was believed that people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.

“The area is still chaotic so we are still trying to figure out the exact number of people injured,” Moon Hyun-joo, an official at the National Fire Agency said.

Emergency workers and pedestrians were seen performing CPR on people lying in the streets.

Multiple people, apparently among those injured, were seen covered in yellow blankets.

Police also confirmed that dozens of people were being given CPR on Itaewon streets while many others have been taken to nearby hospitals.

A local police officer said he was also informed that a stampede occurred on Itaewon’s streets where a crowd of people gathered for Halloween festivities.

Local media said around 100,000 people flocked to Itaewon streets for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest in years following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in recent months.

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