“Instead of the stars and stripes, he pinned a gold medallion in the shape of President Trump’s profile” Koreanists watching the news coming out of America as it all sounds way to familiar… www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/s...

Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era | The Daily Show www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GXN...

Just really sad to see what Trump is doing to America. Business decisions about cancel culture are one thing. Having the FCC policing political speech is another. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

Anger at the US for the ICE raid on a Korean factory continues to boil. First-term lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Party demand an official apology from the US and that Trump respect the KORUS FTA and end the tariffs on Korea. Pretty strong words koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-09...

Reports from Koreans detained by ICE are shocking Korea making this response from the Lee administration necessary. Bruised wrists from handcuffs and zip ties. Force tuberculosis shots. Slow response to medical emergency by facility staff. 1/ m.yonhapnewstv.co.kr/news/MYH2025...

Good background info if you’re curious about the connections between the American and Korean far-right. Importantly, Annie Chan is the somewhat silent or at least lesser known funder of much of the activity of KCPAC and other Korean far-right activities in the US english.hani.co.kr/arti/english...

This is quickly mushrooming into a real international incident www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

One of the first public signs the Korean govt is coming to grips with the new reality in the US. Fon Min Cho Hyun: “I could feel this is no longer the US which had really cooperated well with allies and friendly nations in the past.” 1/ www.joongang.co.kr/article/2536...

Nobody knows why the assassin did it, but it no longer matters. Only half of America will believe what the investigators find now because the shooting has political meaning well beyond what actually happened. MAGA needs this as their excuse to round up opponents. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

Young Koreans are taught like most kids not to talk to strangers or accept gifts like candy, but the older Korean generation still finds it perfectly acceptable to try and talk to kids and give them things. It’s huge generation norm gap. 1/ koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-09...

Jeon Han-gil, one of the most visible far-right figures in Korea who actively protested against Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment and arrest, at an event in the US on Saturday he said he bought a bulletproof vest and feared for his life after Charlie Kirk's assassination 1/ www.chosun.com/english/nati...

Facebook is hard to look at right now. It’s sad to see people I went to high school with supporting a guy who actively hated on other people I went to high school with. Was there hate in their hearts all along?

Wasn’t Charlie Kirk’s shtick partly about freedom of speech? Glad the State Department clears things up for us: he meant freedom of speech for white people thehill.com/homenews/adm...

Disagree with this characterization of Trump's comments during press availability. Korean media didn't even mention it. Even Chosun Ilbo framed summit as success. Instead, this is evidence that foreign and immigration policy is running on two different tracks.

Good column on MAGA's movement in Korea. And I think its exactly right to point out they may be more successful here than in Europe because of the Korean right's often slavish devotion to the US. english.hani.co.kr/arti/english...

Lee Jae Myung continues his efforts to make symbolic gestures to the conservative establishment in Korea. This time by appointing the son of Roh Tae Woo, the first president of Korea after democratization in 1987 who was dictator Chun Doo Hwan's right-hand man. www.koreaherald.com/article/1057...

As Lee Jae-myung nears 100 days in office, here's how he stacks up against previous presidents. 63% approval. Yoon at a similar period was at just 28%. Only region where is underwater is Daegu (36%) , and he is above water in every age cohort.

The active exporting of MAGA is beyond disturbing. Also disturbing is how many Koreans embrace a white-supremacist, ultranationalist movement which would ultimately end of the US-South Korea alliance they supposedly cherish. english.hani.co.kr/arti/english...

Korean progressives and independents disappointed in US raid on plant in Georgia while conservatives are mostly understanding. Not surprising. Anti-Americanism is a leftist tradition in Korea that has been tampered since the mid-2000s. However... 1/ www.koreaherald.com/article/1057...

Right conclusion, wrong frame. It shouldn’t take a new Cold War for Americans to value science and research. It makes us healither, fuels economic growth, and satisfies an innate curiosity which leads to new discoveries. Why is everything about beating China? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/o...

Despite Trump’s claim, this has very much harmed relations. Many Koreans are angry they are being bullied to invest only for the US to imprison their workers. Companies are rethinking investments. Korean govt rethinking commitments and whether US is trustworthy www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffai...

Much of my research concerns US human rights diplomacy towards S. Korea during the 1970s and 80s while Korea was under military rule. It’s wild to see the script flipped with Korea concerned about its citizens and noting human rights violations in the US koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-09...

On the one hand I always thought that people evaluating Bridge Colby’s preferred strategy talk was grossly overestimating the power he would have in the administration. But I’m still shocked the Trump admin will move this far away from the new cold war rhetoric. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Trump has officially renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War with a commensurate change in its URL to war.gov www.war.gov/News/News-St...

