May 28, 2023
Analysis

Reeling them in: Seoul targets North Korea’s last few friends

Park Geun-hye is down but not out: Look where she visits, and join the dots

2016 isn’t going great for South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Pyongyang started the year off with a bang: its January 6 nuclear test shattered any hopes Park may still have had for her once-vaunted Trustpolitik of outreach. The satellite launch, a month later, was the last straw.

Denouncing Kim Jong Un’s “runaway” regime, Park shut down Kaesong Industrial Complex: snapping the last thread of inter-Korean co-operation. Then DPRK threats and vitriol plumbed new depths. “Ugly female bat-disgrace” was one of the politer epithets they hurled at her.