Friday’s mask-free summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden not only upgraded the 70-year Seoul-Washington alliance but also demonstrated how far the two nations have come in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Cheong Wa Dae sources on Tuesday, going maskless was almost unthinkable when Seoul’s presidential office was preparing for the leaders’ first face-to-face meeting, as they also took reference to an earlier summit between Biden and Japanese Prime Min

Politics May 25, 2021

President Moon Jae-in is heading to Washington on Wednesday ahead of his first summit with President Joe Biden on Friday, marking his first overseas trip since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be his fifth visit to the US as president. The overall itinerary and the size of the delegation have been reduced due to heightened quarantine measures, but his five-day US trip still has a packed agenda. According to Cheong Wa Dae, Moon plans to kick off his official schedule Thursday b

Politics May 18, 2021

South Korean spy chief Park Jie-won relayed a reconciliatory message from President Moon Jae-in to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, diplomatic sources said Thursday. Park, the head of the National Intelligence Service, paid a courtesy call to Suga on Wednesday during a visit to Tokyo for a trilateral meeting with his US and Japanese counterparts. The message is believed to have conveyed Moon’s wishes to normalize the tense relations between the two countries, but no details wer

Foreign Affairs May 13, 2021

US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines arrived in Seoul on Wednesday, ahead of next week’s summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Joe Biden. According to diplomatic sources, the US spy chief is expected to tour the Demilitarized Zone, including the border village of Panmunjom, on Thursday. Discussions are also reportedly underway for her to meet with Moon and his national security adviser, Suh Hoon. Seoul’s presidential office declined to co

Foreign Affairs May 12, 2021

The US government last week reached out to North Korea again to explain the outcome of its policy review on Pyongyang, and the North responded to confirm the contact, according to diplomatic sources on Tuesday. Even though North Korea didn’t immediately accept the overture for dialogue, its response, first in months, is raising expectations about the possible resumption of the stalled talks between Washington and Pyongyang. There had been reportedly multiple attempts for the US to reen

Foreign Affairs May 11, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Monday said he would not be pressed by time in reviving the collapsed diplomacy with North Korea but pledged last-ditch efforts to make a breakthrough in the remaining year of his presidency. “If there is a will, there is a way. It is the aspiration of 80 million Koreans to end the era of confrontation and conflict on the Korean Peninsula and usher in an era of peace and prosperity,” the president said in a speech marking his fourth year in office. His ter

Politics May 10, 2021

Fresh controversy is building in South Korea over the memoirs of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, published almost 30 years ago. A local publishing firm republished the eight-volume memoirs, titled “With the Century,” last month for the first time here. But sales were suspended almost immediately after civic groups filed a court injunction to stop them, citing the National Security Act. The books chronicle Kim’s life through his childhood to his time in the anti-J

North Korea May 4, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Monday stressed South Korea’s possible role as a production hub for COVID-19 vaccines, pledging efforts to ramp up local production, including securing more licensing deals with global vaccine makers. “Our nation, boasting the world’s second-largest production capacity of biomedicines, is getting renewed attention as a potential global hub for vaccine production,” Moon said in an urgent COVID-19 response meeting with related government offices.

Politics May 3, 2021

Construction of President Moon Jae-in’s post-presidency residence has been halted recently faced with resistance from residents of the area, according to Cheong Wa Dae sources Thursday. Moon and first lady Kim Jung-sook plan to relocate to Habuk, a small town in the rural city of Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, after retiring in May 2022. They purchased a 2,630-square-meter property in the area for 1.06 billion won ($870,000) last year. Following the purchase, the Presidential Sec

Politics April 29, 2021

President Moon Jae-in has maintained a prudent approach to issuing pardons, and no exception is expected for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is serving jail time on bribery charges. “We never discussed the issue and have no plans to do so for now,” a Cheong Wa Dae official flatly told reporters Tuesday in response to a petition filed by the nation’s major business lobby groups seeking a pardon for Lee. Former presidents often issued pardons for chaebol

Politics April 28, 2021

President Moon Jae-in and Novavax CEO Stanley Erck have agreed to expand the current partnership on the local production of the US drugmaker’s new vaccine, including the possible extension of a licensing deal to share manufacturing technology, according to Cheong Wa Dae sources Tuesday. The two held a face-to-face meeting at the presidential office earlier in the day. In their first video conversation in January, the South Korean government secured 40 million doses of the new Novavax va

Politics April 27, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday reaffirmed his will to restore the collapsed diplomacy with North Korea in marking the third anniversary of his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. “The Panmunjeom Declaration is a milestone for peace that no one can undermine,” he said during a weekly Cabinet meeting, referring to the landmark deal that was signed by the two leaders on April 27, 2018. “The path for peace, promised in the declaration, should not be reversed

North Korea April 27, 2021

President Moon Jae-in is expected to hold a face-to-face meeting with Novavax CEO Stanley Erck on Tuesday amid the pending production of the US drugmaker's new COVID-19 vaccine here, according to Cheong Wa Dae on Monday. “The president will exchange opinions on the expansion of the vaccine production partnership with Novavax and discuss ways to advance the adoption, including an earlier regulatory approval,” presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said. Moon and Erck held

Politics April 26, 2021

President Moon Jae-in is not ruling out the possibility of North Korea participating in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, which he said could pave the way for the two Koreas to co-host the 2032 Olympics, according to a senior Cheong Wa Dae official on Wednesday. “It remains to be seen whether North Korea will participate in the Tokyo Olympics. North Korea tends to make a big decision at the last minute,” the president reportedly said during a luncheon with the new mayors of Seoul and B

Politics April 21, 2021

Last week’s highly productive US-Japan summit has left few options for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is heading to Washington next month for a summit with the new US president, experts say. US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga presented a united front on China in their first face-to-face meeting on Friday.  The leaders reaffirmed their commitments to countering China’s continuing assertiveness over Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China S

Foreign Affairs April 20, 2021