This month, a South Korean missionary was arrested in Russia on charges of espionage. According to Russia’s official news agency, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a South Korean citizen on suspicion of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence service. Other sources have speculated the missionary’s involvement in assisting North Korean defectors in Russia motivated the arrest. Since then, South Korea’s embassy has been in confidential negotiations with Russia to release its citizen.
The previous Moon Jae-in government is facing accusations of lax monitoring regarding the 2018 demolition of North Korean guard posts, after the current defense minister suggested that North Korea may not have fully destroyed its guard posts as stipulated in the inter-Korean military tension reduction pact.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik has apologized over a recent controversy about some of the ministry s education material, which is provided to soldiers and describes the nation s easternmost islets of Dokdo as disputed territory, a statement that prompted widespread criticism.
A U.S. B-1B bomber took part in a joint aerial exercise that South Korea, the United States and Japan held over waters around the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday in a show of force after North Korea s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).