Featured Newsletter 30 May 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 4, May 2023 The Yoon Suk-yeol administration raided the home and office of a MBC News journalist who embarrassed the president. Also: why are South Korean nurses protesting?
Featured Newsletter 22 May 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, May 2023 Nationwide protests against the Yoon Suk-yeol administration intensified, peaking with a nurses’ strike. Also: Korean adoptees return home to confront the legacy of international baby-selling.
Featured Newsletter 15 May 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 2, May 2023 South Korea declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also: a look at the emerging third-party bids in the 2024 Assembly Elections.
Featured Newsletter 8 May 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 1, May 2023 Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio visited Seoul, while President Yoon Suk-yeol had a muted celebration of his first year in office. Also: an introduction to slate-setting, the most important function of a South Korean political party.
Featured Newsletter 1 May 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 4, April 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol made a state visit to the United States, while the liberal opposition set a special prosecution investigation in motion.
Featured Newsletter 24 April 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, April 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol suggested supplying weapons to Ukraine in advance of his state visit to Washington DC - for which the president is brushing up on his English.
Featured Newsletter 17 April 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 2, April 2023 The US wiretap scandal continued to hamstring the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. One year out from the 2024 Assembly Election, the People Power Party’s new leadership is off to a poor start.
Featured Newsletter 10 April 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 1, April 2023 By-elections spell trouble for Yoon Suk-yeol and his People Power Party. Also: remembering Syngman Rhee’s mass murder.
Featured Newsletter 3 April 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 5, March 2023 National Security Advisor Kim Seong-han resigned, apparently because of a K-pop concert. The grandson of Chun Doo-hwan visited Gwangju to ask for forgiveness.
Featured Newsletter 27 March 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 4, March 2023 The Yoon administration indicted the liberal leader Lee Jae-myung. Also: the Constitutional Court defeated the challenge against prosecution reform.
Featured Newsletter 20 March 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, March 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol visited Tokyo. Also: TBR’s profile of Deputy National Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo, the driving force behind the slave laborer agreement with Japan.
Featured Newsletter 13 March 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 2, March 2023 The People Power Party elected new leadership, while the prosecutorial investigation against Lee Jae-myung claimed another life. Also: an analysis of South Korea’s capitulation in the slave labor agreement with Japan.
Featured Newsletter 6 March 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 1, March 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol capitulated to Japan’s refusal to pay reparations to former slave laborers, then blamed Korea for being colonized. Also: the shaky grip of Lee Jae-myung’s leadership over the liberal opposition.
Featured Newsletter 27 February 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 4, February 2023 The National Assembly rejected the Yoon administration’s arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung. Also: a look at the population crisis and dire shortages of medical services in rural areas.
Featured Newsletter 20 February 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, February 2023 For the first time in South Korean history, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration sought to arrest the sitting opposition leader.
Featured Newsletter 14 February 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 2, February 2023 Court decisions regarding the Daejang-dong real estate scandal and the First Lady’s stock pump-and-dump scheme stirred controversy.
Featured Newsletter 6 February 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 1, February 2023 The Democratic Party moved to impeach the Interior Minister over the Itaewon Disaster. Also: a look into South Korean media’s symbiotic relationship with the conservative government.
Featured Newsletter 30 January 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 4, January 2023 Soaring heating bills put pressure on the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The People Power Party continued its internal squabbles over the chairman race, while the Democratic Party battled prosecutors.
Featured Newsletter 23 January 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, January 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol again found trouble abroad as he declared Iran “our enemy” while on a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, Yoon’s spy agency raided progressive groups and labor unions, claiming they were communist spies.
Featured Newsletter 16 January 2023 TBR Weekly Update: Week 2, January 2023 Yoon Suk-yeol called for South Korea’s nuclear armament. Also: the internal strife within the People Power Party for the party chair election.