North and South Korea
South Korea begins to deport migrant workers
By Terry Cook, December 8, 2003
The South Korean government has launched a vicious campaign to deport 120,000 so-called illegal migrant workers—more than half the country’s 230,000 foreign workers. Roundups by 50 special...
Thousands of workers in South Korea strike against repressive labour laws
By Terry Cook, November 19, 2003
Over 150,000 South Korean workers participated in a one-day strike and large demonstrations on November 12 to protest at the government’s repressive labor legislation. Called by the Korean Confe...
No agreement reached in Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear program
By Peter Symonds, September 2, 2003
Multilateral talks in Beijing concerning the standoff between the US and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear programs broke up last Friday with no agreement. Chinese officials tried to put a p...
A provocative step towards a US-led military blockade of North Korea
By Peter Symonds, July 19, 2003
Amid escalating tensions over North Korea, a second meeting of the 11-nation group, known as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), decided last week on a provocative new step towards setting up...
US prepares military blockade against North Korea
By Peter Symonds, June 20, 2003
US Secretary of State Colin Powell signalled this week that the Bush administration intends to press ahead with plans to impose what amounts to a military blockade of North Korea—an action that ...
US rejects North Korean proposals for defusing confrontation
By Peter Symonds, May 5, 2003
The Bush administration last week dismissed out-of-hand North Korean proposals to end months of tensions over the country’s nuclear program. Washington’s position sets the stage for a shar...
Pentagon sabre-rattling prior to US-North Korean talks in Beijing
By Peter Symonds, April 23, 2003
“Provocative,” “reckless” and “irrational” are words commonly used in the international media to describe the actions of the North Korean regime and to vilify its l...
US boosts capacity to launch air strikes on North Korea
By Peter Symonds, March 18, 2003
Even as the US prepares to launch an all-out invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has sharply raised the military stakes on the Korean peninsula by significantly bolstering its ability to launch ...
Inadequate safety planning produces South Korean subway disaster
By our correspondent in Seoul, February 24, 2003
On the morning of February 18, a fire in the subway in the South Korean city of Daegu rapidly turned into one of the world’s worst subway disasters. The official death toll currently stands at 1...
Washington prepares to tighten the economic noose around North Korea
By Peter Symonds, February 18, 2003
Even as it is preparing to launch war against Iraq, the Bush administration is planning a series of provocative new steps designed to heighten tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Bush threatens military action against North Korea
By Peter Symonds, February 8, 2003
With tensions rapidly spiralling out of control on the Korean peninsula, US President Bush added further fuel to the fire yesterday by bluntly warning North Korea that, while the US was seeking a dipl...
Blair blurts out the US agenda on North Korea
By Peter Symonds, February 3, 2003
As it prepares to invade Iraq, the White House has been insisting for weeks that the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program will be resolved diplomatically without any resort to military meas...