Unification Church payouts to US politicians coming in handy now that they are under investigation in Korea. Getting their proxies to cry about freedom of religion in an effort to get the Lee administration to back off. Trump himself is on the payroll koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-09...

One article, confirmation of two SEAL team missions in North Korea. Pretty wild. May scuttle any hope for Trump-Kim talks any time soon. Almost makes you wonder if the national security state wanted this story told so that talks may not proceed. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

Snapped this picture this morning. Banner is kind of a “wanted poster” of President Lee Jae Myung for election fraud. “China Lee’s” election win was “made by the Chinese Communist Party and the National Election Commission.” Election conspiracy theorists still hard at work in Korea.

Kim Jong Un is in Beijing riding around in a limo with the license plate number 7-271953 which is the date the armistice was signed halting the Korean War. In North Korea however it’s celebrated as Victory Day in the Great Fatherland Liberation War over the US 1/ www.joongang.co.kr/article/2536...

Timely and interesting read by Daniel Ziblatt. reader.foreignaffairs.com/2025/08/28/w...

Seen some bickering in Korea about the lack of a joint statement after the Trump-Lee summit. But what are you going to do with one? Trump doesn’t observe agreements or even laws. He’s already scrapped the KORUS FTA he himself renegotiated. www.chosun.com/internationa...

Trump’s last minute truth social post seemed like a possible wrench in the summi but turned out to be not much of anything. Which is a good thing I suppose. But that doesn’t change the fundamentals. Korea will now negotiate a trade deal that ultimately buttresses Trump’s authoritarian creep.

Sorry for link to the other place but Trump has commented on his truth social post about “purges and revolution” in South Korea. He references two things: searches of churches and of a US air base. 1/ x.com/tgethglobale...

And as ever, it is even dumber than that. As noted by @williamgallo.bsky.social, it is more likely he saw Gordon Chang on Fox News. This could go unsaid, but for those who are unsure, Gordon Chang doesn't know anything about South Korea.

That's exactly what it is. Between this and Brazil, it seems that Trump is practicing a kind of authoritarian identity politics — going after any democracy brave enough to punish its would-be authoritarians the way the US tried (and failed) to punish him

FWIW: Gordon Chang, who has been at the forefront of the Korean "Stop the Steal" campaign to defend Yoon, was scheduled to be on Fox Business this morning to discuss "South Korea issues" ahead of the Lee-Trump summit.

If you’re wondering why Trump may be talking about purges and revolution in Korea, some MAGA folk have been trying for months to get Trump to help impeached and imprisoned former Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol who has espoused election fraud conspiracies after declaring martial law last December

Trump on South Korea's political situation, just hours before his meeting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. (Lee was elected after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and jailed following his short-lived attempt to impose martial law)

This is not good. Gordon Chang or Laura Loomer may have finally gotten through to Trump about Yoon’s martial law and election fraud conspiracies. m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2025...

What really sucks for Lee is that Korean conservatives want Trump’s help in replicating what he is doing in Korea. And they use the anti-US trope to demonize Lee as if the US is still what it was 20-30 years ago. (To be honest, the US wasn’t great then either but in terms of degree…)

On the eve of the Trump-Lee Jae Myung summit, I think what I’ll be looking for is whether the SK foreign policy bureaucracy has full grasped that the typical US official has zero say or influence over what is important. 1/

Sounds interesting. Curious if the show also explores the desire of the Chun regime in the 1980s to allow erotic films to proliferate because they hoped that sex would distract the masses from the repression of the dictatorial regime. www.koreaherald.com/article/1055...

English version of the article mentioned below. www.chosun.com/english/nati...

The Korean American Public Action Committee (KAPAC), an organization that calls for a peace agreement to end the Korean War, is being investigated for violating Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) according to this Chosun Ilbo report. 1/ www.chosun.com/internationa...

Great column responding the the Greer article on Trump remaking the global economic order. english.hani.co.kr/arti/english...

Kim Keon Her and Yoon Suk Yeol make history as the first detained presidential couple in Korean history. 1/ koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-08...

Could have written the same headline for my PhD dissertation. Is PPT a thing in court these days? Had no idea. (Yoon’s wife Kim Keon Hee’s arrest warrant hearing is today) www.joongang.co.kr/article/2535...

Perhaps not surprising but Korean Air seems to be getting more expensive and crappier in quality since its merger with Asiana was approved. koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-08...

If you invade yourself is it still considered wagging the dog? Quite the ploy to make people forget the Epstein files.

Lee Jae Myung's approval rating takes a big hit, down to 56.5% from 63.3%. A big reason is his expected pardon of Cho Kuk, imprisoned former justice minister. Cho used connections to get his children into prestigious schools, a big no-no in competitive Korean society www.chosun.com/politics/pol...

At this point the US should be considered a revisionist power, no? I mean that U.S. policy apparently. ustr.gov/about/policy...